Today three years have passed since the proclamation of the Free Republic of Liberland. That's why I decided to write down my memories of being involved in this amazing project. Enjoy the read!

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While hitchhiking towards Liberland I truly didn't know what to expect. I hadn't had an idea who's gonna be there, who those people would be and what they were actually doing there. The curtain covering the Great Unknown, however, tempted too much with its vivid color of adventure and atypicality of the whole project. A few hours after sending an e-mail with an announcement of my visit I got a positive answer - I may come, and I will be greeted by Liberlandias!

Liberland - libertarians' wet dream

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I probably heard of Liberland for the first time on the day of its independence proclamation, that is on 13 April 2015. This date was not chosen by accident - on 13 April 1743 Thomas Jefferson was born, a great inspiration for Vít Jedlička, the founder and self-proclaimed president of the Free Republic of Liberland. I am not going to write too much about the micro-state itself, because I assume that most of you have already heard about it. If not, a lot of information about Liberland can be found on the Internet. This article is more of my memories and personal experiences with Liberland.

In a nutshelll - Vít Jedlička, as an active Czech libertarian politician, said one day that he would set up a new state for libertarian ideas more quickly than reform his country in that direction. Has already a place in Europe that could theoretically be took over due to not being owned by any other state - terra nullius - between Croatia and Serbia, which came to existence as a result of a lack of agreement on the borderline between those two countries after the collapse of Yugoslavia.

The situation has arisen because during the existence of Yugoslavia, the Danube River current, which separates today independent countries, was diverted and. Serbia recognizes the new river current as a border with Croatia, while Croatia claims that the border goes along the old Danube current. In either case, the territory in which Liberland is situated does not fall under the jurisdiction of any of the mentioned states. So no one except Jedlička claims rights to this place.

Vít's vision for Liberland is to build a microstate based on the principles of minarchism. Taxes are supposed to be voluntary and on very low level, the expansion of state limited by the constitution and most of the things are supposed to remain unregulated. Liberland would thus become such a libertarian, balkan version of Monaco (in fact it is 2x its size), a tax haven and a place with very broad civil liberties, where most of the services usually provided by the state in other countries, in Liberland would be provided by private entities.

_{Liberland situated on the map of Europe.}

If You're Going to Liberland...

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The next day after receiving the e-mail, together with Wojtek (my travel companion), we said goodbye to who we had met in one of the Belgrade hostels and started hitchhiking towards the north-west of Serbia, to the town called Bezdan. Bezdan is the closest town on the Serbian side in the vicinity of Liberland, located right on the Croatian border, and very close to the border with Hungary.

At this point in time we did not know very well how serious the initiative was behind Liberland. People we contacted called themselves the Liberland Settlement Association and from aforementioned Serbian village they were there trying to get to Liberland and settle there. We knew nothing more. How many people are there? Are they doing it in a serious manner? What are the nationalities? What property do they own, what do they have at their disposal? What is their plan? Is there a president there? Will we be able to reach Liberland?

This part of Serbia is not to be found in tourist guides. In fact, it is a very poor region and is not really famous for anything. There was barely any tourist attraction there. While hitchhiking in that direction we asked drivers about this new, strange creature in their neighborhood. After all, all the world's most important media, CNN, BBC, Fox, New York Times, etc., talked about Liberland! Most of them heard something the project, but they have almost no idea what it was all about. They approached the whole matter with distance, humour, but also with leniency. The last of them, a nice and funny Serb who travelled with the Ukrainian knew exactly where the Liberland Settlement Association was located.

— Yes, I know where it is. They have such a flag there. I will drop you there.

When we got out, he pointed with his finger towards a large house, from which a yellow-black flag of Liberland and, strangely, also Swiss flag were hanging. We couldn't believe it! These people really do exist! Quite insecurely we set off to meet them, at the same time feeling a growing excitement.

Liberland Settlement Association_source

_{Directly adjacent to the Liberland Settlement Association}

...Be Sure to Have Some Bitcoins in Your Wallet

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We were welcomed very warmly and quickly realised how the diverse individuals are in Liberland Settlement Association. Jay a crazy Englishman, about 45 years old, active in Anonymous movement, a fervent e-marijuana smoker and ex-raver. Lucas, a hardened rothbardian anarchocapitalist from Switzerland, brought with him a whole library of libertarian lectures, besides a club lovelas and the biggest "picker" from the whole team. Paul - a guy around 40 who turned out to be a little more left-wing idealist. Atilla - Hungarian vegan chef, cooked for the whole team on a daily basis (!). Max (actually Alex) - an American with German roots, the most "relaxed" of the team with an apparition of a Californian surfer. Mario - rather silent and hanging back German guy, smoking cigarette after cigarette. Hansa - huge like a mountain, but extremely friendly Czech, poorly speaking English, from what I know the only one from LSA who was actually paid. Sergei - a local former policeman. Aleks - a 14-year-old living nearby, coming by the LSA "base" of from time to time. Abdullah - Turkish, dental student and traveller. Nikolai - a young, noisy and feisty guy, despite his age one of the most important people in the base. And Kenneth - the chief decision-maker. He made an impression of being extremely reasonable and fully devoted to the cause. Apart from that, when we arrived there were also three American Jews and a few other people.

It quickly became clear that almost everyone here was taking the subject of Liberland deadly seriously. The first thing that struck us was the rather sceptical attitude towards the founder and self-proclaimed President of the Republic, Vít Jedlička. Some people directly criticized his activities, accusing him of using Liberland as a way of making profit and travelling around the world with Liberland supporters' money, promoting his own person. Others thought he was simply not acting rationally and his plans for the implementation of the idea were wrong and noneffective. But there were also those who supported him. So the attitude towards the President was varied. However, everyone cared about the common cause, and the disagreements were not that serious but rather constructive.

_{From left: Wojtek, me, Jay, Abdullah, Atilla and Hanza (with flag)}

It took us a moment to understand that the LSA was a completely independent organisation from Vít, with its own motivation, and financed from a completely different source. Liberland Settlement Association was founded by Niklas Nikolajsen, an eccentric Danish bitcoin millionaire and founder of Bitcoin Suisse based in Switzerland (which has recently became the main sponsor of the national league hockey team from Denmark and has been renamed their arena to Bitcoin Arena). Niklas financed the house, expanses, and all equipment like means of transport used, and even some legal activities, to help settle in Liberland. We were not able to meet him personally, although from time to time he appeared in the estate and he even chased the Croatian police on the Danube (about which you'll read in a moment...). There was a complicated relationship between LSA and Vít, as if the two sides did not fully trust each other and were pretty cautious about each other's actions.

_{Veganese delights prepared by Atilla}

To Conquer Liberland

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Living at the Liberland Settlement Association was full of eternal discussions around one topic - how to get to Liberland? The only obstacle was the Croatian coercive system. We quickly found out that at the moment two people are in prison because they had entered Liberland (for allegedly crossing the border illegally). Many people have been arrested several times before, but the LSA has always paid a deposit to release them.

_{Jay and Yoshi mount satellite internet on the roof}

Discussions, which sometimes lasted until dawn, therefore revolved around the idea of how to make the Croatian authorities stop arresting people entering Liberland. According to the LSA, while crossing the border from Croatia was indeed illegal (as there is no border crossing point there), entering Liberland from the Danube side should not cause any reaction. The harsh reality was quite the opposite. When any member of LSA was set foot on Liberland's beach, the Croatian police immediately docked to the shore and arrested them defacto outside their own country. They also patrolled the area on the Danube 24/7 and blocked every attempt to get close to the shore with their boat. Interestingly, a year later, when the emigration crisis began, the authorities had a much more liberal approach to the liquidity of their borders... If it had not been for Croatia, LSA would have been prepared to set up a large settlement camp in Liberland, supply electricity and start renovating the only building in the area. Unfortunately, this did not happen.

_{Planning of all kinds of actions was usually carried out on the basis of a detailed map of the area around Liberland.}

One day the LSA was gathering a team to find a drone stuck on a tree somewhere on the Danube. The drone got stuck there during the shooting of Liberland from the air by Americans staying in the LSA. I immediately volunteered to help and a few moments later we were driving (together with some reporters) along a poor sandy road towards the Danube. The road was arduous, which only increased my excitement prior to seeing the mythical land ;)



The area adjacent to Liberland is really beautiful - it is surrounded by lush Central European forests, buzzing insects and a concert of various birds can be heard in the air, surrounded by wonderful peace, and the sky is struck by intense blueness and the heat of Balkan summer. A swarm of mosquitoes was a blot on the landscape, and it was impossible to get away from them! We finally arrived at the place. The last few hundred meters we had to walk along a field path. Finally, after going ashore, I could finally see Liberland. The Croatian police boat was slowly sailing in front of it. This was a sign that we had to cover our faces. Why? Because it's illegal to record another country with "flying objects", and Croatian jurisdiction probably does not care that the LSA recorded only Liberland and not Croatia. We therefore preferred this material not to fall into hands other than the LSA.

_{Left bank: Serbia; right bank: Liberland}
Interestingly, we saw Croatian fishermen on the Liberland's beach. Wait, why the police is not arresting, and why are they doing this to other citizens of the European Union? After all, if there is no border crossing, then they too should be shackled? Regardless of whether this venture has a real chance to succeed or not, whether it is serious or more fun, Croatia's attitude has been quite hypocritical and openly hostile.

_{Croatian patrol right next to Liberland}
We started looking for the drone, which turned out to be not an easy task. After about an hour we managed to establish the tree on which the drone were supposed to be left by the Americans (they were not with us at that time). The drone was not visible, but the crown of the trees was so lush that we didn't know whether it was there or not. After trying to climb and knock down the drone by force, we gave up and returned to the "base". A few days later one of the locals turned the drone back - it turned out that he had found it there on the ground and gave it back home, so in the end the story ended up well :)

_{Actions planned for the next few days, written on the whiteboard}

Think globally, act locally

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The following days were devoted to organizing future events related to Liberland, but also to mutual integration and certain activities at the local level. More and more people were visiting LSA. I met Yoshi, a crypto idealist, and the creator of eGulden, who left the Croatian prison after 10 days spent there for "illegal border crossing". Recently you can also find him on Steemit under the nickname @yoshilivo! Crom, a Brazilian who was imprisoned in Osijek at the time, was less lucky to have a sentence of about 40 days... I do not know to what extent this is true, but from what the LSA representatives said, the defendants allegedly did not have the right to defend themselves in court (!).

_{Yoshi is interviewed by Campus Europe}

LSA tried to participate actively in the life of the residents of Bezdan. We met with local people, ate in their bars, played billiards with them and talked to them a lot. In our free time we set out for real Balkan parties with boozed with rakija (balkan moonshine) and turbo-folk music in nearby Sombor city - we were probably the only people in such places apart from local Serbs (and Hungarians who populate the area densely). Liberland had its own position at the local festival, and even its own national team (!) at the traditional, long-standing annual Bezdan tournament with something like "tug of war", except that it is about two teams rowing in the opposite direction in one boat. Traditionally, these were the tournaments in which Croatian, Serbian and Hungarian teams took part, and that year for the first time in history the fourth country, Liberland, joined the competition! Everyone here knew the LSA and after a short period of distrust they started to like these bizarre capitalist hippies.

_{Balkan Wedding in Bezdan :)}

Libertarian spies invading!

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In the meantime, I had yet another adventure. A couple of people decided not to enter the area of Liberland (we knew what it would end with), but to get close to it as far as possible from the Croatian side. So we went by car to the border crossing point. The Croatian guards had the names of all the LSA activists and knew immediately that they couldn't "just let us go" - we had to be questioned, the car had to be searched and it took more than an hour for them to cavil about something. Abdullah, who was a Turkish citizen but with a visa for the entire Shengen area, did not cross the border in the end. No official reason was given why they did not let him in (he had no problem with it before and travelled all over Europe).

_Jay

The road we wanted to take was closed to cars without a permit, and it was about 10 kilometers (or less) from the border. During this distance the police stopped and checked our documents 2 or 3 times. Finally we got out of the cars and set off on a long straight line towards Liberland, and a few dozen meters behind us... a police car was following us slowly. One or two "civilian" cars passed us in the meantime. When we were close to the border, we decided to turn back. Somehow we found ourselves talking to the policemen who were sitting on our tail. After a while, the "civilian" cars returned and it turned out that they were simply policemen undercover. At this point I realized that Croatia took this seriously and frankly speaking, behaved as if they were afraid of all the perseverance of Liberland activists...

Liberland - a joke or a serious initiative?

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The title of these memoirs is, of course, a little bit of clickbait, because in the end I did not manage to put my foot in Liberland. Though it was very close! But what has Liberland actually been like, and what is it today? How do I see it now? I cannot figure that out for sure. While Vít Jedlička still takes part in conferences all over the world, promotes the idea and continuously establishes new representative offices in new countries each month, this situation has been going on for several years now and was not very fruitful so far. Many people think that it could be an ordinary money spinner and I am not surprised by this criticism. The LSA is no longer there and the whole team seemed tired of fighting for the ability to settle the area, with constant arrests and little-to-non success. In my opinion, the chances of success are lower now than in the first year of proclaiming Liberland and many people who took the matter seriously have already put a cross on Liberland. Although Yoshi is allegedly preparing something new this year and probably did not give up completely ;)

The LSA base itself was dominated by idealists who believed that the chances for the creation of Liberland were small, but real and that it was worth trying and fighting for. Some of them were there only for fun and out of curiosity, some of them did not even consider themselves libertarians. Anyway, I think idealists treated it as an adventure too. And in fact it was an adventure, because nobody tried to do it before!

My approach has probably always been a mixture of fun, excitement, commitment and scepticism. At first I got involved quite seriously - I was running a Polish fanpage with news from Liberland for some time, I helped organize Vít Jedlička's lecture in Poznań, I participated in the inauguration of a new government in Prague... But with time the scepticism started to grow and today I only come back to my Liberland memories from time to time and check if something changed. So far - not much. Anyway, I do not regret anything about this story and I hope that one day the idea of a completely voluntary society can come true! I will not forget the moments spent in the LSA for the rest of my life. It was such a great time.

_Kenneth

_Hanza

For dessert: camouflaged @saunter plays little separatist games

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To finish, I'll show you short story by Campus Europe about Liberland and LSA where you can find me with NASA t-shirt :)