From SapfoFest it was just one short day to cycle to Kaunas. On Sapfo we had already met a lot of people from Kaunas, and it turns out there is a lot going on in that city! We had been given a free campsite for two nights, which turned out to be a bit of field behind the official campervan site, underneath a busy motorway, but hot showers are always appreiciated regardless. We pitched our tents and headed to the co-operatively run pizza place in the city, run by the same group as catered the SapfoFest. We all piled in…

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Next, to Vilnius. Back to cycling (legally..) on the roads! We first camped in the back of park in the centre, but it was quite exposed – it was below a tourist viewpoint, and now the scruffy cyclists with their tents, small dog, and giant pots were the newest tourist interest. We also got woken up by Italian segway tour guides with megaphones. The next day, whilst half the group huddled under the tarp from the rain (apparently it had actually followed us from Belarus) another person in the biketour met a friendly local who offered us space in his flat!…

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Sorry, this entry is only available in Polski. For the sake of viewer convenience, the content is shown below in the alternative language. You may click the link to switch the active language. Ecotopia dojeżdża już nad morze. Dzisiaj zamierzamy dojechać do Rusne, skąd prom zabierze nas i rowery na Mierzeję Kurońską. Mamy zamiar przejechać długość mierzei i wskoczyć  na prom do Kłajpedy, gdzie zostaniemy kilka dni. Ostatnio mało się dzieje na naszym blogu, bo dużo się dzieje w realu! Po Wilnie Ecotopia ruszyła pomagać przy jedynym w Europie Wschodniej festiwalu queerowym, Sapfo odbywającym się w Zemei 40 km od…

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Apparently leaving Belarus is easier than entering – a quick passport check (we’re not even sure that our registration stamps on our migrations cards were checked in the end!) and a cycle though the checkpoints without even any questions about the dog in the trailer! After a day of continuous rain, the sun was out as we crossed the border in Lithuania, in greeting to the wet cyclists. We cycled a short distance from the border, and found beautiful lake. Due to a shorter visa for Belarus, we had a couple of days to spare before our next appointments, so we…

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After Shanti-Dom, we cycled 70km to Minsk. Getting into the city was not so easy however, and somehow we had to cross the big ring road that circles the city. Consulting the GPS, we found that the easiest way was to follow a small footpath for 300m – but we soon found out that the footpath was up a hill, just through a corn field (with 3 trailers…) You could already see the huge wall of housing blocks approaching. All over the horizon! Minsk was not so pretty on first impressions – huge, identical tower blocks all around. It is…

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