Blog – Page 16 – Ecotopia Biketour

Cycling along Nemunas

Candid August 9, 2016 April 28, 2017

From Kaunas we had several days to cycle along the Nemunas river to the coast. We camped on some beautiful beaches on the way. From Kaunas, a perfect bike path led us out of the city for about 20 km. We didn’t meet a single person on the way, and no one in Kaunas seemed to know about this path. Eventually, the bike path turned into a sand road and then into a small foot path, which at one point crossed a river on a bridge so narrow that we had to lift the trailer over the railing. The worst…

Biketour in Kaunas

CharlieCharlie August 8, 2016 September 8, 2016

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…

Queer Festival Fun!!

CharlieCharlie August 7, 2016 April 28, 2017

Two days cycling from Vilnius, we reached Žeimiai Manor House, location of Sapfo fest, the first fixed date that we made in the biketour calander when we were planning biketour 2016. Sapfo-fest is the first independent community-initiated Festival in the Baltics, which seeks to connect and empower the queer community, fight prejudice and discrimination, as well as increase awareness and visibility of queers in Lithuania and the rest of Eastern Europe – and has now happened for the fifth time. A lot of the biketour participants were super exicited for this festival. We arranged to arrive a day early to help…

Biketour in Vilnius

Candid August 5, 2016 August 5, 2016

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!…

Pozdrowienia z Litwy

ola August 1, 2016 September 8, 2016

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…

Out of Belarus: Rest days on the lake

Candid July 27, 2016 July 19, 2016

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…

Kamenitsa eco village

Candid July 25, 2016 August 29, 2016

From Minsk we cycled for two days to Kamenitsa / Каменица. Due to our tight schedule, this was our only proper wild-camping night in Belarus, which we spent without problems on a beautiful meadow that smelled like Thyme. On the first evening, when we cycled through a small village, suddenly we were surrounded by dozens of kids on bikes. They were very eager to fill our water containers for the night and were extremely excited to get some of our tall-bike and “Fuck Cars” stickers. Kamenitsa is a small village about 120 km north-west of Minsk where several families from Minsk…

Biketour in Minsk (part 1)

CharlieCharlie July 23, 2016 July 19, 2016

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…