Missing the Flixbus to Tallinn – Europe in a nutshell

Passed the despair of missing the only direct Flixbus from Berlin to Tallinn (22h), Galina and I decided to make new friends. If you ever feel lonely in your travels, Flixbus stations are the right place to make new friends: you share the frustration of your bus being delayed, the joy of being able to fit your bicycle in the back, you get to chat about the place people are leaving or the one they’re going to -I even managed once to convince the person sitting next to me to book an appointment with a therapist (it took more than…

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Sleepover Time, Bicycle Repair and Prison Abolition – Turku 06.07.-09.07.2024

we arrived in turku fashionably chaotic and one day late during the afternoon and evening. a very sweet person from ABC showed us around. if you have never been to a bikekitchen: imagine a place that is only about bicycles. there were wheels hanging from the ceiling in all sizes and shapes, some empty bicycle frames scattered in between. on the walls hung front forks in shiny metallic colours like garlands, stood shelves with front racks, backracks, tubes, gears, tools and more parts. some cables sticking out over here, piles of boxes with screws over there. Turun Pyöräpaja (Turku Bike…

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Difficult Times – Helsinki to Turku 01.07.-06.07.2024

i think we like to keep it fresh and lighthearted here on the blog. and it’s true that even the more difficult periods of ecotopia are aften funny or at least make a good story when you look back at them. to quote a good ol’ proverb: bad news make a good story. but let’s not make it sound prettier than it was this time. the first two cycling days were HARD, chaotic and utterly exhausting. one person had a bad bicycle accident in helsinki on the day before we started and looked r o u g h, wounds and…

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TeleGram channel of Ecotopia

Hey, so there it is, better late than never maybe. In the future it might get multi-lingual t.me/EBTecotopiabiketour This channel is notoriously late, chaotic, neglected. It’s actually better to come check out than to read. Smtms we don’t have enough internets (or electricity), sometimes too much of it, and anyway it’s mostly meant as ‘counter’ to ‘social’ media.

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Finding Solace in Solis – Helsinki 25.06.-01.07.2024

i feel as though my brain cells are rotting and expanding at the same time. the crew we have and the company we keep know how to get things done, are nerds in various topics, and together our skills are (almost) endless. but we do not forget to also have fun and laugh and to communicate across culture and language our weird senses of humour. in the north of helsinki we were greeted so warmly and with such hospitality by some of the people from solis who generously hosted us in their garden for a week. we were fed fresh…

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Writing To Prisoners – Event

ABC TKU and Ecotopia Biketour welcome you to come and write letters to prisoners, and to learn about and discuss prison abolition practices, and queerness within prisons. Come hang out and share your experience with resistance against prisons, to remember our friends and comrades incarcerated while fighting for a better world that we want to live in together. Let’s organize ourselves and create alternatives: Abolishing prisons! We are super looking forward to this event together with ABC TKU! In Kirjakahvila 16-20 (Vanha Suurtori 3 25100 Turku) exact time to be announced

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Bicycle Flea Market

Bicycle Flea Market! Wanna get rid of your old bike? You got a fancy two-wheeled gift but you already have three? Do you want to be charitable and help some bikepunks? Where? In the park Alppipuisto next to the bridge When? 28th of June Starting 6pm, open end Why? This year the Ecotopia Biketour starts in Helsinki! Since the trip to get there is long, many of us come without a bike or full equip(ment). So we need you and cheap fleamarket prices! What? You can bring anything Bike-related. Fully functioning bicycles are of course the most welcome. You can…

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What to pack/check for the EBT(24)?

…And why bother so much with preparing, btw? You’re not gonna regret it and you’ll have better time and less worries. How much prepare, it depends on for how long (mind, some ppl stay long than planned; myself, many weeks longer), in what areas and time of the season you wanna ride. Specifically for ’24 in the north-east Europe… Amidst summer and beatiful nature, expect some rains at times probably, winds when close to the sea (and extra UV on the very coast), mosquitos, perhaps a tiny bit of gravel/mud/sand here and there; temperatures may vary greatly (even more speaking…

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