Random guy shows car driver how a pedestrian crossing really works! Beyond ‘Consensus’ decision making (written by a former Biketour participant) Poland approves large-scale logging in Białowieża forest, one of the only original forests left in Europe. The Biketour will cross it on the way from Warsaw to Minsk. Cycling scarecrow Artist rides dinosaur bike across Norwegian Bible Belt
The discussion about how many days and when exactly to go to Uppsala almost lasted longer than our actual stay there, but in the end we decided to stay for two nights, but spend the second night a bit further in the direction of Stockholm so that we wouldn’t have problems making it to the Anarchist Bookfare two days later. We had gotten a request by an organic farmer in the area who had heard that we are some travelling “volunteers” and needed some help with the harvest. We decided that we are not free workers but sometimes help out…
On August 17, the Biketour visited Färnebo folkhögskola, a folk high school in Österfärnebo, about 150 km north of Stockholm. Folk high schools are a Scandinavian concept of people’s education, where people have the opportunity (usually between finishing school and starting university) to do a one-year course about a subject of their choice (read more here). Färnebo folkshögskola is, by what people have told us, the most radical folk high school in Sweden. The students live in a house next to the school, where they learn to live communally by making consensus decisions and sharing daily tasks like cooking and…
Stjärnsund (pronounce: Shairnsoond) is a small village of about 430 inhabitants somewhere half-way between Oslo and Stockholm. The Biketour stayed there for two nights in the middle of August. Originally an industrial village that started to slowly be abandoned because of people moving to the cities, a lot of Hippies moved there during the 70s and started to live in communes. As part of their spiritual connection with the earth, they started growing vegetables, and over time, people also joined their communities who were not interested in their spirituality but only in the gardening. Today, many of the old Hippies and…
The first night after Oslo, we wild-camped somewhere far off the road in the middle of the forest on a lake. In the morning, the Vikings came and had a fight in between our tents.
Bad Drivers Are Forcing an English Town to Paint Its Ponies Bicycle Powered Tree House Elevator Company Selling ‘Bottled Air’ Sells Out in 4 Days as China’s Smog Crisis Deepens AlterTour, a bicycle tour similar to Ecotopia, have announced their route for 2016: They will cycle from 10 July to 21 August in the north-west of France, starting at la ZAD and visiting many interesting projects on the way. On the weekend of the 16 and 17 January, there will be the International Festival of Travelling by Bike in Paris, France. The event seems to take place in French. While mostly…
In the beginning of August, the Biketour stayed in Oslo for 4 full days. It was half-time for the tour, and more than half of the group left, but the same amount of people joined. We stayed at Blitzhuset, a famous anti-fascist squat and social centre. Blitzhuset is open as a volunteer-run vegan café almost every day, and the money earned is donated to political groups in different parts of the world. There is also a big hall with a stage where concerts happen almost every week (outside of the summer holidays). The upper floors are used for different projects such as…
After Kampetorp, the Biketour took three days to cycle to Oslo. Entering Norway, things were as different as you could possibly imagine. The part of Sweden that we had previously cycled in was full of forest, with not many people or cars around, and people seemed to live in some kind of unrealistic idyllic dream, where no matter what happens, everyone will always be friendly to each other. Norway seemed to be the opposite – suddenly the roads were so packed of (new and shiny) cars that cycling got much slower, there were people everywhere, one supermarket after each other,…
