Ecotopia Biketour? Όταν η φίλη μου η Κλαίρη μου πρωτομίλησε γι’ αυτό πριν από περίπου 3 χρόνια, την κοίταξα με γουρλωμένα μάτια και της είπα: Υπέροχη ιδέα, αλλά μου φαίνεται πολύ δύσκολο να καταφέρουμε να κάνουμε κάτι τέτοιο! Φέτος, μερικά χρόνια και αρκετά ποδηλατικά χιλιόμετρα αργότερα, ξαναθυμήθηκα για το Ecotopia Biketour με αφορμή το φετινό τους ταξίδι που είχε προγραμματισθεί να γίνει στη γειτονιά μας, στα νότια Βαλκάνια και στην Ελλάδα, ενώ η διοργάνωση και η προετοιμασία να έχουν έδρα τη Θεσσαλονίκη. Ψάχνοντας περισσότερες πληροφορίες στην ιστοσελίδα τους ανακάλυψα ότι πρόκειται για μια αυτοοργανωμένη κολεκτίβα ανθρώπων που κάθε χρόνο ταξιδεύουν…

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This summer has been uncharacteristically wet here. In both Bulgaria and Serbia, locals would expect to be sweating in the midday sun, not dripping from yet another unpredictable shower. Alas, it’s raining constantly. In Kosovo, a downpour on the first night almost caused a flood and another disrupted a open air workshop. Now, in Macedonia, all the rumours have been that a storm is coming any minute now! Yet, being who we are, we decided to look on the bright side of things. So here are ten reasons why we are HAPPY it is so damn rainy! 1 Water sources…

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Ecotopia Biketour made it on the news today, although in a very unusual way: Three foreigners with bikes made ​​the usual iconography of Friday protests in Skopje. They were cycling around Bit market today and suddenly found themselves amidst the protesters, wondering where they had gotten lost. Organizers of the protests and police quickly pointed out that they should get on the road. Translation by Google Translate News link, YouTube link

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One lesson for Biketour organising out of 2024 is how much personal connections matter. For people involved in the process could see a clear distinction between project visits that had been arranged only via online-communication and those where we were able to meet the people beforehand. Very special were those where people very actively welcomed us because participants from Biketour 2013 had afterwards spent some months there. One such place was AKSC and other groups in Skopje, Makedonija – another one Rovies in Greece. By spending the winter in Skopje and afterwards the first month of Biketour 2014 organising in…

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On the 31st of July we cycled through a valley in south-eastern Serbia towards the border of Kosovo. Some small villages every couple of kilometers, not a lot of people on the streets, barely any traffic. The night before it had already felt weird to see a big truck or bus making their way into the darkness of the mountains every now and again, not really seeming like there was much to go to. The further up the hill we went, the more quiet it became, until suddenly we saw a big queue of trucks on the road waiting to…

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I went to the BikeTour as I was running away from a Rainbow Gathering (jolly hippy stuff) and was immediately relieved to meet some normal, cool, approachable people. A real collection of dreamers of a better world, but also with the practical mindset of those who make daily use of spanners and allen keys. But the most striking common trait was our ferocious (but strictly vegan) appetite. So I went from doing & eating almost nothing at the hippy gathering, to a bustle of activities & and jaw exercising during the Bike Tour.. On the very first official day, “Ecotopia”…

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The first of us arrived in Sofia on Thursday afternoon. After orientating ourselves, we were met at Eagle Bridge by a guy from Sofia Green Tours – a group of volunteers who give guided tours of the city by bike – and were shown our place to sleep quite deep in the Borisova park. There was tons of space for lots of us to stay…so far there were just 5! That night some of us joined the weekly Thursday night bike ride. About a hundred people showed up, and with the lights glowing, they descended slowly, stuttering patiently across zebra…

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