The people of Per.ka spent some hours with us last Saturday morning talking about their organic community garden. It is an incredibly inspiring story in itself, and within which there are a fabric of individual’s stories. It all began only 3 years ago when people got together and decided they wanted space to grow things together in the city. They looked around a few places, but the abandoned military camp at Karatasou was the natural choice: it’s vast, it was available straight away and with the support of the cultural club and water was readily available (although not without it’s…

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As the Ecotopia Bike Tour wheeled into a sun scorched factory in Southern Thessaloniki; not only was the sun glaring but so too was the obvious need for spaces where alternatives could be realised. The spirit of our critical mass to the occupied building materials factory, Vio.me., had been dimmed by the heavy police presence (1 police car in front of us, 2 behind and motorbike alongside us) which escorted us for the entire ride through the city. However, our destination, which has been run as a democratic workers’ co-operative producing environmentally friendly washing products for eighteen months proved to…

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Hi everyone!   Ecotopia Biketour arrives into Thessaloniki this evening at Per.ka, an ex-military camp, now a big organic community garden! Join us there to camp, or have a look at the schedule at activities we have planned which are open for anyone to join in! Day Activity Location Time Thursday Arrival at camp Set up tents Per.ka,military camp Karatasou http://perka.org/node/226 Evening Friday Bike Fixing workshop Yfanet, corner Perdika/Omirou   4-7pm     Saturday Discussions with Per.ka Working in the Community Garden Per.ka 11-1pm 3-6pm Sunday Critical Mass ride to Vio.Me Visit to self-organised factory Vio.Me to listen to the…

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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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