Blog – Page 19 – Ecotopia Biketour

The Rocketstove

Ecotopia Biketour 2016 June 26, 2016 April 28, 2017

“Kraft Automotive” (Force Carmotivs) – is written on the barrel out of which the 2016’s Rocketstove is made. It was built in the Radical Allotment Gardens in Warsaw in the first days of the biketour. Built out of Trash that the R.O.D – people had collected. We could use all of their stuff, they had that barrel and some leftover ovenpipes. They hat even some of that alluminium-tape which is made for exactly that purpose. Actually we only had to buy the special insulation material required called Perlite. It is some vulcanic stone material, natural and very light. So what…

Chaos on the way to Puszcza Białoweża

Candid June 22, 2016 June 22, 2016

We have left Warsaw with 1½ days delay, on the 19th of June. We are about 7 people and everything is quite chaotic. Our application for a Belarus visa was not successful on the first attempt, so one of us stayed back in Warsaw to go to the embassy again. Every day they invented a new reason why our application is not complete, and everyday we had to talk to our contact in Belarus (who only speaks Russian, and we don’t) and go to the embassy again. On the first two days we only managed to do 30 km, as…

Warsaw kick off

ola June 18, 2016 September 8, 2016

Ecotopia 2016 has been inaugurated with a hell lot of pizza from a beautiful clay oven courtesy of ROD Warsaw, radical allotments collective. There are 9 of us at the moment. Getting a group visa for Belarus involves a lot of boureaucracy and it has been taking most of our time. There’s a lot to do here so we extended our stay by one day, until Sunday. Tomorrow we’re joining a women’s rights march here in Warsaw and then we’ll have a whole afternoon at Syrena social centre, getting to know about the struggle to save Puszcza Bialowieska and giving…

Pre-Biketour: Berlin–Poznań–Warszawa

Candid June 17, 2016 June 17, 2016

The 5th of June was the official start of the pre-Biketour in Berlin. Only 3 of us met (we expected much more) and joined the Fahrradsternfahrt, the biggest bicycle demonstration in the world, along with 140 000 other people. On 19 routes of around 1000 km in total, starting in different places around Berlin and all joining on the way to go to Brandenburger Tor in the centre, people are cycling in the whole city the whole day, including two of the city motorways. Outside of Berlin we quickly visited Kesselberg, a piece of forest outside of Berlin some people live…

Biketour in Helsinki (last year)

Candid June 17, 2016 June 17, 2016

The first two of us arrived on the 15th of September in Helsinki like planned, but only at 2 in the morning. In the end the 10 of us that remained arrived in about 6 groups spread over the next 4 days. Some people had decided to stay a bit longer in Tampere, but some wanted to arrive in Helsinki on time, so the group split in two. The first group split up on the last day when it got dark, as some wanted to make it to Helsinki, but some were too tired to cycle in the dark. The…

Biketour in Tampere (last year)

Candid June 17, 2016 June 17, 2016

On the 11th of September, we arrived in Tampere. Our sleeping place was the social and art centre Hirvitalo. Tampere is a city surrounded by lakes, and on one of them, really close to Hirvitalo, some people had built a floating sauna with a glass roof from which you can see across the lake. The highlight was when we saw the northern lights over the lake while having a sauna. There was not much programme in Tampere. On the way to Tampere we slept next to a really freaky sculpture park in the middle of a forest. Some of us…

Biketour in Turku (last year)

Candid June 17, 2016 June 17, 2016

On the 4th of September, we arrived in Turku. Our main base was Pyöräpaja Vapaa Ratas, a bike workshop that sells old bike parts and fixed-up bikes on a regular bike flea market (from the money, the rent is paid) and where people can also come to fix their bikes or have them fixed. It is in Aurinkotehdas, an old bicycle factory that is now used for different social projects, such as an Emmaus second-hand shop. We were really warmly welcomed, and many people had heard from or even participated in the Biketour that cycled to the Ecotopia Gathering close…

Biketour at Livonsaari (last year)

Candid June 16, 2016 June 16, 2016

From the 31st of August to the 2nd of September, the Biketour stayed at Livonsaari, a small village about 40 km west of Turku. In Livonsaari, many people try to live together in a more ecological and communal way. There are many different initiatives by different individuals in the village, such as a baker baking organic bread from locally produced wheat, someone building sustainable houses with a special technique using big logs, a community garden, and many people building their houses themselves out of wood. We helped the people in the village to dig some holes and so some garden…