Category: 2015

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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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After Stockholm, at the end of August 2015, we cycled north towards Kapellskär to ferry-hop towards Turku across the Åland archipelago. The Åland archipelago is a collections of literally hundreds of thousands of islands in the Baltic Sea between the Swedish and Finnish mainland, and it is known for its exceptionally beautiful landscape. Åland belongs to Finland, but its official language is Swedish. Only people who have family there are allowed to move there to not overcrowd it, and transit traffic is discouraged, so it doesn’t feel very touristic and there is a lot of space, nature and quietness. It…

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On the Biketour, all common meals and all things bought by communal money are vegan. This means that they should not contain neither any animals (meat, fish, chicken, gelatine, shrimps, lobsters, carmine, leather, etc.) nor any products produced by animals (milk, eggs, honey, bee’s wax, wool). On the last tour, in Broddetorp in the end of July 2015, we did a workshop about this topic. In case you are wondering why the Biketour is vegan and what veganism has to with environmental and social justice, here is a summary of what we talked about in the workshop, an overview over the…

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Tall Bike Tour Introducing the self-driving bicycle (April Fools!) Minsk: Two participants of Critical Mass cycling event may face up to 6 years in jail SapfoFest is the first independent community-initiated festival in the Baltics and is happening for the 5th time this summer. We are excited to join with the Biketour! (Facebook event, the website is not updated yet) Teaching bus drivers what it feels like to be overtaken by a bus when cycling

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