2013 – Page 4 – Ecotopia Biketour

Brčko, the Balkans’ ‘Free City’?

kate September 3, 2013 October 4, 2013

We left the common pastures of Croatia and again skirted the border between Croatia and Bosnia, finally crossing for a lunch spot at the border control point. Here an Italian man stopped to wish us well on our journey, only to then return 10 minutes later with a huge watermelon and bottles of fizzy pop; it was a warm welcome back to Bosnia. After the border crossing, the traces of the war became more and more apparent. Only too aware of the landmines that still contaminate the land, we were careful to find our camping spots either on recently made…

Brücken über Grenzen? Grenzen unter Brücken.

grenzblog August 30, 2013 December 9, 2013

“Brücken bauen” – nichts könnte eigentlich sinnbildlicher dafür stehen, Grenzen zu überwinden. Doch was uns auf unserer Reise immer wieder auffällt, ist die Funktion von Brücken als Grenzen. Besonders entlang der Sava wird uns klar, was das heißt: Ganze Städte, die früher mal eine Einheit waren und sich in einem Staat befanden, sind heute durch nur noch eine Brücke verbunden. Streng bewacht und abgezäunt natürlich – jeweils vor und hinter der Brücke befindet sich eine Grenzübergangs-Station am jeweiligen Ufer. Brücken sind hier nicht das symbolisch verbindende Element, das sie andernorts sind. Sie sind das Nadelöhr, das alle Menschen- und Fahrzeugmassen…

A Common Treasury for all…

kate August 30, 2013 October 25, 2013

Through a contact at Green Action Zagreb, our next destination was to meet activist fighting for the right to common pastures in Croatia. We made camp in their common field, and took a wash in the Sava – some of us even swimming across to Bosnia on the other side! The next morning we met some of the people who volunteer to keep the pastures alive and free for all. Gajna, an NGO and voluntary organisation founded in 2007, have been working to reserve the habitat of the land and keep it in use and free from industrial agriculture and…

Museum of Local Life and the stone flower for the victims of Jasenovac

kate August 29, 2013 October 4, 2013

After wild camping near to the the Lonjsko Polje Nature Park, we set off next morning, despite the rain, for our 70 km cycling day along the Sava river. En route a few of us took the opportunity to visit a local social anthropology/ ethnographic museum in someone’s back garden. Without any common language we were able to communicate through hands-on demonstrations of some of the tools and equipment from the owner’s lifetime. The museum contained hundreds of examples of D.I.Y handmade crafts and tools used for creating cloth from plants, furniture without fixings, embroidery and fabrics from 4 generations…