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
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…
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…
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”…
