Biketour 2014

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Ideas

Route possibilites from spring meeting 2014

At the spring meeting in Thessaloniki in March 2014 we came to the following outlines of possible routes for 2014, based on the knowledge and/or contacts of a few projects we had. We aimed for about 1500 km in the outlines, which will surely become longer anyway once we fix more exact routes. There are two possible starting points: either on the western Balkan coast in Montenegro/Crna Gora close to Albania or in Sofija. There are also two possible final destinations, those being the two major big cities: either Athens or Istanbul. This makes up for 4, actually 5 of the following graphs, one of them trying to be both in Montenegro and Sofija, thus also a bit longer. The 6th option is a round trip from Thessaloniki through the northern neighbouring countries and back. All of those are preliminary, based on only few contacts, so anyone who could contribute any arguments as to why we should or should not go to a certain area/choose a certain route please post a comment here below the links.

Route options

A
B
C
D
E

* I really like the idea of going to ...
 * ...from Montenegro via Macedonia Albania bulgria Kosovo    to Istanbul for a diversity of culture and history approach to crisis
 * ...
 * ...
 * ...

* We should avoid ... 
 * ... (that's me)
 * ...Flatire, broknspoke, Downhilbendfall,
 * ...

* I prefer this option because ...
 * Personally, I prefer not to make a bucle-closeTour... for envolving more regions. (kbra)
 * ..personally.a combination of a few proposed routes
 * on last year experience not many participants after 15th of august. lets do the most in the south Balkans.
 * universities stop In june and end of august many need to head home..so why not a mid June start??
  * could have been something to think about but with the state of the coordination just getting started we won't manage this
  * it is going to be rather a later start mid/end of July
  * which on the other hand has the advantage of September being cooler in the hot Southern Balkans
  * and the heavy holiday season along the coast in Greece finishing, so also less traffic on the roads (sml)
 * again on last year experience places with no project planned ..
  * lead to more exchange with local ie BrCKO and within the group
  * it might also lead to a spread of the number of participants less worrying for welcoming projects.

 * ...

...

any comments and opinions welcome

Route / Region / Theme Ideas

The route and theme of this year's tour is not yet decided but we are looking to visit projects, join up with grassroots campaigns, NGOs and social movements and communities relevant to structural (economic/political) or personal (e.g. poverty as a result of austerity) crises and how people are finding creative solutions to coping with its effects or fighting against it. We will also revisit themes that we have seen in previous biketours such as 'degrowth', public debt, austerity, economic refugees, minorities and solidarity.

What we do know is that we will be organising the tour from Thessaloniki in Northern Greece from March and will begin cycling in July, or possibly the beginning of August. Where we head to will depend on projects and opportunities we find to visit - and this all depends on the ideas that come from everyone....

If you can think of any places / people / communities / projects / activists in the southern Balkans area that we should visit to learn from, take part in actions or to lend a hand in some way, then put them on the list below or email team-2014@ecotopiabiketour.net (or both!). If you can't, but you know someone who can, perhaps someone living in this part of Europe, please ask them to share information so that we can consider their ideas, along with all of the other options, at our meeting in March.

Theme Ideas

• Crisis and Creative Solution Approaches

Project Visit Ideas

We will not display names of projects/organisations on the Wiki until we have had confirmation from them that this is ok. So, in these planning stages, can you recommend any places / people / communities / projects / activists in the southern Balkans area that we should visit to learn from, take part in actions or to lend a hand in some way? If you can't, but you know someone who can, perhaps someone living in this part of Europe, please do ask them to share information so that we can consider their ideas, along with all of the other options, at our meeting in March.

Please send any info/ideas to team-2014 a ecotopiabiketour.net

Spring meeting 2014

Dear ecotopians,

we just finished our autumn meeting this year to discuss how we will organise ecotopia biketour 2014 - any contributions are welcome - and one of the points agreed there was that we will find a date and time for the SPRING MEETING as kick-off on next year's tour early enough so people can plan to be a part of it. The spring meeting will focus on the topic of the biketour, how we want bt days to be structured e.g. how long do we want to stay at projects and how far do we want to go, and of course route options.

Where & When?

We have now set a date and place for the SPRING MEETING:

Thessaloniki, Greece - where the tour will be co-ordinated from. 13-16th March

Concrete ideas in WHICH SPACE in a city it could take place are still being discussed. We have a potential venue, but if you do know of anywhere which could host meetings or people, write your suggestions here....

There will be places to stay for the Spring Meeting. The idea is to stay for as long as you can/want, not to feel like you have to come for all four days. Also we hope to find space so that people can stay on after to help with co-ordination if they'd like to. What accommdation there will be for biketour coordinators will become clearer in the beginning of March.