Initial Post – The Week of the Flight

Series: ecotopia

After planning my trip for over a year, today is the week that I will start my flight.

Ecotopia

I volunteer in a bike transportation advocacy organisation called Bikes for Jerusalem. A member of that organisation likes to travel every year to a summer bike tour called Ecotopia. Based on his explanation, it is a group of politically active anarchists who bike for the entire summer in different places of Europe. I’m not sure exactly what anarchist groups believe in (from what I understand, it is basically socialism) nor am I sure exactly how Ecotopia will go, but I will find out. Worst case scenario, I will treat this as a LARP.

One of their key phrases is The Biketour is the exact opposite of an all-inclusive flight to the beach. That was the main part of the tour that interested me. I have been interested on going on a bike tour for a while, but I really don’t like the concept of an organised tour. Based on the little experience that I have with organised tours you end up aligning to the weakest link. If the bus is scheduled to leave at 14:00, but a member of the tour is late, then you end up waiting for as long as necessary by the bus. If you want to visit a cool nearby attraction, but another member is tired and wants to go back, you end up going back.

Last year I didn’t go on the trip because that was the time when flights were getting cancelled and PCR tests were required to travel. But that gave me an entire year to plan for next year’s trip.

What is Ecoptopia?

During that year I read their anarchist manifestos, I read their cookbooks, and I talked to my friend who has biked with them for the past several years. I think I know somewhat what their values are.

Preparation

Who to Go With

Although the thought of flying to to an anarchists encampment in a foreign country to go bike camping with them for several weeks sounds very enticing, I didn’t want to do it without being with someone who I knew. So I contacted everyone who I thought would enjoy the though of it and created a WhatsApp group.

From my experience, when planning trips many people are interested enough to join a WhatsApp planning group. But when it comes time to commit, most people get cold feet. Luckily a friend of who lives in Berlin thought it would be fun and decided to go. So, since I found someone to go with I could continue to the next step.

Getting a Bike

Ever since I started to commute to my Tel Aviv office from my Jerusalem apartment, I have wanted to buy a new bike to replace my 600 NIS one that I use. The problem is that on one hand, there are so many brands with differences that I didn’t understand, and on the other hand due to Corona almost everything was out of stock. After visiting many bike stores in Israel I wasn’t able to find a good bike. So I decided to get myself professionally measured and look for used bikes or ones from abroad. That was not fruitful, and I continued to commute with my 600 NIS bike for about a year.

As Ecotopia was approaching I realised that I could not procrastinate anymore. So I met with a friend who I bike with to Tel Aviv, and he gave me an entire course on bike components. Afterwords I met him a few times and prepared a document with my measurements and the characteristics of the bike that I wanted. I then looked at major European bike sellers websites’ and went through the bikes one by one. Almost all of them were out of stock. What happened was during Corona many people were stuck at home with nothing to do. So, in order to go outside many people bought new bikes. At the same time, the companies that make bike components (which is an Oligopoly) were located in eastern Asian countries with very strict Corona regulations. So there was both an increase in demand and a decrease in supply. As anyone who knows a very basic into economics knows that price = supply / demand. However, people with a bit more knowledge know that the theory works in the long term, however in the short term it equals shortage.

Once I realised that I will be flying to Ecotopia I knew that I needed to get a bike soon. So I met my friend, and we went through major bike sellers sites’ and looks for bikes that fit, had the characteristics that I wanted, and were in stock. That ended up being difficult, but after a few sessions I found a bike that I liked. I placed the order and waited for them to send it to my friend in Berlin.

Last Friday, 4 days before my flight, the bike company sent me an email saying that delivery will be delayed for a few weeks. I didn’t have a few weeks, so on Friday I frantically started searching for a new distributor and tried to cancel my previous order. I did that just in time for Shabbat and spent the day wondering if the bike will arrive in time. Well, a day later, after Shabbat, I see that the bike has already arrived in Berlin. Hopefully by Monday it will reach its destination.

Getting a Plane Ticket

My rule of thumb is to try to get two vacations for the price of one. So when looking for a ticket I decided to get one that involved a day layover in London. My plan is to arrive at 01:30 and visit a friend who is staying at a hotel for a conference. I’ll sleep on the floor and when he wakes up I’ll start touring London.

I prepared for London by watching Oliver Twists, reading The Whipping Boy, seeing a play of The Christmas Carol and seeing parodies of Great Expectations. From what I can gather, it is not fun to be poor in London. I will make sure to greet people by saying ’ello govene’ and I will eat scones, biscuits and English muffins. When I talk to people in a pub I’ll call them good chaps and when leaving I’ll say cheerio. If I want to hail a cab I’ll shout OI and at the end I’ll pay in pounds, shillings and farthings. I’ll measure weight in stones and distance in stone throws.

After that I’ll fly to Berlin and pick up my 9 EUR per month public transportation ticket. There I will be staying with my Berlin friend until I go to Ecotopia.

I will have to return early September since my sister is due to give birth to baby Machluf (that is the temporary name) on September 12th. I bought a flexible ticket, so if Machluf insists on being born early I will get on an earlier flight.

Packing

I will be flying with only a backpack. My friend who helped me pick out my bike lent me his backpack, handlebar bag, and seat post bag. That should be enough for all of my supplies, including food and water. On my way back I’ll be taking my bike in a box, so I’ll have a bit more space for souvenirs, but I’ll have to keep it light.

I asked my friend who goes on Ecotopia every year how he brings his bike, and he says he goes to a bike store and gets a cardboard box meant for bikes. He then removes the wheel, handlebar, and possibly the rear derailleur and wraps it with clothing and puts it in the box. I know how to take apart those parts of a bike, so I hope it’ll work out.

Travel Plan

Berlin

This will be my first bike tour, and I’m not exactly sure what I will need and how to pack it all. So I have given myself 2 weeks in Berlin to try to organise everything. If the bike doesn’t fit properly, that should be enough time for me to realise it, return it, and get a new one.

If everything goes well, I’ll take advantage of a benefit that my company offers, a Berlin office. There I can work as if I was at home but in the evening enjoy Berlin.

France

My plan is to meet Ecotopia somewhere around Strasbourg and stay with them for 2 weeks. For Shabbat I’ll stay in Lyon, visit the Grande synagogue and eat quite a lot of baguettes. To prepare for France I watched Les Misérables and my conclusion is that France is not a good place to be poor in either.

There is a small chance that while in France I will intersect with a friend of mine who is taking a year and a half vacation to bike around the world. Since both of us don’t really know our schedule, and his Schengen visa countdown is ticking it is very possible that I will not see him.

Conclusion

So far everything is just my plan. I will hopefully update further when the time comes.

This is a post in the ecotopia series.
Other posts in this series: