As part of the new action called GO GREEN, organized by the Environmental Working Group (EnWG), several locals all over Europe took part in the AEGEE Bike Week. The AEGEEan spoke to Elise Bessieres (AEGEE-Brussel/Bruxelles), HR responsible of the EnWG and therefore one of the initiators of the Bike Week, to find out more about the story behind this event and the specific actions performed by the antennae.

The main goal was easy: to raise awareness of sustainable methods of urban transportation. And, in the best case, to combine it with sports and fun for the locals, of course. Instead of giving long speeches about the disadvantages of travelling by car, AEGEEans were therefore asked by the EnWG to set a good example and hop on their bikes.

The time frame was set for the end of June, a month in which the focus within GO GREEN was set on green transportation anyway. It fitted perfectly, being “an easy and fun activity during summer, where a lot of people are outside and travel”, Elise tells us. To activate more members, especially taking into consideration that June is quite often in the middle of the exams period, the AEGEE Bike Week actually lasted for two week, giving the locals more time to organize their activities.

In general, the locals were quite free in their choices concerning what exactly they were going to organize. Ideas given by the EnWG ranged from smaller events just for the members of the locals to bigger events that might even involve the public. Encouraging members to use their bikes to go to university, bike trips to nice landscapes, exchanges with other antennae by bicycle or “free rent AEGEE bikes”, meaning that locals offer people the possibility to rent their bikes for free instead of driving, were just some of the inspirations given by the EnWG. As long as the events centered around this sustainable method of traveling, everything was allowed and new ideas were welcome!

In the end, many locals indeed became quite creative. For instance, AEGEE-Kastoria co-organized a bicycle trip around lake Orestiada on 15th of June together with other voluntary groups to raise awareness of violence against women. Many other locals arranged trips with their members and a lot of pictures of cycling AEGEEans popped up on social media within the last weeks. The precise number of participating antennae is not known, but every single event surely earns the Network’s respect.

All in all, the AEGEE Bike Week was quite a success, Elise tells us. “Especially because we organized a picture competition. It was a nice way to also promote the locals who participated as we posted their pictures on Facebook”. These photos are the best proof to show that promoting a sustainable way of transportation does not have to be boring, but can offer lots of fun.

It is not definite yet if the AEGEE Bike Week will become an annual event, but Elise assures us that the current board of the EnWG will definitely suggest the idea to renew the event during every summer to the next board.

Written by Katja Sontag, AEGEE-Aachen

The locals that cooperated: AEGEE-Bakı, AEGEE-Bologna, AEGEE-Gdansk, AEGEE-Gliwice, AEGEE-Kastoria

Before Agora Rhein-Neckar started, AEGEE-Utrecht organized a pre-event. The main topic was reliability of the media, which was also the event title. Twelve lucky participants from all over the Europe took part and had a lot of fun. They partied, went sightseeing, they had a European night and many other activities that every other AEGEE event has… But what were the factors that made this event unforgettable and typically Dutch?

1. Cycling: this term does not only mean that you have to keep moving on a bike in order not to lose your balance. Cycling is a quick (especially in city centres) and green way of transport, but it is even more… For Dutch people, cycling is a way of life.

2. Typical food: the organisers cooked the well-known winter dish called “andijvie-stamppot”, and “nasi”, which actually comes from the Indonesian culture, as Indonesia was colonised by the Kingdom of the Netherlands during the 17^th century. I know that you are wondering why I did not explain what this food is like, but you will just have to try it to understand.

 3. High quality conferences: from World War I to social networks, from Europe to Africa, from manipulating to advertising. In a world of technology, you cannot choose not to interact with media. You have to do it if you want to be informed. So it is pretty much a vicious circle. Information is power and the media wields this power, sometimes media shows you what they want you to see. So be smarter than them and always remain critical.

4. Weather: as the event was during spring, we all hoped for some sunny days, and the staff organized a nice game for the participants so that they could discover the city of Utrecht on their own… But then some grey and gloomy clouds thought: “Let’s give them some snow!” Conclusion: snowing and cycling = feeling like a real Dutch. As some people said, “Easter was colder than Christmas this year”.

5. Windmills: when people think of the Netherlands, they inevitably think about windmills (and fields of tulips, but tulips and cold weather do not get along very well). I always thought that windmills were used to turn cereal into corn or flour. Well, this one was used for woodcraft work.

6. Film night: the best way to finish the event was to watch a film entitled “Zwartboek”, also known as “Black book”. The film deals with the Nazi-occupied Netherlands during World War II, combining history and fun relaxation.

I would like to give special thanks to Tessa Speelman (AEGEE-Utrecht) for helping me with the Dutch words in this article.

Written by Cosmina Bisboaca, AEGEE-Torino

Photos by Annie Smailikova(AEGEE-Kyiv),Farid Amlal(AEGEE-Utrecht), Kamal Vasnani(AEGEE-Las Palmas), Marta Belda(AEGEE-Valencia).

Can you imagine doing a world tour by bike? Perhaps you use your bike to go to your classes, or to the supermarket. Or maybe you made a cycling tour for a few days in your own country. The bicycle is an ecofriendly, cheap, fast (especially in big cities) and healthy way of transportation. But doing a world tour by bike is a different story!

Tos Alles (ex-AEGEE-Utrecht member) and Hilde de Leeuw (honorary member of AEGEE-Utrecht) made a world tour by bike. They spent almost a year cycling from Utrecht to Montevideo and they managed to cycle 10.000 km in total. It is clear that you can’t cross the ocean by bike, so they cycled from Utrecht to Huelva, hitchhiked across the ocean by sailboat to Recife and cycled from Recife to Montevideo. The same distance by car would have taken a CO2 emission of 1320 kg, this is the amount of CO2 that a grown-up deciduous tree would absorb in 55 years. If you traveled 10.000 km by train this would lead to a CO2 emission of 280 kg., which is the amount of CO2 that a grown-up deciduous tree would absorb in 12 years. Do you want to know more about Tos and Hilde’s sustainable world tour? Read the interview below!

Iris: Why did you decide to do a world tour by bike?

Hilde: I wasn’t familiar with cycling holidays, I hitchhiked and backpacked a lot, but together with Tos we had a cycling holiday for five days in the Ardennes and I really liked it! Before that, I have never realized that it would be fun. Tos had often gone on cycling holidays with his family when he was younger. Cycling gives you so much freedom; you have everything you need with you. Your means of transportation is your bike and everything else you need can be stored on your bike. I have never felt such freedom while I was travelling before.

Tos: We wanted to go on a tour for a long time and the short cycling holiday was so much fun that we thought, why would’nt we do a world tour by bike? Cycling is a very easy and cheap way to travel, you can travel long distances in a day and it is less labour intensive than hiking.

What did the cycling bring you? How did the cycling affect you physically? What did you get out of the cycling?

Tos: Very brown arms and legs, with tan lines that made me look like a zebra.

Hilde: Huge calves, they were like steal! Furthermore, you know exactly what your body can handle and what it can’t after a few weeks of cycling. Sometimes it was hard to cycle when the roads were bad or the mountains very high, but we always knew, there would be an end!

Was it dangerous to do this bike tour?

Tos:  After we left Belgium, there were no proper cycling lanes anymore, so it was better not to choose busy roads to ride on. Sometimes when we rode on a busy road it was a bit dangerous.

Hilde: The only danger we experienced were the cars, and it is a lot nicer to cycle on little roads. We used to camp in the nature and we slept at different people’s homes, so it was more convenient to stay on the smaller roads.

What was your most beautiful experience during the tour?

Hilde: Our time on the sailboat was very special. Especially when it was dark and we could see the bright stars shining above us. In those moments, I felt really small and I realized that the universe is so big and that we know so little about it.

Tos: For me, it was nice that our tour was about the journey and not about a destination. We didn’t figure out a route before we set off  and thought we would just see how it worked out. You are cycling from village to village and there are days when you meet no one, and that feeling of taking a journey was really nice…

Do you want to receive tips regarding your own cycling holiday or cycling in general? Visit the facebook page Filosofietsen: http://www.facebook.com/Filosofietsen , for Dutch speaking AEGEEans the website: filosofietsen.nl, or send an e-mail to iris.hordijk[at]aegee-utrecht.nl

Did you know that AEGEE-Utrecht is organising together with AEGEE-Nijmegen a Travel SU in which you travel by bike?

Be inspired and start cycling!

Source for CO2 emissions: http://www.delijn.be/over/milieu/co2_uitstoot_verkeer.htm#2
Source for pictures: www.filosofietsen.nl