Europe on Track

Welcome on board! Again on the fabulous Frecciarossa, Italy’s high-speed train. We are on our way from Napoli to Bergamo, but all three of us in our own cabin, if not our own train… Interrailing? A piece of cake. But only for some of us… Totally immersed in the many activities and conversations of our […]

We arrived early in the morning, and around noon we got a city tour of St. Petersburg where we visited some of the city’s most famous sights and learned about the short, but turbulent history of the city. Noting the resilience of Peter in his efforts to build up the city in a place that […]

“If you don’t know the rules of the game, you cannot participate.” – Filippo When we ask interviewees about the responsibilities of a citizen, many assert that it is important “to know your rights.” However, this answer is often followed by a subtle head shake of confession when the interviewee is then asked whether he […]

It Saturday, May 6th, 9 in the morning. Together with 13 AEGEE- Eskişehir members, we are visiting a high school in Eskişehir. There are about 30 students, at 9am, I repeat, on a Saturday morning. First of all, thank you for that. The first exercise: Think of an object or an animal right now. Turn […]

“It is important to do something for your city. You don’t have to do great things and start a revolution, but something like taking part in an association (e.g. AEGEE), so you can create a better place. Like, here in Napoli, when I have people that come over, I show them the place. I show […]

The first thing you want to do after a 12-hour night train without sleep/food/shower is, by no doubt, to go to a barbecue party in the park with 50 members of AEGEE-Izmir (of which 30 (!) present at Agora-Enschede)… Lesson #1: Never ever get yourself a seat next to an automatic door. Especially not the ones that […]

Safe to say, I am generally not a morning person, but I think anybody would be startled by being woken up at 3:30am by a Russian soldier for passport control. We took the night train from Kyiv from Moskva, arriving safely at 10am after 12 hours train, and headed straight to our host’s place where […]

The phrase “Think globally, act locally” was reoccurring through the interviews, describing well the atmosphere in Kyiv. It’s clear that the events in 2013 shaped the people of the country a great deal, empowering them and enforcing the idea that each individual matters and can make a change. Arriving early as 7am, we were impressed […]

What is the first word you think of when I say Civic Education? – (Crickets…) After a quick stop in Ploiesti, where our lovely hosts Tudor and his mom sacrificed their Labor Day for us in return for a series of selfies, we continued our journey to Sofia. In some languages, including Bulgarian, there is no […]

“We had more fun here than in a whole week of school.” – “A whole week? A whole year!” That exchange between two high school students followed our first workshop in Chișinău, Moldova. We found ourselves in Chișinău on Thursday, April 27th, after riding a night train from Cluj-Napoca to Iași and, with some help […]