Everything starts in Chisinau, Moldova when I won another Interrail Pass thanks to the AEGEE Lottery. Another, because AEGEE had given me one just a few months before the first Interrail Pass for my SUCT trip. Surprised, lucky and happy I came back to Italy dreaming about my future adventure. 

I checked the map of Europe, and I started to plan which countries to discover this time. 

Before I die, I want to visit all countries of Europe, so the choice was a bit hard. However, in the end, the winners were Germany, the Czech Republic, Austria, Slovakia and Poland. 

The problem was my availability to travel a lot. I spent around Europe all my free days between exams and university courses. 12 days in total, deeply lived. 

My first stop was Berlin. Colourful, extravagant, free and determined.

A city that knows how to tell stories, its history and the history of those who lived there.

No art museums for me, but a route through historical monuments, to retrace the history that for years I had only read on school books. I felt deeply guilty reading on the walls how much cruelty the human being has been able to show. 

After Berlin I went to the Czech Republic, visiting the charming atmosphere of Praha. There is a mysterious air around the Czech capital; too much touristy for me, but wonderful. I saw Praha and its Charles Bridge for the first time in the music video “Numb” of Linkin Park, and since 2003 it has been my desire, finally fulfilled, to walk on that bridge.

The reason why I decided to visit Brno is called Giulia: my amazing AEGEE friend, Agora mate and sweet lady. It was a pleasure to spend some hours with her and her beautiful smile, telling stories and remembering all past moments spent together. A night city tour, a beer, a dinner with her, and the following day I was directed to Austria.

Vienna. In my mind, there is a fixed image when thinking about Vienna: a very small Irish pub, full of objects everywhere. The owner told me: souvenirs gifted by customers. There was a guy singing and playing guitar in the pub, and the music component convinced me to enter in that strange place that night. Listening to music and drinking beer, I do not know why I started to write words, then thoughts, in Italian and in English. It was a great and peaceful moment for me. I did not feel lost in the world, but cosy in a place that hugs you with its atmosphere.

I was curious to visit Bratislava, so during my stay in Vienna one morning I took the train and in one hour another country was ready for me. I really enjoyed the old part of the city and the food. Yes, because in every city I have visited, I tried to taste all typical plates: Brezel, Spätzle, Weißwurst and Currywurst in Berlin; Czech Goulash, Dumplings and Trdlo in Praha, Wiener Schnitzel in Vienna; Gulášová polievka and Bryndzové halušky in Bratislava and beer, litres of beer everywhere. Souvenirs from Slovakia: pictures, magnets and my personal bottle of Tatratea!

It had been easy to reach all cities until that moment. It was complicated to understand how to go to Poland from Czechia. I spent hours with a headache analysing the best solution without too many changes and “x” hours of duration. That is why I decided to say “Hello” to my Sardinian friends in Ostrava … and of course drink mirto with them.

I felt really lost outside the railway station of Warszawa. I did not expect a city that big. I spent one hour trying to find out the right way to reach my hostel, but just one hour later, I felt super happy eating a wonderful and delicious plate of pierogi. The day after I had just some hours before my flight to Italy to discover the Polish capital. In Stare Miasto, I met a free city tour in Spanish and I joined the group, and it was very interesting. A funny guide told us history, curiosities, legends about the old place, and thanks to him I had the chance to taste another typical food: Placki ziemniaczane.

The end of a journey is always sad. Saying “Goodbye” to friends, places, feelings… and I am asking myself if I left a part of me there or if I returned home with something more.

“Travelling through stories centuries-old, and in touch with my young sense of survival”

This was for me, my Interrail trip.

Written by Carolina Alfano, AEGEE-Salerno and AEGEE-Verona

To participate in an Erasmus project is amazing, but the team spirit and the atmosphere is what truly make it an Erasmus + project. Back in April 2016, Elinne Mertens and Ioana Duca attended “Captivating Europe”, and Erasmus + Programme by the EU in Berlin, and this is their amazing story:

The project

From the 16th until the 24th of April, me and Ioana Duca took part in the training “Captivating Europe” in Berlin, funded by the Erasmus + programme of the European Union. Captivating Europe was a week-long training course hosted by the organisation OneEurope. Six partner organisations from Italy, Turkey, Greece, Croatia, Lithuania and (of course, AEGEE-Europe was partner) Belgium took part in it. The aim of the training was to develop innovative communication strategies for the dissemination of pro-European ideas to larger audiences. Moreover, we explored European citizenship and reflected on European identity. Additionally, the project provided guidance for the programs that promote the development of European identity, for example Erasmus+. As Communications Team member of Your Vision for EUrope, I represented this project, while Ioana presented some general AEGEE materials.

Professional benefits

Since all the previous trainings I took part in were organised by AEGEE-locals (and it were never Erasmus+ projects, this was my first), it was very refreshing to participate in a training like this one. It was interesting to observe the organisation and to learn from it and to take new experiences with me on how to – and how not to – organise a project. Since we had participants from six different organisations/countries, the project was great to network and to get contacts outside of AEGEE. Afterwards I contacted some of these new contacts for the Erasmus+ application that we, the Your Vision for Europe project, submitted. I encourage AEGEE-Europe, but also AEGEE locals to (continue to) be partner organisation of other Erasmus+ projects. You will gather a lot of inspiration andcontacts and you will learn a lot. Even plans to cooperate in the future and to organise an Erasmus+ project together can originate from it. This is the great benefit of these kinds of projects: they offer a platform to share, discuss and network on the spot, but moreover, they bring ideas, experiences and contacts that you can benefit from later on. Besides, another reason to participate in Erasmus+ projects: travel costs and costs for the project are fully reimbursed by the EU! What do you want more?

Personal benefits

However, I have to admit that the team spirit and the atmosphere created are maybe even more important than these professional benefits. I gained a lot of new friends – outside of AEGEE. I experienced some kind of outsider perspective at AEGEE by meeting people who don’t do our typical AEGEE things, like dancing Tunak Tunak or doing our typical energisers. But, as we also have this great AEGEE network, me and Ioana met friends from AEGEE-Berlin and people from other AEGEE-locals who visited Berlin during the same period.

So in short: if you have the chance to participate in an Erasmus+ project or to cooperate as partner organisation, don’t hesitate, just do it. It is a great opportunity!

Written by Elinne Mertens, AEGEE-Leuven and Your Vision for Europe

The Network Meeting (NWM) in Berlin will take place in only a few days. The AEGEEan spoke to Vice Coordinator Ralitsa Mihaylova and NetCommie Andrea Schmelz. Read the article to find out what awaits the participants of this interesting NWM!

Between the 19th and the 22nd of November, 40 participants from all over Europe will take part in the NWM in Berlin which carries the expressive title: “NWM Berlin – The power of borderless thinking”.

The main focus of the event will be AEGEE’s policy and advocacy. “We will explore our internal and external resources such as our own local work, our European events, and other organisations, as well as, discuss the stake of our beloved organisation with respect to some of the hottest topics in Europe right now: the refugee crisis and the creation of new borders through Brexit, for example”, says Andrea.

Berlin seems to be the perfect spot for this focus. “Its political and historical importance makes it a great place not just for important discussions, but also for initiating change”, says Ralitsa, the Vice Organiser of the NWM. In her opinion, Berlin is a synonym for cultural diversity and open-mindedness and therefore, it perfectly matches with the main focus of the event itself. And of course, one should not forget that Berlin is an interesting capital, easy to reach from all over Europe and which offers great opportunities to go out at night.

The organisers did not only work on the social programme, but they also worked together for PR, covering specific posts with people from the organisation team. Next to Clemens, the Main Organiser and Ralitsa herself, who is also the Incoming Responsible, there is Filipp, AEGEE-Berlin’s President, who is responsible for the fundraising and last but not least Nicole, who is the boss of the cooking squad. Almost every single member of the local is involved in organising the NWM, and on top of that, they also have “some amazing external helpers who are coming to Berlin to support us during the event”, Ralitsa concludes.

Everybody is really looking forward to this event. It will be AEGEE-Berlin’s first NWM and hosting one has been a goal for these AEGEEans for a while. In the past year, they have been working hard to stabilise and grow their antenna and they have become a lot more active. “That definitely helped us seducing Andrea to give us this opportunity”, Ralitsa says jokingly. And indeed, Andrea lets us know that it was mere seduction! Hopefully, AEGEE-Berlin’s video application will be made public soon.

Although this NWM is being organised without any cooperation with universities, the Berliners are fortunate to get support from other institutions, and to find accommodation with conference rooms where the sessions will take place. To ensure that these sessions will be interesting, three experienced facilitators created the programme through many skype meetings and e-mails, while lots of supporters were giving them hints on how to improve the content even more.
And what happens after an exhausting day, full of interesting input? Sure, it would be time to give the participants a real taste of Berlin. Everything from the classics, like a city tour in the center, a visit to the Bundestag, to some more unconventional activities, all of these will be included in the NWM’s social programme. Because, as Ralitsa sees it: “since we will work hard during the day, it’s only fair that we play hard at night”.

Concerning any other plans in the near future, Ralitsa is optimistic. First of all, at the beginning of December, they will have an exchange with AEGEE-Praha, but for sure, there will be more to come: “We have some big plans for next year, so keep an eye on AEGEE-Berlin!”

Written by Katja Sontag, AEGEE-Aachen

Do terms like Internet Governance, Data Protection, Mass Surveillance, Edward Snowden and Intellectual Property Rights sound like the recipe of an event for internet nerds who normally don’t manage to see the sun and live behind their computer? Maybe, but this event turned out to be not like this at all. During the New Media Summer School 2014 in Berlin, 34 young participants from all over Europe and from a variety of different organizations met to learn more about this weird thing called internet and how to control it.

Internet Governance is clearly more and more in the focus of many young people, international policy makers and of course international organisations such as AEGEE. That’s why the questions around NSA, Snowden, Facebook and Google selling private data, liquid democracy and many others are important and more and more discussed. Therefore, young people need to gain knowledge about how to handle and be involved in these topics. Together, organisations like Internet Governance Forum, JEF, Young Pirates, Wikimedia Berlin, AEGEE-Berlin, Collab Berlin and many others organised the New Media Summer School (NMSS), which was a five day training taking place in Berlin. The days were filled with brainstorming, discussions and workshops on topics of internet security, protection of your personal data and the dilemma of intellectual property rights.

Since 2011, one of the aims of the NMSS is to prepare the participants to be “active” in the European Dialoque on Internet Governance (EuroDIG). This event lasted two days and consisted of a series of conferences, workshops and flash sessions, where people could exchange ideas and reflections with the possibility to be directly involved in European projects related on different topics of the Internet Governance (data protection, privacy, net neutrality, copyright, big data. etc.). All together trying to contribute to a constructive dialogue.

An interesting flash session was the session about the Global Internet Policy Observator (GIPO), a very recent project that needs people and organizations to contribute. In detail, the project is lead by the European Commission and its aim is to provide technical tools to support internet policy and governance, making information easily and widely accessible in order to enable a more inclusive participation of all stakeholders. This project is encouraged by the IGF (the most important Internet Governance Forum at a worldwide level). Now the project is under prototypization, but nevertheless, different stakeholders from all over the world are interested to be involved in creating a GIPO community.

This is only one of the many projects related to the Internet Governance field, where different stakeholder try to discuss together, finding the best solution to develop and/or improve the existing policy, thanks to this “wide dialogue”. Participants had the chance to have experts on their respective field talk about the anatomy of the internet, internet governance, self governance, net neutrality, copyrights, human rights, the Snowden revelation, privacy, mass surveillance, data protection, anonymity, the future of the internet and several other terms that at first sounded unfamiliar to many of us but as days passed became part of our vocabulary. During the preparatory events the participants aquired some valuable information about the issues that would be discussed during the conference and exchanged knowledge and ideas with other participants, professionals and organizers. Through the conference participants were given the chance to actively participate in the ongoing dialogue that was taking place in the plenaries, workshops and flash presentations.

The most important element of the EuroDIG was the dicotomy where everyone was both a producer and recipient of thoughts, ideas, arguments and messages. In this conference you could both influence the people around you but also be influenced by them. It was the interactiveness that made the EuroDIG successful and productive, as the issues under discussion were approached by a lot of different viewpoints. During the conference, participants from all sort of different backgrounds had the chance to meet each other and communicate as equals. During lunch being approached by academic professors, young entrepreneurs, businessmen, policy makers, tech people etc. was the norm. There was no sense that certain people’s opinion mattered more and participants were actually interested in hearing what you had to say no matter who you were or what was your background. During the plenaries issues that were raised in the tweets posted on the twitterwall were addressed and not disregarded as trivial.

The organisers from AEGEE Berlin and collaboratory were nothing but enthusiastic, helpful, patient and understanding, especially during the days when the heat in Berlin was just too much. The New Media Summer school was an overall interesting and thought provoking event that had a lot to offer to those who took part in it. It is an ongoing event as it is the dialogue on internet governance, the issues raised and discussed in it were, are and will continue to be of great importance in our day to day lives as users of the internet. It is important for all internet users to actively participate in the dialogue about its governance and not let decisions that concern us being made without being openly discussed in public.

Written by Mara Poniros, AEGEE-Peiraias; Holger Schmitt, AEGEE-Berlin; Pavel Zbornik, Comité Directeur and Giancarlo Nicolò, AEGEE-Udine.