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

The city of Brno, Czech Republic, lies in the very heart of Central Europe. It was at one point home to Napoleon Bonaparte, Gregor Mendel, the Father of Genetics; and is now home of a small, but very active, AEGEE local. Because European interconnectedness is kind of our favourite thing at the AEGEEan, we decided to interview the PR Group of AEGEE-Brno and see what they have to say.

The AEGEEan: Could you tell us something about yourself?

Tereza (PR Group AEGEE-Brno): We are the PR working group of AEGEE-Brno, which we established one and half years ago. We are responsible for the promotion of our great antenna and we will try to convince you that if you don’t know us yet, you will want to meet us in the near future. Maybe on our Summer University 2016, focused on team cooperation.

Could you tell us something about your local (and its history)?

AEGEE-Brno was founded relatively early in 1993, but it ceased to function due to lack of members.  Nevertheless, the idea of running AEGEE- Brno came again to a group of student, who in 2007 attended one of the events organised by AEGEE – Model of European Union.

Today, we have more than 60 members and around 15 – 20 of them are active. The active members meet every Tuesday in a café.

What’s the most amazing or memorable event AEGEE-Brno ever organised?

It is not easy to say, because every event is, in some way, amazing and memorable. Among the most memorable, we would like to mention the conference “EaP countries on the way to EU integration” in cooperation with the Eastern Partnership Project in 2012,  as well as the  Network Meeting, which AEGEE-BRNO held last spring, which was a memorable and extraordinary experience for us (and for sure for the participants as well), because it was something that doesn’t take place in Brno every day.

Could you tell us something about the events that AEGEE-Brno is organising this year?

I can say that there will be an SU for sure again, and this year it will focus on group dynamics.

But before the SU, we would also like to organise some smaller events for our local members, but also for the public! We are planning to hold another International Dinner (which is basically the concept of European night with local foreigners, not just AEGEE members). Except that, there will also be some public lectures, an LTC for our local members and much more. [she smiles]

For the past five years, AEGEE-BRNO has organised Summer Universities that focussed on trainings, personal development, and also on adventurous components. Does AEGEE-Brno also host similar events for its members throughout the year?

Yes, we do. It is our long-term plan to focus more on trainings and personal development and that is the reason why our last three SUs had professional workshops with practical games. But we have also done some pretty funny and adventurous stuff like sleeping outside in the forest just under the sky, hiking, and many active games outside. And this is the spirit we are trying to keep in our antenna during the whole year.

Even though Brno lies in the Czech Republic, AEGEE-Wien (Austria) and AEGEE-Bratislava (Slovakia) are somewhat closer to your local. Do you organise more events with them, other Czech-speaking AEGEE locals, or neither?

We meet together with AEGEE-Praha and AEGEE-Bratislava regularly at the event called ‘Czechoslovak weekend’, where we plan some activities together and share the knowledge. It is organised around the 17th of November – the anniversary of the Velvet revolution (fall of communism in CSR). We also meet with these antennae just to hang out on Christmas markets etc.

Written by Willem Laurentzen, AEGEE-Nijmegen

My story will begin slightly differently than other Summer University stories. I have been an AEGEE member for over 2.5 years and despite being very active in the association and participating and organizing different events, I had never attended any Summer University. Up until now. I have just returned from the most amazing event I have ever been to, both in AEGEE and out – AEGEE-Brno’s SU “Out of the box! Can you handle it?”.

After having spent three weeks on the Croatian coast, I returned to Zagreb and immediately had to start re-packing and washing my clothes. One sleepless night later, I got on the 6am bus for Vienna. In Vienna, I switched buses and got on a Student Agency Yellow Bus that took me to Brno. Traveling with that bus seemed like traveling by plane – you get free coffee/tea/hot chocolate, the seats are comfy and you have your own TV where you can watch movies, TV shows and listen to music. For me, the journey started almost perfectly. I say almost because I almost missed my bus to Brno, but luckily, I arrived one minute before the departure. I arrived in Brno around 6pm and joined others in the Mamut Pub for a beer (some beers?); typical Czech way of relaxing and spending the free time (and I like it!).

I will mostly remember the first day for the “balloon game”. We were divided into smaller teams and each person had to smash a balloon against one chosen team-mate’s body (e.g. jumping on someone’s lap or pressing it onto another person’s chest). It was both challenging and funny to do it with still unknown people, but it was a great ice-breaking game.

The next morning we left Brno and went to the Moravian Karst for a team-building weekend. After some relaxing time by a pond and some lunch, the fun began. Each team had to exchange a toilet paper for something of a bigger value and find its way to Vilémovice where the gym was located. The organizers took care that it didn’t become too easy for us – each member had an obstacle; we were walking blindfolded, with our hands and legs tight and were not allowed to talk or use our phones or maps. Although my (Pink) team was the fastest, for all of us the winners were the Green team, who exchanged the toilet paper for a bottle of Martini. Tired, sweaty and hungry, we looked forward to the dinner and showers, but there were still some surprises left. We got a task to compete in preparing the best traditional Czech goulash. It was a great team-building activity and it made our dinner even better and tastier since we had prepared it with love. We ended the day with midnight forest orientation games.

The next day, we went hiking and we visited the amazing cave complex Punkevní jeskyně and the Macocha Abyss. In the afternoon we had the AEGEE introduction held by Ivan Bielik, from the Comité Directeur. Even though I had already heard it hundreds of times and held it myself, this was the best and the most inspiring I have heard so far and would like to thank him for inspiring us and spreading the AEGEE spirit.

We returned to Brno on Monday, and after the city tour we had a great workshop about intercultural dialogue. One of the parts was a game where our partner had to guess the given sentence in our language which we were trying to explain by a pantomime. It was a hard task to understand Estonian, but with a small help, in the end I guessed every sentence correctly. Later that night we had a pub crawl and despite the rain we managed to fulfill all the tasks. I’d like to thank my team-mates who helped me with the beer drinking. Without you, I would have probably never finished the pub crawl!

Another day arrived. After visiting the Technical Museum and spending most of the time playing at the interactive part, we had a workshop on time management. There I had learned that I can understand Slovak language pretty well. There is always one thing that triggers the best inside jokes and I believe we used what we learned there pretty well!

Anyone who ever participated in any AEGEE event knows how it feels like after the European Night. Especially when the first thing you have in the morning is a workshop. Organizers made it very interactive and interesting, and after a huge cup of black coffee, I had no problem with following and improving my critical thinking. Later that day we went to the rope center. Even though I was not able to participate, due to my injury, I’m very proud of everyone who was able to pass the heavy elements and finished the climb despite the heavy rain. I soothed my sorrow later that evening during the wine tasting.

Slowly the SU started coming to an end. On Thursday morning there was a city rally. For those who don’t know what it is, it is an interactive game to gain a better insight of the city. Each team gets their tasks that consist of finding some places and taking a photo there, finding some stories about the city or names of important things there and many more. Few hours later, after a lot of walking, many crazy photos and selfies we were ready for the lunch in one of the best pubs in Brno – The Immigrant. Later that day, although tired from the party, we went to a public speaking workshop. I think I am saying in the name of all of us that four hours past in what seemed like a second. Everyone got the chance to perform and practice their public speaking skills and we all wanted to speak and learn more. In the evening we had a movie night and a discussion about a documentary film “Český sen“(Eng. Czech Dream) that documents the largest consumer hoax the Czech Republic has ever seen.

The Sun rose again and it was time for the picnic at the Brno Dam Lake. Even though the weather was changing rapidly from sunny and warm to cloudy and rainy, we had a great and relaxing day which was followed by the trip to Veveří Castle. A perfect day that ended with a great party.

The last day before the departure – Saturday. The last workshop of the SU – critical thinking and implementation of everything learned. The last lunch with new friends. I would say the last beer, but it wasn’t the last one. After discovering different types of beer, it was a time to try them. Many thanks to Petra Védlová who taught us everything that needs to be known about the beer and especially, how to pour a tap beer properly. And then, slowly and without realizing, the time for the Farewell party came. Last laughs. Last talks. Last drinks. Last dances. Last time with the amazing people I met in Brno. We didn’t want to end the night and fun so we waited until the first rays of the Sun appeared. It was time to leave. To go back home and to say goodbye to the people who became my family.

Goodbyes are never easy. You never know if it means forever or until the next time we see each other. I do hope it’s the latter. To the outstanding people I met in Brno, both participants and organizers, I’d like to thank for making this event so amazing and making me think out of the box. We became a small, but happy family and I hope this text, all pictures and selfies we made together and your memories will remind you of the marvelous time we had. Goodbye! Or should I say: “Until we see each other next time!”

Written by  Silvija Perić, AEGEE-Zagreb

Photos courtesy of Silvija Perić, AEGEE-Zagreb; Matej Ducár, AEGEE-Brno; Sandra Dvořanová, AEGEE-Brno; and Martina Tuhá, AEGEE-Brno