Why I chose to ride my bike to Denmark

Text: Felice Hess | University of Bern

...or some examples of green travels within swimsa.

The rumors might have spread (or read during the lecture of this journal): The trip to my swimsa exchange in Denmark already started a month before the actual internship. Taking the bike is considered slowtravel and I did not like to rush on this special occasion. But I am by far not the only person in the past years who decided to not take the plane for any swimsa or IFMSA event:

Basti Albermann, a medical student at the University of Bern, decided to hitchhike to the EuRegMe in St. Petersburg and made it up there safely within a few weeks.

Up north a second time, there was an exchange student taking her bike to Moscow, used it every day for her trip to the hospital and finished her holidays with a bike trip around Estonia, Lithuania and down to Hamburg. Someone attended the European NEONORE Weekend in Barcelona. As the train staff in France was on strike during this weekend, she spent the night in the Bus and arrived there early in the morning before the event started.

There was another exchange student, Dominique Lindegger who decided to travel by train and ferry from Genua to Tunisia and made some interesting experiences on her way as she realized that ferries are mostly organized for cars and it was quite a search to find the right place to even enter the boat. She was not the only pedestrian though, and together they mastered very well. During the 24 hours ride she shared a cabin with four other women who mostly had their origin in Tunisia and were returning for holidays and already taught her something about the culture of her destination.

In 2019 more than half of the Swiss delegation took the (night) train to the general assembly in Slovenia and already had their first gettoknowmoment squeezed in a little cabin with six beds while crocheting their delegation headband.

As you can see, there are plenty of alternatives to taking the plane for shorter and longer distances and there are students who pioneered. Their stories show us that this way to travel works just as well and might be much more enriching and something of an experience than just entering and debarking a plane. In most cases the motivation were ecological reasons as the students tried to lower their personal emission of greenhouse gases. This can easily be done by choosing a destination which is reachable by other means, investing a bit more time and enjoying the slow way of travel.

But I promise you, slow travels is not only something for ‘greenies’: It is especially something for people enjoying living, places, people and most of all adventures. Stepping into a train with locals gives you a real picture of the country you are in; your fellow travelers will offer you some food, invite you to card games even though you don’t speak a word in a similar language or tell you about their fascinating reasons for this journey.

On the other hand, during your bike trip you will probably catch more of the nature and surroundings than the people’s behavior; as you can follow different paths, crossing rivers, cycling through little villages and you will observe the landscape changing and suddenly discover small things as the fascinating way of birds moving or wild animals in forests. Slow travels allows you to adapt to the new circumstances: You’ll have the chance to slowly turn your back to your home country and embrace the new surroundings and mentality of the people living there.

The biggest plus comes at the end: I always used my travels as opportunity to meet friends I haven’t seen for a long time. Check out your international friendships, contact them and you can spend wonderful days in their hometown. These moments and strengthened relationships will be the super extra of your travels, so plan in enough time for those stops and enjoy it.

Reducing my personal footprint and to disclaim from flying as much as possible while not dismissing the huge IFMSA opportunities was also my personal motivation for the various slowtrips I ventured to exchanges, IFMSA general assemblies and trainings such as SRT’s.

The latest one, riding from my home to Denmark, was by far the most enriching one and the one with the highest effect on my level of fitness and muscle mass.

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Texte : Marc Schällebaum | Directeur MEDISERVICE VSAO-ASMAC

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