Venice(s) - Jules

VENICE(S)

Did you think there was one and only Venice in Europe? If yes, then you might want to read what comes next! Actually, several cities featuring canals claim to be defined as the Venice of their geographical area. Let’s have a brief overview of a few of them, a glimpse into this exhaustive scope of travel opportunities. These ideas might ignite a spark, a willingness to explore unknown territories!

First my favorite, the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, in northern Germany. I warmly invite you to spend heaps of time in this outstanding city with a very dynamic and independent spirit. For instance, the Elbphilharmonie is just beautifully impressive. The city center is incredibly diverse in terms of atmosphere, with its wide diversity of neighborhoods. By the way, have you read the novel “A Most Wanted Man” by British author David John Moore Cornwell, better known by his pen name John le Carré?

Should have extra motivation for exploring the far ends of Germany, you could board a train and end up further north in the city of Flensburg, located in the neighboring Land of SchleswigHolstein near Denmark. Over there, you can experience a genuine crossborder identity, with German and Danish cultures and languages coming together.

Then Bruges, in north-western Belgium. I just went there shortly to board a ferry for Scotland in the frame of a highschool trip. I had only a glimpse of it, so dedicating more time to explore this lovely city is definitely well-ranked on my to-do list. One piece of advice: you should definitely beware of the bicycles which are the kings in town! By the way, have you seen the movie “In Bruges”, starring talented French actress Clémence Poésy? Finally, the town of Colmar with its neighborhood called “the little Venice”, in north-eastern France is very charming. Twhis is one of the highlights of Alsace, a French area bordering Switzerland on the one hand and Germany on the other hand. While wandering in its alleys, there is a fairy tale atmosphere. Also, why not spend some time either in Strasbourg or in Mulhouse, formerly known as the “French Manchester” as a foreword or an epilog to your trip?

And last but not least, La Ferté-Bernard in north-western France is also part of this surprisingly long list, as the so-called Western Venice. I am especially keen to discover this place as I do not know well its area, Pays de la Loire region. This is quite fascinating so many cities share this designation. But after all, this makes tellingly sense, as water has this reputation of being the essence of life!

Jules Striffler

Design: Jules Striffler

Sources: http://hamburg-companion.com/hamburgs-canals/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_le_Carr%C3%A9 http://www.perche-sarthois.fr/Decouvrir/Activiteset-circuits-pour-les-groupes/Planifiez-votre-sejour/ Laissez-vous-conter-la-Venise-de-l-Ouest http://www.perche-sarthois.fr/Decouvrir/Activiteset-circuits-pour-les-groupes/Planifiez-votre-sejour/ Laissez-vous-conter-la-Venise-de-l-Ouest Floch, M. and Martaguet, P., 2019. Hambourg, L’appel Du Large. Paris: Ambassade d’Allemagne.

KA3: MOMENTUM

Meet the participants of the project: “European Youth at the frontlines of active citizenship: A Roadmap towards a collective South-North-East-West Momentum” organized by Volunteers Centre Skopje and supported by European Commission due to Erasmus+ European Youth Together programme and see how they will change society.

Stefanija Stefanoska (Macedonia) Stefanija is a student of psychology and she believes that any society could change if everyone works on their mental health. For her, working with youngsters would be most beneficial, because they are in the process of physical and emotional development and because they are the people in which’s hands our future is. The goal of her project is to teach youngsters about techniques for recognizing stress, stressful situations and considering their further effects and influences as well as recognizing the consequences of emotional stress transfer on partner relationships.

Razvan Cimpean (Romania) The problem that Razvan wants to solve in his project is the low level of interest of young people to play sports in nature, a problem that has as consequences the high risk of mental and physical health problems. His project consists of building a mountain biking route in the surroundings of Bălan. The challenge he faces is to get help from local authorities to create a legal route. He aims to contribute to the development of the city in the future and wants to motivate as many people as possible to do so. His message for those who want to become active citizens is to start change with small things.

Marianna Parmatzia (Cyprus) Marianna is an art educator from Cyprus, who believes that art could be used as a medium for communication, by creating a universal language that everybody can understand. As an Art teacher she decided to organize a workshop, which is called “What’s Your Story?” - encouraging participants to share their stories through artistic methods by taking part in a project-week she organizes. The idea of the project is to collect the participants’ artworks in the end of the workshop and exhibit them in public. It’s about an intercultural communication exchange, where people feel free to express themselves in any way they want: through performing, sound, pictures, illustrations and many other media.

Marija Ristova (Macedonia) Marija is a student in a high school and her aim of the project is to make her voice and actions about raising awareness about environment to be heard. Since she was a little girl she always cared for the environment, so that’s why she would like her hometown to be more clean and nicer place for living. At the lake close to the city, she is planning to plant trees. When she started the project, her wish was as many people to come and participate in it and take action together. But when Marija will finish the project, her expectation is people to be touched and take action as she did.

Krisztina Kerekes (Romania) The goal of her project is to create a nonprofit association which promotes sport activities for teenagers and improves their mental health and wellbeing, connected with the Erasmus+ youth exchange projects, because in the present in her town and in the surrounding areas the teenagers have limited access to this kind of activities.

Andria Spyrou (Cyprus) Andria’s project is about Fast Fashion Industry and how the current fashion business model has brought an excessive production of garments at a great cost. The project aims to uncover the dark realities behind the fast fashion industry and garment manufacturing in respect to the environment and human exploitation, which are not directly observable by the consumer. The goal is to inspire people into conscious consumerism and consideration of the impact our habits have on the planet and humanity overall.

Sara Jazadziska (Macedonia) Sara is a film worker/director born In Skopje. From a very young age, she has been involved in the film industry. Sara was accepted for the project “European Youth at the frontlines of active citizenship” and the topic she choose was Cultural Heritage and the focus of the story – the City and Lake Ohrid. The motivation to stand behind this topic is that she just moved to Ohrid which is a UNESCO World Heritage site, but it might lose that status soon. Sara believes that losing that support and protection is a big red flag that we’re doing things wrong and at some point, it’ll come back to bite us.

Ionut Barb (Romania) The main goal of his project is the legalization of the access with nonmotorized boats and kayaks on the Mesteacanul lake from Balan for greater diversity of sports and for recreational purposes. He believes that after finishing the project, it will be a greater diversity of sports that can be practiced, increasing the tourist interest and attracting potential investors in the area.

Christoforos Hadjiandreas (Cyprus) Christoforos is a global health enthusiast and a future physician who aspires to advocate for public health and empower other students all around the world to actively participate in health care matters. He believes that within non-formal as well as peer-to-peer education, more young people will not only self-develop but also enhance their skills and be further motivated to work on Public Health for the ultimate vision of achieving safe and high quality healthcare access for all people worldwide. His project aims to concern everyone for needs of Global Health.

Petar Stevanovic (Macedonia) Petar is a student and a big fan of nature. He remembers that since he was a child, he was spending a lot of time in his grandpa’s village. Now, his project is about raising awareness about taking care of nature’s health as much as taking care of our health. He wants to change the behavior and habit that people have while they are spending time in nature exercising, running, hiking or just relaxing in the nearest national park or mountain. Petar hopes that with his project we can show to people that we can’t have healthy life if we don’t have healthy nature.

Vera Romanu (Romania) The goal of her project is to help young international Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies students once arrived in Bucharest, to get some help and guidance in university and social life. Main project objectives are: to create a video series guide that will help them with integration (through this video guide she will explain to the new coming students all the aspects of student life, what should they do, what do they have to do, where can they ask for help, who is going to help them...). Vera will try to gain the support of university decision makers to fasten the inclusion of the foreign students.

Marios Limnatis (Cyprus) Through his project Marios will try to show to people that we can have a different point of view about business and economic systems. He wants to prove that businesses can give back to the people, to the society from their net income and still do well. Marios and his partner, Nikolas, have a webpage. Their new project is to start an online shop, as a part of that webpage. They are planning to donate to charity a percentage of the net profit. His message to the world is that we need to fight for our future, for a better future of our children.

Jana Oltovska (Macedonia) Jana is a fifteen year old girl from Skopje and is a scout already for 7 years. She noticed that people only care about what the majority needs or wants and put aside what the minority asks for. That’s why she will make a project for helping autistic people to join the world of scouting. She believes that project will bring a lot of benefits such as developing empathy between the members, the scout leader will be more mature and improve in many ways, the autistic member will learn important life skills and socialize more and the whole team will grow mentally.

Daniel Oprea (Romania) Daniel’s project aims to decrease the suicidal rates among teenagers through an inspirational message. The objectives are to attract the attention of young people from Harghita county on the availability of the psychological help and to increase the degree of involvement of the decision-making leaders. Activities are based on the maintenance of a dialogue within the local council and students council about suicide prevention, and the making of an inspirational documentary. The impact consists in lowering the suicide rate and the school dropout rate.

Michalis Georgiou (Cyprus) Michalis studied electrical circuits and renewable energy technologies at a local institute. Growing up, he remembers from high school that he was getting angry when the other schoolmates didn’t throw their plastic bottles to the recycle bin. That’s why the idea of his project is to create a recycle bin in the shape of a fish and to install it on the beach at the sea. The goal of the project is to raise awareness about single use of plastic bottles in an artistic and cool way. His main challenge is for how many years this structure will be solid and if people are going to follow this idea and throw their bottles inside it.