Regional Congresses
- Eastern Regional Congress 2006 Feb 26th- Mar 2nd - Western Regional Congress 2006 Mar 3rd- 7th - North&Baltic Regional Congress 2006 Mar 5th- 9th
Vol. 48, November 2005
Hi EGEAns!! In front of you is the new autumn edition of the EGEA Newsletter 2005. It took some time to finish the newsletter, because of the lots of articles you all wrote, but keep on writing!! In this letter first the old European Board members will say goodbye and the new BoE will introduce them selves. The regional congresses are introduced and there is a great story about the Annual Congress 2005 in Greece! Further there are three articles about the Alpsseminar and a lot of stories about exchanges and how you all experienced this. I hope you will enjoy the reading of this newsletter!! Berrie Pronk EGEA Utrecht
- Euromed Regional Congress 2006 April 24th-28th (You can find more information on the website of EGEA and later on in this newsletter)
Agenda and Announcements:
New Year in Croatia - Daruvar, 29.12.2005. – 3.1.2006. Egea Zagreb invites you to celebrate New Year in Daruvar, a beautiful little town in western Slovenia! What we would like to offer you is getting to know Croatia, western Slavonia, Hrvatsko Zagorje and Zagreb through excursions, games, presentations - in 6 days of our programme; we would like to show you some customs of our country and some beautiful sights, and there will be some beer and wine tasting for sure! Also, we would like to prepare some surprises for you (because Egea Zagreb is known for working mysteriously)! Check http://free-zg.t-com.hr/geofilip/ and contact us on zagrebnyp05@gmail.com! So wait no longer and visit Croatia! You won't regret it! Ana Popović, EGEA Zagreb
EGEA mailing list:
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X-Mas-Special 2005 in Münster This December EGEA Münster offers you to discover winterly Münster in Christmas time. From December 9th till 11th we present our second X-Mas-Special and all of you are invited to explore on this weekend traditional Christmas activities, Christmas markets, special drinks and regional food specialities. More information and details can be found on the forum in the activities section. Hope to meet some of you in Münster very soon! Welcome! EGEA Münster Kai Solinski Christmas in Leuven Hey fellow EGEAns, Some of you might have noticed, some of you probably haven’t…but it has happened again! EGEA got bigger with a brand new entity in Leuven, Belgium. We are very motivated and proud to bring EGEA to our students, and hopefully we can bring YOU to Leuven in the future too. Our active board currently counts 11 people and we hope to grow in the future. Our website can be found through the EGEA website, be sure to check it out some time! This academic year we are organising an exchange with Utrecht and Brussels, our members will attend the NYP in Croatia and the WRC in Bonn…as you can see, you will meet us soon! We are looking forward to it! EGEA Leuven (Kwinten, Sara, Matthias&Matthias, Katrien, Toon, Mia, Lien, Pieter&Pieter, Wim)
EGEA Prague Prague, one of the most beautiful towns in Europe, has the oldest university northern from the Alps an easther from Rhine River. Charles University has very large geography with about 1000 students. Since summer 2005 Prague has EGEA entity again! We had EGEA in early 1990s, which organised AC in 1990, but unfortunately years passed, students left and entity disappeared. Some of formal EGEAns are professors now. Since spring 2005 we tried to join EGEA again. Our entity is growing (nearly) every day. It’s a hard job, because we don’t have any student organisation working at faculty or any similar structure. Fortunately some of us are real „active core“ of entity. We are now preparing first exchange with our closest neighbour EGEA Bratislava in December 2005. We are thinking about and preparing other exchanges as well. We hope and will do our best to keep Prague an active and stable member of EGEA. Thank you for support and interest in out entity. You are always welcome to Prague! EGEA Prague Roman (romo)
Goodbye BoE 2004-2005
Dear EGEAns, The year 2004-2005 in EGEA was full of different interesting events. Now, taking a look back at this year, we are glad to present you a short summary of our work. The whole EGEA Foundation experienced a large expansion during last year as it has grown from 59 entities in 25 countries up to 79 entities in 32 countries. So, there are only few European countries left to be involved into EGEA network! And the number of people registered on the Forum
has increased from around 580 to more than 1500 during this period. One wonderful annual congress, four remarkable and intensive regional congresses, Alps-Seminar, many exchanges and other events were carried out. The rapid development of EGEA set several tasks that we tried to solve. To be always in contact we endeavoured to meet online as often as possible. We managed to carry out more than 15 BoE e-meetings during which main points of EGEA development strategy were elaborated: centralised financial support, changes in Statutory Base as well as improvement of EGEA statistics. First of all we considered the centralised financing of EGEA as a key point for successful EGEA development. Earlier, there were practically no centralised funds to support EGEA events as entities themselves obtained financial support. This meant that some events could be well financed while others lacked for money. This big problem can be solved when EGEA money are distributed among entities that realise different projects within EGEA in the way the General Board Meeting determines. We prepared a detailed application for a EU grant but due to problems with the bank account, Statutory Base and other technical problems it was not sent. That is why, a range of changes, improvements, and amendments for 11 Articles of the Statutory Base was proposed at the EGEA Forum, because the old Statutory Base did not correspond already to the contemporary state of EGEA. All EGEAns could discuss these suggestions, and finally they were approved at the GBM at the Annual Congress 2005 in Pelion. This provides a legislative base for the future balanced
development of EGEA. Moreover, it was decided that EGEA should have been more professional. It’s great that since this year EGEA has the Secretariat based in Utrecht. The Secretariat is designated to facilitate the work of the BoE and to guarantee continuity in the EGEA management. The new BoE and the Secretariat could use our drafts to get EU grant for EGEA finally as many obstacles were pushed aside this year. Also, the cooperation with other geographical organisations has to be developed as well as further improvement of EGEA stats, creation of working committees etc., i.e. making EGEA Foundation more professional. At the AC in Pelion we gave our duties to the new BoEs – Alois, Vojkan, Sandor, Anna, and Florian, to the contact person of North&Baltic region – Paula, and to the first Secretariat director – Gert. Congratulations and best wishes for the future year! We are always ready to assist you in case you have any questions. So, do not hesitate to ask us! We would like to thank all EGEAns for a support during this year! All the best! Always yours, Vita, Igor, Andrea, Rok, and Lefteris Ex vice - chairman Hello egeans! One year ago, when I was elected as a representative of the Eastern region and EGEA vice-chairman at the AC in Baarlo/Utrecht, I realised that the coming year would be full of interesting work and events. And it was indeed! First of all I would like to say briefly, what was done in our Eastern region during the year 2004-2005. Three entities became active this year – EGEA Bucharest and
EGEA Prague came back to EGEA network after many years, and a new entity EGEA Yerevan was established. According to the data on members registered on EGEA forum and from entity surveys that I got from contact persons there are currently about 300 egeans in our region and about 120 of them are active members. Besides AC 2004 I participated in two great regional congresses – ERC 2005 in High Tatras, which was organised by EGEA Bratislava with 53 participants, and NBRC 2005 in Ignalina. Egeans from the Eastern region were at all regional congresses as well as at the AlpsSeminar: members of EGEA Moscow visited all four regional congresses plus Alps-Seminar, EGEA Minsk and EGEA St. Petersburg – three regional congresses, EGEA Warszawa – two regional congresses, EGEA Krakow – one regional congress plus Alps-Seminar while other entities were represented at one regional congress. Nine exchanges were realised in our region: Kiev-Muenchen, KrakowBrussels, Krakow-Utrecht, MoscowMuenster, St. Petersburg- Marburg – first part, St. Petersburg-Mytilene, St. Petersburg-Trier, Warszawa-Bratislava, and Warszawa-Zagreb. EGEA Krakow realised Introduction weekend for Socrates-Erasmus students. EGEA Minsk organised project «We live in Belarus» in cooperation with another organisation, and this way of sponsoring could be very advantageous for other entities from our region too. Cooperation with other international organisations like Herodot is in general profitable for EGEA development. Speaking about myself, I took part in the congress of the European Regional Science Association (ERSA) in August 2005, where I made a scientific
presentation and could talk to some scholars about EGEA. They were really impressed by the coverage of our network, I must say, and to my mind, ERSA is a very good partner for EGEA as it helps young people with their scientific efforts. So, I am sure that in future the Eastern region and the whole EGEA could considerably diversify activities with the centralised financial support, which our BoE team – Vita, Lefteris, Andrea, Rok and me worked on this year, and with widening cooperation with other organisations. I am happy that EGEA Moscow, which I started from the beginning only last year, has been developing quickly and it was represented at all congresses held within EGEA, moreover, 7 Moscow Egeans took part in the NBRC 2005 as well as in the AC 2005! Now EGEA Moscow with the new board is organising the Eastern regional congress 2006. So, I would like to say many thanks to all Egeans for support and cooperation during this year. I hope to see you soon again - let’s begin with Moscow. ;) My best wishes and good luck for the new BoEs: Alois, Vojkan, Sandor, Anna, and Florian; Paula and Gert! And many greetings to everybody! Yours truly, Igor Pilipenko EGEA Moscow
Hello BoE 2005-2006!!
New Chairman Hi EGEAns all over Europe! My name is Alois Humer, better known as Lole. Since 2004 I am active in EGEA as contact person of the entity Vienna which
had to be re-established. Starting with the AC 2004 in Baarlo I participated in several other EGEA events (WRC 2005, GerWE 2005) and was also involved in the organization (AlpsSeminar 2005, AlumniWE 2005). From the first moment I was a fan of the idea of EGEA and wanted to contribute to the maintenance and development of this organization. Now I got this possibility during the AC 2005 in Pilion and I will now try together with Sandor to be a good contact for the Western region. As chairman of the new BoE my main goals are to continue the successful work of the old board, developing the structures and the setting of the EGEA foundation in a whole and in particular to aim for a more scientific level of EGEA activities. Hope to see you all during the EGEA year! Keep up the EGEA spirit! Yours, lole. EGEA Vienna New Vice-Chairman Hi EGEAns!!! My name is Vojkan Gajović a.k.a. Voja. I was born 25 years ago in Kraljevo, a town in Central Serbia. Since the year of 1999, I live in Beograd, where I study the Faculty of Geography, Department of spatial planning. I’m very close to graduate, and I plan to do it till next September. Most probably, I’ll continue my PhD studies at Vienna. Currently, I work in Institute of Architecture and Urban & Spatial Planning of Serbia, where I am involved in several projects. My interest are: wide perspective of planning, human geography, cartography, GIS, physical geography, speleology, mountaineering, alpinism, skiing, photography, music… And now about EGEA….How I got
involved into it? On the second year of my studies, I heard about Geographical Research Society which used to operate at our Faculty and that she is representative of European Geography Association for University of Beograd. That was back at 2001, in a time of organizing EuroMed Regional EGEA Congress. After several calms and revivals, at the end of 2003, some of us decided to organize EGEA Beograd entity as an independent organization which gathers students of Faculty of Geography. I am contact person of my entity from the year of 2004, and President of the same. I attended the Western Regional Congress in Dorweiler 2005 (organized by EGEA Trier) and Annual Congress 2005 at Pilio (organized by EGEA Mytilene). Also, I was congress coordinator and workshop leader of EuroMed Regional Congress in Kladovo 2005 (organized by EGEA Beograd and EGEA Novi Sad). What shall I plead for as member of BoE and vicechairman of EGEA? I’ll plead for: • EGEA to become more scientific (reviving Scientific Geographer, scientific committee…); • involving Alumni members in organization and development of EGEA and geography as science; • organizing new and reviving and strengthening old entities in EuroMediterranean region; • widening perspective of EGEA activities; • whatever EGEAns think that I should plead for. At the end, I must say that I am very grateful for electing me as regional representative, BoE member and vicechairmen of EGEA, and I am very pleased to be member of one great team that can and will do things.
Greetings from beautiful Serbia!!! Voja EGEA Beograd New Secretary I’d like to say many thanks to those who have elected me to be part of the Board of Executives. I’m studying on my fourth year of Geography and my second year of Economics, at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland. I’m specially interested in human geography. I’m delighted to have the privilege of representing the Eastern Region. I would like to cooperate with all of those who are interested in the development of our region and who would like to work on the multiplicity of activities in addition to the increasing number of entities. Within the BoE, I accept with very much passion and responsibility, the role of building the present and future of the organization for witch I feel such a deep sense of aspiration. In connection with my devotion to the organization, the role of Secretary is only natural for me, considering that I’m the only female in the group . I’m responsible for the Promotion Committee. My future agenda involves appointing a group of people to make presentation, witch can later be used for introduction of our association. I look forward to your continuing cooperation and support in this matter. I hope that all of you will not be disappointed with my performance and, furthermore, I wish all of you the best luck throughout the duration of this term. Sincerely, Anna Bieniasz, EGEA Krakow
New Treasurer Hello EGEAns! My name is Sandor Kreuze, and for this year I will be your Treasurer in the BoE as well as the representative of the Western Region for non-German speaking countries. I have been active in EGEA since 2003, when I participated for the first time in an exchange, the exchange between Warsaw and Utrecht. Why did I get active? Well, I live in one house with Wojtek, which says enough. Anyway, one year later I was involved in the organization of the Helsinki-Utrecht exchange; I attended the AC in Baarlo 2004; was secretary in the board of EGEA Utrecht in 2004-2005 (and was thus making the EGEA Newsletter during this time); attended the RC 2005 in Ignalina; co-organized the biking exchange with Muenster; went to the Herodot conference in Torun on behalf of EGEA (in a way) and recently attended the AC in Pilion. About my studies: I am 5th year human geography student, specializing in regional geography. I hope to finish my studies this year, but for now I am on Erasmus in Lodz till spring 2005, partly also to work on my final thesis. What are my goals for this year? First, I would like to develop the structure of EGEA: to ‘professionalize’ the organization. Second, I hope, with all my fellow BoE members, to improve the scientific level of the organization in general. Third, I hope this will lead to better possibilities to attract sponsors as well as EU funds and of course I will try to attract these sponsors. Fourth, as being representative, I would like to get more entities active in especially England, but also Belgium. And last, but not least, I would like to stay in close(r) contact with
the existing entities in my region and try to help them with anything possible. That was it. I hope to meet everyone somewhere in Europe in the next year (starting in Croatia☺) and promise you to give all I can to do my job as good as possible in the next year. Greetings, Sandor Kreuze EGEA Utrecht New Annual Congress 2006 Organiser Hello EGEAns all over Europe, My name is Flo from EGEA-Munich and I’m the new Annual Congress Organizer (A.C.O.) in the EGEA Board of Executives. I’m 27 years old and in the 5th year of my studies. My specialisation is GIS, transport planning and land management. I came to EGEA during my ERASMUS time in Utrecht and after coming back to Munich I planned to found an EGEA-Entity in Munich. Together with Petra and Thomas from Munich we managed it and made EGEA-Munich a strong Entity with almost 20 active members. This happened in April 2004. Since then EGEA-Munich had several exchanges and participated in many events. The climax of 2005 was the organisation of the EGEA Alps-Seminar together with EGEAVienna and EGEA-Bern. During the organisation of the AlpsSeminar a strong friendship grew between EGEA-Vienna and EGEA-Munich and we had the idea of organising the EGEA Annual Congress 2006. Therefore I’d prefer to call myself Annual Congress COORDINATOR as I’m not
doing this job alone. In fact we have a strong team in Munich and Vienna, motivated to make next year’s AC an event you will never forget! The Annual Congress 2006 will be located in Bad Aussee in the Salzkammergut, the Styrian region in the geographical heart of Austria. Bad Aussee is in the very centre of Austria, lying between the Dachstein Massif and the mighty range of the Dead Mountains. Mark the date for the AC06 Bad Aussee in your diary: It will be held from 10th – 15th of September 2006. So far we didn’t decide about a general topic but you can expect many workshops and lectures about the Alps and alpine regions and we will try to offer some new course-arrangements….stay tuned for it! Certainly you will not miss the parties and some cosy and traditional night events in an alpine atmosphere in our programme, as it is our promise to offer a balanced combination of scientific work and socialising events. EGEA Munich and EGEA Vienna heartily welcome you in Bad Aussee for the EGEA Annual Congress 2006! Go for it! Florian Fischer, A.C.O.
Regional Congresses
Eastern Regional Congress 2006 Dear EGEAns! We are glad and proud to invite you to attend the Eastern Regional Congress 2006 organized by EGEA-Moscow. The Congress will take place from the 26th of February till the 2nd of March in a hotel situated only 20 km to the north from Moscow in a picturesque village of Moscow region.
More than 60 participants will take part in 5 workshops: • Enigma of Russian soul • Climate.ru • Problems of megapoly life • EU and Russia: together or apart? • Aircraft-and-space Industry. Quest for survival and success. During the Congress we are going to investigate a range of geographical peculiarities of our country, to answer all your questions about Russia and to show you real Russian life and traditions. Everyone is warmly welcome to Russia! More information is coming soon at the ERC web-site... If you have any questions, please, do not hesitate to contact us: erc2006@mail.ru Elena Pavlutskaya Congress Coordinator On behalf of the ERC-2006 organising committee EGEA Moscow North & Baltic Regional Congress 2006 Dear Egeans, EGEA Helsinki warmly welcomes you all to the North & Baltic Regional Congress 2006! The congress will take place from 5th to 9th of March in Lammi, about 120 kilometres north from Helsinki. The main theme of the congress is ‘Baltic Sea’ and in five workshops we will discuss about trade in the past and in present times, tourism and image, urban areas and planning, environmental issues and transportation in the region. We can host around 60 persons. More details can be found in the forum. Webpage of the congress will also be opened soon and the registration will start in the beginning
of December. Welcome to explore winter in Finland! Western Congress 2006 "Interaction Between Human and Nature" 3.-7. April 2006 EGEA Bonn proudly presents the WRC 2006 in the beautiful Eifel region. The congress location is situated close to the lake Laacher See in Mending. The program will be diversified with several workshops, excursions and specialties from the Rhine region. Be prepared for the crazy carnival party with real carnival music and costume award. 80 Euro participation fee includes accommodation, food and program. The registration will start in the middle of December. EGEA Bonn is waiting for 80 EGEAns from the West and the Rest of Europe. Julia Eyring EGEA Bonn Euromed Regional Congress 2006 Dear Egeans, EGEA Ljubljana warmly invites everyone to Euromed Regional Congress 2006 held in eastern part of Slovenia in the region of Pohorje! We expect to host 52 Egeans. Congress fee is set to 65 Euro. The congress topic is “Challenging Europe – facing ideas, finding solutions. There will be 6 workshops from different branches of Geography led by the most experienced members: regional planning, minorities issues, tourism, natural hazards, rural areas and sustainable development. You’ll get familiar with the slogan: On the sunny side of the Alps. ☺ In case of April rain you’ll stay at cosy place with lots of
friends around you all the time! It will be unforgettable – believe us!!! More information soon available on the congress webpage, so just follow the “activities “ section on EGEA Forum. For any further information please contact us by official congress email: pohorje06@gmail.com Tajan Trobec EGEA Ljubljana P.S. Don’t worry, it’s cool!!!
Annual Congress 2005 Pelion, Greece Well, dear Egeans, I have the honor to write something about this years Annual Congress in Greece, which was my first AC. I did it like Paula in last years report – I looked for a single word to describe this week, and everybody who participated knows that there’s no better expression than: HALARA! Some may call the way of organization chaotic or not well planned in advance but in this week in Greece we all learned that this is the way of Greek living. We learned that not every single step has to be scheduled exactly because if you wait long enough there is a solution for everything. Now, that I’m talking of learning, I will tell you about some more things we learned. We know now, for example, that you don’t die if you only have cookies for lunch. If you are on excursion and there is no bus home to the hotel – don’t be afraid - you won’t have to sleep on a Greek park bench, because there are a lot of nice Greeks with nice big cars which have enough space to bring everybody home safely. We also learned that although the sea might seem quite near to you, probably you will have to walk
really really long until you finally reach it. But it’s worth it because our Fakistra beach was just indescribably beautiful. And I should also say something about the scientific part of the 17th Annual Congress. The title of the congress was “Building the Future: The influence of Geography on new planning policies”. There was a quite big gap between the quality of the different workshops and seminars. Some of the workshop leaders were really enthusiastic and did a lot of preparation work in advance and the result were interesting and intense discussions and new achieved knowledge. Unfortunately there were some participants who were a little bit disappointed about the scientific content of their workshops. Finally I want to say that it was a very special and unforgettable week. I met so many nice people and I really had a lot of fun (especially on my birthday – thanks again to everybody who made it such a special day!). The organizers were so nice and helpful and they did so much to make us feel good (and they succeeded). I think the best thing in organizing an event like this is that you grow together as a group. In this case it seemed to me that it was a great group and that there was this special feeling of unity. So I hope that our organizers had so much fun like we did have. Thank you, dear Greek friends! And thanks to all the participants who made this week so special. I’m really looking forward to the upcoming Regional Congresses and the other EGEA-events to meet all of you again. EGEA is a great invention! Kristina Kessler EGEA Vienna
EGEA Exchanges
Exchange Belgrade- Zagreb part II Belgrade visits Zagreb Crew from Belgrade arrived in Zagreb on the 27 th of October. Although four days is not enough to see the Zagreb, we saw a lot and also learn a lot off facts about Zagreb and Croatia in general. We had a very good guide there Miroslav (special thanks) and the rest of the team was really great ( Matej, Boris, Goran, Bosko, Hrvoje). We also had the chance to speak with one of the professors from the Department of Geography, to hear something about the Department itself. Big thanks to other EGEA Zagreb (Petra, Jasmina, Ana, Martina, Maja). Finally to conclude all this, we really had fabulous time in Zagreb and this is the beginning of a beautifull friendship. EGEA Bonn - EGEA Helsinki 2005 It was exiting to leave from chilly Helsinki with a bunch of people you hardly knew in last May. We had a mini van with discolights and ten persons inside of it with good music and word games. Two days in a row in a small mini van - what a good start for an exchange! We arrived in the Department of Geography in the middle of the night in Bonn. We had great welcoming party, but no longer than half an hour we noticed that someone’s has broke into our rental van. We lost "only" a couple of backpacks, radio and too many cd's of good music. Despite of this poor starting of our exchange we had amazing week. We had city tour looking different parts and buildings of the old beautiful Bonn. Before this week in Bonn i didn't know that Germans love barbequing that much! One day we hiked on the Drachenfels, the
seven hills of Giant and had unforgettable views to the Rhein. We also saw the old desolated village next to a huge coalmine in the middle of nowhere and the impressive cathedral of Cologne. The return visit of the Bonns took place in August. We also wanted to show our city to them with all the best parts of it, of course. For one day we took visitors to next city as well - to Tallin. During this week there were loads of picnics and bars, saunas and good food. Three days we spent in a summer cottage which was a paradise on the Earth. There we had, among all the other activity, a match of swamp soccer! The visitors had a change try to fish with net in the lake. The caught fish ended up on our dinner table on the last night. The exchange succeeded very well and we got everlasting friends. Communication keeps being busy via email, letters, sms' and phone calls. Some of us has bought flight tickets to meet the new friends in next spring again. Written by Tuija Suihkonen, EGEA Helsinki . North meets South, Exchange between EGEA Helsinki and EGEA Sevilla In may 2005 me and 9 other Finns arrived to Sevilla and met happy Spaniards and a Slovenian head-coordinator. A moment later we all arrived to our homes for the upcoming week, and was that a surprise! Having your own Andalusian mother cook for you is luxury. The exchange week was full of activities: We visited the hills, swam under a waterfall, walked around sandy dunes and had good time at the beach. In the evening at the beach everyone probably
had one drink too many of Finnish traditional drinks and the party was crazy. We even got to go on a university field trip with the Spanish students, but too bad at least my Spanish was too poor to understand anything. Besides the activities the experience I treasure the most was to really live like the Spanish and meet a lot of people that had nothing to do with the exchange. Too bad this fun only lasted for a week and we were off back to Helsinki. After the summer in September EGEA Sevilla then came to Helsinki, a much anticipated visit. Most of them hadn’t really been abroad before and the leap all the way to Finland must have been a big thing. We introduced our friends to the sauna, forests and summer cottage life. Again, the sauna was a big hit, even though at first it was doubted deadly. Not even the cold lake was too scary after a couple of cervezas. But actually the nearest we got to killing one of our guests was during ice skating, but luckily we got away with only one small brain concussion. Timo Hämäläinen EGEA Helsinki EGEA Brussel – EGEA Krakow It was supposed to be around 4 day trip. For us, brave representation of EGEA Krakow, it became one-week long expedition in the middle of the semester. It wasn’t such a big problem to arrange a week off at the Uni. Some classes we moved, some – we went to with another group, and some we simply skipped. European integration needs sacrifices… The assumption was to make it on a low budget. In Brussels we were supposed to
be hosted and supported by Belgians. The biggest problem was to get there. From the beginning we decided to get there by hitchhiking. We divided into pairs, checked the route, everything prepared – Monday/Tuesday will be leaving. Unexpectedly, Kamila called us with a good news – a group of people is going to Brussels and has exactly 11 free places in their bus – so as many as a Polish participants of the exchange. Couldn’t be better!! Thanks to them, we gained another extra day in Brussels. We used it differently – few of us went to lodge at Sang’s place, and further went to visit Brugge (and all of them were praising the place), while others were visiting Brussels at the same time, or went for a trip to Antwerp. To cut the long story short I will say only that all the groups came back full of impressions and stories about their adventures. The second part of the Brussels – Krakow exchange was initiated by huge dinner at Sang’s place, what was a good forecast for the rest of the trip. We divided into small groups and went to the houses of our hosts. The biggest – 6 persons group – was to go to Jullie and Tim’s place. The party was a must. On the first evening we were convinced once again that the music of The Beatles is eternal. But on the next day we began focusing on more scientific aspects of the exchange. The first day we’ve spent on the alternative city tour. We started at the European Parliament (I am not sure if anybody has figured out what was the debate about). After that we went to the city being guided by Steff from the Brussels University. He occurred to be a brilliant guide, showing us the city from the geographical point of view – location of the Palace, spatial distribution of the districts and the density of the dwellings
turned out to be very logic. We were also enriched by knowledge of Belgian games and physical activities. Just imagine a group of adult students singing “Schiper mach ik oberfahren, ja of nee?” in front of the European Parliament, or playing a bad sailor game? As I mentioned, getting to know the culture needs a multi-level approach. We implemented this rule in the evening by checking the products of the Belgian breweries. All in all, it was very good, except of the fact that the glass was only 0.3 l… On the second day already the signs of the lack of sleep become more and more visible. Belgians didn’t let us resting. For the breakfast every morning the same set – Cornflakes and milk (that’s how it goes here – only our boys were a bit disappointed). We took a train to get to so called “mountains” (the highest peak of the Ardennes was supposed to be between 600 and 700 m. – really impressive). Here we were also guided by an expert. Thanks to Jeremy we got to know the geological structures and karst forms of Ardennes combined with a nice walk in this interesting area. Coming back to Brussels didn’t mean the end of the day. The multicultural evening started with a dinner in a Greek restaurant, than moved to a party in “Celtic” club, to end up in an African pub with a great music and outstanding atmosphere. Day 3 – back to Brussels – but this time for visiting in an alternative way. Divided into three groups we were walking in the city trying to fulfil the task given to us from our Belgian hosts. The route was passing by the most interesting spots – churches, parks, monuments (including Mennekenpis – with a beer coming out from the fountain instead of the water). Our “City Rally” turned out to be a perfect way of getting to know the city –
especially that the every single participant was involved in searching the places and information’s required by our hosts. In the evening we ended up in a students’ house singing, dancing, talking – simply integrating with the rest of the people. On the 4th day we went to the North Sea. We have visited one of the few natural reserves located on the Belgian coast. This particular one was established to preserve the birds living in the area as well as to protect the unique landscape of the coastal zone (especially dunes formations). In the reserve we have been guided by two scientists working there as researchers. They showed us the examples of the human activity in recapturing the land from the sea, and also what would the coastline look like if there was no such an activity in this area. We were also lucky to see the tides – which is not possible on Baltic sea. In one hour the level of the sea has risen but 2 meters. Some of us couldn’t resist swimming in the North Sea, despite of the time of the year. Well, that’s how it goes with the Krakow’s geographers. The most unexpected thing – also for Belgians – was the weather. Sun and blue sky seems to be rather rare in their country. So we decided to take an advantage of it and start some useful activities like playing football or taking a nap on the beach. On the way back to Brussels, we dropped in Gent – small, but impressive town with a specific atmosphere joining students’ life with the spirit of the time. In is worthy noticing that the architecture of the town remained the same for at least 300 years. Unfortunately, Gent was the last stop in our trip to Belgium. Monday morning we ate Cornflakes for the last time, said good bye to our hosts and started heading towards home – this time as it was
planned – by hitchhiking. From now on we went separately – every group with a lots of adventures, but luckily everybody showed up in Krakow on the lecture Wednesday morning. Belgium turned out to be very surprising country. First of all, it not a “boring” country, as we could think in the beginning. We were astonished by a beautiful Belgian towns – extremely colourful and full of life. But also the nature was very interesting. The most enriching was the scientific aspect of our trip – meeting the scientists in the field yielded in improving our knowledge in many fields. That wouldn’t be possible without going there. That’s the sense of the students’ exchanges – mixing fun with a knowledge and letting us learn something new about the country. And all of it in 4 days... EGEA Münster visits EGEA Moscow In early August three Münsteranians named Desi, Bob and Basti (Hey that’s me) followed the invitation to explore the city of Moscow after some EGEAns from Russia came to visit Muenster in spring. As there are quite a few options to go there, we had to figure out which is the best. The idea of hitchhiking, respectively going overland in any other way failed because of the Belarussian visa policy, which makes a transit visa obligatory. This wasn’t the cheapest option, so we took our way through the air, Desi and Bob on a direct way from Cologne to MoscowVnukowo, and I decided to visit Riga, Latvia first and to take the bus, which took around 16 hours. Did you know, by the way, that it is possible to travel from Moscow to Edinburgh by bus. I wonder how long this takes…
Maybe I should include one small episode, which happened to occur back home in Germany. Let me tell you, if you visit Russia, try to avoid going to the embassy or the consulate on your own, better get your visa through any travel agency. I went from Muenster to Bonn twice and was very lucky not to go there a third time, cause I was the very last to be served. To all the dozens of people behind me, the clerk just said to return next day. When you take the opening times into account (9am-12pm), this is ridiculous. The next misunderstanding was, that we thought, we’ll get our visas for free, because we had invitations from the university. But obviously these invitations only served to get a visa at all, so we had to pay 60€ each. Shit happens! Ok, let me tell you friendlier topics. The stay in Moscow for instance. To my mind, it’s an amazing, magnificent city, still with an socialist atmosphere which is caused by the architecture. Idealised monuments like the university building on the one hand, buildings made with precast concrete slabs (does there exist a technical term for that??? ‘Plattenbau’ it is called in German) on the other hand. Actually, Moscow is a city of extremes. One will check out immediately when going through the streets full with BIG German and American cars and old Ladas, who’s drivers earn some additional pocket money by offering an informal cab service. I arrived a day earlier than the others, so I got a personal guided city tour by Olga and Katya, to get some first impressions. I stayed at Katya’s parents flat located directly in the centre at the bank of Moscow River. Desi and Bob who arrived next day stayed in one of the six(?) magnificent buildings from the era of Stalin. Does anybody know the translation
for ‘Zuckerbäckerstil’? You see, my architectural vocabulary isn’t the best. Our programme contained a riverboat tour finishing at the Kremlin, which is an extraordinary complex of buildings. We took a walk passing Moscow’s most wellknown sight, the St. Basil’s Cathedral with its magnificent towers in all colours and sizes. This cathedral borders the Red Square to it’s southern edge. The other neighbouring buildings comprise the Kremlin walls with the Lenin Mausoleum in front of them, the historical museum and the Gum, one of the finest and most expansive shopping malls of the world. Don’t expect to get a jeans there for under 200 Euro. Of course we went into the Kremlin as well, with hundreds and thousands of other tourists, who all wanted to see the Archangelski Cathedral, the museums of Moscow Kremlin, the world’s biggest bell and Uspenski Cathedral, the coronation place of the Russian tsars. Quite impressive… Another highlight of our trip was the visit of Lomonosov University. It has the best reputation of all Russian universities, people like Gorbatschow learned here for instance. Its main building dominates the skyline of Moscow, because it’s located on a hilly area at the eastern bank of Moscow River opposing the Olimpiskij Stadium. The department of geography with its geological museum attached is situated at a level, where you have an amazing view over the hole city. It would go beyond the scope of this article to mention all aspects of the week. To come to an end, I dare to say that it was an exciting, amusing but not at all relaxing trip. Thanks for that to our EGEA friends from Moscow! Basti Schlebusch EGEA Münster
EGEA Trier exchange with EGEA-St. Petersburg This year in April we were happy to welcome Alexandra, Valya, Lena, Larissa and Anton from St. Petersburg in Trier. We spent a great week together with many excursions and parties. City tours of Cologne, Bonn and Luxembourg were on our programme as well as a wine tasting in the old town of Cochem. In the evenings we introduced our guests to the nightlife of Trier and of course presented typical food and drinks at the German evening. In June we (Madeleine, Goran, Paul, Anna, Christopher, Katrin and I) went to visit St. Petersburg. We were lucky to be there at that time of the year because we were able to experience the famous white nights in which the sun never sets. During the week we saw the most important sights of the city and also some outer parts which tourists usually do not see. We were amazed by the wonderful palaces of Cathrine and Peter, walked through the never-ending rooms of the Hermitage and enjoyed a beer or two on the banks of the Newa. On the longest day of the year we stayed up all night to watch the bridges open at 2:00 a.m. and to dance and drink in a very special club. Another highlight was our trip to the Ladoga Lake at the end of our stay. We spent two days at the biggest lake of Europe which was truly impressive. The water was very cold but we went swimming anyway. After a long walk through the woods, accompanied by millions of mosquitoes, we had a traditional banja and a great party afterwards. It was a very interesting, funny and impressive week! Thanks again to our hosts!
Travelling in Albania Exchange EGEA Vilnius – to EGEA Tirana, first part. 2005 Nov. 4th-9th Girl, traveling alone in Albania for many people is unimaginable. But I did it! I entered this country from Greece, at a border point Kakavija. Was dark already and the bus didn’t go any further than the border of Greece. So I was crossing the border on foot. Dark, I am alone girl with a backpack, knowing just few Albanian words. Somewhere in between the Greece – Albanian border I was surrounded by helpful Albanian taxi drivers offering to get me to Tirana, since there were no busses so late. But the price was too big for me (50 Euros), so I decided to wait for the first morning bus (10Euro). I reached the Albanian border post, paid entrance fee (10 Euro). Officers were really surprised seeing me alone and tried to make my stay at the post as good as possible. We had a nice and funny English – Albanian chat, then later there came a lady, who was working in the customs and offered to come to her house. After some hesitation of mine I agreed – it was getting colder and I couldn’t resist sleeping in a warm bed. ☺ Went there with some fear but nothing bad happened! I had delicious dinner, comfy bed and morning drop up service to the bus stop. Perfect start! No one offending or trying to rob me – everyone was helpful and friendly. Then followed amazing week in Tirana and Shkodra (city in the north). Lorenc from Egea Tirana hosted me in his cosy home (I am still dreaming about his moms prepared delicious dinners). Everyday was full of action. Lorenc and other guys from Egea-Tirana showed me Albania in the best way. And I had no bad
experience since I always had one or two guarding angels at my side. So many things from the travel guides or gossips were not proven! First – roads in Albania are not so bad. The ones I was travelling on were with fresh new cover. Second – Tirana is not only rainbowcoloured houses! It has a lot of newly built office and residential housing. The progress in going on and at the time of my stay seemed that almost all Tirana is under-construction ☺: building new and widening old roads, changing of infrastructure and demolishing a lot of old and illegal housing. Quite a lot of streets are nice and clean already. Nightlife in Tirana is lively. Guys took me to so many restaurants and cafes during my stay that I lost the count of it! The best was live-music bar “Flayers” – I will never forget this atmosphere when all the people are singing and participating together with the band. Even I sang – there were so many English songs I knew. Unforgettable! Eri and Lorenc took me to Kruja as well – the old capital of Albania – sweet small town with remaining of the castle on the mountain and a few old cosy streets with a lot of interesting souvenirs there. The other day guys took me to Dajti – mountain next to Tirana. We were going up by newly built cable railway – that was a fantastic ride!!! And very good panoramic view of all Tirana. University campus seemed very big to me (comparing to Lithuanian one) and again – many cosy cafes there. To Shkodra I went just for a few days to see my friends (I met them in London). It is the city in the north with a beautiful fortress Rozafa aside. People there speak different Albanian dialect, I saw some women dressed in more traditional
clothing but the atmosphere is as friendly as in Tirana. Roads are worse, though. ☺ As I noticed – there is very good minibus taxi service between cities. (And for a little price). Most cars in Albania – Mercedes – only those are capable to stay unbroken in some potholed roads. Instead of turn signal and for every little reason drivers are using beeping – very loud in streets sometimes. Many young people are speaking good English. To my opinion Tirana is European city as the others – girls are walking alone in night-time, nobody is annoyed with their short skirts or short blouses, showing belly buttons. Many more things there are to see in Tirana and around – there was no time for all so I am determined to come back in few years and check out how Tirana has changed. There are a lot thing that has to be done, but it seems that Albania is trying hard to go forward. I am waiting for my next visit already! I would like to thank from all my heart to Lorenc, Eri, Dritan, Ervin, Orgest and the others, who made my stay so wonderful. Waiting for you in Vilnius! Egeans! Do not fear to visit Albania – to see the country in its reform period and maybe some time later is so interesting! Life is boiling there and to catch some moments in your photos are really worth it! Exchange Warsaw-Zagreb, Part two: Let’s ajmo!! After a week of Baltic adventures, team of Zagreb geographers made it’s way to Warsaw at rainy morning 5th of May! First thing we became aware of after coming down from the bus was a group of yelling people with Croatian T-shirts and big hats, jumping and running towards us! Yes, those were our Polish friends!!! Our hosts
had shown full understanding of our need for a shower, some food and BED, so we headed to their homes, and gathered again later in the afternoon, at Warsaw Faculty of geography and regional studies, in EGEA Warsaw room. There we had a chance to see Polish acting abilities and to listen to the legends about origin of Warsaw. Also, after successfully performing their hits ‘Maslina’ and ‘Linđo’ in all the Baltic capitals and some smaller towns, the Maslina – band (Dinko, Duda, Luka, Martina, Maja) performed for the first time in Poland! Later in the pub 2nd part of Warsaw – Zagreb exchange was officially opened! Let the games begin!! The next day we gathered again at the Faculty of geography were Archi gave us an interesting presentation about Poland. Later we saw the rest of University Campus. Especially interesting was University Library with a beautiful garden on the roof! In the afternoon, while walking along the Vistula river banks, we had opportunity to check those legends about Warsaw for ourselves... In the evening we went to a night club. Third day in Warsaw, beside seeing St. Alexander’s church, The Parliament… we had a tour through absolutely astonishing parks – Łazienkowski in the centre with the Palace on the water and Chopin’s monument; and Willanow, few kilometres from the centre, residence of the king Jan III Sobieski, defeated of the Turks! And of course, I mustn’t forget Warsaw’s best spaghetti at Lidka’s place! On Sunday was interesting to see Polish army marching in the remembrance to the World War II victory. When visiting the monument of Adam Mickiewicz, our hosts made a huge effort to solve the dilemma whether he had been a
Lithuanian or a Polish poet, by reciting his famous epic unanimously! We visited the Old town (with the beautiful Royal castle), which had been totally destroyed in the World War II, and so carefully rebuilt that it entered the UNESCO’s list of world heritage! In the afternoon we went to the famous and controversial Palace of culture and science, built by Russians after the war, with incredible view from the 30th floor!! Inside the Palace was an interesting exhibition about brain and it’s functioning, so we could try out different exhibits (still remember that massage chair…). In the evening we enjoyed a barbecue at Archi’s place and his father even performed some Polish national songs for us! Next day we had a trip to Kampinoski National park near Warsaw, where our guide Asia prepared different games for us. We were divided into groups and tried to experience the nature with our eyes covered, made friends with trees, made posters comparing Polish and Croatian national parks… Tuesday was our final day in Warsaw. We visited the Old Stadium with one of the biggest European flea markets around it, and Legia’s Stadium, where ’94 defeat in the Champions League from Hajduk Split is still fresh in the memories, so it’s better to be Dinamo Zagreb supporter there. We had even a chance to see the rooms inside, ordinarily only for the eyes of Legia players and direction!!! Kuba prepared another surprise for us – jumping from the bridge, with all the equipment. A lot of Croatians had shown their adventurous spirit here, but some of them (including me…) were watching everything from the safest place ground… On the next morning it was time to say goodbye to Warsaw, but also part of
the Poles staying in Warsaw. Luka had the most special farewell, getting a marriage proposal from a nice Polish girl! The exchange continued in Kraków, cultural centre that used to be the capital of Poland. Our guide was Iwona from EGEA Kraków, showing us the Old Town with Wawel Hill and beautiful churches. I will remember especially the huge Sigismund bell that rings only when events of big importance for country happen, and last time it rang when the Pope died… Those who maybe left Warsaw with some doubts about nationality of Adam Mickiewicz, our crazy Poles convinced for good, by asking people on the street to recite his epic, and EVERYBODY knew it!!! In the hostel we had a singing evening with Polish and Croatian songs, but performing also some English and Belarussian! The plan for the next day was completely unknown to us till the moment we saw Michael talking to the driver of the bus with a big sign ‘ZAKOPANE’! Yeah, we were going to the Tatra mountains!!! Soon after arrival in Zakopane, we went for a long climbing route, our first goal was mountain lake Morskie Oko. Those with better shoes and stronger will went to climb the upper lake also, what was much more difficult, especially parts almost vertical, where you had to move on all fours…But the feeling at the top was incredible!!! The DC was organised in the evening and 1st place medals went to Lidka, Luka, Michael and me! The next morning we had to hurry to Kraków again. Reading the road signs, our smart geographical brains realised that we were going first to Wadowice, birth place of the Pope, whose famous song we sang together in Polish and Croatian! But we had to hurry again and our next stop
was Auschwitz, a dreadful and shocking place where so many innocent people had been killed… In the evening we got back to Kraków. It was time to receive diplomas and thank to our great hosts! Plan for tomorrow was to visit the Jewish part of Kraków, but when checking our trains next morning, we realised we had to take an earlier one, so there was just enough time left to sing ‘Maslina’ and ‘Linđo’ together, and we had to say goodbye! Train headed towards Vienna, where we spent the night at Sudbahnhof, but at least took an evening walk in Vienna! And what to say in the end?? I hate goodbyes, so it's always better to say: see you somewhere, somehow!!! Petra Radeljak, EGEA Zagreb Helsinki Dear Egeans, I’m Paula Salmela, the representative of North & Baltic region in 2006. I’m 26 years old and this is my 6th year as a geography student in Helsinki University. I will try to finish my studies in one year but we’ll see. Anyway, you’ll all invited to the party when that day arrives! Next year I will do my best to recruit some new entities in our own region, as we are the tiniest one among the EGEA regions. Of course I will also help the new BoE as much as I can with their work. I just got to know EGEA one year and a half ago but I already had so many nice experiences and new friends during the exchanges and congresses that I’d like to introduce this wonderful world to all geography students up here! Hope to see you all somewhere in Europe!
Yours, Paula Salmela EGEA Helsinki
Alpsseminar
Diary of a Flachland-Tirolerin After a long, long year in the board of the student union in Utrecht 'two girls just wanted to have fun'. Drinking coffee (it was morning!) in the EGEA room showed a possibility for that: the Alps seminar in the Kleinwalsertal would be a great chance! After some troubles getting us both in, nothing could stop us anymore and we could look for a way to get to the south. Luckily we found some days before the seminar Mr. Nice Guy Dennis, who took us all the way to the Alps to deliver us in the front of the Heuberghaus. Not before we got a warm welcome by the German Zoll who had a lovely dog (although we didn't have drugs for him) and they showed us the beautiful surroundings of the highway for one hour! They removed the mats in our car (they were dirty anyway) and were really interested; Dennis talked to them for a long time, but I don't know about what. I didn't dare to say langsaaaamer, bitte... Anyway, we arrived at Heuberghaus safely and met lots of people and didn't know how to start to get to know them better. First we went to our room, were we met our Moldavian roommates. We were a bit scared talking English, but after telling the Zoll-story to those nice people, they only said: “Holland? Drugs?” so that made clear that at least some people spoke worse English then we did. Pff... Always the same prejudices about the Dutch...
That night we had a marvellous dinner and there was some beer. I can't remember when we had the Bavarian, Swiss and Austrian party because it all flows over into each other, but anyway. After a refreshing sleep we made a painting with Jonas and his Humanity Art project and got to know each other better. That afternoon we met our workshop leaders and mates. Stefan (the boss!) acturally told us about geomorphological mapping and actually gave us some beautiful illustrative material which we actually didn't use for the rest of the week. Actually, that was it; I subscribed for an excursion the next day to Gottesacker and decided to go to bed early. Unfortunately it was late already when I arrived in my room. After about three hours of sleep, it wasn't that easy to reach the cable car. Gasping for air, I was happy to get a seat in that thing. Although my fear of heights caused more gasping the next quarter. In a long queue of white, wrinkly people we walked upstairs, following a true mountain guide. He showed us around on that beautiful karst plateau so reaching the Heuberghaus after eleven hours of walking was a really satisfying experience. The daily marvellous diner and party and... Day three. Today the organisation gave us Thomas the workshop slave to drive us around. We visited some interesting spots (largest landslide of Europe, a gully that was formed in only one day and some chalk formations that were beautiful but on pics it's like a muddy shit, really a pity). Driving to the next spot (and of course: missing it) Thomas came with the idea to visit the Bodensee, a large former meltwater lake. From an interesting point of view (opposite nice U-shaped valleys) we inspected the water quality (accidentally Thomas was the only one
with a swimming clothes), although one Israeli guy was scared of the water temperature and waited on the beach, looking for the scarcely clothed women. The daily marvellous dinner and party and... Day Four. By cable car we went to the mountains opposite Heuberghaus. The second snowball fight (much more fair then on Gottesacker, women against men gives opportunities instead of Germen men against one Dutch girl...) was a success, reaching the summit even better. We went down to map some moraines, but then thunder started and some people really wanted to get down. We mapped enough already so that wasn't really a problem. We walked down, went to the village and visited an interesting museum (watched a nice 3D-movie of the Gottesacker) and smelled, touched and heard different senses guessing what it might be (sorry, I really like such childish things). Some people where picked by the bus, but the tough ones kept walking through the rain, but reached Heuberghaus also safely. Yes, Eli, we preferred to walk, it was a choice! The daily marvellous dinner and... The last morning. Really sad. Meeting people who like the same excursions, parties, beers was a great experience. Still time to re-chew some good remembrances. Telling ghost stories in the dark about old ladies in taxi's and bears and birds in Canada, confusement about who is Lole, Flo and Thomas (Oh, guys, you all look sooo similar!??), the entity night were we showed the specific Dutch way of life, cow milking while listening to Muuuuhh!, but also talking about the situation in Israel and seeing the theory about geomorphology in real life. During the workshop presentation we learned a song that shows exactly how I
felt about the seminar (I hope I recall it right): Kleinwalsertal experience can teach us many things, shows us how to live and what the mountain brings, this experience can teach us many things, Kleinwalsertal, that's wat we need! Janneke IJmker EGEA Utrecht Alps Seminar 17.6. – 22.6.2005 / Hirschegg (A) In general EGEA (European Geography Association) organises 5 official meetings in one year: 4 “Regional Congresses” and 1 “Annual Congress”. The idea to make a cooperation between three entities that belong to the same kind of region – not in a political but more geographical sense – was unique. EGEA Munich, Vienna and Bern took the response of organising a trilateral congress – the “Alps Seminar”. As usual for all official meetings of EGEA all entities from Europe were invited. The focus of the seminar-week was on local and regional aspects. The Alps are a perfect kind of “playground” for the most different branches of geography. Following the interdisciplinary character of modern geography physical, social and economical workshops and field trips were offered. As there were: - “Ecotourism and sustainable development” leaded by EGEA Wien - “Spatial development and traffic in the Alps” leaded by EGEA Wien - “Large scale protected areas” leaded by EGEA Bern - “Natural hazards” leaded by EGEA Bern - “Landscape development” leaded by EGEA Amsterdam
Pattern workshop “Experience Kleinwalsertal” leaded by EGEA-Munich with focus on renewable energy resources seasonal labour forces identity, democracy and minorities alpine agriculture The scientific level was very high as special field trips (“Natural hazards” and “Landscape development”) where integrated into the workshop program. Also experts from local authorities were involved. The “Experience Kleinwalsertal” workshop was invited to the planning department in the city hall of Hirschegg. But EGEA is not only giving the chance for a scientific exchange between students of all countries over Europe but also offering the possibility of a personal “getting-to-know” of students with different backgrounds from the most different societies. The Alps Seminar was a perfect combination of these two aspects of EGEA. Alp seminar Being a geographer I always feel something special about visiting new country. It’s always a vivid impression. Alps seminar was a completely new experience for me. I’ve never been to the Alps before and it was really impressive to see alpine landscapes for the first time, to feel the atmosphere of cosy Kasehauses and mountain villages. I was a novice in egea (almost nobody that I’ve ever met before) but after a few days in Heuberhaus I felt myself as if I knew all of the participants (and organizers) for a long-long time. So natural, friendly, nearly family was the atmosphere during the Seminar.
I got to know so many nice and interesting people all over the Europe. Hope we’ll see each other some day. As for workshops: I think all of them were not only informative and interesting but also gave very vivid notion of the Alps region. So everyone could understand the importance and actuality of the given items. They represented a variety of vital problems that are of current importance for almost every country. Some of them (ecological issues) are particularly vital to my homeland. And it was really interesting for me to learn more about the alpine ecosystem. Each workshop was peculiar and remarkable in it’s own way. The point is that after almost every excursion people from different workshops began to argue which one was the most exciting. But the main thing I should say that every moment in Heuberhaus it seemed that I was “in the only nice and cozy place in the world”, just like J.D.Salinger said. Sometimes when you have to study or to work hard when it’s winter (cold and windy) and you haven’t seen anything except streets covered with snow for so long it’s very important to know there is such a wonderful place – valleys, farmhouses and the Alps. Still missing Heuberhaus!
Special Thanks go out to Vojkan Gajovic, Kai Solinski, Kathrin Klei, Igor Pilipenko, Ana Popović, Roman, Sara van Broeckhout, Alois Humer, Anna Bienaisz, Florian Fischer, Sandor Kreuze, Elena Pavlutskaya, Tajan Trobec, Kristina Kessler, Tuija Suihkonen, Timo Hämäläinen, Janneke Ijmker, Basti Schlebusch, Petra Radeljak, Paula Salmela and others Colophon This Newsletter is published by EGEAUtrecht under auspices of EGEA-Europe. Visit the EGEA Europe website at: www.egea.tk Regional Headquarters 2005-2006 - Western Region Alois Humer (Chairman) EGEA Vienna e-mail: masterlole@gmx.at - Euromed Region Vojkan Gajovic (Vice-Chairman) EGEA Beograd e-mail: vojkang@gmail.com - Eastern Region Anna Bienaisz (Secretary) EGEA Krakow e-mail: anna1511b@yahoo.com - Western Region Sandor Kreuze (Treasurer) EGEA Utrecht e-mail: skreuze1982@hotmail.com - Annual Congress Organisor Florian Fischer (ACO) EGEA Munich e-mail: fischer.flo@gmx.de
Deadline next newsletter 1st of May 2006. Please sent your contributions to egea@geo.uu.nl or berriepronk@hotmail.com
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