Warum Wahlen, wenn es auch einfacher geht? – Interview with a Slovak EU-Politician

Click here to read the English version

Von allen Menschen, mit denen ich in drei Wochen Slowakei sprach, geht ein Einziger eventuell wählen. „Wahlen? Was im Mai sind Wahlen? Nee. Das wüsste ich doch!“, war eine beliebte Reaktion, wenn ich nach den Europawahlen fragte. Sowie Katrien und Bea lehnte eigentlich niemand der EU komplett ab, die meisten fühlten sich unzureichend informiert und interessierten sich schlicht nicht für die Wahl.
Das deutschen Grundgesetz legt fest, dass es die Pflicht der Parteien ist an der politischen Willensbildung des Volkes mitzuwirken. In Deutschland könnte man also sagen, dass die Parteien einem so unmotivierten Wählervolk zumindest eine Teilschuld haben.
Wie ist das in der Slowakei? Beunruhigt es slowakische Politiker, dass ihr Volk so europawahlmüde ist? Was tun sie dagegen?

Die Zauberformel „In Kooperation mit dem deutschen Fernsehen (WDR)“ wirkte ungeahnte Wunder bei den Interviewanfragen an slowakische EU-Politikerinnen und Politiker. Statt ein oder zwei lustloser Antworten sagten alle Angefragten sofort zu und bat mir mehrere Interviewtermine an. Meine Wahl fiel auf Boris Zala. Der 60 jährige sitzt seit 2009 im Europaparlament und wird dort wohl auch noch ein paar weitere Jahre verbringen. Außerdem ist es noch Philosophieprofessor und hat einen eindrucksvollen Bart sowie eine nette Assistentin. Eine kurze Umfrage im besten Hostel Bratislavas (Achtung, Schleichwerbung für das Wild Elephants Hostel!) ergab, dass die anwesenden Slowaken den Namen schon mal gehört hatten. Nach kurzer Überlegung brachten sie ihn mit dem Kampf gegen die stalinistische Regierung in den 1990ern in Verbindung und konnten ihn den Sozialdemokraten zuordnen.

Dare: One night alone in the Slovakian Forest.

Despite all the traveling – I’m still a city girl, I’ve never spend even one night alone in the nature. I’ve done hundreds of kilometers of hitchhiking, but real hiking?

It’s something I wanted to do for a long time: going on a hike on my own. A challenge. Testing my physical limits and spending a night completely on my own in the forest.
Slovakia gives me the best oppertunity to do so. Wherever I go I’m surrounded by mountains. Some are still snow covered (a fact I should have thought about twice) but most are green with blossoming spring forest.
I got a tent and a map from my amazing hosts in Žilina and supplies for a few days in a supermarket. Off I was to the Mala Fatra Nature Park.

I started hiking in a little village. It was a cloudy day but no rain so far. The path led me steep uphill. The higher I got the less I could see. Soon after everything was covered by rather cold, wet fog.

^{No, that doesn’t look like a Grimm-Fairytale Forest. Nor like the Forbidden Forest in Hogwarts. I’m very sure no Dementors will appear behind the next tree.}

My plan was to follow a marked hiking-trail until a moutain top where I would find, so the map told me, a little hut. I planned to stay there for the first night and sleep in the tent for the second night.
After a while it became harder to follow the path since I couldn’t see enough to discover the marked trees. Everything was just grey.

^{Good luck finding a small yellow-white mark on a tree here}

Hitchhiking Level: Final Boss – A Photo Story

One of the things I love about travelling and hitchhiking especially is that I’m confronted with new challenges every day.  There isn’t a day where I can just stay in my comfort zone or not learn anything new. When I started travelling in January 2013 I would have never hitchhiked. I would have been embarrassed to ask for rides on a petrol station. I would have never hitchhikend alone.

None of the above is difficult for me nowadays but I did learn something new today: Hitchhiking with a camera team is a whole new challenge. First of all: We had to find a car where three people, the cameraman, the reporter in charge and me fit in. Second, the driver had to be okay with being filmed. And last but not least our driver was not allowed to drive too fast since the car from the German Public-TV didn’t do more than 120 km/h and had to film our drivers car from the outside sometimes.

But we managed the challenge. By speaking to people outside of a petrol station a little outside of Berlin I actually found a driver so fast that the cameraman didn’t even had it on tape. So we had to do the whole “Hey are you going direction Prague? Yes? Really, can you take me? Oh how cool. You know, there are two more people who would like to join. And a camera acutally.” thing again… But luckly Wieland, our driver,  was very friendly and the most patient person one could imagine. He was so perfect, had such a good story to tell, that I’m sure people will think the whole thing is scripted when they see it on TV. I promise you it’s not!

Anyways, a really good thing about having a camerateam with me is that I finally have some picture of myself hitchhiking…

^{Preparing a sign (since we had to shot this scene a few times this was probably the best sign I ever made)}

^{The cameraman really wanted to have the standing-on-the-road-with-a-sign-pictures before I started to talk to people directly. Of course nobody stoped. But I like the pictures anyways.}

^{Our perfect driver Wieland}

^{And finally: Prague!}

Frollein Europa Europawahl-Spezial

Whoa that’s all in German! Can I please read it in English?

 

Wer sich gestern Abend zufällig auf meinen Blog verirrt hat, wird die etwas unbeholfene Veränderung im Banner bemerkt haben, für Euch und alle anderen nun die offizielle Ankündigung des

Frollein Europa EU-Wahlspezial.

Aber so war das doch alles gar nicht geplant? Wolltest du nicht eigentlich ein Ende finden oder nach Norwegen fahren? Ganz genau. Und dann kam alles anders:

Während ich meine Zeit in Rom genoss, schob ich im Kopf Ideen hin und her. Was tun mit dem Frollein Europa Projekt? Wie könnte ich mein Material noch einmal sammeln und alles unveröffentlichte endlich nutzen? Vielleicht als kleines Ebook? Aber würde ich Zeit und Geld haben mich auf das Verfassen eines Ebooks zu konzentrieren? Zumindest während des ersten freien Tages in Rom dachte ich über all diese Dinge sehr ernsthaft nach. Dann verliebte ich mich Halsüberkopf in diese wunderschöne Stadt und ließ mich durch Straßen und über Plätze treiben. Als am dritten Tag dann auch noch die Sonne herauskam und ich einen Host hatte, bei dem ich hätte bleiben können, war es sehr verlockend den Flug zurück sausen zu lassen und irgendwann dann nach Berlin zurück zu trampen.

Die Reisemagie hatte mich wieder. Es ist so, sobald ich meinen Rucksack auf setze und aus der Haustür meines Berliner Zuhauses trete, im Nacken das Chaos der üblichen Abschiede und die Zuhause vergessenen Dinge, finde ich auf der Straße ein Stück von mir wieder. Es ist, als wäre ich nicht ein Ganzes, niemals ganz glücklich, wenn ich nicht unterwegs bin.

Und so zog mich wenig zurück nach Berlin und viel trieb mich dazu, einfach in Rom zu bleiben. Am letzten Tag in Rom dann, wenige Stunden bevor mein Flieger nach Berlin abheben würde, startete ich meinen Computer um anzukündigen, dass ich nicht nachhause kommen würde. Doch im Posteingang wartete eine Mail mit dem Betreff „DRINGEND!“ auf mich. Die Mail kam vom WDR. Sie würden aus meinem Frollein Europa Projekt anlässlich der EU-Wahl gerne eine Dokumentation machen. Ob ich denn Interesse hätte?

How I once became an involuntarily campain aide.

Or:

How I once met twenty amazing young Europeans.

As a child, have you ever been waiting for Christmas very much because you wanted a certain gift you wished for really badly? And than, when Christmas came you did not get what you wanted but something your parents considered more useful? And than again, have you ever grown to like the other present way more then whatever shiny thing you wanted to have?

Well, I was this child a few days ago in Rome.

When I won the EFS competition I was very excited about the chance to interview Mister Schulz. If at all, I wasted very little thoughts on the other participants of the event. When I thought about the interview before going to Rome I imagined it more or less to be like the interviews I had in Brussels a year ago. Just that this time I’d be more knowledgeable and it would be live in the internet and on TV, so no more vague politician-talk!
What an illusion…

Livestream zum Interview mit Martin Schulz

Ihr Lieben,

nur eine kurze Nachricht aus Rom: Wer möchte kann morgen um 17 Uhr das Interview mit Martin Schulz live verfolgen. Einfach nur einmal hier klicken und los gehts. Ich freu mich schon sehr!

You can follow the Interview with Martin Schulz tomorrow at 5 pm live. Just click here and enjoy the show 🙂

A vision for Europe?

Coming back from a year of traveling and sorting out all my thoughts was and is rather hard. How to put everything I have learned and seen in a few words? I have so many different texts and ideas but the difficulty is to bring them all together and make them readable.So, while I was still struggeling my dear aunt posted a competition on my facebook wall. A German foundation was asking for the youth’s vision of Europe in 2030. One should imagine to be the president of the European Commission in 2030 and give a new years speech to the people of Europe. The winner would get a trip to Rome and an interview with the president of the European Parliament Martin Schulz.

I realized that this could be the summary I was looking for. But the deadline was in just two days!! Finally, after quite a long time without too many words written, I had a challenge and I managed to hand in my speech just a few minutes before midnight at the closing date.

Surprisingly enough, I really won the competition! On February 27 I’ll go to Rome for a few days, enjoy the city and of course have an interview with Martin Schulz. I’m beyond happy about this oppertunity. More or less exactly one year ago I was in Brussels doing interviews with politicians. Now I can not just confront myself and a politician with my results but it also feels like an oppertunity to see how much I grew. I’m looking foreward to see if I feel different in the interview today than I felt one year ago.

But enough of this. Now I want to share my speech with you. I’m most happy about any comments, thoughts or critics on it. Also you are welcome to post any suggestions for questions to Martin Schulz.

Thank you for being with me all this time!

^{A picture I’ve been taking one year ago in Brussels}

Über Höhlenbier lesen und lettische Musik gewinnen / Win Latvian Folkmusic

Take me to the English version!

Daran, auch mal abends alleine im Restaurant zu sitzen, habe ich mich gewöhnt. Es kommt selten genug vor, dass ich das Geld habe essen zu gehen, wenn ich unterwegs bin, und wenn ich mir das dann gönne, genieße ich es. Egal ob ich alleine an einem Tisch sitze oder nicht.
Etwas anderes ist es aber immer noch alleine in einer Bar zu sein.

„Ala“ heißt „Höhle“ auf Lettisch. Ein passender Name für die Bar in den Gewölben unter Rigas Altstadt. Ein kleiner, unscheinbarer Eingang und dahinter dann ein überraschend großes Kellersystem, ein Raum nach dem anderen, es sind nicht alle genutzt und schließlich im letzten dann eine Kneipe, die so urig wirkt als würde man einen Hobbitfilm hier drehen.

The Grandma Choir

A 80 years old Latvian woman might have never moved in her entire life but lived in six different countries.

Let’s say she was born on the 23th June 1933 in Riga. And like most of the girls born at the saint’s day of Līga, her parents called her Līga, too. Līga took her first breaths in a independent Latvia with a parliamentary democracy and modern rules of minority protection.
Following a European trend, the Latvian democracy changed into a nationalistic dictatorship after a coup of the prime minister Karlis Ulmanis in 1934. While Līga didn’t notice the first change for sure, she might have heard her parents talking about the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact by the age of six.
The pact split Europe between the Soviets and the Nazis. Latvia fell to the Soviets. Due to the pact the Soviet army invaded Latvia in 1940. From now on Līga didn’t live in Latvia anymore but in the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic.

Pictures can be found in which Latvian women throw flowers at the Nazis when they, despite the nonaggression pact, invaded Riga in 1941. The Latvians suffered a lot under the Soviet Regime and hoped the Germans might treat them better. Maybe Līga and mother joined the other women on the streets waving at the Germans.

Anyhow, from 1941 her hometown Riga was known as the capital of the Reichskommisariat Ostland. A from Nazis occupied and administered federation of the Baltic states, parts of Poland, and Belarus. This, however, didn’t last long either. If Līga wasn’t lucky enough the escape Riga, she might have witnessed heavy fighting between the Soviets and the Nazis in her hometown by the age of 11. A little later the heavily destroyed Riga was handed over to the winning Soviet troops. From this moment on the girl lived again in the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic. In this state she grew up. Maybe she worked in one of the Soviet factories around Riga or in the port. Maybe she raised children, too. However, by the age of 56 she witnessed how the Soviet Empire begun to to fall apart. Perhaps she has been one of the thousands of people who formed a human chain through the Baltic countries to protest for their independence.

^{Raw footage of the Baltic humanchain. Best to be started at 2:50}

After the peaceful revolution she lived in the sixth, and probably last, country of her live: the independent Republic of Latvia.

Little House On The Prairie

As the ferry docked at the port of Piraeus, I awoke from a short night of sleep on the carpeted floor of the ferry and looked around; the days had merged. Had it been dark between departure and arrival at all? I shouldered my backpack, rubbed the sleep from my eyes and tried to get my bearings. Two phone numbers and “Korinthos”, the name of a railway station, were written on the little piece of paper that I held in my hand. After almost eight month of traveling, I’m an expert in asking for directions and finding trains. Even through the blistering midday heat, I succeeded in transferring to another train in an abandoned station. I arrived in Korinthos a little early and I found myself alone on the platform. A man appeared and asked me if I needed help. I declined and tried to explain him that I would be picked up immediately. He didn’t leave my side until I told him that it was my boyfriend who was on his way to pick me up. He disappeared from my view and I thought to myself that if he was still in the station, he must have been terribly confused when my ride became visible moments later. The man who emerged from a battered blue compact car and greeted me was about fifty years old. The hand he extended out to me as a welcome was cracked and dusty and he was wearing a baggy shirt with some holes in it and his pants were caked with earth. The man smiled warmly and introduced himself as Konstantin.

^{The Korinthos canal, just a few minutes driving by bike from the farm}