EUinMyRegion Train Trip - People. Projects. Places

If starting a journey can be stressful or even a little frightening, the decisive first steps can only be reassuring when they are taken together.

“Adventure awaits”. These two words have been covering my passports for a few years now. Five years even, since my friends have gifted me this case. At the time, I did not know anything about the experiences that were awaiting me. Of course, my passport took me on a few adventurous trips, but on the 2nd of June, as I arrived in Krakow for the start of the EUinMyRegion Train Trip, I definitely felt like the smell of adventure was all over the place. Maybe it is the fact that I step into a country I knew barely anything about, maybe it is the century old buildings, I do not know. But that feeling of new experiences was above all.

The first thing I got to experience was Polish food. And what an experience! Pierogies, zurek, kiełbasa, you name it, I needed to try it all. Or most of the food you can devour in two days of time. If the open market located behind the St. Mary's Basilica offers a large selection of national food, the best way to experience Polish culture would be to step into a restaurant filled with local food and local people. This is a thing anyone can do at Pod Wawelem, for example, a place located near the Wawel castle that serves tasty food in a Polish ambiance that we particularly appreciated.

You cannot really say you know a country unless you know more about its people. Heading to the Kosciusko Museum, which was co-funded by the EU, is a second step to give some depth to one’s journey. Tadeusz Kościuszko is one of Poland’s national heroes and seems to have only few talents that escaped his hands. An interactive exposition depicts the life of this engineer that was also an architect that was also a military officer. The visit then ends on a very high note: after climbing up Kosciusko Mound, a panoramic view of Krakow offers itself to you.

We were also lucky to visit the city through a local guide. If Krakow is an unknown place for you, plenty of guided tours can be a good place to start or continue your journey. Ours was a little special. We got the chance to explore the town with a Krakowian, Agnieszka Wozniak, a fellow Youth4Regions alumna like us, who met us near St. Mary’s Basilica in the Main Square to lead us all the way to Kazimierz, the Jewish quarter of the town.

One last thing can make your adventure truly wholesome: amazing travel buddies. Then you’re good to go! At least, we’re good to go. We made the most of our time in Krakow by eating, visiting and wandering around. Unlike our luggage, our minds were a little lighter when we hopped on our first train to Katowice, knowing that the future steps of our train journey could only be as good as the company we are for each other.

Our second stop in Poland was Katowice. The city, which has lived by the rhythm of its coal mines for decades, is inventing a greener future for itself.

In the heart of Poland, we discovered the city of Katowice. Naming this town a hub of culture and a city of transformation would not be an exaggeration. With a rich history and a vision for the future, Katowice has experienced a remarkable revitalization, thanks in part to the generous support of European Union funds.

Katowice is often referred to as the capital of Upper Silesia. For centuries, the coal mines of the city were its lifeblood. Known as the "City of Miners”, Katowice proudly carries the heritage of the coal mining industry, an integral part of its past and present. This is why you can find a lot of related museums and cultural hubs within the town, where you can see all kinds of exhibitions, and discover even more about the city and its people.

Of course, as Katowice is known for its mines, it is enormously interesting to hear the stories of miners, what was their past and what will be their future. The Silesian Museum is the perfect place to find an answer to all these interrogations. Located on a former coal-mining site, this cultural centre displays a large collection of paintings, sculpture and video pieces of all genres. The deepest underground gallery of this EU-funded building is dedicated to the coal-mining industry’s history.

Talking about the future, EU fundings became a catalyst for change in the city. Funds have supported major infrastructural projects, such as the modernization of transportation systems, the creation of green spaces and the renovation of historic landmarks. EU fundings have also enabled the implementation of energy-efficient initiatives, renewable energy projects, and the development of eco-friendly infrastructure. In a sense, the city has become a role model for other urban centres, demonstrating that economic prosperity and environmental consciousness can go hand in hand.

If you decide to travel in Katowice, prepare yourself to meet the modernized city with a huge history. For us this city is somehow nostalgic and new at the same time – I do not know how these two words work together, but when you will live through your visit there, you will probably understand what we mean.

The city can be quite an interesting place for filmmakers and writers, with all its history and present. How the city of miners is transforming to a green energy city is indeed quite an interesting story to tell our children in the future. Overall, for us the City of Miners serves as an inspiration, reminding us that from the depths of the earth, greatness can emerge, and a legacy can endure.

Katowice’s train station has the smell of departures, probably like all stations in the world. It is noisy, people are rushing, waving, and hugging each other. If you do not participate in the goodbyes and just observe, the atmosphere is beautiful.

But we had to wave to Poland, barely lifted our heavy suitcases, and sat down in our compartment. A young couple was sitting there and anxiously looked at the suitcases that we tried to shove next to their feet. There was no room for our excessive luggage, so the guy from the compartment offered to lift the suitcases onto the shelf above the seat. We immediately concluded that he is kind and in the next 5 minutes, the conversation has already flowed as if we had been traveling for hours. Which was great because the journey from Katowice to Olomouc takes about 3 hours, just enough time to make new friends. We soon learn that Olomouc is the hometown of Barbora, and the kind guy, Mawni, is an American. A multicultural discussion begins, do Americans or Europeans live better?

Barbora is a twenty-year-old girl who has been living in America for the last 3 years. She concluded that people there are more friendly than in the Czech Republic, they are more cheerful and talkative. Mawni agreed, he added that Americans are enthusiastic and smile more.

We were interested to learn more about our destination - Olomouc. We have two days to explore it and gain our own experience, but any recommendation is welcome. Barbora directed us to a restaurant with traditional food and, of course, recommended the best beer in the world - Czech beer. Just like Prague, Olomouc also has an astronomical clock. It is a family city and the locals are not too used to tourists, but there are excellent nightclubs for young people. The city is often compared to Prague. The similarities are obvious. Apart from the central square clock, there are similar Gothic churches, Baroque palaces, and cozy pubs. Dozens of city fountains are unavoidable, and most of them represent mythological creatures who, according to legend, founded the city. The Gothic St. Wenceslas Cathedral on the central square is a wonderful sight, adds Barbora, and is a great set-up for taking photos. The column of St. The Trinity is one of the symbols of Olomouc and we will see it on the main square as well. It is not only a beautiful sculpture but also a religious monument, and tourists who visit the town mostly stop at this attraction. Finally, she directs us to the Zoo and notes that we have to taste the Czech delicacy - Svičkova.

Grateful for the advice, we ordered a Czech beer on the train. Yes, the train has a minibar. Mawni especially liked that, as the few trains that are running in America do not offer that kind of service, and we appreciated it too. The conductor came to our compartment and offered us more beer. We are not Czechs - one beer was enough. We conclude that the conductor loves his job. He showed us a train tattoo on his arm and a shirt full of train badges. We also liked this way of traveling, and we found out that the easiest way to get from Poland to the Czech Republic is by train. This is our first time on that rail, but we hope it will not be the last. All that remains is for us to find out what the Czechs are really like, and that will be discovered in a few minutes when we arrive at the Olomouc station.

Despite being way less known than Prague, Olomouc is not lacking colours. Colours were indeed the first thing we saw when we stepped in the city centre of this Czech town. From the yellow to the blue and the pink, every baroque building is participating in a rainbow. And the best way to admire the result of this landscape is to take a step up. Or 200 steps up. You will have to climb the few flights of stairs located within the south tower of Saint-Maurice's Church if you want to take a look at the main square from above. If your breath was not taken away on your way up, the view will for sure do just that. On a more serious note, this panoramic view of Olomouc was made accessible thanks to EU funds that helped build the staircase in a way that was respectful to the original architecture of the building.

As mentioned, this tower is part of a church that also deserves to be on your to-do list when visiting Olomouc. Originally built in 1413, Saint-Maurice's Church was rebuilt twice following devastating fires. A true masterpiece is kept within the building: the organ. The 8,000 pipes instrument alone took a quarter of the European funds allowed to the restoration of the church. If that sure sounds like a lot, standing in front of the organ and hearing its sounds immediately answers to the “why”.

After such a workout, everyone does deserve a treat. Our church guide advised us to give a try to the Moravská restaurace, a traditional Czech restaurant. We specifically loved the Olomouc’s schnitzel. If you are visiting the city for more than one day, we can also recommend you to try Hanácká hospoda, a restaurant located near the city’s main square that also serves traditional food.

As Barbora, a traveller that we met on our way to Olomouc, advised us, we then went to check the astronomical clock and the Holy Trinity Column. These buildings made us understand why Olomouc is so often compared to Prague. Our walk ended in the Park Petra Bezruče where we came face to face with an EU-funded bridge, a good reminder that EU is everywhere, even when we are not specifically looking for it.

As the majestic city centre of Vienna offered itself to us, we pursued our train trip, eager to discover the third country of our journey.

We had just put our suitcases down in Vienna when we met Iker. Originally from Spain, Iker fell in love with Vienna - and so did we - during his Erasmus exchange within the city. While he unveiled the details about his life story, he poured us some wine. After obtaining a PhD in chemistry, Iker decided to walk down the path of his passion: wine. From a scientific degree to a sommelier graduation there are only a few steps, and Iker took them.

From the way we were supposed to look at the colour of our wine to the manner we had to pay attention to the different notes and aroma contained in every sip, Iker taught us everything there is to know about wine tasting. And just like that, our palates travelled around Austria, as our wine specialist chose for us an exclusive selection of Austrian wines.

After discovering the country sip by sip, we uncovered its capital city step by step. And there are a lot of steps to take in Vienna! Once one puts a foot in Stephansplatz, Vienna’s central place, the majestic centre seems to spread out in every direction for kilometres, as a traditional Austrian orchestra is throwing some notes throughout the air. Instead of following a specific itinerary, we just randomly picked one of the streets to follow our adventure.

Our wandering took us from Stephansplatz to the Wiener Staatsoper, Vienna’s gigantic Opera. After looking at it closely, we took a step up to admire the building from the Albertina Museum, one of the busiest photoshoot places in the city. Once the pics were taken, we really appreciated a walk around the Burggarten, one of the few central parks in Austria’s capital city.

If central Vienna is blessed with many pedestrian zones, this is not the case of all the districts of the city. Pushing our discovery a bit more west, we walked through the 15th district. Despite being the home to 70,000 inhabitants, Rudolfsheim-Fünfhaus only offers one car-free quarter: Water World . Sprinkled with many fountains, which make this area particularly enjoyable during the summer, the redesign of this zone was achieved in 2017 thanks to EU funds.

Taking one of Vienna’s many tramways, we ended our spontaneous tour in the Belvedere quarter. The two baroque castles composing the Belvedere managed to capsize our hearts. Enjoying our last steps around the city as we savoured our last sips of wine with Iker, we concluded that Vienna was definitely our favourite city so far.

In Austria, we had the chance to discover a second city: Graz. The streets of its old town and the Schlossberg castle overlooking the city made us fall in love with the country.

It did not take long for us to start loving Graz. First it was the train ride that led us to discover the city and that had already stolen a part of our hearts. From Vienna to Graz, the Austrian mountains flashed before our eyes. Slowed down on his way up, the train allowed us to stay mesmerized by the landscape a little bit longer.

When our train stopped, reality struck us. If you arrive in Graz by train, it might not be love at first sight. Located a few kilometres away from the old town, the train station is far from being an outlook of the centre. In any case, love is then only a tram ride away. While the architecture of the main square's buildings reminded us of Vienna, the colours of the houses took our minds back to Olomouc.

But Graz is unlike our previous stops, even if it offers some similarities. As we had a blast discovering Olomouc from above, we chose to reiterate the experience in Graz. As our legs still had a vivid memory of the climbing of the Church of Saint-Maurice's tower, this time we decided to take the elevator all the way up to the Uhrtur. We were blessed by a beautiful panorama of the city surrounded by mountains. If you continue your way up, the Schlossberg castle should be your next stop. While offering other wonderful views on Graz, the Schlossberg hill is also the home of Graz's Spring Festival, making the concerts taking place in this location unique.

As there are many ways able to take you up, you will also have plenty of options to go down. If the elevator or the stairs are a safe bet, you can also try the road -more simple- or the slide -more fun- to return to Graz's old streets. All that exercise might have starved you. If that is the case, neither the prices nor the concept of Indie Burger will disappoint you. Who doesn't like to eat an affordable and tasty burger while a DJ is playing some incredible music in the background?

Speaking of DJ, we were lucky enough to meet a professional DJ in Graz. Sountec, who is a self-taught man, taught us the basics of DJing. We tried our best to not be distracted by all the buttons that were screaming to be pressed and successfully matched the beats of two different songs.

Back to Graz's main square. Or one of the main square's many shops. You will not be able to miss it: Martin Auer's bakery is one of the largest stores located on the place. The story of this chain of 42 bakeries across Austria started in Graz. Formerly located within the city centre, the headquarters of the company have moved a bit afar from the city to be able to increase and facilitate the production. Co-funded by the EU, Martin Auer's Atelier looks like the perfect place to start or end your day with a cup of coffee and a delicious patisserie, surrounded by an incredible building.

After tasting excellent Austrian bread, we headed to Slovenia with full stomachs.

We arrived in the second largest Slovenian city, Maribor. The town lies on the banks of the Drava River, at the point where the Pohorje mountain massif, the Dravsko polje, Kozjak mountain, and Slovene Hills meet. Mateja already felt like she was at home, because in addition to the Slovenian language, Croatian is also often heard on the streets, and almost every cafe plays Croatian music. For Ani and Laura, this city was however a completely new experience.

In Maribor, we were delighted by the old part of town and its narrow streets that lead to spacious squares. The centre offers a handful of cafes and restaurants where anyone can taste the best from the entire region, so we wandered into the Baščaršija restaurant and tasted the best sarma. Ani and Laura were delighted, while Mateja felt like her mother's kitchen.

Slovenia is called the green heart of Europe, so you will find a green heart stamped on the walls of buildings at every step in Maribor. In addition to the beautiful green nature, there is also a green way of life. In this city, the Slovenian Post uses a unique electric car to deliver packages. With the help of EU funds, this delivery vehicle is being recharged by a contactless charging solution.

From Maribor we a fast electric train to Ljubljana, a fairy tale city. In addition to Krakow's dragon, there is another dragon accompanying our trip. This one sits on the famous Ljubljana Bridge, but this time it is Ljubljana's patron saint, and a green one, just like the city it lives in. In 2016, Slovenia’s capital city won the European Green Capital Award. Clean air, greenery, and a high ecological standard contribute to this green atmosphere. The city centre is closed to traffic, which is why there are electric vehicles, named Cavaliers (Kavaliri), that will take you around the centre for free. 

For us, there was cavalier Dino Šubašić, a journalist and fellow Youth4Regions alumnus like us, who took us around the city. We walked through Tromostovje, a set of three bridges over the Ljubljanica River, where we came across a kayak competition on the river and cheered for the competitors. Our time in the capital overlapped with the June in Ljubljana Festival, so we had the opportunity to enjoy a wonderful performance by top dancers on Congress Square.

We spent the next morning discovering RTV Slovenska Television’s studios, in the company of the journalist Mojca Mavec. She showed us the studio where the morning program takes place and told us interesting stories about her career.

While heading to our next train, we stopped by one last point of interest - Ključavničarska Street, which you will easily spot by the symbol of the key. This is a street where you can walk around sculptures of human heads. They were created by the Slovenian artist Jakov Brdar, inspired by the words of the poet Rainer M. Rilke. 700 different faces will greet you in this street: angry, happy, surprised, scared, and some will simply stick out their tongues and mock you.

Thanks to Dino, we also learned that once upon a time, James Joyce found himself at the Ljubljana railway station.  He missed the train for Trieste and spent one night in Ljubljana, an event for which a monument was built at the station. Unlike James Joyce, we will not get a monument. We are not late for our train. Our next stop is Nova Gorica.

The two last trains that took us from Ljubljana to Nova Gorica had a unique bittersweet taste. Bitter for being the last, while the view was the sweetest.

The green hearts on the streets of Maribor were justified. The Slovenian landscapes that we had the opportunity to see through the large windows of the train that lead us to Nova Gorica left us speechless. Forests, mountains, lakes and so much greenery that we could not stop watching. The green colour is relaxing, as is the beautiful nature. If Slovenian trains are comfortable enough to relax and fall asleep, the views kept us awake.

Arriving in the Slovenian town of Nova Gorica, we noticed that our accommodation was on the other side of the border, in Italy. As we got off the train at the Slovenian train station, it was raining, but in a romantic way. While Ani enjoyed the rain, Laura and Mateja tried to find transportation to the hotel to avoid getting too wet. A bus appeared to be waiting for us a few steps away from the train station, we crossed the unnoticeable border, and just like that we were already in Italy. From the Slovenian Zdravo to the Italian Ciao in just in two seconds. Two different cultures, two languages, and two small towns combined into one. Wonderful!

The next day we went back to the mysterious border and learned about its rich history. The square that was once divided in half by a very material border, a fence, represents today the reunification of the two sister cities, but still bears two names. Italians today call the square by its old name - "Piazza Transalpina", while Slovenians gave it a new name - "Square of United Europe".

After World War II, the area around Gorizia was indeed divided between Italy and Yugoslavia (today's Republic of Slovenia), whereby the old town remained in Italy, and the new town, Nova Gorica, developed itself on the other side of the border. We learned about the history of these two cities in the museum located at the railway station. We witnessed a true harmony of two cultures. Two cities have merged to become one but have kept their specificities. There is no better example of this than the EU-funded project we visited in Gorizia/Nova Gorica – the Italy-Slovenia cycle path, a road for biking and a bridge connecting Italy and Slovenia. We spent the last morning of our trip biking through two states, for a distance of 14 km on our very cool EU-funded electric bikes. There was no room for tiredness, only enjoyment of the beautiful vineyards, forests, and landscapes we passed through. The bridge was a special experience, as we discovered and stood stunt by the blue-green Soča River that flows under it. We were enchanted by the sights and the pleasant company of the EGTC GO team who allowed us to live this experience.

Our EUinMyRegion Train Trip ended on the Soča River, which once separated the West and the East. There was no better place where to finish this special trip than in a city that was once divided and now stands beautiful and borderless. In the past two weeks we had discovered the EU’s people, projects and places. We had fun and we forged everlasting friendships. But above all that we discovered the real Europe and what the EU stands for.