More than two thousand young people applied, but just eight lucky chosen ones –aged between 18 and 30– had the opportunity of being part of the new Road Trip Project.
They traveled through four different routes: Danube, Baltic, Atlantic, and Mediterranean, discovering cultures, telling stories and meeting with people... Another way to get to know the continent through this new initiative of the European Commission.
Louis, who did the Mediterranean route, is grateful that he had a chance of having that experience.
"The main thing about this project is learning about different religions, cultures, and people. In this continent, we all have way more similarities than differences, and we are trying to achieve just one thing: happiness," he said.
But even though they met a lot of great people, there are so many things in different regions and cities that should be improved.
"We visited several Balkan countries with abandoned cities and villages, young people that don't have anything to do...," said Susann, from Estonia. "Those kids are abandoned, but they are full of will and they have big dreams. We should help them because they don't have anything," she added.
Her road trip partner, Kenneth, definitely agrees with her: "A big problem is the economic differences in the population. Young people need education and opportunities to know and do things," he claimed.
The project also had an impact on social media. During their trip, these eight guys and girls produced more than 60 video stories, which generated around 30 million video views. It is essentially a platform by and for young enthusiasts which greatest fortune was the opportunity of meeting people all around Europe and listen to their stories.
"For me, Europe is like a dream, it was amazing to meet the locals and everything was memorable. We were sharing everything among us. Locals always wanted to tell us what they wanted and their problems," Fabian said. "We were all in tears when we met a WW soldier and heard his story," he remembered.
Susann also got impacted by the kindness of the people: "We were in Slovakia in a village, and we met some old women. They were just hugging us and kissing us. They were talking their language, we were talking our language, but we became best friends."
This was the first edition of the Road Trip, but definitely, there will be more stories coming from this pilot project funded by EC. At this moment, the organizers are working on some adjustments, but in 2019 there will be other eight young people experiencing and getting to know Europe.
By Lucija Tošić (Croatia)
[bean:16:view-mode:default]{The Road Trip Project: Felice Florio interviews Luisa and Louis as Default}
