We measure something so abstract as time in days, months and years as is easier for us to shape it. 2020 was no ordinary “year”, not in perception or in facts. So I was reflecting and looked back as the year started with work, events and small trips. Winter had lights and music in Berlin. After that, Spring was marked by uncertainty. Summer was sunnier …

Heading West today to Timișoara, the 3rd largest city of Romania. Still left to explore in this part of the country. Near the borders with Serbia and Hungary, Timisoara is beautiful and full of surprises. For generations, Romanians have lives here alongside Serbs, Germans, Croats or Hungarians. The city was chosen as the 2023 European Capital of culture and is truly a touristic destination.

Once upon a time, I acknowledged the beauty of the European continent. When in Estonia for a summer school, we took the ferry from Tallinn to Helsinki with “Viking line”, because is “only two hours away”. Yes! I learned a Finish untranslatable word – “sisu”, that might be the definition of happiness. And the Scandinavian habit “friluftsliv”, useful now, in pandemic times.

While sitting in the train from Berlin to Potsdam, I started writing about my last trip to Düsseldorf. Even though “dorf” means village in German, and the word is in the name, Düsseldorf is such an interesting dinamic city today. I visited it in summer and autumn. And two time in winter, for the Christmas market, as we have to admit the holidays are the …

In a rainy October weekend, I attended the Lithuanian Film festival in Berlin, while mixing it with memories from a trip in the heart of Vilnius years ago. I started thinking of special friendships and remembered the Constitution of the “Republic” of Užupis, that claims “everyone has the right to make mistakes”.

In Warsaw I traveled only for work many times. And the memories are a puzzle, while the seasons are changing. Summer after work on the main street Novi Świat or an autumn night, accidentally attending a Chopin piano concert in a bookstore. A winter morning, in a taxi seeing the city covered with snow or in spring at food market Hala Koszyki. Warszawa reminded me …

In an early Friday morning I am at the Brussels Midi train station, about to board the Eurostar and go to London for an extended weekend. My first time traveling with the Eurostar train. And I am looking around, listening to people speak French or English with a superb accent, thinking how lucky I am and how cool is Europe!