Since January some travellers from Holland have been looking around in Europe. At least, in fourteen countries of the European Union. After this summer, there will be new travellers visiting their co-Europeans, reporting about all the similarities and differences there are all across the EU. Every month, the travellers visit two or three countries in a row.

I, Marianne, want to say a big thanks to all those heartwarming people that hosted Joeri, Godelief, Katy, Joost and myself, or showed us around in their towns. They were not only a big source of information about almost anything (ranging from 'initiatives' to 'death' and 'studentlife' to 'traditionalities'), but they were also brave and openminded enough to let some Duchies in to their lives, sometimes after just one e-mail or some small-talk on the street. Here, I can only list all of our hosts, but of course we met many more interesting and friendly people!

In Luxemburg Joost, Joeri and Godelief stayed at Yves' place – they just met Yves the day before. The next day they visited Esther and Jerome, who treated their guests very well with a lot of good food! In Leuven, Belgium they were lucky to find the local studenthousing: in five minutes they got a key for a studentroom (a 'kot'), just like that. In Brussels, after being on Radio Brussels asking for a place to stay, they were welcomed by Sabine and Peter and later also by Lotte, Eva and Nelles.

In Slovenia Joeri, Godelief and Marianne were lucky in the park of Ljubljana, where young people were reciting poems from all around the world. One hour later, Eliz (from Brazil) and Bostian offered us to stay in their home near Maribor, and student Ursa gave us the keys of her appartment in Ljubljana. In Hungary the travellers were welcomed in Budapest by Karoly and his friends. Karoly organised us a whole appartment and taught us some about Hungarian drinking habits. In Debrecen the musician Mark helped us bargain for a better price for dormitory rooms at the University: we paid for two, but slept for three!

The trip to Portugal and Spain started with a snowblizzard, so the travellers Joeri, Godelief, Katy, Marianne and cameraman Victor found themselves having to look for a hotel – ironically, they found Hotel 'Alaska'. After that, they were Tiago's guests in the studenthouse Real Republica in Coimbra, enjoying the good food of Donna Matilda. In Lisbon, Victor, Joeri and Marianne stayed at Rita's place. Rita hat the most beautiful view over Lisbon from a toilet man has ever seen. Godelief and Katy moved in with Rui and his family. Rui must be the first non-Dutch person being able to pronounce 'schemeren' – and even knowing what it means!

In Seville, Olga insited on showing us what Spanish hospitality means: lots of fun, chorizo, pasta salad and meeting the whole family, including her blond cute son Ricardo. Katy and Marianne got real beds in the house of David and Sergio and were treated like princesses. Hopefully they liked the 'stroopwafels'! Godelief, Joeri and Victor were invited by brother and sister Javi and Gloria in beautiful Seville. In Madrid, Godelief and Marianne were welcomed in the small, but well equipped house of Moises – Joeri, Katy and Victor stayed at Amber's place. From September Katy will be going back to this house more often!

Germany started with sort of 'home sweet home' for Marianne, because she, Joeri and Godelief could stay in the appartment in central-Berlin where she once lived and where they met Tillman, the owner of cafe 'Schwarzwaldstuben'. Katy met her old flatmates from Valencia, who just happened to be in Berlin now! In Dresden all the travellers enjoyed Andi's language and musical skills. After two days Andi came up with sentences like 'Heb jij de aardappels laten schrikken?'.

In Ostrava, Czech Republic, we were shared evenly by two hosts: one night at Lukaš' place, one night with Martin and Bašha – we are still remembering the elevator in the city hall! In Prague we enjoyed staying with Petra and Tomas, who offered us their livingroom. It was also the first place where the hosts were not suprised by seeing stroopwafels – Petra and Tomas had just visited Amsterdam!

The first long trip, including a lot of driving, brought Joeri, Godelief, Marianne and Katy to Denmark, Sweden and Finland. In Aarhus, the travellers had a hard time finding Danish people: journalism student Anders seemed to share his studenthouse with only Swedes, Italians and German-Austrian exchange students. In Copenhagen all four took over the livingroom of Thomas and Heli, a couple who would take the travellers to a concert in Tivoli and showed them around in their neighbourhood, where they all whitnessed a beautiful candlelight-, 4th of May-tradition. The last two days the travellers spent with Morten, a student who also knew about going out!

Then Sweden started with Stockholm, where Katy and Marianne enjoyed Tobbe's hospitality, daily alarm-ritual and his cooking-qualities: pasta with köttbullar and ketchup! Godelief and Joeri learned that less can certainly be more – Adam couldn't host 'suckers for comfort', as he called it. In Umeå we met Thomas. Godelief and Marianne joined him for a lecture on 'Complex Analysis', while Joeri and Katy met Tobias, his fish and the cursing shrimp. Swedish people make great Surströmming!

After almost touching the polar circle, all four were invited to stay at Pääivi and Veera. Veera gave up her room for us and would give us the time of our lives at her parents place: food, sauna and trampoline! Pääivi fed some travellers' lust for ... handmade bags! In Helsinki, Joeri and Marianne resided with Flamish-speaking Elina (who took the travellers to the island of Suomenlinna), while Katy and Godelief stayed with Anna.

The second three-week-trip was to the Baltics. In Tallinn, Estonia Joeri, Joost, Godelief and Marianne were welcomed by Aljona and Sergei – televisionmakers and funders of Smile TV. Aljona and Sergei offered us a sleepingplace in their office and a shower in the building of Estonian Television! How exotic! In Tartu we met a bunch of students, some of them living in the studenthouse Wagon. Our host, Veronica, was confident she could leave us with her flatmates. It worked out perfectly and we even played Jeopardy.

In Daugavpils, Latvia we stayed in a hostel, but already after five minutes we met nice Latvians who offered us beers, Russian cigarets and a lot of fun. We also enjoyed an expert-tour through the old Sovjet militairy buidlings with Eva, Jekaterina and Anastasija. In Latvias capital, Riga, we set a record on the number of hosts: the first two days we played with Ieva's and Vitaly's welltrained black panther – the most adorable hairball we've ever seen, one that would cling on to your feet with his claws, holding your big toe between his teeth. At night, prefarably. Then we stayed at Uldis' place for one night – it was nice to see an other part of Riga and to enjoy his hospitality. The last night and morning we spent with Fabian and Anna – a Germanspeaking couple. We dansed in a Russian club and had a wonderfull breakfast together.

Lithuania offered us the most unusual hosts we had till then, let's say they were not the youngest. He, professor and ballet-master, she his muse and housewife. In Klaipeda we were visiting someone's grandparents! Of course, we enjoyed real beds, a lot of good food (as in two dinners on the same night) and concerned hosts when we wanted to go out. A few days later we would meet the grandson Andrius, who lives in Vilnius with his girlfriend Aura. What a great time we had, making flowercrowns and looking at big fireplaces somewhere outside of Vilnius – celebrating the longest day of the year.

Marianne