Where to now, Otto?
Hopefully, I won’t be asking myself this question all that often over the coming few months. Because my current project is taking me down a road—a very long road, an “Europastrasse.” These Europastrassen [E-roads] have aroused my curiosity. Everybody kind of knows them, but nobody knows where they come from or why they’re there. I hope I at least know where they go.
My chosen Europastrasse begins in Crete. After 200 km, Crete ends and so does it. It reappears in Athens, however, and continues all the way to Vardø. That’s in north-northeastern Norway, up above the Arctic Circle. Also an island, by the way. So this Europastrasse’s been slung across our entire continent in order to connect two villages that nobody’s ever heard of. A street that connects two islands! Interesting.
Europastrassen are roads that WE have made. So they allow us to infer a lot about ourselves as a society. But who are WE, really?
The answers can be found on the road!
Follow my blog at www.ottohainzl.at/blog. And I’ll also be making short posts to social networks, like at facebook.com/ottohainzl.