Europeans at heart is a vivid and colourful series of travel and culture books that brings you closer to Europe's countries and its people. This eBook is an extended and updated travel account taken from 'Europeans at heart: a journey of discovery through 28 EU capitals'.
CONTENT
+ The thrill of the unknown
+ Ireland (IE) at a glance
+ "Either the wallpaper goes - or I do!"
+ Christa Klickermann, talking with Melanie Fitzgerald Power
+ Additional Links
+ He who knows nothing, must believe it all: Europe, the key facts
+ In touch with Europe - an authentic journey of discovery
Praise for Europeans at heart:
Interview with Deutsche Welle TV:
"After reading this book, you will find it impossible not to fall in love with Europe."
Schekker, the German Government's online portal for young people:
"This collection of accounts delivers a brief but brilliant glimpse into life in Europe's incredibly diverse countries, as well as lots of useful information and fabulous pictures that will fill you to the brim with wanderlust. Having taken a literary voyage through the continent via the pages of this book, I can definitely say that I am European at heart. What about you?"
Polen-pl.eu, online Polish culture portal:
"'The one language that we all understand, and which closely connects all of us Europeans, is the language of the heart: the desire to understand, to empathise, to laugh and find out more about one another.' And that, according to Christa Klickermann, is the key to living together in harmony. With her book, the author hopes to inspire us and imbue us with a sense of confidence about Europe's future, and she more than succeeds in doing both. Her approach is so effective in fact that as a reader you feel tempted to take leave and embark on your own European journey of exploration."
Ireland, Dublin.
"Either the wallpaper goes - or I do!"
The birthplace of brilliant writers, such as James Joyce, Oscar Wilde and Iris Murdoch, Dublin is today home to the European headquarters of many global internet corporations and a place where students philosophise about the influence of Asian companies over a pint of Guinness.
Ireland - the first thought that came to my mind was green meadows, wind and Guinness. Oh, and Kerrygold, that gold-wrapped butter produced by happy cows which now enjoys a large share of the market in Germany. So basically the image I had in my head was one of an idyllic landscape with rugged boys and girls with freckled faces, their red hair being tousled by a brisk wind. What I then read about the reality of everyday life in Ireland unceremoniously pulls the rug out from under my romantic, glorified and rose-tinted vision of the island: currently one in three young people aged between 15 and 24 is unemployed, and the gap between the booming capital Dublin and poorer rural areas has become extreme in every respect. And this is all happening in a country which has long been dubbed the 'Celtic Tiger' by our media, and praised as Europe's economic model pupil. Enticed by attractive tax rates, business-friendly laws and a modern infrastructure, in the 1980s global corporations began setting up offices in a country which had previously garnered more fame for its agriculture than its business sector. Besides pharmaceutical companies, such as the Botox manufacturer Allergan, most arrivals came in the shape of large IT firms, finance service providers and fund managers who brought employment and decent incomes with them. But in 2009 the economic boom, and the Celtic Tiger itself, ran out of steam; what came next were difficult years plagued by crisis and austerity.
Ireland had to accept the EU's bailout fund in order to avoid state bankruptcy. But it got itself back on the track by promoting stability and growth with a strong focus on innovation and research. Google, Microsoft, Facebook, PayPal, Zynga, Yahoo and Twitter now oversee their European operations from Dublinbased headquarters, and the country's treasurers can write in their books that Ireland is back in the black.
When I hear the words 'write' and books', my mind is suddenly filled with images that have nothing to do with cold, hard economic data; that's because Ireland is traditionally known as a citadel of literature and academia. When you walk through the streets of the Irish capital today, you can't help but follow in the footsteps of literary giants both past and present, such as Jonathan Swift, James Joyce, Oscar Wilde, Column McCann, Iris Murdoch or Enda Walsh, as well as Nobel Prize winners like William Butler Yeats, George Bernard Shaw and Samuel Beckett. The city values its current literature scene just as much as its historical cultural legacy, and celebrates the art of writing in a number of ways, including numerous festivals. That is part of the reason why in 2010 UNESCO declared Dublin a Literary City- one of only five in the world (the other four are Edinburgh, Melbourne, Iowa City and Reykjavik).
