AEGEE-Budapest is organising a spectacular pre-event for the EPM in Istanbul. From 1st to 5th of February, 40 participants have the chance to travel by train from Budapest to Istanbul, with stops in Bucharest and Sofia. Since this route follows the original Orient Express, the event is named: “Pre-EPM On The Rails: Murder On The Orient Express”. The Golden Times asked AEGEE-Budapest for details.
GT: Is it still possible to apply for your train trip from Budapest to the EPM in Istanbul? When is the deadline?
AEGEE-Budapest: We have an extended open call till Monday, 16 December, midnight CET.
GT: How many people can go on the trip?
AEGEE-Budapest: We were thinking of a maximum 40 people, since then we can book a whole wagon to the train to Istanbul – they have the smallest sleeping wagons.
GT: How did you get the idea for the event?
AEGEE-Budapest: We came up with the idea during the presentation of the EPM at the Agora Novi Sad. In five minutes we came up with the whole concept by not finishing each other’s sentences. It is truly a love project. We are really good friends with AEGEE-Istanbul and we wanted to help them. Sanyi and Fofo already did this trip from Budapest to the Summer University in Istanbul and Máté is part of the Strategy Committee and passionate about strategic things. We also wanted to make a truly sustainable event, since we travel with planes so many times, and we were thinking traveling together could encourage people to choose the train.
GT: You will travel for four days with stops in Bucharest and Sofia. How will people travel and sleep there?
AEGEE-Budapest: So the trip starts from Budapest in the evening in the 1st of February and we will go with a night train to Bucharest where we sleep in a sleeping carriage. We will arrive in the morning to Bucharest and spend approximately 24 hours there, sleep in a hostel, then go to Sofia during the day where we also have approximately 24 hours sleep in a hostel then leave in the afternoon with another train, where we will sleep again in a sleeping waggon. We will reach Istanbul on the 5th of February in the morning.
GT: What will you do in Bucharest and Sofia?
AEGEE-Budapest: We will have city tours during the day to explore both capitals in a short time, and during the night we will have some kind of social programme. AEGEE-Bucuresti and AEGEE-Sofia cooperate with us and are responsible for the programmes in the city; AEGEE-Budapest arranges the programmes on the trains and the logistics.
GT: There is also a murder mystery on the train, in the tradition of Agatha Christie’s famous novel. What will it be about?
AEGEE-Budapest: We don’t want to spoil anything, but we can guarantee the games will be on the train only, in the cities nobody will be able to get hurt.
GT: There are also workshops. Will they be on the train or during the two stops? And about what?
AEGEE-Budapest: We are planning two workshops during the train to make it more interesting. The format is not sure, because of the unlikely setting. One of them will be about Istanbul and the other will be about the EPM itself.
GT: Will you also arrange a trip back by train?
AEGEE-Budapest: Sadly, we don’t have the capacity to plan the way back, also because of the lack of holidays we were thinking, it might be too much, but we are encouraging anybody to travel back by train or bus.
GT: What’s the fee and where can people apply?
AEGEE-Budapest: The fee is 155 euros for the whole trip including the train tickets and two meals per day. You can apply in MyAegee! It’s: https://my.aegee.eu/events/pre-epm-on-the-rails
