So after about 40 hours on the coach I’ve arrived back in the home pastures. I’m acutely sleep deprived – but I’ve gained all the more experiences for it! I had an amazing trip and got to know the country from so many different sides.
_{Moritz von Hirschhausen, 2016, Topic "The Relationship between Europe and the UK after the Brexit Referendum"} 

In my everyday life, I rarely grant myself so much time and attention as I could on my zis journey to think beyond my own good life and all the pretty facades. In my opinion, that’s the great opportunity that zis offers us young people…
_{Emilia Henkel, zis journey 2016, Topic "Perceptions of and Relations to Bangladesh in the British-Bangladeshi Diaspora”}

Looking back, it’s hard to believe how much I learned on my journey about people, myself, travelling and the world. The leap into the cold water of the unknown and the foreign has been more than worthwhile for me. I can only recommend it to everyone…
_{Lorenz Böttcher, 2016 Topic "100 years of Irish division - where does the conflict in Northern Ireland stand on the anniversary of the Easter Rising?"}

I had unique and intense encounters and important life experiences. Borders and obstacles were overcome through active intercultural communication (sometimes with hands and feet!) In their place, I learned tolerance, self-confidence and self-awareness. And last but not least, I developed a never-ending and growing curiosity about our world...
_{Janine Koppelmann, 1997, topic  "Bullfighting and Flamenco in Spain“}

A zis journey is like climbing a secured high-ropes course: it looks dangerous, you have to be careful and work hard to overcome your fear of heights, but you'll have a lot of fun doing it! And for emergencies, you still have the safety nets to catch you. Luckily, I didn’t need them…
_{Naomi Nordblom, 2009, topic  "On the other side - the banques alimentaires in France“}

Even though I travelled alone, I almost never was. That might sound a bit absurd, but that’s just the way it was. I only felt a bit lonely on one or two evenings in Sibiu, which seems a bit ridiculous given that the journey was 31-days long…
_{Vincent Förster, 2009, topic "Cinema in Romania - a revival through the 'new Romanian film?"}

So at the end of my journey I arrived somewhere else entirely and unexpectedly close: at my self. The magic of a journey: you travel far away, adopt a new rhythm of life, take unpleasant detours, lean far out of the window, sometimes even too far, only to finally arrive at your self…
_{Miriam Schmidt, 2013, topic "In the footsteps of a clown through France“}

For me, the zis-journey is the beginning of a quest that I want to continue far into the future…
_{Marie Verse, 2014 , topic "Remembrance as a form of encounter - a literary quest in France"}