Motion as a principle

Naturally, the E75 project does have a couple of conceptual cornerstones. They’re as simple as can be. To put them in a nutshell: I want to know more about the Europastrasse as such, so I’ll follow one of these roads from beginning to end, averaging a bit less than 100 km a day. That’s it.

Such a simple approach gives rise to complex interconnections. Being constantly in motion has a certain effect on me. You see something. And while you’re reflecting on it, you’re already somewhere else. Obvious example: when I eat olives here in Hungary that I bought in Greece, with dinars in my wallet instead of forint while I’m already trying to remember whether or not Slovakia uses the Euro, I notice that I’m relentlessly in motion.

How often I’d like to switch into tourist-mode, stay a bit longer somewhere, be tickled by a muse (the Muses, after all, are at home in Greece)—but I can’t. This road’s not built for that.

And in fact: it’s being upgraded farther and farther away from that ideal. With every upgrade, a bit less lingering is possible. The motel was a place that still invited one to linger. Only for a night, but still… So this progressive transformation of the road means that the Europastrasse itself is no longer the destination. All it’s there for anymore is to be somewhere other than where you are. That’s how I’ve felt every day during the weeks I’ve been traveling.

WE as a society have created over 200 Europastrassen. Let’s assume each one is 4,000 km long. Chained end to end, that makes altogether 400,000 km of Europastrasse. Nearly half a million km of not lingering. Ten times our Earth’s diameter – as a place not to linger in. The entire length of what now has the purpose of simply being in motion. Is there a statement about us here, somewhere? Let’s linger a bit to think about it.