Why?

I got super-stressed when I arrived at the European Parliament’s building in Strasbourg.
“No info desks,” I was told by the buildings service, “however, the security service at the entrances can provide information. Plans of the buildings can be consulted at main points and in front of the lifts.”

But …… If you think that you will arrive there and the security men will tell you the correct updated office number of your boss, then you are as naive as I was. They sent me to the 14th floor, where he had been more than three years previously. No DG Communication anywhere near… A Polish administration lady went with me to investigate the right office. We even grabbed a passing fire-fighter to help us to find it.

After asking, labyrinthine-ing among 2.600 offices and 57 meeting rooms, including the Hemicycle, while hoping I would not have to take all 34 staircases and sweating because I was already late, we finally arrived. After three quarters of an hour. Polish lady, fire-fighter and ME {laugh}.

Letters, numbers and colours … Coffee, please!

There are 4 buildings and 6 places to get some snacks in European Parliament area:

1, Louise Weiss (LOW) named after a lady Weiss born to a Bourgeoisie, Alsatian family. The centre of her interest was Europe, and so she came to find herself in Strasbourg towards the end of her life. She was then the oldest Member of Parliament to be elected by direct universal suffrage. She remained MEP and oldest member until her death in 1983 at the age of 90.

LOW is famous for its Flower Bar with a very funky carpet and a lot of yummy things to choose from. It is always very full, though. :{

Second one is Visitor’s bar at LOW 00 – under the Hemicycle
Thirdly, Members’ bar at LOW 01 -next to the Hemicycle zone Nord
And the fourth one – Press bar at LOW 00 zone Nord – approximately opposite of the Members’ bar, one floor beneath.

1946: “There is a remedy which … would in a few years make all Europe … free and … happy. It is to re-create the European family, or as much of it as we can, and to provide it with a structure under which it can dwell in peace, in safety and in freedom. We must build a kind of United States of Europe.”

2, Winston Churchill (WIC), a former army officer, war reporter and British Prime Minister (1940-45 and 1951-55), was one of the first to call for the creation of a ‘United States of Europe’. Sir Winston Churchill also made a name for himself as a painter and writer; in 1953 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.

I think Mr. Churchill would be very happy If he would have known that we have on -1 floor Cygnes/Swan Bar. It is very nice one with view to the river and a lot of trees. Bonus!  It is very close to the one of 28 restrooms in the complex.

3, Salvador de Madariaga (SDM) is the founder of the College of Europe. Passionate defender of liberty and tolerance, he wanted to construct a free and democratic Europe of continental scale. He was also a writer, poet, historian, philosopher and politician. After working for the League of Nations, he pursued a university career at Oxford, where published a number of works, including the famous “Englishmen, Frenchmen and Spaniards”, an essay on the observation and comparative psychology of people.

Unfortunately, no bar in SDM.

4, Pierre Pflimlin (PFL) Pierre Eugène Jean Pflimlin was a French Christian democratic politician who served as the penultimate Prime Minister of the Fourth Republic for a few weeks in 1958, before being replaced by Charles de Gaulle during the crisis of that year. Pflimlin served as mayor of Strasbourg from 1959 to 1 983. He also was the President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe from 1963 to 1966 and President of the European Parliament from 1984 to 1987.

And finally our building: It has an Accueil Bar on the -1 floor. Wonderful place to meet all communication people.

My PFL F000445A.  My castle.

First 3 letters is the abbreviation of the building’s name PFL= Pierre Pflimlin. The first 2 numbers are the floor number and then the rest is the office number.

LOW building, the biggest of the 4 Strasbourg buildings, is divided into 6 zones: N=Nord, S=Sud, T=Tower, H=Hemicycle, C=Canal, R=Rivière. The other 3 buildings have not been divided into zones. However you can still follow different colours connected to different zones in the WIC.

You can get to our office in PFL by two ways – the official way and my way

The official way: “The common floor to all 4 buildings in Strasbourg is floor 01. You access the PFL building through the WIC building, than you take the lift or staircase down to floor 00. The working post F00044a (and not F000445a) is situated inside the open plan space F00040. There are 2 such spaces in the PFL, the F00030 and the F00040, each one contains approximately 30 working posts, ” explains  Buildings service.

My version would be: Get off the bus. Behind the corner, there is a big entrance to PFL building. Pass the security. First stairs on your left to first floor. And do you see second door on your left? You scored….

Strasbourg a peaceful city

The capital city of the Alsace region situated in north-eastern France where some of us spend every 4th week or the others have the only possibility to see while on traineeship.

What interests me is the density of the city. It is around half of Brussels one {according to an online encyclopaedia statistics Brussels has 6,6 inhb/m² while Strasbourg only 3,5 inhb/m²}.

Getting around

You can easily get around by bus, tram or on foot. The best way to get to EP is tram or bus number…  It has actually no number. It is a special service for the European Institutions and it is called the Navette. The actual bus stop is on your right side behind the flags when you are standing the way that the train station is behind you.

“Anthropologists have argued that, contrary to popular perception, early hunter-gatherer societies enjoyed more leisure time than is permitted by complex modern societies. For instance, one camp of! Kung Bushmen was estimated to work two-and-a-half days per week, at around 6 hours a day,” claims one of the largest online encyclopaedias.
Maybe this is the time to slow down a little bit and to start to make working meetings more efficient so we can work only 8 hours a day and dedicate our other 8 hours to active or passive rest time.

Webinars
Tired of travelling, moving and staying away from friends or family? Instead of having face to face meetings you could use modern technology to speed up your conference procedures. “Face-to-face meetings used to be the only way to get things done. Now the best way to save money, time and travel is to collaborate over the Web,” says one of the modern technology web pages. By pushing few buttons you can host or attend live meetings, demos, webinars or even give presentations, share web pages, whiteboards, voice, video – even record your events. This sounds easy and really handy, but resembles Star Trek a little bit.

Lunch time with allies
By accelerating the seminars you can have more time for our daily animalistic survival routine – food. It does not need to be seen this way if you go with your fellows. :) So how much? 30 minutes or for the lucky ones even an hour? Better than nothing. If you need to meet a VITK friend (very important to know), lunch is the time for that. 15 minutes to get there, 30 minutes to eat lovely menu for 5 Euros, 15 minutes back and your lunch-socializing or even business is easily done.

Evening food session with your Cherie organized via new technology
Now you can work hard for another four hours while checking your online social networks to see whether there is anybody organizing dinner. For those who are less lucky and cannot use anything else except the company’s webpage there is a new technology. You are not from the same city, or distance between you two is long, you are both crazily busy and finding new and different places for the two to meet may prove trying, as it would be for many in a similar situation.

There is only one success – to be able to spend your life in your own way.
Christopher Morley

But thanks to new software which provides meeting points of interest between two points, it can be easier. These two points are Points A and B. In either one, you can choose to use your current location or put the address in to your phone. After settling on the locations of both Points A and B, tapping the “places to meet” button provides a list of places to meet by category and subcategory, for which vendor ratings and reviews are provided. It also provides the distance from a vendor to both Points A and B, so you’ll know who’s really driving or walking more. And you can even meet “by coincidence” at the bus stop or other “random” places.

Sporcializing
“Join a club with people who have common interests. You don’t necessarily have to have a lot of common interests with people in order to make friends with them. In fact, some of the most rewarding friendships are between two people who don’t have much in common at all, but if you have something in common with people, it can make it a lot easier to start a conversation and plan activities together,” suggests the online encyclopaedia. But on the other hand practicing a sport together such as tennis or golf provides a very neutral and healthy environment for a little gossip as well as business conversations. Simply it is crucial to multitask. (It has been proven that man can do it as well :) )

Cheers, Ho ta la, Na zdravie
These are the magic words that make deeper talks, eventually trustworthy friendships and good business deals. To get to this stage, you just need to check your online social networks or phone book to write few messages or to make some calls. All in all it shouldn’t be more than few minutes while your are having your 5 minute break.
A very clever and funny friend of mine told me that you do not do business at work but during lunch, golf or evening drink. These five tricks can make you efficient or even successful, but at least it gives you some idea how to catch up with your friends, loved ones or partners.