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Meet the friends who will take you around Lisbon, Turin and Budapest

The Local and Lufthansa will reunite three pairs of long-distance friends in Turin, Budapest and Lisbon. Join us for the journey!

Meet the friends who will take you around Lisbon, Turin and Budapest
Photo: Irena Savic and Asaki Dizdar Mehic

That’s a wrap, folks. The Local recently closed a competition in partnership with Lufthansa, offering three pairs the chance to win a trip to three of Europe’s most exciting cities. To enter, we asked our community of travel fans to tell us who they wanted to go with and why.

We’ve now picked the winners and the trips are all booked!

Over the next few weeks we’ll be sharing short videos documenting the reunions, as the winners take us on a tour of the three European cities. Now’s your chance to get to know them before they go off exploring.

Lisbon trip: Irena Savic and Asaki Dizdar Mehic

“I have a lot of friends all over the world because war separated us.”

Long-time school friends Irena Savic and Asaki Dizdar Mehic were brutally torn apart by the Bosnian war. Irena and her family fled to Belgrade in Serbia, where she lives today, while Asaki ended up in Oslo, Norway. The pair lost touch until ten years later, when they found each other on Facebook.

It didn’t take long for them to plan a reunion in person.

“That was very emotional and amazing! We have another friend who lives in Croatia now and she was there also. When I saw her and Asaki, that was something wonderful to see them again,” Irena told The Local.

Since reconnecting, Irena and Asaki have nurtured their friendship through travel. In February 2018, the pair spent several days in Amsterdam, exploring the city by foot and enjoying a full day in the Van Gogh museum.

Travel often means a reunion for Irena and the Amsterdam trip was no exception; the pair were also joined by another school friend who had been living nearby in Rotterdam.

“I have a lot of friends all over the world because the war separated us,” explains Irena. “A very large number of my friends are in foreign countries and travel is always a good way to see them.”

Fortunately, the time apart hasn’t come between them and the pair still enjoy each other’s company as much as ever. Irena explains that Asaki is an excellent travel companion because the pair both love to stroll around new cities — walking as far as 15km a day in Amsterdam.

But is Irena prepared to walk 15km a day in Lisbon, the City of Seven (very steep) Hills?

“I was born in the mountains, so I’ll be okay!”, she laughs.

Turin trip: Isabelle Wallin and Natasha Held

“I was surprised that you could become such good friends in one week!”

Isabelle from Stockholm and Natasha from Newcastle may seem unlikely friends, but it’s the unlikely friendships that can become the most dear.

Check out Lufthansa’s city guide for Turin

The pair were both 20 years old when they struck up a friendship in Ayia Napa during summer 2011.  Natasha, who was on vacation with friends, envied Isabelle’s bar job and the two vowed to return the following year to live and work together.

What surprised Isabelle was that they stayed true to their word.

“It was crazy that we just met in a week and decided to do this a year later! So I think that was very spontaneous and I was more spontaneous because of her,” she says.

Isabelle and Natasha have since developed a close friendship despite the distance, keeping in touch online and visiting each other’s home towns.

Isabelle’s visit to Natasha’s native Newcastle even rubbed off on her in a surprising way.

“I started talking in a Geordie accent after I stayed with her!”

Despite the distance, the friends are still bonded over a love of sunshine and good food – both of which they hope to enjoy on their trip together to Turin.

“I know all about the pizza and pasta – we have to find what’s really local though,” says Isabelle.

Budapest trip: Alex Newcombe and Pau Revilla Besora

“You need friends if you’re in a different environment. It definitely makes it easier and more enjoyable.”

A bromance is a beautiful thing, and no-one knows that better than Australian Alex Newcome and Spanish Pau Revilla Besora. The pair met at university in Denmark and have maintained their friendship following graduation.

Take a look at Lufthansa’s Budapest travel guide

“It made my time in Denmark a lot more fun. We’ve had a lot of good times here. It can be tough coming from Australia to a very cold place and probably the same for Pau coming from Spain,” says Alex.

Pau may be back in Spain now but that hasn’t quelled their friendship. Since graduating, the friends have toured Spain, visiting Andalusia and Catalunya, and building their personal portfolio of “in jokes”.

“We have a lot of in jokes that don’t make sense to anyone else which always happens when you’re travelling,” he says.

One particular joke is on Alex, who developed a taste for empanadas in Spain.

“I made a big deal about them so Pau kind of teased me a bit about that because they’re nothing special there, but they were for me!”.

Alex looks forward to “walking around, having some beers and eating some street food” as well as checking out some of the local museums.

Pau, he says, is the perfect travel companion which can turn a good trip into a great one.

“He’s really good fun and up for anything.”

This article was produced by The Local Creative Studio and sponsored by Lufthansa.

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TRAVEL NEWS

German train strike wave to end following new labour agreement

Germany's Deutsche Bahn rail operator and the GDL train drivers' union have reached a deal in a wage dispute that has caused months of crippling strikes in the country, the union said.

German train strike wave to end following new labour agreement

“The German Train Drivers’ Union (GDL) and Deutsche Bahn have reached a wage agreement,” GDL said in a statement.

Further details will be announced in a press conference on Tuesday, the union said. A spokesman for Deutsche Bahn also confirmed that an agreement had been reached.

Train drivers have walked out six times since November, causing disruption for huge numbers of passengers.

The strikes have often lasted for several days and have also caused disruption to freight traffic, with the most recent walkout in mid-March.

In late January, rail traffic was paralysed for five days on the national network in one of the longest strikes in Deutsche Bahn’s history.

READ ALSO: Why are German train drivers launching more strike action?

Europe’s largest economy has faced industrial action for months as workers and management across multiple sectors wrestle over terms amid high inflation and weak business activity.

The strikes have exacerbated an already gloomy economic picture, with the German economy shrinking 0.3 percent across the whole of last year.

What we know about the new offer so far

Through the new agreement, there will be optional reduction of a work week to 36 hours at the start of 2027, 35.5 hours from 2028 and then 35 hours from 2029. For the last three stages, employees must notify their employer themselves if they wish to take advantage of the reduction steps.

However, they can also opt to work the same or more hours – up to 40 hours per week are possible in under the new “optional model”.

“One thing is clear: if you work more, you get more money,” said Deutsche Bahn spokesperson Martin Seiler. Accordingly, employees will receive 2.7 percent more pay for each additional or unchanged working hour.

According to Deutsche Bahn, other parts of the agreement included a pay increase of 420 per month in two stages, a tax and duty-free inflation adjustment bonus of 2,850 and a term of 26 months.

Growing pressure

Last year’s walkouts cost Deutsche Bahn some 200 million, according to estimates by the operator, which overall recorded a net loss for 2023 of 2.35 billion.

Germany has historically been among the countries in Europe where workers went on strike the least.

But since the end of 2022, the country has seen growing labour unrest, while real wages have fallen by four percent since the start of the war in Ukraine.

German airline Lufthansa is also locked in wage disputes with ground staff and cabin crew.

Several strikes have severely disrupted the group’s business in recent weeks and will weigh on first-quarter results, according to the group’s management.

Airport security staff have also staged several walkouts since January.

Some politicians have called for Germany to put in place rules to restrict critical infrastructure like rail transport from industrial action.

But Chancellor Olaf Scholz has rejected the calls, arguing that “the right to strike is written in the constitution… and that is a democratic right for which unions and workers have fought”.

The strikes have piled growing pressure on the coalition government between Scholz’s Social Democrats, the Greens and the pro-business FDP, which has scored dismally in recent opinion polls.

The far-right AfD has been enjoying a boost in popularity amid the unrest with elections in three key former East German states due to take place later this year.

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