Grand Est

 I carried with me a certain criticism of France—especially regarding the banlieues, a phenomenon largely absent in countries such as the Netherlands, Luxembourg, or also Germany. 

It was also noted that, after Czechia, France has the most widespread free tekno scene in terms of population. Unlike in neighboring countries, where refusal to shut down a sound system often leads to arrests and confiscations, the “party” there is expected to last through the night.

 Yet France is also a land of extraordinary beauty. The Ossuaire de Douaumont stands unforgettable in its majesty, singular in its gravity, not far from Toul. Not far from Ossuaire de Douaumont is Fort de Vaux. A flowering spring there was amazing. Across the whole Grand Est region, one encounters countless places of interest—monuments, historically charged landscapes, and cities that quietly carry meaning.

At the edge of Grand Est lies Luxembourg, Belgium and also Strasbourg, a city balanced on the border with Germany. From there, a tram crosses effortlessly into the nearby German town of Kehl. Few places in Europe allow one to pass between nations with such ordinary ease.

To me, Strasbourg bears the imprint of Germany through its closeness, yet it remains unmistakably French. For me, it is also place of an interesting meeting. 

 I wanted to write about Strasbourg because the city is beautiful—and genuinely safe. Compared to many others, it is also cleaner. Certain areas, especially around the historic center, resemble the carefully constructed sets of historical films.

Last year, this drew me to Strasbourg on the night of Christmas Eve. The city was empty, wrapped in silence, and revealed itself through a distinctly Christmas atmosphere. These streets are usually well kept, and at night—particularly at Christmas, without people—the nocturnal life in French cities like Strasbourg feels calmer. With its architecture and immaculate streets, the city appeared to me like a stage set, a quiet theater awaiting its actors. In its own way, this may also reflect the distinctly French sensibility for art and culture. 

 In France, one is also struck by how close nuclear power plants can be to residential areas. The Grand Est region is no exception. It is here that the important Cattenom nuclear power plant is located, situated just a few kilometers from cities and inhabited areas. The plant is embedded in the landscape along the Moselle River, in close proximity to forests and settlements, which clearly illustrates the French approach to nuclear energy. France has built its nuclear network (the parc nucléaire) since the 1970s as a strategic infrastructure to ensure energy self-sufficiency.

Discotheque (Sidney SN DNB Mix) 2025

 Released 12/12/2025

 Lately I’ve been kind of productive. I recently recorded a progressive house mix. And now I’m back with DNB. It’s an energy I don’t want to keep inside for no reason. 

Yeah, Discotheque. This is the latest DNB mix from Sidney SN — a slightly lively liquid or disco DNB mix...

 

 Tracklist:

 Nichenka Zoryana & Amigosu – Voise

 Midnight – Quiet Earth

 1991 – You May Find Yourself

 Flava D – Reesey Thing

 Hoax & Zitah – What You Came Here For

 Dynamic Stab – Contrast Shower

 Hillsdom – Say What’s On Your Mind

 Rueben & SOLAH & Klinical – Your Move

 Dawn Wall – Holding On

 Sonic Art & Maykors – Keep Running

 Linx – Trying To Hold Onto Life

 Ownglow & Elle Vee & Disco’s Over – Breathe

 Duskee & Deadline & Slay - CHICA

Integration

 Part 1.

 For instance, I cannot avoid Germany when I want to reach the West coast. I enjoy the journey. I try to also change the places where I stop along the way. Sometimes it leads to Dortmund, sometimes Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Cologne, or Karlsruhe, Stuttgart, Nuremberg, or Munich. Or sometimes the days in Berlin areas. 

But it’s not just about traveling through Germany. I have the sense that the country has a strong integration system. Germany is often cited as a place where migrant integration works better than in much of Europe.

What is visible in Germany is that the system is set up so that it is worthwhile for people to be part of it, while also preventing the formation of spatially segregated, marginalized areas. People in Germany are also more open, and origin or ethnicity does not play as strong a role in integration into society and the system.

I mean that in Germany there are no clearly separated marginalized areas, unlike in certain parts of France for example. In other words, Germany lacks the visibly segregated, marginalized neighborhoods or marginalization.

In certain parts of France or in the Czech Republic, ghettos itself emerge: in the banlieues or in Czechia, or in Slovakia, people sometimes live outside the system due to limited economic opportunities, housing constraints, identity-based segregation, or structural racism. 

 Part 2.

 Not to leave the Benelux out, I have already written an article about Luxembourg economy, and I would also include the Western coasts. In the Netherlands, the natural coexistence is visible in the local communities. South Holland is very naturally diverse. The presence of “black culture” is also unmistakable. It is part of the character of the Western regions of Europe. In France, communities are also diverse, but there are areas of exclusion.

The West system encourages integration through economic opportunities and accessible social services, while urban planning avoids large, concentrated areas of poverty. People are generally open to migrants, and the emphasis is on participation and functioning within the system rather than background or origin. 

This helps prevent the formation of ghettos and allows migrants to take part in society across multiple neighborhoods.

The Days of Thunder

 About eighteen years ago, I used to enjoy reading blogs where bloggers described their experiences and adventures while traveling around Europe. In a way, I still do something similar today. 

My topics are also economic, cultural, and overall environmental experiences.

I also wrote about experiences with train stations. In Czechia, I often see articles about incidents around German train stations. I wrote that this says more about stations elsewhere than about Germany. 

Now I started a journey at one bus station and preferred to leave quickly… 

Someone resembling a homeless person, a drug addict, and apparently a former prisoner was threatening to stab homeless people with a knife—and then to stab me as well.

 I told myself that I was already looking forward to Germany, and further on to the Benelux. And it really was like that. Elsewhere, of course, this reality does not exist. There was apparently one immigrant on a bus in Germany under the influence of some opiate like fentanyl, but nowhere was there anything like what I experienced at the beginning of the journey.

Christmas-time Amsterdam was great again. Amsterdam is beautiful in itself thanks to its architecture, and with the ever-present Christmas decorations it has the charm of real Christmas. 

In my opinion, Amsterdam is one of the most decorated and certainly one of the most beautiful Christmas cities in Europe. I like the whole Benelux at Christmas, as well as cities in Germany.

In the core Dutch city for this music genre, there was some Thunderdome event—it amused me 😄 that during my days in the Netherlands, over Christmas, I was also confronted with this modern Dutch history in the form of gabber—with the typical logo on bomber jackets and other clothing featuring this logo. 

I’m little amazed at how gabbers influenced the world. For example, Dutch Christmas (1999) by Scooter. Or One (remix of Always Hardcore Bodylotion). I’ve already mentioned that in my childhood I listened to happy hardcore along with other “dance” music, without even realizing it was happy hardcore. However, I tend to laugh at gabbers more for their dystopian history. In my view, there’s a certain sense of awkwardness in their utopia of drug use.

Just yesterday, Sunday, there was a sunny day to be had in the South. Amsterdam was typical, with a bit of wet weather. There was frost at the beginning of the journey, and also snow at its end in Germany… It was all kinds of weather during the Christmas trip.

As November Fails

 This is pure irony, a paradox, this makes me a laugh... People in the Central Europe, who seemingly define themselves most strongly against migration, for example, elect a migrant as prime minister. Likewise, they have a person with a migration background at the head of the government. And these people then go on to appoint, for example, an ultra-right-wing figure to the government. Migrants who reject migration. And yet, with the policies they promote, they themselves would never have been allowed to come to Czechia. Another layer of irony lies in the fact that migrants choose someone who presents himself as ultra-right-wing, even though he should, by principle, reject these “migrants.” It is populism and the irony on every level—from the certain group of voters to a their government. It is evident that Czech society has long suffered from a deep level of internal contradictions.

I don’t know why a future prime minister couldn’t be Ukrainian, since by the same logic, anyone from anywhere in Ukraine can be a prime minister.

Something similarly absurd can be seen in the economy. Likely perhaps also because of the previous government, the Czech economy today should be showing rapid growth. Yet Czechs elect people who have pushed the economy back to a state from before this growth—the very growth that was being discussed in the media not long ago.

The truth, however, is that this so-called “rapid growth” seems to exists mainly on paper. In real life, it is clear that something changed in Czechia starting in the winter of 2023. Economic models made this visible. Interestingly, this happened shortly after I began pointing out, in 2023, a specific post-pandemic condition in Czechia that was not common anywhere from Germany to Western Europe. After the pandemic, the downturn in Czechia was rather preserved—or even deepened. And this happened several months before the war, and during that period as well.

The post-pandemic period may have indicated that keeping something “down” was not accidental. This state lasted until the winter of 2023. Such an almost two-year condition after the pandemic did not exist anywhere in the more western parts of Europe. The population seemingly did not realize its situation for a long time when compared to the reality of Western Europe—apparently perceiving this state, one of the worst economic downturns in Europe, ?as their “normal condition.”? And yet, in contrast of a period of manipulation of an apparently unsuspecting public, today it no longer hides its politics. Apparently, some politicians know society better than that society knows itself. And this is exactly what I pointed out: what is being exploited are traits of this society that also are not inherently Western. Already dead, November GHOSTS. The positive thing is that the states were exposed, and therefore can no longer function as they were supposed to. In the Central Europe, I noticed a change only toward the end of 2023, which is also shown by economic models. It seems that some people began to speak up who want to hear the truth, a certain groups of people with certain values. Prague itself looks like that because of the result of election. However, this concerns only certain parts of society and certainly does not correspond to what the paper statistics show.

I have said before that a weak economy can show a certain level of growth without actually becoming stronger. Quite the opposite—when compared to strong economies that, for example, do not need any dramatic growth in a given period or do not currently have it, it becomes even clearer that this growth is purely statistical. Rankings themselves are misleading in this respect. In the end, growth stops again at a “dead point” that wealthy countries overcame many years ago, often decades ago. It stops because the economy is not set up in a way that would allow it to reach that level and catch up with those that overcame a dead point long ago—or never had one at all.

This is clearly visible in Czechia: the results of growth are reflected only among a certain segment of people. Mostly among those who gravitate toward a particular lifestyle and are able to stick to their values—both for better and for worse.

I have been observing this development for roughly the past ten years. The pandemic deepened it further. Meanwhile, in the more western parts of Europe, in 2022 I barely noticed that there had been a pandemic at all—“despite” much stricter measures. Likely due to politics and general mentality, these countries were able to get back on their feet relatively quickly after the pandemic.

Perhaps also under the previous government in Czechia, some things did move slightly, but the reality of Czechia remains ironic. Society is often illuminated mainly by high school students or students or by a certain group of people who hold certain values. Without them, society is often frightening. In comparison to this Czech reality, the West then appears as a gold standard.