”What I remember most about our journey is the rubber boat. It took 5 hours. The engine shut down a few times. We were so scared. It was midnight. We all were navigating on our phones. We went from Turkey to Greece. I mostly remember all the walking we did. I remember the mud, the cold and the constant rain. I did not eat much. When we finally arrived in Austria, I was so happy that I no longer had to walk. We ended up staying here in Vienna. On my first day in school here, I was very nervous. I didn’t know what to talk about to my classmates. I’d never met Austrian kids before and I was the first Syrian kid in the class. The kids in my class asked me a lot of questions about Syria and the war. I didn’t mind explaining to my classmates what my life was like in Syria. I told them about Aleppo, about the war and also about the Falafel because Falafel is Syria is really good. Some kids asked funny questions like: ”do you have cars in Syria?” Of course we have cars in Syria! Someone thought we only have camels. I already made a lot of friends here but sometimes I miss my friends in Syria. We still keep in touch through Facebook. I think the world without war is so much better. It is interesting for me to hear things about Syria. I saw so many stories about Syria going around on the internet and it is hard to tell if they are true. People must hear the truth and journalists have the power to do that. That is why I want to become a journalist so I can share the truth.”
Amr, 15 years old, from Syria (Austria, Vienna)