It's freezing cold, and you're far away from home. Maybe you've gone abroad for your Erasmus year, or you're working in a foreign country, or you're at university miles away from your home town. What's the one thing that can cure your homesickness?

Five of our writers tell the story of the things which define "home" for them. Their answers are very diverse: Ziemowit Jozwik misses "his" Holy Cross Mountains, Aleksandar Savić contemplates the Serbian past and Līva Dzene dreams of Riga. But luckily, "the mind is larger than any suitcase" (as Aleksandar Savić says) - so perhaps we really can carry part of our homes with us when we set off to conquer the world!

Wayside shrines (Ziemowit Jozwik, Poland)

Notes (Christian Diemer, Germany)

A Serbian study (Aleksandar Savić, Serbia)

A battered brown book (Boris Ludwig, Germany)

Dreams in Riga (Līva Dzene, Latvia)

Text and photos by Christian Diemer, Līva Dzene, Ziemowit Jozwik, Boris Ludwig and Aleksandar Savić