31st of March we organized activities at Integra,
a centre for people with special needs. I enjoyed it very much. We were clowns
and trying to be funny. The first time I was at this centre I found it really
hard, but now we did have to think about activities ourselves and we learned to
know the people a bit better it was more fun.
On that day the weather was extremely nice. Because we had
to work at Integra early and we had a game night in the evening before, we were
free in the afternoon. And so I walked around Petrežalka, the part of the
city where all the communist blocks are, to the Danube. It’s where I live, I
enjoyed. Though it was just spring. For a long time the weather was great in
Bratislava.
From our organisation we got the opportunity to do a
voluntary workcamp abroad. I got accepted for my favourite in Iceland. I will
be working in a greenhouse heated by geysers. I am very excited, because there
are even tropical plants. The fruits and vegetables are grown for
a health and
rehabilitation center near Reykjavik. 
The weather changed and 19th of April there was
snow. Maybe this changing weather made me and the rest of the office sick. Or
maybe because I had busy weekends so I couldn’t rest well.
Despite that these weekends were really nice. I did a lot of
sports like inside climbing, cycling to Austria, which is one hour away from
Bratislava, running and hiking with my mentor to the ruined castle Pajštún near Bratislava. Another weekend I did a
hiking trip of 18 kilometres to Devin castle, which is near the border of
Austria.
For Easter me and my colleagues went to Barbi’s flat, there
we painted eggs and baked ginger bread together with her children. I felt
integrated in Slovak family life, her kids had so much energy and they were
really happy that we were there.
A few days later I painted eggs again with Aphroditi and
Nadia, we used red onion peels and it worked nicely. They got a nice Bordeaux
red colour.
Because it was cold we decided not to go camping
but we stayed at the house of a hipsterish Buddhist, he had a beard, he was
vegan and a wood artist, he was very kind. We were tired from our travel after discovering Prešov. Which is a cute little city with coloured houses. The next day our host drove us to
the best hitch hiking spot and already after 10 minutes a car stopped which
went to Košice.
The man and woman were super nice, we tried to speak in Slovak but soon we
found out that the man spoke Italian. We continued speaking Italian which was
much better than his English. He had worked at an Italian company.
Half an hour later we got out near the centre of Košice. After a coffee, where
the bartender spoke Italian as well, we went for a small hike in the hills of
Košice. I heard another woodpecker and I saw for the first time a dark brown
squirrel. We went to one of the plenty of ruins Slovakia has. Napoleon
Bonaparte destroyed most of them on his way through Slovakia, to prevent any future
attacks. This castle was almost disappeared. But there was a tower which we
climbed just before closing time. The view was beautiful we could see the city
and the mountains around it.
Last weekend I met my co-camp leader, we were drinking
coffee. She told me stories about previous workcamps. In her opinion Zlatna is the
best workcamp. We have to work at a farm, cutting grass, we can ride horses and
we will organize a children’s horse riding match. We will play many games. As
leaders we have to think about these. The camp will be near the Hungarian
border. Because of the river in the summer there are many mosquitoes. Every day
we have to ride with our bicycle to the farm. The work can be really tiring,
but also heart fulfilling. This summer I will be on four workcamps in
total.
One of the nicest moments were the night walks around the
lake with Aphroditi. It’s in Petrežalka and there are many swans. It's pitch
black at night around this lake, so you can see the starry skies. We tell each
other stories about our countries, our point of view about Slovakia. It often
gives me a different perspective on things, because we have the time to reflect. We picked Bear's
Garlic, it’s an herb which is rare in The Netherlands, but there is plenty of
it growing around this lake. The next morning I made an omelette with it. It
makes me appreciate being in nature a lot.
