Into the great outdoors!

31^st 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 19^th 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.  

The weekend of Easter I went to the East. I went to Prešov, and Košice with Giulia, an EVS friend. We had such nice conversations during our travels. Our travel by train took us more than 7 hours. We saw the landscape changing from flat near Bratislava to small mountains near Žilina to High Tatras with snow in Liptovský Mikuláš. The beautiful lakes on or way to Košice. I’m sure everyone must like the nature of Slovakia, because it’s amazing.

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.

At the last day of April I took the bus to Vienna. It’s such a touristic city and everyone was using selfie sticks. I went to the national library where I took selfies with old books like everyone did. They had the first bibles in German with pictures of gold. It wasn’t allowed to touch anything. Sometimes I felt a bit lost but I was happy that I brought Harry Potter which I read during the lunch, in the park and in the bus. He was good company.