Zdravo! Me again :)
This month was full of movement... As Long Term ESC Volunteers, we have trainings and workshops made by the Slovenian National Agency, and two weeks ago, we had our "On Arrival Training". I must say it was REALLY good. We went to a hotel and shared rooms with volunteers from all along Slovenia (which is really cool, now we have many friends to visit). We also had workshops about the YouthPass, about "how-to-run" a small project, and reflections about well-being, thing that I found pretty interesting... Lot of things can appear in our minds when you leave your own country and start to experience new ways of living.

I would say that this month the most important thing was communication (Which, just in case you didn't knew, involves respect and empathy) I needed to be honest with myself many times this month, 1) on searching in my own heart-body-mind what my needs are and 2) on verbalizing them to my surroundings... Somehow I managed to do it and I'm still in one piece, hi-five fella

In other news, I've seen the biggest bonfire ever (I might be overreacting, but it was huge). On the 30th of April people all-over Slovenija make bonfires as a tradition, in past times it was believed that setting these fires up would increase the power of the sun, we could say that it was a way to help the spring/summer to come and help growing the crops (since Slovenija is a "farm country"). Nowadays these bonfires are more about gathering together with people you value and have fun (another reason can be to celebrate 1st of May, the Worker's Day)... Whatever reason they have, I've spent an amazing time with the Turinek's and Elie, the fire has an incredible power of transformation.

Well... I believe that all of this is more than what you all wanted to read, but it's really funny to do hahah
Hope you had a great April, and see ya again in May... After my birthday (30th) :)

Salut tout le monde ! 
​
For the first time, I visited Ljubljana! We stayed there for 2 days and I think I crossed hundred of bridges during our stay. I've never seen so many bridges crossing the same river each one a meter apart 👀 Just wow!  And can we talk about Tivoli Park? It's sooo peaceful, and if I could, I would stay there all day! And please, just trust me and go to the House of Illusions! 😂 





​On your right, a little excerpt of what you can find in this House - please just ignore my laugh...

For one full week, we stayed in a really good hotel for our arrival training in Brežice. In short, it's a check-up of the start of our ESC experience and a time to learn about ESC 'essence'. It was suuuper nice to meet and connect with other volunteers, doing indoor and outdoor activities with them! I'm really eager to see them again! 
The food at the hotel was so on point and we also had the opportunity to try pools and slides there 😋

​To sum up this week : laughs and screams, thanks guys!! ​🔥

​And last but not least, the last weekend of April, we went to Zagreb with Cristina! A really interesting city where old and modern elements are mixed. And for me, it worked quite well, I really enjoyed my time there!! 🧩 Sometimes, you need to climb looong stairs to find beautiful hidden little parks. And Zagreb is not a flat city, I can assure you 😂 You have to earn those jewels ✨Once you leave the center and start heading north, you need to rely on your good cardio 😙

​Oh and by the way, please don't forget to go to the Lotrščak Tower, the Botanical Garden (obviously) and the Museum of Broken Relationships. A.Must.Have ​🔥

​To close this month, I wanted to add that for me, 'flows' also represented April, whether they were quiet or fast. And the saying 'en Avril, ne te découvre pas d'un fil' ('Till April's dead, change not a thread') was really accurate for this month. Unexpected things happened. 
It's like experiencing climbing a montain: you can either be alone with your thoughts (and the pain 😅​) and take your time or you can enjoy the experience and the memories with others. Sometimes the former is good, sometimes it's better to share the adventure. 
During this month, I can only say thank you to Cristina and Julia ❤️ The support we gave each other strengthened our bond and I'm thankful for having the opportunity to meet y'all during this volunteer experience ​🫶🏻

Choosen country : Austria... Close to our home and it is composed of beautiful hills and forests! There are many hiking paths that you can choose near the border : walking alongside a river or through the Gamlitz vineyard area - you can see them all over Leibnitz district! 🍇 

Or if you are more adventurous (😋) and want to discover the pretty hidden places of the region, black hiking paths (chemins noirs in French) are common too but not that easy to follow (you can believe Cristina and me gulp... ) 😅
Anyway we have enough water, a map, a location and a signal thanks to our phone so let's just try ! ​

For now, we mainly went to forests + vineyard paths - not a lot of people around and the woods are quite inhabited 😂. But on my own, I did the heiligengeistklamm: you entered a really pretty gorge following a river. Unfortunately, I went there on the weekend and there were a TON of people! So, if you are like me (allergic to people on hikes), try to change the loop on the way back as I did or do this one on the week 😅