Entering 2011 – Spain.

Cartagena - panorama picture

2011 is the year of traveling.  I started in January when I went to Spain; it was actually the next part of youth in action exchange that started in Poland. 

This was one very interesting travel with foul of complications. They started on our way there. We had our flight’s booked from Venice to Madrid and then from Madrid to Alicante. Because of poor weather conditions our first flight was delayed, and made us late for out next flight.  So after waiting for whole day in Madrid we finally got to our flight to Alicante and arrived there around 11pm. But the bus from there stops to drive to the city of Murcia at 8pm. So we could get to Murcia, where our hotel was, till next morning. But thanks to our great team, we putted together our money and renter a car. I had navigation system on my mobile and got us to the door of our hotel. 

So that’s how our trip started.  We were staying in very nice hotel, in very center in Murcia. Nice city in south of Spain. Topic there was very similar that in Poland. We were talking about inactivity on European youth. And found some problems that are in giving them information’s, and something to encourage them to become volunteers or something similar. 

We also got to see the town Cartagena, and off course Murcia, several times.  After all this there was still the third part of this exchange witch should take part in Slovenia. But because of some lack of communication I wasn’t informed about it.

My first youth in action experience

Nasutow

Youth in action is an organization that does youth exchanges, programs and all other similar things. Everything is sponsored by European Union. So that includes staying, food, and 70% of traveling costs. So all a participant has to pay is 30% of train, bus or plane ticket and his own spending’s on a trip. 

Main bulding

So my first experience with this organization was when I went to Poland, in november 2010, on a youth exchange titled »Active youth in adult world«. We were doing some researches with polls in our local communities, and then present them to other participant countries, that were Poland and Spain.  On our seminars we tried to find solutions to our problems. In Poland we focused on youth unemployment after finishing schooling, and question if is dialog with politicians and youth possible.  

Palace in Warsaw

Team in Lublin

So program activities took places in small village called Nasutow near city Lublin in Poland.  This is a very nice place, build in the way the old polish farms were build.  Now it has a purpose to host programs like ours was.

So besides living in these nice houses we also got to see city of Lublin, tried their warm beer, which has nice taste.  And on our last day of traveling we also got to see Poland’s capital Warsaw.  We went there on our last day in the morning by bus, and did some site seeing till our late departure. We went on top of the biggest building in Poland and enjoyed the view over the city.

A traditional spring break trip – Italy

Inside the coliseum.

My school usually organizes trips in spring break, so that’s why this one can be called traditional. Last year I went to Paris and this year (2010) I went in to Rome, Italy. Trip was by bus again, but this time it was not so hard because Italy is right next to Slovenia, so the drive was quite short, comparing the one to Paris.  Included in this trip was also the visiting of the Napoli, and volcano next to it that is called Vesuvius.

So our trip started from Slovenia, to the border with Italy and then right to the city Rome. There we used metro to get in to the city center. We saw the coliseum, old roman forum square, and all the other ancient buildings that are there. There really is no sense to write them all down.  We spent sightseeing most of the day. At the end of the day we went to the small city, witch name I really don’t remember, that was on the half way from Rome to Napoli, where we spent our first night.

City Pompeii

Picture with old crater behind.

The next morning we went to the Napoli. We started our day at dead city Pompeii. That was the thing that I most liked in the whole trip. I was surprised how developed the citizens of Pompeii were. That kind of landmark, with a great tour guy, can really make your day better. Really there is a sad story about this great city, that it was destroyed in a massive volcano accident. The ashes from volcano and parts that flew on the city buried it all. So all the tourist can see today had to be dug out again.  To understand the disaster more we went on the volcano to see the old crater, and its remains.

Route to the volcano was steep and very hard for the bus. When we came to the place from where we should walk on, we find out that the track to the top is closed due to rain that damaged the track last night. So we had to go back down. On our way back to city Napoli, we stopped the bus at one place from where you can see the old crater.

Coast in Napoli

We finished that day with the tour of Napoli, and after that we went to our hotel again. In the morning of third day we went back home, we stopped in one city on our way, but his name also jumped out of my head already. 

The first Balkan experience!

Skopje

As the title says, the next trip was my first real Balkan experience. It was a school trip again, as a part of recycling project we traveled to Macedonia.  More precisely, it was an exchange program, se we were returning a visit to our friends in Skopje that traveled in to Slovenia some moths before.  The exchange happened during my winter school brake in 2010. So I went to Macedonia in the last week of February. There was another exciting thing about this trip. This was the first time for me to travel with an airplane. But I consider myself as a person who loves adrenalin and stuff like this so the flight was nothing to me.  

Ohrid

When we arrived in to the Macedonian capital, Skopje, our host families were expecting us already.  Mostly through the week we did some training courses about recycling in local high school. (Gimnazija Josip Broz Tito-Skopje). We also did some site seeing around the town, got familiar with their culture, and spend some free time with our host families.  One day we went to the Macedonian biggest tourist place; Ohrid Lake. Now I know why it’s called the Macedonian pearl. It’s just totally different from the rest of the country. Everything is so clean and tidy; we visited one of the churches near the lake.  After spending the night at one of the hotels we went back to Skopje where we had our final event at the ending of our project.

Departure from Skopje to Ljubljana

When returning home, I can tell you that hospitality on the Balkan is just great. I learned one thing that you should remember when traveling there. Your host will give you everything that he has, even if he’s poor, and everything you are given from them you should accept and appreciate. I just adore their hospitality.  So thank you Adam Gligoroski.

City of love.

Houses in Strasbourg ( picture is symbolic)

That’s what we’re going to call my second big trip. It was a school trip to Paris – city of love as many of you could call it. This trip was little bit longer than previous to Brussels; it lasted for a whole week, so five days all together.  A trip took place in my spring break in May 2009, so quite fast after the first one.

Elfel tower (picture is symbolic)

The whole trip was by bus. I know, that sounds awful. And driving from Slovenia to Paris really was hard. Luckily we had some sightseeing plans on our way to Paris. Our first stop just as we came out of Germany was the city Strasbourg. Very important city for European Union.  There is a “second” European parliament in Strasbourg. Of course city itself has a lot more to offer that just parliament. Just the style in which the city was built in is very special, for me it looked like that old German style with a lot of wooden decorations.  After Strasbourg we also visited the region Champagne, the place where real French champagne in made. Of course testing champagne was included, but not for me, I was underage.

Versailes ( picture is symbolic)

About the Paris I wound be able to tell you every single detail what have we seen, because it’s just too long ago to remember. Our trip started at Versailles, the mansion build my Ludwig XIV. One amazing building if you ask me. It is huge. With all those gardens and other places it’s bigger than my home town. Seriously.  After Versailles it was four days of Paris, visiting everything. Form Eifel tower, its huge and beautiful too, to all the museums, if you are wondering, yes I got lost in the Louvre museum. I saw the Mona Lisa picture, and my opinion was “it’s so small!”  After seeing all the churches, and parks, visited numerous French restaurants, we went to Disney land for the last day. I finally saw Mickey, he waved to me. It would be much better if I would be there 10 years earlier or maybe not because I would probably get a heath attack of all that stuff.

Louvre (picture is symbolic)

That’s all I remember right now, on our way back, there were no major stop overs so I tried to sleep most of the time, and I somehow succeeded. And now when I think back that I have already been to Paris, it just doesn’t sound real; I bet I was too young to realize where I have been. 

Sorry I just didn't find pictures so all of the pictures are sybolic and taken from the Google.

There always is a beginning.

Our first view of European parliament.

To bring my dreams of circling the world to you, I would have to go way back in time, to April in year 2009. 15.4.2009 was the day when i went on my first real travel. I went on a school excursion to Brussels, Belgium. Of course i traveled before, but it was just like family trips to seaside in Croatia, or visiting relatives in Germany. 

Inside of the parliament.

Probably back then in did not realize what I am starting, for me it was just a trip with my friends and schoolmates in my first year of my high school. Trip was mostly about visiting the European parliament, and meeting Slovenian representative in the parliament, Mr. Lojze Petrle. We were actually invited to the Brussels by him, after he was guest on one of our school projects.

Buildings on a Grand place.

Trip lasted only two days, with one sleep over in one of the Brussels hotels. First day, we had a tour of a European parliament, and ending with a little city walk, and getting familiar with old city center of Brussels. I was amazed by the style in which the “Grand place”, the place in front of the city hall, was built in.  I personally am not I person familiar with old gothic architecture, but those buildings simply amazed me totally.  After spending a great night at nice and small hotel, we hit the road back to Slovenia next day. On our way back we also stopped by the Brussels landmark Atomium.

Me in front od the Atomium.

So that’s how all that started. One thing I’ll never forget in that nice European city, is a small record collector store a couple  blocks away from Grand place, where I bought my first vinyl. I said that day to myself that if I ever go to Brussels again, I’ll visit that store. And I tell you something, I did it.