In the first part, we saw what working for the ABS office has taught me. But not only that I also learned a lot by travelling in the surrounding countries, and this is what we will see now:
II) Learning by travelling
After spending a week in Blagoevgrad, I realized how different the culture is from my hometown. There’re so many countries and so many different cultures all around, so I decided to live the experience thoroughly by travelling every weekend. I had 4 days-off and weekends off for 2 months, and there were no difficulties to use my free time to travel, I have worked in 3 jobs for 3 years before EVS, so I had enough money to offer myself the drunkenness of travels and discoveries in Balkans.
After improvising some plans, I took my first day-off and chose my first destination: Skopje, Macedonia. I really wanted to enjoy and learn all I can during my time here, and in my mind, travelling has always been one of the best ways to «learn by doing» about the world, and about yourself.
But my first real destination was... Sofia. It was so unexpected because I arrived early and had to wait until the night to take my bus to Skopje. At this moment, I took my chance to discover the city before reaching Skopje. Spending a short weekend there, I came back to Sofia to see a football game and visit the places I missed before.
The following weeks, I visited some places, and each one has taught me something about myself and about the local culture: Plovdiv taught me the proudness of the past, Istanbul the greatness of multicultural influences, Thessaloniki the gigantism of ancient Greece, Bucharest, also called «The eastern Paris», taught me the warmness and the kindness of welcoming, and Belgrade, the reconciliation after all the wars of the recent past
The roman theater in Plovdiv
Istanbul, between Europe and Asia
Sunset over the bay seen from the old town of Thessaloniki
In every city, I had the chance to meet some local people to leave marked paths: I met Angelo in Plovdiv, in Skopje, a French homeless named Ramsès, In Thessaloniki, Phillippe, who decided to embrace orthodox faith when he visited the Athos mount, In Bucharest, Ioan and Mariah, free tour guides, but also Angel and his girlfriend, tourists from Spain who had some local friends, and in Belgrade Kristina, a very nice girl who welcomed me very nicely, and taught me the art of making, drinking and enjoying Rakia with a lot of warmness and kindness.
I don't know if I'll keep contacts with all these beautiful people, but one common thing I will remember about all of them is the meaning of the word «brat» (brother) in Slavic languages:
Even if they're quarrelling sometimes about a land, a word or an historical figure, they have most in common than the disagreements which separate them, especially in ex-Yugoslavian countries.
Angel and me, starting in good company our evening in Bucharest
In a nutshell...
To give a short conclusion to this two-part article, this unexpected meeting between me and Bulgaria was a great opportunity to socialize myself, make new friends, improve my English, learn the impact of French language and culture abroad, make an idea become a project and many other things.
The only regret I have is that it was on a short-term EVS, so I had not enough time for all my ideas. So, I needed to let some of the other volunteers do them if they want to do it.
My ambition now is to find a long-term EVS before I turn 31. I have 4 months left, it appears to be so difficult, but coming here and learning all I learnt was so unexpected nothing looks impossible now.
