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Two months later my mind is filled with so many amazing Memories. Memories from all the workshops we made, Memories from all the trips we made, Memories from all the conversations we had

You always think it’s impossible to make so many good connections with people and create so many fun workshops in just two months until you do it. But you can not get surprised by the outcome if you don’t step outside of your comfort zone.

I always tried to step out of my comfort zone by making workshops about things that are important to me, for that the freedom ABS gave us to create events that matter to us was helpful. Such as creating the sustainable Monday events, with Paula and Ange, where we always made DIYs about specific topics like recycling cloth. Or which was for me a bigger challenge to create 3 yoga sessions, because I have never even participated in one and then I was supposed to lead one… But I mostly got positive feedback which surprised me, so it’s something new I learned about myself and something I want to continue on doing in Germany.

My favorite part about the work was the opportunity to get in contact with locals and to have intercultural discussions about the topics which are important to us volunteers.

But to be honest these aren’t the things I’m going to remember the most. The most I’m going to remember the people I have met, the insiders we had together, the trips we have made.

I didn’t only explore one new country, I got to know 5 different countries and 7 different amazing people. The people are all so unique and special in their own way but together we created such an incredible support system and a productive working environment.

As you can see we were really productive and made so many workshops but also in our free time we were always busy. We traveled to Veliko Tarnovo, the old capital city of Bulgaria, and explored the fortress and the cute old city center. Melnik was also one of our destinations, where we saw the sunset over the pyramids and were singing, laughing out loud.

Even when we decided to stay in Blagoevgrad a weekend, we were active and made hiking trips to the stob pyramids or explored Blago more.

Sadly the Rila Monastery was closed so we couldn’t go there but at least it’s now one reason more for me to come back.

One of my favorite experiences in the two months was the liberation day on the third of march, cause there we took a traditional train to Yakurda, a small city somewhere in Bulgaria.

But directly when we left the train we were welcomed by traditional dressed Bulgarians who offered us homemade Bulgarian cakes and cookies. From the train station, we went up to a hill where we had an overview of the village and started to learn and dance traditional dances. This went on for the whole day and continued at the village’s main square. At the end of the day, all of us were full and exhausted by all these amazing memories and we felt a little bit more Bulgarian after that.

And at the end of my stay, we finished with a trip to Burgas and Plovdiv.

It was so amazing to see the black sea in Burgas and to smell the sea, but you can also see that this is a city for the summer because everything was closed but we didn’t really mind cause we had one another.

Plovdiv is definitely not overrated, it deserves to be called the cultural capital city of Bulgaria. From their old town to their new modern quarter, which reminded me a little bit of Berlin, everything felt so welcomed and intercultural. The location of the city makes it also possible to have an amazing overview of the city and see the sunset and dance into the night.

After a weekend like this, it was even harder to leave Bulgaria, but I’m looking forward to meeting all of them again soon and explore the other volunteer’s cities and cultures.

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