2-9 May 2005 Gelnica, SLOVAKIA

This exchange was our organization’s first contact with the young people from the Slovak town Gelnica. The title of the exchange was “I don’t know your language but still we can speak together” and it was truer than one can imagine. After recovering from the initial shock that a large part of the participants in the exchange from Slovakia, Czech Republic, Sweden, Estonia, Poland could not speak English well enough in order to communicate fluently, the Bulgarians wholeheartedly accepted the fun challenge of talking to others while not always using English.

There were many young people on the exchange, aged 16-17, and we made friends with all of them. The activities ranged from fun sport games to knowledge tasks which were challenging but fun nonetheless. We played games from each country and we enjoyed ourselves immensely. The exchange even included a barbeque around a bonfire which was quite entertaining with singing, playing, dancing and so on.

This exchange was noted for the numerous beneficial contacts our organization made.

We were showed around the beautiful Slovak countryside and visited the largest castle in Central Europe Spiski Hrad. The organization of the exchange was very entertaining and diverse and included a lot of traveling which took us even to Koshice where we visited the beautiful theater and attended several interesting ceremonies because the day we went to Koshice was actually the Day of the city and there were beautiful celebrations and parades.

All in all, out stay in Slovakia proved to be one of the best experiences for the young volunteers from Open Youth.