03 June – 10 June 2006, Mursa Chikle, Poland

Open Youth took part in a project, which aim was to show and break the stereotypes about different countries. Our hosts from Kulturatka were very well prepared for this exchange. The whole project as well as the fun activities were very well organised.

A lot of people in Western Europe have completely wrong notions about Eastern European countries. This is why our project aimed to show people how comic their concepts are.

The workshops started with team building. Thanks to the professional trainer, within only one day we were able to create a nice and friendly environment. Getting to know each other we spent one amusing and lovely day.

We managed to keep the same atmosphere over the next days. One of the most exciting things about this exchange was that we were working in “national” groups consisting of non-national members. Each group’s task was to present some of the most common stereotypes about the country of that group’s leader. As a result we created five short plays for each country.

As a tradition the Bulgarian national evening was the most entertaining of all. Since we were first in the national evenings’ program, every other country was inspired by our presentation. All of them did their best in the presentation. We enjoyed all the evenings very much. We were served traditional drinks and meals. We were able to learn different facts from the history of the countries. There was one common thing in all presentations – they all ended with a huge and noisy party.

We discovered the gorgeous nature of the Zakopane area having an all day walk in the mountain. The evening before we left for Krakow was unforgettable. The hosts had prepared a surprise for all of us. At night we rode in carriages to the near-by forest. Then we had some food and hot wine by the fire in the very heart of the forest.

The last day the group spent in Krakow. We had some time to discover Krakow. The presentation of our play was in a theatre in the centre of the city. The big night went well. Everyone liked our performances.

This youth exchange program allowed us to meet different people and make friends, and helped us to understand each other. It was great experience and great fun.