17 – 30 August 2007 Hajduszoboszlo, HUNGARY

Like a real rainbow, our journey to Hajduszoboszlo, Hungary, was fulfilled with different emotions - happiness, laugh, sadness, cry, fun and many unforgettable moments.

The topic was religions, but it was much more than this. We had fun while learning new and interesting facts. This wasn’t one of those boring projects about religions, in fact it was very exciting and edifying. Almost every day we had presentations about different religions; in the afternoons we had guests, who showed us the main rituals and principles in this certain religion. We prayed with Muslims, meditated with Buddhists, sang with Hinduists and shared dinner with Jewish people. Together we decorated rooms as temples and played a lot of games. By different games we learned many facts about those religions.

We also had very well organized free time. At the second day of our arrival we went to Debrecen (the second biggest town in Hungary). We had to perform a kind of street theatre there; in exchange we got free tickets for “Da Vinci” exhibition. In the same day we also played a game called “Treasure Hunting” which was a real challenge for us, because most of the people there don’t speak English and we needed information about some places in the town. However, we managed with this and gained a lot of knowledge about Debrecen. While we were in the town we watched the “Flower Festival”, one of the most impressive events we have ever seen. It’s amazing how those people have managed to make such masterpieces with flowers. For us it was very nice surprise to see that in this Festival took part also a group from Bulgaria.

Another great part of our stay there was the visit to the SPA center. We went there twice and really enjoyed it. The town itself is known as “Hajduszoboszlo – the city of SPA”, if you go there, you will understand what they mean. The SPA center was like a little town where you can find everything, from relaxing hot pools to little and noisy restaurants, from pleasant row with water bicycle to scary water slides.

The only thing that we all didn’t enjoy, at the time when we were there, was the “pleasant” surprise which the sponsors of the project organized for us. An hour and a half SIFU training with a SIFU master. However maybe some of you would like it. We were completely exhausted at the time of the trainings, but thinking about it now it ‘s funny and maybe I would like to repeat it.

Our stay in Hungary was 14 days, at first sight it may seem too long, but actually for us, the participants, it was like a moment, a short moment which we will never forget. Moment, spent with wonderful people in a magnificent place. For such a short time we managed to make new friendships with people from Malta, Spain, Hungary, Romania and Turkey, we became one family. Family in which you share everything. The hardest moment was our parting. It was so hard to say goodbye to your new family when u have spent with them two weeks.

Unforgettable – that’s how I can describe it with one word only. These two weeks in Hajduszoboszlo were like a fairy-tale, unfortunately they had their end, because everything ends, but we are looking for our next visit to this marvelous town. We left this place with the hope that one day ours and our new friends’ roads will cross and we will meet again. We gained more than knowledge there, we made friends for the rest of our life. Thanks Hajduszoboszlo!