Ours was in Salamanca, the province of Castilla y Leon, and it welcomed the volunteers from Galicia, Asturia, Castilla y Leon – mostly the Northern part of Spain. It was me, Santa and Aleksander going together for five unforgettable days. We took a bus from Ourense and on the way we met another volunteer, staying in A Coruna that was going to the same seminar. When entering the neighbor province of Castilla y Leon we could already see why all the local people first associate Galicia with “it is green”. The middle of the country is a never ending plain landscape with dry fields, at some spots agriculture, but mostly … just never changing view of brown-yellow land and bushes. I would say I liked it, seeing it as something new for my eyes, but at the same time I felt lucky staying in the wild Galician county, which matches my idea for nature much more…
The training was really well-done, perfectly organized and so on, I could continue with more good words, but in brief – thanks to the four girls in charge to keep us satisfied and well-informed all the time. In the program we had so many things included, that my head was feeling like a swollen balloon at some stages. From bare necessity facts and explanations about the insurance that we have, the documents that we do, the expectations and fears part and so on, to a well-kept language course, it was all at the right place. Nevertheless, a big part of the educational topics were made to be as interesting as possible, interactive and involving – we created the town of our dreams, in which everyone had their house of the dreams and shared their perspectives with the others. Sharing was the other really pleasant part. All the volunteers made a short description of their EVS project. And that was the moment I felt really thankful again. As most of them were feeling not really happy to be where they found themselves, due to problems with language, integration, the work, their boss or whatever, neither me, nor Santa or Aleksander were able to say anything bad about our life by that moment in Ribadavia. Of course, there were more good examples for volunteers in the right place, it is not that the world starts and finishes with our sweet village, but I definitely realized how much I love it!
This type of meeting is also an amazing chance to make contacts and to get to know so many great people from all over Europe! We had a presentation of Spain, including cooking traditional dishes in the kitchen of the dorm, but also we presented each other our home countries. And had fun, has to be mentioned! On the same training I met the other Bulgarian on a project in Spain, which is my good friend Aleksandra. The never-ending conversations with her brought back my native language in my mind again, on the top of the English-Spanish-Gallego-Russian mess that was already existing. But precious times… Discovering Salamanca with its purely Spanish spirit, with the sound of flamenco, with its night bars, student life, young spirit and beautiful architecture, with walks along the river and sightseeing…
In the last day of the training we went on an excursion in Segovia, a historical town North from Madrid, full of tourists taking pictures of the Aqueduct, the Death woman hills, the Alkazar prison and more and more. A trip in the heart of Spain indeed!
On the way back, when everything was supposed to be finished, the adventures just kept on going. We travelled with the trains, changing in Medina del Campo, truly a town in the middle of nowhere, but at the same time a stop on Camino de Santiago, the pilgrims’ way. For this one hour before the next train, we managed to walk all over the village, to see the waterless river, its churches (of course) and not least – the shop for Bulgarian foods where I bought some white cheese, lyutenitsa and sharena sol to cook for my foreign friends. Running for the train was the normal way the things go when you take your time as a tourist, but after some more emotions on the way it is so much sweeter to be back home.
Home indeed. I actually missed my Ribadavia during this week. Especially the green hills and the deep fresh rivers. Also the feeling to be safe and happy on a place where I was so welcomed and able to adapt in no time. The same evening when we were back another party was taking place in Ribadavia – the Flower Power, when everyone gets dressed as a hippie and the 60s and 70s music is on the stream. Good way to see the same old lovely faces in a new manner :)
The week ended on the streets of Ourense where I took part in the local events on the national-wide protest in Spain, probably also because of feeling more and more connected with this country with every single day here…
Nice you enjoy the training.Thank you ;)Ana
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