Slovakian Adventure on

“The goal is not to be better than the other man, but your previous self.”
DALAI LAMA

Jeden, Dva, Tri,…, Šesťdesiat štyri

So here the story. This is a new beginning: new country, new culture, new project, new people, new home and definitely new adventure.

Just below, ~~you’ll find a key which leads to a treasure, clap three times in your hands if you want it to appear~~, you will find some more details about this ESC volunteering project, monthly updated. (ESC is European Solidarity Corps, in a few words, it’s an european program)

September : Split in half

If you still read my blog, well I’m quite impressed you were really patient. That’s so great, I’m glad that you are here. I didn’t write for a long time. To be honest, these last months were quite intense. I needed to take time. Time to work on other missions, also time for me, for my friends, for my family.

“Listening to my needs” : it is exactly the theme I wanted to talk about. As a matter of fact, I started to write months ago in a draft and the first sentence was this quote :

“The only limit is the one you set to yourself.” Felix Baumgartner.

Yes, I remember that I wanted to tell you how much it is important to push yourself beyond your fears. Also, it is as much important to know your limit and to not go beyond a line that you don’t want to cross. I know it sounds completely contradictory but it is true. I will always say to you that you should do your maximum to believe in yourself, to go out of your comfort zone and to reach your most beautiful dreams. But, I will never tell you to put yourself in unwanted situations. It means : never forget yourself, never put aside your real needs, never put yourself in danger physically or emotionally. Preserve yourself if you feel like.

Ok now, you are probably wondering what crossed my mind to say that. Well, I’ll tell you the story. I was on holiday for a little road trip in Slovakia. The idea was to discover the country, to see beautiful landscapes and to enjoy hiking in nature. In the Liptov region, you can find some hikes with wooden bridges crossing rivers. After a few days of rain, I decided to enjoy the weather and go for a little walk. The plan was to go for 1h or 2h to reach a viewpoint and observe the lake. You already know that I love lakes ^^ So I went, ready to enjoy my life and to have a relaxing walk.

When I saw the river I was already super happy to listen to the water lapping. I crossed a few wooden bridges, walked in this muddy path, not worrying about what could come next. And came what was supposed to come : the river crossing without any bridge, only with a kind of rock path. Well, during a sunny day, I walked on a similar path in the Slovak paradise hike. But this time, the weather didn’t help. The river’s current was really strong. I couldn’t imagine myself falling from the slippery rocks and being swept away by the river. I stared at the torrent for a moment, a little bit fascinated by the strength of the water.

I knew that the river was much stronger than me. The decision was easy : it wasn’t worthwhile continuing the hike so I just chose to walk back. At the end, I drove to another place and I found by chance a sweet walk crossing cows meadows. As a bonus, I got the view on the lake I was looking for ! 😀 Moral of the story : listen to yourself and follow your intuition. Second moral of the story (héhé) : if a way doesn’t fit you, you can find another one to reach your goal.

In very short summary, I really enjoy this road trip. I rented a car, borrowed the tent of my colleague, packed a backpack and travelled around Slovakia. I passed by Trnava, Nitra, Terchová, Orava castle, Babia Gora hike, Slovenský raj, Liptovský Mikuláš, Tatras, Levoča, Vlkolinec, Hervatov church, Banska Bystrica, and the best for the end : hrad Gymeš (the castle “in the book” !!!!! :D). So glad that I could make it. I met amazing people and I saw wonderful landscapes.

By the way on some hikes you can find this :

It is pretty cool, it seems like an artwork inviting people to preserve nature ^^

During this trip, there were three amazing hikes that really impressed me :

Suchá Belá
Rysy
Kriváň

Thankfully I trained myself before because these hikes were quite challenging. And I’m proud that I didn’t give up and reached the top 😀 Even if it was difficult sometimes, I keep really nice memories of them. If I close my eyes, I can feel again these sensations of being higher than the cloud, of touching the cold water of the river, or of climbing on the rock wall many meters from the ground. These hikes took my breath away while giving me an intense serenity.

Otherwise, September was also the month of goodbyes. Two of my friends went back home. We enjoyed the last days together. We had a great time, as always, it is because we simply like each other’s company 🙂

Some pictures of a lovely day at Hrad Devín

No worries it wasn’t only about ends. At Inex, we had the opportunity to do volunteering activities in-person. Yeaaaah !

So if you didn’t know it happens that there are special events inviting the local people to volunteer. It was the case for Naše město (“Our City”) and Týždeň dobrovoľníctva (“The volunteering week”). We took part in these two events with the goal to help the local community or a non-profit organization. We met people who were volunteers for a day with us. We made a colorful fence for a kids school, also we did some cleaning and gardening at Inex.

We were also lucky to do the last part of the training for leaders “Potaborka”. We shared our experiences and feedback about the volunteering workcamps we led during the summer. We also had pieces of advice from the trainers to improve ourselves.

Not linked at all : I just want to share with you one of my favorite pictures made in the office ^^

That was the shorter summary I could write for this month. If I told you everything it would be a novel instead haha Here we are, this is the end I guess.

Wherever you are, whoever you are, enjoy life, there are so many beautiful things out there 🙂

Spoiler alert : October is a special month, there is Halloween…

This time I have a surprise for you : Click here to discover the project “The world that connects us” 😉

I’ll share below the articles of October and November and December (of course they are not written yet ^^)

–> More Photos here <–

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