Traveling around the world – From Knjaževac to Gabrovo

Erasmus+ project gave young volunteers another opportunity to attend a week-long educational course called Real or Fake – Time to awake. Young ambitious people from Spain, Turkey, the United Kingdom, Germany, Bulgaria, and Serbia paid a visit to the outskirts of Gabrovo, in the mountains of Bulgaria, to attend workshops titled Media literacy.

Serbia brought us, 5 students eager to learn and expand their skill sets, but also excited to meet other people and their cultures all in the favor of our enrichment.  Ljubica, Jovana, Jana, Stefan, and Teodora are our names and we represented Serbia at this exceptional event.

Our days consisted of diverse workshops and exercises imbued with energizers to keep us at the peak of our energy. In the aforementioned workshops, we discussed fake news and how to recognize them, its influence on different age groups, and how important it is to be aware of the risks they bring. Our tutors had a different approach to teaching where we didn’t follow the tedious school procedures, instead, we had fun while learning.

What contributed to our experience is the unity we had, although we came from different sides of the world. It felt like visiting 6 different countries while being in the same room. Getting to know each other was a learning experience on its own. Despite the language barriers we had, we knew how to overcome them and make each other feel at home. We became a family for a week and pushed each other to reach our true potential.

At the end of every productive day, we would have fun gatherings, movie nights, game nights, and free time to explore all the festivities in the city of Gabrovo. We also went to the city fair and enjoyed the concert, danced with the crowd, ate delicious food and, gazed at the beautiful fireworks. It was an unforgettable experience.

One particular evening we had an intercultural gathering. Each nation represented their traditions the best they could – through food and dance. We showed them ajvar and jam from all kinds of fruits. We danced kolo and showed our friends how to do so as well. We presented our flag, which was hand-drawn, our money, our passport, and our national garment. We went from table to table and experienced the cultures of participating nations one by one. We were so happy to see how much they enjoyed ours.

From Knjaževac to Gabrovo and back - it felt like we traveled around the world. We gained new knowledge on various topics, met so many new cultures and traditions, learned new languages, and made friends for life. I hope we see each other again and relive the beautiful memories we made.

The project “Real or Fake – Time to Awake+” was implemented by Bulgarian Youth Forum and LDA CSS was one of the partners.