Fourth Week - Maribor and Celje
The fourth week starts with our third day in Maribor. However, today (on the 25th of May) we took the bus to another city called Murska Sobota. It was an opportunity to get to know the surroundings of Maribor as Murska Sobota is located approximately 60 km from Maribor.
. On our arrival, we were greeted by Ivor from the Youth Information and Culture Club (Mladinski informativni in kulturni klub Murska Sobota – MIKK; www.mikk.si) and who presented us the youth centre as well as activities taking place in the centre.
We were also shown around in the garden in which they take great pride as they emphasise the importance of growing your own fruits and vegetables. Thereafter … the moment we had all been waiting – cooking and food J. We were directed to the kitchen outside where the chefs were waiting us. We were peeling onions, potatoes, chopping vegetables, etc. … but mostly eating.
We had freshly baked bread with some toppings and mashed potatoes with onions. After lunch we walked around Murska Sobota and we also visited the community garden. Then it was time to head back Maribor.
On Tuesday we had a workshop with Maja Hostnik on the topic of how to plan and organise public events. This was part of our preparation for our first public event that will be held in Brežice.
In order to balance our working hours J, we visited the Vocational College for Catering and Tourism in Maribor where we received the warmest welcome one could ever imagine; and to top it off, we had a cooking workshop with Ms Mojca Polak during which the students of the college served us some of the best dishes the Slovenian cuisine has to offer.
Everything was simply delicious!
On our way back to the hostel, some of us were lured by the junk shops where they sell used goods … and why not to buy a vintage typewriter and transport it all the way to Finland (Well, good luck to Heidi who has to convince airport security that it is absolutely essential to carry it in a hand luggage J). After our amazing culinary experience we had to balance our leisure hours and start working.
In the evening we had a presentation about the youth centre in Maribor (http://www.mkc.si/sl/). For the dinner we planned a barbecue. Bananas with Milka chocolate are our new favourite :).
The 27th of May (that is Wednesday) started with our presentation about EVS and There Is A World Outside Your Window at Srednja šola za oblikovanje (the school for design). We were first greeted by Ms Darja Kramberger, a social counsellor. We also had a short tour in the school and some of the students showed us their work. Talented students with lots of potential! When it comes to our mission today, we were happy about the students’ interest in EVS and their questions.
The presentation was followed by coffee in the city centre and a tour in Maribor. It was a street art walk through the city with Minka and we were shown all the hidden gems of Maribor, such as Banksy’s street art, Kino Udarnik “the China Town”, the first legal graffiti wall, the living gardens (project by Hiša), etc. It was a great non-touristic experience in a touristic city! The rest of our afternoon was filled with laughter and work .
In the evening we had a dinner at Slovenia's first Roma restaurant Romani Kafenava; and once again, delicious food. This authentic experience was spiced up by coffee fortune telling and some of us now have an insight into what the future has in store for them.
On Thursday we said bye to Maribor and hello to Celje .
It is the third largest city in Slovenia … and for us, who love large cities, Celje is a wonderful city where to continue our journey. We stay in the House of Legends where each room represents a legend in Celje that has been told from generation to generation. Before hard work in the evening, the superb guide from the Kavarna Hostel showed us the best places in the city. He also showed us something that they call “the sea” in Celje … well, in reality this translates into the café near the river J. Moving on, as you have probably understood by now, we very much like the balance of work and leisure in our EVS project ;) By “hard work” today we actually meant cooking our traditional dishes J. So, what was in the menu: meat balls (Albanian), filled eggs and a traditional dessert called kama (Estonian), pasta with tuna and vegetables (Italian), and sweet rice (Portuguese). It was a truly international dinner at MCC Hostel (Celjski Mladinski Center – Youth Center Celje; http://www.mc-celje.si/en/Youth_Center/) where we presented ourselves and our dishes to the visitors of the hostel.
The 29th of May – the last day of the work week. As part of our stay in Celje we visited the Gimnazija Celje where we had another presentation related to European Voluntary Service and our project. We would like to thank you the students of Gimnazija Celje for their active participation, interest and questions. You were absolutely great! Our presentation was followed by social media marketing…and after, we were ready for the much awaited weekend .
There is only one word to describe this weekend – AWESOME!!! Klemen – the superb guide from the Kavarna Hostel – we told you about before, organised our Saturday for us. Namely, we went to Lake Šmartinsko where, for starters, we had a boat trip. This was followed by all kinds of activities ‘on’ the lake (or should we say ‘in’ the lake )…such as, supping, jumping on a trampoline, water running inside of an inflatable ball, etc. What made this day even more awesome is that some of the activities we had never ever done before – we got something to cross off the to do list. In the evening, there was also a concert in the youth hostel – a great end to a great day. In contrast with our active Saturday, we had a lazy Sunday, but we needed it. We walked a bit in the city centre, had a coffee, learnt Italian (at least one of us did ), relaxed in the hostel, enjoyed the sun and the beauty of doing nothing.
