Hello everyone!
September has arrived, and it’s time to look back on the summer. Spoiler alert: it was amazing. Honestly, one of the best summers I’ve ever had.
After finishing the Slatinka workcamp, I went back to Bratislava. It felt weird to be back in a city, I wasn’t used to seeing so many people around and everything is going so fast. I needed time to re-adapt. The next days I met with my friends, and since I had a week to recover from the workcamp, I contacted an environmental association I had already volunteered with to see if they needed help. That way I could stay close to nature, do something useful, and learn more about nature. I spent a whole day on their farm cutting invasive species while they explained to me their experiment with pastures in the forest. It was inspiring to be surrounded by such motivated people. When I asked if I could come back during the week, I got the chance to join a trip with another association to Slovak Paradise to look for big carnivores in the forest.
So I left with my friend for 5 days in East where we were checking camera traps in the forest. We saw many animals on the footage, but the most impressive were bear and lynx! During this trip we also visited Poprad, hiked in the Low Tatras, camped in a scout camp, and even joined their end-of-camp ceremony with campfire and live guitar music. We met farmers and even some random Slovak grandpas. It really felt like being in a movie. Those five days were magical, I felt like I was in the right place at the right moment, connected to the world and truly happy about it.
Then I was back to Bratislava again. I spent a week at the INEX office before leaving for my next adventure: a workcamp in Serbia. I took a bus on Friday night and arrived on Saturday morning in Belgrade. Traveling alone by bus again, I love that feeling of going on a new adventure. Being abroad again made me realize that Slovakia no longer feels like “abroad” to me, but home. I feel like I belong to this country now.
From 5 a.m. to 11 a.m., I walked peacefully around Belgrade and met some locals by chance on the streets. But once the heat and the wave of tourists arrived, I decided to move on. I took my next bus to Kovin, where the local partner Aca and the leader Natalija picked me up to drive to Deliblato. The “Stories by the Lake” workcamp was starting! My very first moment there was me trying to talk with Serbian fishermen in broken Slovak and realizing we actually had some words in common!
Those two weeks were really intense. We lived inside a nature reserve, and I learned so much about botany, turtles, fish, and birds. We were 15 volunteers from all over the world, and we quickly bonded, shared a lot of fun moments, and created memories I’ll never forget.
And then, it was time to go back to Bratislava again preparing for next adventures in August…
Take care,
Sarah
