EVS and travelling. Kraków.

EVS (European Voluntary Service) projects offer a lot of possibilities not only in terms of gaining particular types of skills - like professional skills, team work practicing, non-formal education, language skills, personal skills, intercultural competences, working experiences in general etc. Of course, all those experiences and competences are included in main goals of EVS projects but what is also great – if you are EVS volunteer you can (and probably you really want to) travel and explore the country where your project takes place. And actually, if you are exploring foreign country - it means you might understand then better also the culture, the people, habits etc. - so here we are back to intercultural competences :)

EVS volunteers ALWAYS travel quite a lot (I have not met EVS volunteer who didn’t like to travel) – either within the country of his/her project or even to neighbor countries. Imagine that you are for instance from south of Spain doing your EVS in Poland. Of course you want to visit all interesting places in Poland - but from Poland it is not far to some other countries.. Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and aslo others.. It is tempting, isn’t it? :)

So far I have not travelled out of Poland during my EVS project (and I am anyway not from Spain but Slovakia :) ) but finally the weather is warm and I made my first “real trip” out of Warsaw - to explore some other Polish city. 

Last weekend we visited Kraków – the city I had never been before, the city I had heard about as beautiful, inspiring, quite small where “everything” is in walking distance but sometimes full of tourists…
Wawel
So finally I saw it with my own eyes (Kraków indeed is very nice) but moreover I also met my friend Justyna I used to live with in the same apartment in Iceland: she was EVS volunteer (as workcamp leader) in organization SEEDS Iceland at the same time when I was there as long-term volunteer.
 
Me and Justyna
And so it was a great opportunity to meet again… We visited Wawel (and we touched the bell of Zygmunt to get lucky – at least someone told it works this way :) ), we saw the small cave and dragon next to the castle, Barbakan and Kościół Mariacki as well, very interesting was also Jewish district Kazimierz with its synagogues… And much more.. There really are a lot of interesting things to see in Kraków – and (partly) because of my EVS project and (partly) because of my previous volunteering and of course partly because of some other factors as well - I was able to experience it just the way it happened last weekend. :)

(We also tried to become millionaires – but we didn’t succeed.. :D We bought some of Scratchcards/Zdrapky.. But no winners.. Only Justyna won.. 1 złoty.. :D )

                        Here we are still "possible millionaires" :)       Here only Justyna is happy becasue of 1złoty winning :)

So don’t forget - EVS also gives you opportunity to travel and visit nice new places and cities + meet your friends you have met before during the time of your previous volunteering or travelling.. 

This all is also part of EVS experience. :)

Colorful stairs with nice quotes
Please trample the grass!

Jewish Synagogue
Nice view from Wawel
Beautiful tree in Wawel courtyard
 :)

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