Two days ago I came back from my on-arrival training for volunteers in Croatia. Actually, we are obligated to take a part in it, but it absolutely didn’t felt like a duty – more like great adventure and pure pleasure.

Our group contained fifteen people from eight different countries – none was from the same as I am, but language or cultural barriers did not exist in this case. We got along really well from the first day and it lasted to the last one – even a little bit more, since most of the group spent also Sunday, after coming back together, exploring Zagreb. 

My trip to Orahovica started on the 6th of February in Zagreb – I met there with a French girl to sightsee the city. We used a free city tour that started exactly at the time and place of our meeting, so we decided that it’s a perfect coincidence. In a train, we sat with – as we found out later – three more people from our training. Four hours of journey flight in a blink of an eye under the theme of our experiences, funny stories and a little bit of confusion with our tickets. We finally saw all of us each other while entering the bus from the train station to the place that was about to become our home for next week. Trainers welcomed us warmly and from this point our days were fulfilled by tons of useful knowledge, many, many, maaaany minutes of laugh, a lot of fun facts and stories from our lives and exchange of information about associations where we are volunteers. We’ve gained more than we expected thanks to wonderful work of ours trainers, logistic manager, cooks, accommodation staff and thanks to each other – for creating an inclusive space, full of friendship, good atmosphere and without borders. 

Now we are ready to continue our volunteering service, with new friends in all over Croatia, a huge amount of inspiration and with beautiful memories of an amazing week somewhere in the middle of Slavonia.