Volunteering in Poland

Did you ever feel stuck? Like your life isn't going anywhere. Like you are not sad, but at the same time you are not happy about what you are doing with your life. Maybe you're just living day by day waiting for destiny to show up. What if he never does ? What if, when it does will be too late ? Do you believe in such thing as destiny? Maybe you are destined to something better, or bigger, or just different. But sometimes destiny needs a little push to emerge...
What I mean is, if you realize you're not completly fulfiled just do something in order to achieve what you want, in time, destiny will do the rest for you!
I know I've been living some good experiences, but I am always looking for more, something that will make me better in every way, something that I can learn from! For the last month I've been doing volunteer work in a hostel in Warsaw, Poland. Once again it was a great experience, I didn't meet as much people as I wanted, but I met some really nice quality people that helped me a lot. What do I have to say now that is finished ? THANK YOU! Thank you for the people that received me there; thank you for the people that taught me new things; thank you for the patience and thank you for the friendship! Somehow, I'll bring with me something from you that, certainly, will be helpful in the future.
So, I was living in the polish capital for a month for free and in exchange I just needed to work a few hours a week at the hostel, easy peasy, no ?

How did I get there ?

So, there's some websites that allow you to look for volunteer work around the world. The work is about helping for a few hours a week in exchange for bed and, sometimes, food. It's a very good way to travel without spending tons of money! This volunteer work allows you to gain job experience, knowledge, meeting new people and growing as an individual. You can also meet other volunteers and make some real friends.

My experience in Poland

How can I start ? Poland is a very cold country during the winter. There, snows and the temperatures reach the negative side of the thermostat very often.
I arrived in Warsaw and my first thought was that maybe it wasn't a city for me. I can't really explain why. But, in time, Warsaw revealed itself like a flower during spring, and it completly got me.
It's a city that has been reborn from the ashes after the war. You can find a mix of architecture there. They have very modern buildings and a very comercial side of the city. However, they also have the old part of the city (my favourite), with an unspeakable beauty that can provide you magical moments. There, they have a small market full of lights and comfort where you can taste street food by the fire or skating on a small ice field. It looks a little bit like Christmas.

Old Town Market

Old Town

Old Town

What else? Hmmm, they have a very beautiful palace, it's known by "The Palace of Culture and Science". That was a gift from Stalin, but people say that he also wanted to compete with the USA, that's why he demanded it's contruction. It's possible to go to the top of this building and have a panoramic view over the city. Of course it's not the most beautiful city in the world, but I assure you the it's worth it to reach the top.

Palace of Culture and Science

Palace of Culture and Science (top)

In Warsaw, they also have many parks. I visited the "Lazienki Park" that was covered by snow, the lake was frozen and it's possible to hear the birds singing. They also have a japanese garden with some kind of temples! It's a very beautiful place!

Lazienki Park (japanese garden)

Lazienki Park

At the Hostel

The hostel's name is "Hipstel Hostel" and is considered one of the best hostels in the city of Warsaw. There I learned a little bit more about the hostel's life. I was responsible for the night shift at the reception where I needed to check in guests, receive payments and help them if something was wrong. It was a very easy and funny work. All the recepcionists were always ready to help me and to teach me and I learned something from everyone of them. I want to say "thank you" to them, because they were the most responsibles for my good experience there and I hope to go back to Warsaw and meet all of them again.


So, that was my experience in Poland! At the beginning I was a little bit uneasy, but at the end everything was worth it and I returned to Portugal as a better and wiser person.

If you have any question about these kind of programs feel free to contact me, I'll be glad to help.

Why you should look for Erasmus+ projects

Two months ago I went on a 10 days trip to the south of Italy in order to participate in a Youth Exchange promoted by Erasmus+, about public speech. So they have partnerships with some NGO's from different countries. These NGO's are responsible to promote and to find the number of participants required for each project. You need to apply to the project by filling in a form and then you just need to wait for the selection and check if you were chosen to participate. The best part of these kind of projects is that all the expenses are covered by the organization. So, it's a very good way to travel for free, to learn and to meet new people at the same time! The goal of these kind of projects is to give you the opportunity to learn about something on a non conventional environment.

My project was about public speech, and it was a great experience that I will always be thankful for!

So, it took place in the beautiful Serra San Bruno, a magical place where the cold is suffocated by the great hospitality from the locals! The participants of the project were people from Italy, Portugal, Spain and Romania.

Serra San Bruno

Starting from the beggining, I arrived in Lamezia airport with another portuguese member early in the morning and there was a guy from the italian organization to give us a ride to San Bruno. During the ride he told us the tale of the Serra and explained to us something about the project. 

Soon as we arrived, they took us to the local bar/caffe, to have breakfast and to meet the leader of the project, Biagio. Quickly I realized that he was a very nice guy along with the other ones that were responsible for the project. They took us to the lodge, a nice cozy place where we would share the room with someone from another nationatily, in order to create multicultural spirit and to "break the ice" faster! Once we were there, we realized we were the first ones to arrive, so Biagio invited us to have lunch on his parent's place, a kind offer that we gladly accepted it! And it was the best meal that I had there! It was a typical house from the Serra, with some homemade pasta and wine! We enjoyed the wine so much that his father offered us a bottle ! After that, Biagio took us on a small trip across the beautiful Serra San Bruno and explained to us something about it. Then, he left us at the hostel and went to pick up the other participants.On that day everyone was tired, so we met each other very quickly, we had dinner and we went to bed ... 

On the next days we always had well programmed activities. We started with some games to know each other better, the called "ice breakers", and then we started to do group actvities or works in order to learn about public speech. All the activities were very exciting and interesting, in the middle we always had coffee break with some homemade cake, coffee and fun. We always had free time for us, and we had lunch and dinner on a typical italian restaurant. After dinner we had time for us, we used to meet on the common area at the hostel, having drinks, playing games and know each other better.

It was a multicultural environment that gives you the opportunity to learn a lot with everyone's stories...

For me, the main event in this project was the radio show that we created! We split into groups, and everyone had a topic to talk about on the local radio! Yea, we participated in a real radio show in a real local radio! For me it was the experience that I enjoyed the most and that meant more to me. My group talked about the difficulties about getting an independent life after finish university, and it was amazing to compare the different realities of each country, but at the same time to glimpse some similarities. 

Serra San Bruno's Local Radio

All the countries had an "Intercultural Night", thats was about every group (portuguese, spanish, italian and romanian) talking about their countrie's traditions to the others and giving them some traditional food and drinks... Every presentations were very interesting and gave us the opportunity to learn more about each country! 

Friends

At the end of the project we also talked about our experience on the project in the front of a camera and how much it contributed for us. I felt like every activity that we participated during the week, was in order to prepare us to the radio show and to the camera talk !

We also had a free day where the organizers rented a bus for us and took us to visit the astonishing Tropea and the beautiful Pizzo!

Tropea

Pizzo

I thank myself to have been brave enough to let me go on this trip and I thank even more to the people that made this experience so wonderful ! All the participants were very nice, each one had stories to tell and I learned something from everyone that made me face the world differently! Also, I want to leave a word for the organization, everything was very well organized and all of you were very kind. I hope to see each one of you again in the future and I wish you the best ! 

Serra San Bruno

Serra San Bruno

As you can see, I had a great experience in Serra San Bruno! So, I recommend you to research about Erasmus+ projects and to have great experiences like the one I had. I wish you all great adventures !

Milan - The mind changer

So, the first post will be about the experience that changed my way of facing life, that made me grow up a lot and learn even more.

First things first, I was about to finish my tourism degree in the beautiful city of Coimbra, but I needed an internship in order to do it, so I asked the school to get me one there, in Coimbra. They got me one, and it looked interesting, in theory...
It was an agency that promotes and organizes events in downtown of Coimbra, seemed like a nice concept to me and I was super motivated to be good at it. But my motivation vanished like a flash once I started, my tasks were all about going to the streets to distribute papers, going to the bank to deposit money or to collect some money from our associates. I've been there for 4 months but I wasn't completly being part of it, I wasn't learning anything and each day I was feeling less motivated to work there, so, I made a decision! I decided to interrupt my internship there and looking for something that was going to push me to the limit, something that was going to make me feel tested, something challenging to prove myself that I was capable of doing a lot more for me than I was doing at the time! So I did some research and I got a 3 month internship in a hostel in Milan, Italy. I was very excited about it, but at the same time I was a little bit uneasy, because it was a new country, a language that I wasn't able to speak and I didnt know anyone there. But, on the 7th of March of 2017 I packed my things and I flew to Milan. One of the best decisions I ever made!
This is what happened...

I arrived in Milan and I came across a new reality from the one I was used to, everything seemed bigger, I was hypnotized, contemplating every inch of construction, listening carefuly every italian word, running in my mind different scenarios of what was going to happen there... I was feeling that tingling in my stomach like a child feels in christmas day! I was thinking "what am I doing here?" but, on the other hand, I was thinking "It's all in!". So, I faced this experience as an opportunity to learn, to push myself to the limit, to test my capacities and to evolve as a human being. That's exactly whan happened !
The following text has been written in order to inspire you to be bold and to do what you want, but do it today, if you have any doubts about what you are doing right now don't leave what you want for tomorrow, start follow what you want step by step, and soon you will realize that you are becoming more accomplished each day.
Here it goes...

My stay in the hostel was so much more satisfying than I ever thought. The owners and the staff were all very kind to me, always trying to help me and teaching me everything about how the hostel works. Step by step I started to adapt to the tasks and before I realize I was able to do a full shift by myself! Besides the shift, I had other tasks like being responsible for the daily events (pasta night; karaoke night; drinking games night; movie night), and interact with guests during the evening, sit with them, having drinks and learning with every story that they had to tell. It was a very good way to make friends and learn with some more experienced travelers.

The city...
The city of Milan quickly got me by her charm! From the amazing Cathedral of Duomo, to the canals in Navigli, going through the beautiful Vittorio Emanuele Gallery... I was amazed by all of it! They have an amazing cuisine, very cool restaurants and pubs and good people there always ready to help you.

I also had the opportunity to travel a little bit around Italy and visiting new places that I would like to share with you on the next posts.

So, the final day came and it was very hard to leave the city, my 3 month stay seemed to me like 3 weeks, because when I left I felt like I still had so much to see and to do there. I made some real friends there, and I already went back to visit them. I know I will never forget this experience and I will always be thankful to the people that helped me there. Somehow they contributed for my development and growth.

That's why I am telling you to keep fighting for what you want to do because you will always learn a lot, you will meet awesome people, you will make some friends and you will be happier!


PS: I went back to Portugal and I finished my degree !