Volunteers from the Trbovlje Youth Center visited the Slovenian town of Skofja Loka as part of a short European Solidarity Corps (ESC) project last week. The ESC is an international volunteer system, which promotes youth mobility through international activities in non-formal education. A group of five volunteers comes from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Spain and Italy. Together with volunteers from Škofja Loka, they worked for five days to mark the cycle path. Their job is to sign, clean and mark the forest path for cyclists and pedestrians.
In addition to their daily work, volunteers had the opportunity to get to know the history of this medieval town, visit the castle, attend a theater, a concert and an exhibition of paintings.
A volunteer from Spain, Juan said „Coming to Skofja Loka was a cool opportunity for us to get to know a new city in Slovenia, not only as tourists but also from the inside. Thanks to Matias, from the Mladinski Centar, we had the chance to get a glimpse of the local culture scene, such as a musical play, a local art exhibition, and a concert.”
Our volunteer from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Anis, told us that this was a great opportunity for him to make new friends from different countries. The group met volunteers from Skofja Loka who are currently on a long EVS project. So they met young people from Russia, France, Poland, Belgium, and Spain. The volunteers spent a few days together getting to know each other, socializing, sharing stories from previous volunteer experiences, ranging from Madagascar to Russia. Also, there is a river in the center of the city, volunteers used every free moment every day to go to the Devil’s Bridge, enjoy swimming and beautiful view of the hills in which the town is enclosed.
However, not only did they enjoy, but also worked, Stefano, a volunteer from Italy, tells us. “We worked hard on the bike path, and we learned that 80cm is not much unless it is the depth of a hole you have to dig. “ Volunteers worked hard to connect Skofja Loka’s bike path to Ljubljana.
Also on their way back to Trbovlje, they visited the Bled and Bohinj lakes, seized the opportunity and swim in the clear water of Lake Bohinj.
Nejra Džaferagić
