Erasmus and the Second Meeting in Ruse
Dear reader,
What comes to your mind when you think of Bulgaria? Roses? The Black Sea? Big cities? The river Danube? We experienced some of these things during our second project meeting in Ruse.
But first about how we got there. We (Esther Bähr, Luisa…, Emma Just, Jakob Zeibig, Louis…, Ms. Ulmer-Heinrich, Ms. Stastna und me, Shona Heidrich) met at Pirna station on October 15th.
On our way to Dresden airport, we got to know each other a little bit. We took a flight to Frankfurt that was already delayed. Arriving there we faced the next problem: we couldn’t get off our plane as there was no stairway available. During the 50 minutes that we had to wait, we played some games. After we were finally able to leave the plane, we rushed to our next gate, only to discover that this flight was delayed too.
Finally, we were on the plane to Bucharest. When we got there, we were all happy to have finally arrived. We went to Ruse by coach and arrived there at about 10 pm. Our host families were already waiting for us and we knew that the first somehow stressful day was over.
The next morning started at the local school at 9 am. (It should be briefly mentioned that going by taxi in Bulgaria creates more adrenaline than a ride on a roller coaster: there were no seat belts, and the drivers didn’t seem to be too familiar with the concept of a speed limit.)
At school, the representatives of each country (Hungary, Bulgaria, Turkey and Germany) introduced themselves and spoke about the areas they came from. We got to know each other pretty well during the second breakfast trying out Bulgarian specialties. The games that followed were a lot of fun and broke the ice completely. After lunch (oil soup, water and a chicken-rice dish), we were divided into three groups. The first group’s task was to find a certain fountain in the major park. Group 2 had to find a huge vase made of flowers, and the third group tried to find their way to the museum of transportation on the river Danube. They all returned with lots of fun pictures.
On Tuesday, a discussion about minorities living in the respective countries took place (Germany: Sorbs, Turkey: Christians, Bulgaria: Armenians, Hungary: Danube Swabians). This was followed by a guided tour along the Danube, after which some students came up with the idea to go bowling. All of the German students joined them and so we got to spend one and a half hours in a bowling alley.
The next day, October 18, started with group work again. Group 1 visited an Armenian church and got to talk a priest. The second group spent the morning studying dances like the Turkish Damat Halayi, the Ratschentsa oder the Bulgarian round dance. The third group’s challenge was to cook “Armenian Candy” while group 4 was interviewing an Armenian man, which they finished early, so they joined the dance project.
In the afternoon, we visited two rock churches, one in Ivanovo and another one in Barsabovo. The latter is the only one in Bulgaria that is still in use today. I found these churches very interesting because it is quite astonishing to think about the monks that lived here in the past and that they were actually able to build places of such beauty.
October 19 turned out to be more stressful again. As usually, we met at 9 am, only this time we had taken the bus to school, a vehicle that, due to the sounds it produced when going round a bend, seemed to consist almost entirely of rust and color only. So we were a little late for writing a report and assembling a powerpoint presentation reflecting on our activities the day before. After lunch at the Italian place where we had had the oil soup before, we went on a second tour, this time through the city center. And it was a lot like I had imagined it at the beginning: the Danube, the roses ... there were small shops everywhere that sold things related to roses: rose oil, roes soap, rose hand lotion, rose perfume, rose waffles, rose ice-cream and so on.
On Friday, we went to Veliko Tarnovo to visit Fortress Zachewitz. It was very interesting but I it was difficult for me to fully enjoy the experience because it was very hot during the guided tour and the air was very dry. After that, we had pizza in the “EGO” and went for a walk on the so-called “craftmen’s street”, where you could find lots of rose products again. Because we had half an hour left, we enjoyed some nice, cold drinks in a nearby cafe and realized that we had gotten to know each other quite well and felt like we were part of a community.
We then took the bus back to our school. The time passed quickly on our way home and when we arrived at the school, we had to say Goodbye to our Turkish friends.
October 20 marked the end of our journey. We met at the school for the last time to say Goodbye to each other. Then we took the bus to Bucharest, and from there we flew back to Frankfurt where we had to wait again some time for the next flight.
When we arrived at Dresden station, Ms. Ulmer-Heinrich took her cellphone out. We all started to sing, and when we got on the train to Pirna, all of us had their own final snapshot as a souvenir. That’s when our journey was finally over.
Personally, I feel that the whole trip was very informative and interesting because according to an old saying “you were only really at a place if you explored it on foot”.
Shona