A Summer University crossing every possible border

It has been almost three weeks from the time that I came back from my Summer University and I still feel like having no words to explain my feelings and all the experiences that I have gained from it.

Travelling for almost 18 hours by taking every mean of transport, passing through 4 different countries until we reach Ljubljana and the only thing that I can remember from the time that I entered the gym is our smileing organizers welcomeing us into this wonderful experience.

“Cultures beyond the border”; the game began in Ljubljana where we spent almost four days. But of course, not all of them! Ljubljana was our homebase from where we were travelling around Slovenia. We spent the first day in the capital of Slovenia learning how to say “Levo” to local people and several things about the history of Ljubljana. I cannot forget to mention that we were canoeing for an hour around the city. But our adventure did not stop in Ljubljana as we also visited Bled and Bohijn. The first one is supposed to be in the top 10 of the most beautiful cities in Europe. After our visit there I can understand why, even if the weather was not on our side. I think that if you asked any of the participants what they remember most from Slovenia(after our Van and Bench parties in Tolmin), the answer will for sure be “the hours that we spent hiking in the mountains of Velika Planina”. Haveing survived that challenge , I am ready to climb up the Olympus mountain. Apart from being really tiring, I think that it was really worth it because after the hike, you had the feeling of being on top of the world while having Milka cows to keep you company.

But why would you name the event “cultures beyond the border” if you do not move to Italy? Udine was waiting for us and the partytime began there! We spent the first day in Italy by attending a city tour and then we had to find out if the Italian stereotypes are true or not. For example, almost all the Italians that we asked have any kind of pasta as a favorite dish. In the next days, we visited Venzone and Gemona where we visited the Earthquake Museum where we learned what happened during and after the serious earthquake of 1976 and how the whole village was rebuilt after this. We visited Trieste and Venice with its famous gondolas.
But all good things come to an end and after those wonderful 15 days we had to say goodbye by throwing a great white t-shirt party.

I am sure that I can write pages and pages about our Summer University, for everything that we learnt and we visited, for our parties, for the great time that we all had together but I will not do it. I just want to say a big THANK YOU to all the organisers and the participants for having the time of my life and tell them “See you soon somewhere around Europe”

Written by Evdokia Psylla, AEGEE-Patra