I am Christina Flora from Greece, I am 24 years old and I am in the middle of my EVS project. Voluntary work and specifically EVS came randomly in my life, in a period that I needed a motivation to be more active. After finishing my studies in translation, there was nothing that could make me smile. I needed to meet new people, to travel, to be useful in the world community...And that is when an EVS project suddenly appeared on my computer screen. I had an interview and I said yes without second thought. And that’s how my dreamy EVS experience started…
My 5-month EVS project is about alternative ways of tourism. The project is taking place in Primorsko, a resort in the Black Sea (1st March- 31st May) and Varna, Bulgaria (1st June-31st July). Our team consists of 5 volunteers, 3 Turkish (two boys and a girl), a Finnish girl and me from Greece. After having an extraordinary and very successful educative training in Hisarya (near Plovdiv), we returned to Primorsko to start our project. Our activities focus on helping the local community in the tourism field. One of our activities is the cooperation with the local Tourism School which we visit in order to present our countries and come in contact with the children so that we listen to their ideas. We are also trying to motivate the local community to be more communicative with foreigners, and respect the tourists who come in the area and invest in Primorsko buying properties and plots. Another activity included in our project is the cleaning of the beaches before the beginning of the summer season. In one month we will move to Varna where our main duty will be the organization of the “FUNCITY” Youth Festival, which is one of the most popular and interesting summer events for young people all around Bulgaria.
During this half EVS experience, we travelled a lot around Bulgaria, starting by Sofia where we stayed for one week in other EVS volunteers who had met in our training. In Sofia we cooperated with them in the Sofia city library where they work, and we participated in their language workshops. We also visited the romantic and picturesque Plovdiv, which is a student city, full of young people, alternative bars and beautiful gardens to walk around. The old city of Plovdiv is a place everyone has to visit when coming to Bulgaria. Our dream trip was the one in Istanbul, where we stayed for 5 days, hosted by our Turkish friends of our EVS project …No words can describe our experience meeting new people and travelling around... EVS helped me discover the world and I totally recommend it to all the young people!