I am going on adventure!

It is Sunday evening, 29th of September and I am doing the last preparations before my departure. The first challenge: - To pack myself enough of everything to survive for 12 months away from my home, city, country- CHECK! All in all, more than 50 kg of baggage, I really wonder how I will be able to move it all by myself.

My bus was leaving at midnight , luckily my father offered to drop me at the bus station. Last hugs with my family and off I go towards new adventure- European Voluntary Service in Rezekne, Latvia. I am supposed to travel for almost 2 days with a first stop in Warsaw. I arrived there at around Monday noon. A little bit of confusion in subway but finally I managed to find the coordinates that a friend of mine gave me to drop my luggage so I can go for a walk around the city. It is my first time in capital of Poland and as an avid explorer, everything seems very interesting. My first steps lead me to Tourist Info Center where I was lucky enough to get the last piece of USE-IT Map of Warsaw for young travellers. After going through it I can finally say "Let the Warsaw sightseeing begin!"


Palace of Culture and Science,
most iconic Warsaw landmark.

My friend Julia met with me at the entrance to the old town and took me to her favourite pierogy restaurant. After I invited her for a wonderful apple cake with ice-cream in a tiny caffee in the old town that I found out thanks to USE-IT map.  We had lots of catching up to do. My bus to Vilnius/Riga was leaving at 23:00 so in the meantime she took me to a students bar in the basement of  the library of Warsaw University for a beer. Finally our time was up and I boarded my next coach, destination Vilnius. Thank you for a lovely time in Warsaw, Julia- mom! =.*

Upon arrival to Vilnius I had 1 hour to wait for another bus to take me to Riga. Once on the bus I amde a surprising discovery. The girl sitting next to me turned out to be from Slovakia, so I was happy to speak my mother tongue, probably for the last time this year. She was also on the way to Tallinn, where she was doing her Erasmus exchange. As soon as I got off the bus in Riga, my friend Jekaterina was waiting for me. We went for quick lunch and she made me a brief tour around the downtown Riga before dropping me off at the railway station. There the last part of my travel began. I was truly surprised that latvian trains look even worse than the ones in Slovakia. 

Upon arrival to Riga

Finally at 20:30 on Tuesday 1st of October, after 44:30 hours of travel I arrived to Rezekne!!! Both Jekaterina and Marek were already waithow nice of theming for me at the railway platform, picked me up and took me to my new apartment. There I was greeted by a little surprise party they threw for me, how nice of them it was. Everybody was there- Jekaterina  & Vilja (both workers in JACis) Marek (my new mentor) and Pilar (spanish EVS volunteer).

My camera surprising the surprise committee

Thank you all for such a warm welcoming in Rezekne, I can feel like home right from the beginning, looking forward to dedicate  year of my life to working with you =.)

Left to right: Marek, me, Jekaterina (Katja), Vilja, Pilar