- 12 October 2013
- Posted by: Team For Youth Association
- Category: Volunteering Stories
It all began in Baia Mare, of course. Weeks of images and desires for the trip, but no plans. Only the last 3 days were productive in this field, and instead of resting before the big trip, we stayed up all night, trying to find websites of trains, bus, couch-surfing, hostels, camping parks and all those things you should look for a bit earlier.
But that is our way of traveling. That is traveling…
From Baia Mare to Arad, the trip was full of energy and excitement (complete opposite of the returning trip), with 3 different hitchhiking cars in 6 hours. We stayed the night on friends’ house, on the floor (one of the best places we slept) and left for Belgrade in the next morning.
Belgrade surprised us so much! From the old and nice buildings, to memories of the war, big city centers full of life, typical streets painted with love and stories from the Serbian musicians, an amazing host that showed us the secrets and the facts, Nikola Tesla’s museum and to complete the night, a free entrance beer festival with good music and people to dance.
From Belgrade, we departed on a horrible train trip to Montenegro’s capital, Podgorica. But this train proved to be very nice when, alternating with dark views of tunnels, we could dazzle the amazing mountains in front of our eyes, right there, a post card’s picture without the name of the city in the bottom right corner.
Montenegro proved to be the most beautiful country I have ever seen. Our initial planned two days were worthy expanded to six. We saw breathtaking landscapes merging the tall and respected mountains, the small and typical towns in the middle, and the calm and warm sea refreshing our bodies and minds. “The perfect place to fall in love”, someone said…
After our magic days in Montenegro, and after meeting so many good people that helped us in every way they could, like giving their house, paying for the bus ticket, keeping our bags for the day, or giving us a lift in the car trunk full of bags, tables, chairs, a house, we left this divine place.
Our last stop took us to Bosnia and Herzegovina’s capital, Sarajevo. Here, we arrived pretty tired, like usual. But after a few coffees and breakfast, we recovered. We were surprised again when we heard that there was happening another festival in the city without us knowing in advance, just like in Belgrade. But this time, it was a film festival. A good one! We decided to give it a try, cheap tickets and no popcorn (I don’t understand why) were our invitation to a very realistic and deep movie. “So, in this trip, the closest experience we got to reality, was a movie”
And so, this is were it ends. The trip back to Baia Mare was tiring and long, but just made us realize how wonderful the whole trip was and all that we gained in these days.
I personally recommend, experience the “Montenegro’s mistake”. Except the stars in the sky.
Goncalo Viana