During this week, the Youth House hosted an event called “Cafe21”, promoted by Timisoara2021, the year when Timisoara is going to be European Capital of Culture.
This type of event is happening every month, in different places of Timisoara with different topics related to the project. It’s an event for everyone to come and have an open debate about the measures to take until the year when Timisoara has the title.
This week’s topic was related to youth, therefore it was hosted here in the Youth House.
I was really happy with this event when I saw the amount of people that actually came and were contributing to the debate actively, trying to make Timisoara a better place for young people to live in.
Besides this, we got a visit from the president of my sending organisation which was great for me because we get along very well and, as I mentioned before, I’m always happy to speak in Portuguese for a while! :))
We visited Timisoara and went to the Revolution Museum, where I’d never been before and that is quite interesting, even though needing some renovation.
After all the projects were finished, I received the visit from a friend from Portugal, that came to stay in Timisoara for a few days.
In the first two days, I showed around in Timisoara and, for the next three, we enjoyed the fact that the city is so close to the border with Serbia, and went for a “city break” in Belgrade.
It was the first time I went to Serbia, and we managed to find a really cheap way of going and coming back, with a Serbian transfers’ company.
Even though we had roughly 2 days to visit Belgrade, it was totally worth it. We walked around the city centre, went to the National Art Museum and got the chance to visit the so known nightlife in Belgrade. It was a great choice, bearing in mind that it can be a very cheap and beautiful destination.
Crossing the border between Romania and Serbia was a weird, and a bit scary, adventure as they went through all our luggage and passports very carefully. I think because of the fact that Serbia is not part of the European Union, the process is a bit more precise.
Anyway, this was a great choice to visit and I’m hoping to be back soon.
To continue with the non-stop wave of projects, as soon as the previous one was finished, we immediately started a Youth Exchange, named “Intervention for Youth”.
This time it was a bit different, as I was not taking part as a participant but instead helping around with what was needed, as for example, logistical matters.
The project was the continuation of a training course I did the first time I was in Romania, back in March, therefore before starting my EVS and, actually, the first time I got to know FITT and their work. Following the training course, this youth exchange happened promoting the topic of youth participation and intervention in society, and methods of participating.
It was a very interesting and fun project, very related to arts and with an amazing final show. For me, it was an amazing opportunity of doing some type of “job shadowing” and learning more about how to implement a project and manage all the issues that might appear.
A very good friend of mine also participated in this project, so it was the first time since I started my EVS that I had a visit of someone from home, which I think I don’t have to say how nice it feels.