The road goes ever on and on...

The road goes ever on and on,
down from the door where it began...
Now far ahead the road has gone,
and I must follow, if I can.
-J.R.R. Tolkien

 
13 days. 13 days until I'm back home ! can't believe how quickly "the end" has approached now..

I'll report briefly again as there's plenty of other things on my to-do-list.


01/05 - 08/05/2015 SCOTLAND - cairngorm mountains

one week after the farewell party of rosi and zhanna (remember, end of the last blog entry :b) I went on my most exciting and definitely best trip during my year here. one week in the scottish highlands, alone, with backpack and tent.

what those mountains gave me I can't really put into words. it was cold, windy, stormy, warm and sunny, snowy, rainy, dry, I felt free, lonely, excited, exhausted, rich, bored, confused and calm. sounds very stupid what I write down here, I'll just add the pictures I already posted on facebook.

an lochan uaine

loch morlich seen from meall a' buachaille

river nethy

camp 1

bynack more

camp 2

20/05 - 24/05/2015 mid-term-training + london:

wednesday 20 and thursday 21 bianka, julie, kat, elisa, finn and I had our "mid-term"-training in london, together with about 10 other volunteers from london and surroundings. another great opportunity to meet interesting people, however the training itself wasn't too exciting for me.
after the training finished on thursday afternoon I just stayed in london for a couple of days to see my friends julian and lea, and also to visit two of my organization's volunteer managers, david and renalda - which would be the first tiny step of saying farewell.

julian again hosted me kindly and also our friend lea; was good fun going out with them in london by night once more.

28/05 - 31/05/15 with volunteering matters in nantes, FRANCE:

manu, julie and I were lucky enough to get the chance to accompany two staff of our organization volunteering matters to the lovely city of nantes in france for a youth seminar about european citizenship.
not only that the workshops and debates were in my opinion totally enjoyable, all the expenses were paid and we met a lot of great young people from england, italy, france, slovakia and the czech republic... I fell in love with nantes, france and its language, and I will surely go there again, perhaps even stay there for a while.

we all were hosted by french families by the way, who in my case were sooo kind and good to me (and my fellow project participant veronika). on the last day they even brought us along to a lovely family-and-friends-evening which I appriciated a lot as they showed us some nice places of the city and then took us to an amazing crepes-restaurant.

new goals after this enriching trip:
-picking up french again
-getting more involved in local politics/society
-aquiring more knowledge about everyday politics both globally and locally again
-living in france for a while

also would I like to see my lovely host family again, and the great french people we encountered in nantes.

local council

le chat noir - great night out

sort of a flash mob - good fun :D

agir en europe (ignore the no future^^) !

veronika, the slovakian girl I stayed at the host family with

05/06 - 08/06/15 marske-by-the-sea, northern england:

next fab weekend, this time east coast near middlesbrough, at lea and soraya's little "castle". julie and I were invited to stay at this fantastic place for a weekend, and had indeed a great time! the little break from the busy times that we bouth had been facing (mainly good things though) did us certainly good! I for my part loved marske's beach and felt very comfortable in the "castle" as I called the residental home lea and soraya are working and living (their flat is in the attic!) in.

kill bill is a brilliant movie btw.

the castle's tower - breakfast room

f.l.t.r. julie, lea and soraya

victorian family picture, f.l.t.r. soraya, julie, me and lea

11/06 -14/06/15 isle of wight festival:

having been at home only for two days between marske and the festival made it feel that we had only come home to refill tanks, wash clothes and spend a couple of hours in our own beds. anyway, thursday morning jesus, julie, bianka and I headed towards our next adventure, the well known (and fuc**** expensive) isle of wight festival, on that one amazing island near portsmouth. to be honest, the actual event didn't completely meet my expectations, have already had better festivals, but still the acts we saw were quite decent, and the mood on a festival is unique anyway. all in all it was certainly a good time. AND: my last big event before I go home..

yes, I'm serious, that's literally the only picture we have from those four days :D (R.I.P saruman)

well, that's it I suppose.. not much more to say or show to you, the next and final entry will be from austria..
these two last weeks will be filled with studying (still preparing for my entrance exam) and sorting out all the last bits that have to be done.

thanks for your interest,
see you soon,
matthias