Volunteering in Bratislava is an opportunity to visit interesting places in the city such as Slavín or the Blue Church. It's nice to visit the capital after a nice day at INEX, where I'm still working on ideas for templates and other publications to promote volunteering.
They are open minded about the few ideas I can propose, it's nice. The work here on digital communication is quite different from what I was doing before. Here, it is planned and organized and we don't necessarily depend on the news to post.
It makes me want to learn more. So, sometimes, I try to find inspiration in some nice places in the city.
Here are three of them
The Museum of Natural History
I went in this place the 8th of April. For anybody who likes topics about the environment and history, it is a place to visit. I easily spent between one and two hours inside and I must confess it was cheap. Only three euros.
I appreciate the representations of extinct and actual species very much, found on the territory of the present Slovakia. For example, did you know that large animal bones were discovered during the mining of clay for a brick factory in Senec? It was in 1961 and some experts from the museum found that these were bones of mammoth! You can see these bones in the museum today and, I must admit, it is really impressive.
The Bratislava Castle
Not a surprise, if you are in Bratislava, you can’t not see the famous Bratislava Castle. The entrance is not cheap, unfortunately. It is twelve euros but I easily spent between two and three hours in the castle. The history of this castle is very old. Slovakia can be proud of this old monument. It was already here in 907 when a battle took place below the castle which symbolically terminated the existence of the great Moravia Empire.
I also learned it was one of the major administrative castle of Hungary during medieval times.
There is many exhibitions inside.
One of them is about Martin Benka, a Slovak painter. A lot of his art is about traditional life on the common people. It was interesting to see. Also, you can find some cross of the president of the Slovak Republic. One was the cross of Rudolf Schuster.
Next, you can find a lot of beautiful exhibitions of old porcelain/ceramic. It was beautiful.
At least, is it possible to go to the top of the castle and enjoy a beautiful 360 view of Bratislava.
The Mačkafé
With Amandine, the other volunteer, we went to an interesting place : the Mačkafé. I recommend this place because I love their concept. They host abandoned cats in their café and a part of their business is supposed to help these poor creatures. As a cat lover, I like that.
Also, it is funny to drink your coffee or your hot chocolate surrounded by cats. Unfortunately, you guess the cats of this place are a little bored of all these humans who dare to enjoy a good moment on their territory. I will probably go at this place again.
Conclusion
I am sure Bratislava has others surprises and secret. I hope I will discover the maximum before December. Indeed, already three months here. The time pass fast. I’m sure I will have a lot of memories at the end of my volunteering.
My phone has already full of pictures. I’m not motivated to clean it. Also, I have a lot of videos because I like to post daily videos on my TikTok account @belgianguyinslovakia.
My ESC project will be a great occasion to visit another parts of Slovakia. Indeed, I will be workcamp leader at Slatinka and Lukovisitia. Also, I learned I have the opportunity to choose a workcamp abroad this summer. Not as a leader but as a member. There is a lot choices.
I continue to enjoy my volunteering a lot, doing templates, posts and quiz for our social media. My next goal is to prepare a new video with Amandine for the promotion of the last offer of INEX for ESC project. We are indeed searching for a third long term ESC volunteer for the position of educational activities.
If you are interested, do not hesitate to join us!
