Messzelátó Egyesület

Gesine's blog: The Breakfast is everyday between 8 and 9 o'clock. We get there just before 9, everybody still feeling the Welcome-Party in their heads. Of course, by this time, the precious apples and oranges are gone – what is left for the hungry stomach?

White bread and cheese for me, for the non-vegeratians also huge plates of meat. The restaurant where we are eating is in a cellar of the "Ethno-House", due to this fact it is the coldest place in the whole complex – so we always take our warm jumpers to the meals.
In the first morning session we are warmly welcome by the team, Igor and Milan, the organisers and Sima, who is the caretaker for the facilities and rooms. He also takes care for our fun in the evenings. And there are Manue and Carmen, two Volunteers from Spain and France, who work in Novi Sad.
For a first "getting to know each other" we build pairs and introduce ourself to our partners. After that we introduce our partner to the whole group. We are six groups, from Serbia, Hungary, Bosnia, Macedonia, Germany and Poland.
After lunch, some of us do a short walk to get to know the beautiful countryside, which we will live in for the next week. Kostunici is a small village 25km from Gornji Milanovac, which is known for their "Ethno-House" complexes and several museums.
The afternoon continues with so called "team-building-games" in all different shapes. For example the task of one game is, to get all the group over a string, which is 140 m high, without touching it. After discussing and trying for a long time, we manage in the end to transport everybody to the other side, also caring about the last people who have to cross.
On Sunday evening the first "cultural-night" starts with the Serbian night. Because this Sunday in Serbia the people celebrate the Orthodox Eastern, the Serbian group prepared some Easter-traditions for us. First there is an "egg fight" with boiled eggs, which Milena from the German group wins. She has the strongest egg! The traditional Easter food is lamb, which is as a whole grilled over the fire, accompanied by mashed potatoes, stuffed cabbage and white beans. After the dinner we see and learn some traditional Serbian dances and see their traditional dresses and, of course, taste the homemade Serbian Rakija. Ziveli!