It was 10 am, I was still in clouds while thinking about the unforgettable year which didn’t even start yet, realizing how everything was gonna change terrifically from the very moment when the stewardess announced- “we are in Vienna”. The adventurous first day of my ESC started from the airport, on my way from Vienna to the second biggest city of the Czech Republic, when I picked up my already broken three-wheeled suitcase, confused the train ticket to a bus, only realizing the last 5 minutes, madly knocked the train’s door in an attempt to stop it and greedily trying to capture every scene from the train window on my way to Brno.
Whenever describing my one year experience, I always seem to fail to keep it brief. But seriously, how am I supposed to do that when ESC is firstly about daring adventures and awkward situations. And another thing is not knowing where to start.
For what I’ve learned, getting lost is pretty common when you’re abroad, and as a rule, that’s when the fun starts.
Should I tell how I and my multi-national friends got lost in the Croatian island of Vir, or missed a bus stop on the way to Verona losing extra 4 hours on the road, and then running the streets of the city in hunger for visiting more places as we had only 5 hours visit-time, instead of one day, or how about when we had to “borrow” a 15€ ring as the seller was missing while we desperately wanted to catch the only bus back?
And oh, those awkward yet cool situations when you’re mixing several languages at the same time and catching all the European accents while speaking English. I remember when I and my friend Sveta were in Bologna once, and we were chatting in the Czech language instead of English when, a fun fact is, neither of us was a native speaker.
It’s not just about traveling, it’s about people.
I believe that ESC project is not just what you do and where you do, but with whom you are surrounded while doing, which makes your adventure whole. As for me, everything starts from one big kitchen, where you sit around the table with your friends from different parts of the world, at 2:00 am, pour some tea and talk about the day, our worries, fears, hopes, ideas, and while the sugar in a hot tea melts, your fears melt with it, because you know tomorrow the busy day starts again, you will gather for the very fast and multinational breakfast, burn your lips with that hot tea and run to learn, explore, and support everyone around.
This project is something you don’t wanna miss, trust me, especially with FIOH, they will always support you and annoyingly remind you that you’re not alone, they got your back (indeed). A major shift in life- that’s what we all need at some point to figure out what is that we really want to do next. ESC is the solution.
