Workcamp in Deutschland - Raubling 2010

The camp for adventure hunters and environment lovers or a Bavarian fairy-tale

von Kateryna Zhylinska aus der Ukraine

     Every self-respecting volunteer goes to the mountains with a backpack. Especially if he is heading to Bavarian Alps! So… my 85 liter friend on my back and I showed up on a picturesque street of a nice Bavarian village Raubling, looking for a sports complex to say good-bye to each other for two weeks. The sports complex, which appeared to be a wonderful accommodation for our international group, actually defined the meaning of the whole workcamp – we could call ourselves a sports-hiking-dancing-swimming-playing team! Why?

     Our spirit was impregnated with an every-day bicycle ride to the moors by the mountains, so that cute Bavarian houses in the scope of fresh breathing fields and mountains full of clouds overflew us on our way to work. After a 20-minute ride the environment lovers showed up in the moors, making life better for nature lovers who would come to look at the beautiful view, but wouldn’t like to become dirty. So, this way by means of the hard-working hands of the volunteers very neat wooden paths were erected in the moors and a turf path was going along the small railway in to the forest.

     What kind of fun lovers would we be if we hadn’t… What could the adventure lovers do in their free from improving life time? Hiking in the mountains trained our willpower, swimming in the cool mountain lake stimulated our spirit, hiking in the moors barefoot at night developed our courage, visiting Bavarian castles plunged us into history, walking in Munich and Salzburg broadened our mind, cooking traditional dishes of our countries made us perfect cooks, playing funny Olympic games put heart into us, having a costume party opened our creativity, a salsa party made us plastic and a cultural evening united us into one world of kindness, helpfulness and understanding.

Two weeks passed as one day, and I had to say ‘hello’ to my 85 liter friend again. It is always difficult to say good-bye to a place where a piece of your heart is. But you can’t say good-bye to workcamps if you tried once. So, everybody said ‘Thank you! See you soon! I will be back!’