This story starts in Podgorica, a little city in a little Balkan’s country, Montenegro, where I was born, and where I’ve spend most of my life. Family and friends, as well as job and studies, were sufficient reasons to stay there, although my achievements were showing that I could still do a lot more. I was encouraged by the fact that developing or so-called “Third-World” countries need every single young successful human in order to achieve their integration in the European society and thus, become an important part of it.

So it happens in this cruel world that the one who kills the monster tends to take its place… Did you ever notice how the ones, who came to break their own and others’ stereotypes, tend to be or become quite stereotypical themselves? Let’s run through a few types of young Europeans in different cultures: volunteers, students and interns.

Choosing Turin wasn’t a coincidence.

It was not neither because of the nice landscape, great football team, nor because of the largest square in Europe without any sculptures. Our meeting point had 2 other sides. Turin was 2010 European youth capital city, as well as the place where FLARE´s (Freedom, Legality and Rights in Europe) headquarters was sited.

Just at the time of huge confusion, a great friend – my room-mate in the dorm – came back from Oxford where she had studied English for about 3 months. What a flow of refreshing ideas that was! We stayed up till late talking with eyes filled of excitement, having the right feeling about our future, finally! She initiated me into the process of applications, funding, loans, expenses, deadlines and everything else that is easily found on ucas.com! We could see something big coming.

Dražen Malbašić is a 24-year-old student of Economy from Mostar. Since the sixth grade, when he wasn’t even 13 years old, he started travelling. So far, he’s visited USA twice, England and Wales 5 times, Albania 3 times, Slovenia 2 times, Italy 4 times, and has traveled once to Portugal, France, Germany, Poland, Czech Republic, Austria, Serbia, Romania and Norway… and he doesn’t plan on stopping at that.

We cannot say the Bulgarian society is conservative or a puritan one. The country has seen it all – scandalous videos of naked women on the national television, praising drugs TV shows and even a male singer who wears women’s clothes and his songs are more than scandalous, but if in real life you are a homosexual, there is no calm life for you in Bulgaria. However, the problem is not only in this country. The problem with rejecting different people and the lack of tolerance is present all over the Balkans.

This is not a usual “what to do when in Madrid” guide. It is more of a “Madrid seen through the eyes of a Macedonian girl”. With my 10 points I’d like to comment on what amazed me in Madrid and how those amazing things differ from my home city. Also, if these things are taken into a consideration, they could be seen as points that Skopje still needs to work on, to live up to Madrid.

This is a story of a girl whose life since the high school times has been markedly influenced by going abroad regularly and being part of international communities. I am taking the advantage to share my experience with youth work, just because it concerns one of the best things I have witnessed (or been a creator of) in my life. I shall want to share this also for the reason of supporting every doubting youngster who still hesitates to start his/her own activity in the field of youth work and international exchange organization. My opinion and statement is clear in a way – go for it and try it at least once in your life.

This summer I had the opportunity to spend a week’s placement at an NGO, volunteering with street children in Mumbai, India. If you had met me at the start of the summer, I would have told you that I expected this experience to be incredibly emotional, at times even upsetting. I would have also told you – in perhaps, an arrogant manner – that I was determined to try and find a way to help.

I love Denmark! It doesn’t have anything so well-known like wine and Eiffel tower in France or pizza and Venice in Italy, but maybe this is also a reason why this country surprised me so much. Not only is it silent and not so well known, but also very beautiful and interesting to experience. I spent 6 months in Esbjerg as an Exchange student within Erasmus program. Therefore, I want to share my impressions of this country, lifestyle, nature and other things I got familiar with during my stay there.