Being part of the Rural Youth Europe family makes it almost compulsory to show up at your friends’ national events and celebrations! Here’s an article by this years Autumn Seminar Chair, Andreas Gschwend, about his participation at the Slovenian Rural Youth farming games in 2017.
What are two Swiss guys doing far away from home? Thomas and I started our trip on the 30th of June. Within the first 5 minutes we already crossed the border to Austria. Our road trip took us from Oberriet (CH) to the Arlberg, Innsbruck, Zell am See, Grossglockner (high mountain road) to Carinthia, Austria. It was a nice cosy trip with beautiful views. In the evening we meet up with Sebastian, from the board of Rural Youth Europe. We had a fantastic local meal. After that we headed to Klagenfurt for a small sightseeing tour and some drinks.
Saturday morning we meet with three Austrians. So our team for the farming games is complete. Together we travelled down to Jablanica in Slovenia. After 2 hours we get to the venue and signed in for the games.
The games are split into 5 different stations. The first was mowing the grass. Luckily for me an Austrian guy did the job. Next step was raking the grass and building up a nice stack.
The next three games are the fun ones. Milking the cow, feeding the cow and a surprise game. So we had quite a lot of fun together an in the games. We haven’t been the best team, but also not the worst one.
In the evening a big party was going on. So we had a few drinks, a lot of fun, chatting with the locals and have been dancing all night.
After a short night on the floor or in the car, it was time to say goodbye. The Austrians headed home and Thomas and I went with Rok (president of the Slovenian Rural Youth) to Ljubljana. He gave us a sightseeing tour and we had some lunch.
On the (long) way back home to Switzerland we had a stop at Bled, with a short swim in the lovely lake. Our road trip took us again through Austria (Lienz, Felberntauern, Kitzbühel, Innsbruck, Arlberg). After ten o’clock on Sunday evening we crossed the border to Switzerland.
So now you know what two Swiss guys have been doing in Slovenia. Next time we will definitely spend more time in this lovely country.
Here you can find a map of the road trip: http://agschwend.bplaced.net/2017/slovenia2017.html
Andreas Gschwend
Follow ZSPM (Slovenian Rural Youth) on social media to find out more about the Farming Games that this year take place 6.7.2019 in Poljana, Slovenia.