Chocalate, beer and heart of the European union. These words characterize one quite small country in west Europe. “Despite the small size is Belgium very important kingdom.” This motto tried the organizers of the Flanders summer camp to teach me and 18 participants since beginning of the camp. And successfully.
During first five days there was on program except for teambuilding activities also discovering of city of Antwerp. We saw not just historical cathedrals and squares but also Rubens museum, with whom is this city very often connected. First our trip was on
Thursday when we went for a whole day to the city of Mechelen, one of most beautiful and peaceful cities in Belgium.
After that there was luckily “free day”. We all were looking forward to it because we’ve been already
tired form previous 5 days. For most of us it was an opportunity to finally go shopping. Unfortunately, it is not my hobby so I decided with few other people from our group that we would visit Mas museum.
On Sunday there was a trip to Brussels, capital of Belgium but also of the whole Europe. It was a very nice city but the visiting was quite difficult because of the cycling and also the weather - we had there almost 35 degrees. After one day we were all exhausted again.
On the second week there was also plenty of travelling. We visited famous touristic places like Brugge or Gent. Most members of our group also liked tasting Belgian beers in De Koning brewery, which is inseparable part of the Belgian culture.
At the end of the camp we got a task and all of us had to do one big presentation about whole two
weeks that we had spent in Flanders. Finally, we managed to do it but it wasn’t easy at all. This presentation was the main part of the final gala evening which was dedicated mostly to all 14 Rotary clubs that had been taking care of us during previous 14 days.
After that there wasn’t time for nothing else than saying goodbye and thank to everyone there and
move to the hostel, where we lived. But that wasn’t the worst part of the evening. We had to pack
our suitcases and say goodbye to all of our “new” friends. Saying them goodbye was the most
difficult thing on this camp. However, then we started to leave the hostel and all participants of the
camp left the country and went back to different parts of our world.
I think that I can speak for everyone of our group when I say that the motto: “Rotary connects the
world” really works.
