Run, Heart, Run

My volunteering happened at an ideal time, when you need to "air out" your head, get out of a busy everyday life and find yourself again.

After exchanging basic information with an extremely friendly Anja Žepič (head of the voluntary program of Hostelling International Slovenia), I bought a plane ticket for one of my favourite country in the world - Spain. I have travelled a lot and I can certainly say that Spain has a special place in my heart. The fact that I lived there for some time also helped a little.

On my arrival in Alicante, I took one day there to explore it and decided that I will travel to Moraira the next day. Getting to Moraira with public transport is quite tricky and my plans didn't quite work, but this was perfectly solved by Triana, a young girl who replaced Peter, the manager of the hostel. Nice Triana came to Benidorm for me and in an hour we were already in our town and hostel La Marina. I was assigned a double room with a private bathroom and a window with a view at the sea. I had 3 meals in the hostel. Lunches and dinners were excellent, while breakfast was the same every day and not exactly healthy. I must say here that the Spanish do not give much thought about breakfast. They usually eat "galletas" (biscuits) and drink coffee or "colacao" (cocoa).

Moraira has approx. ten thousand inhabitants, and about 40 thousand in the season. It slightly reminded me of Slovenian Portoroz. It is a small, touristic and beautiful place with luxurious villas with pools owned or rented by the English and possibly some Germans or Dutch.

La Marina hostel has 130 beds, a large dining room, a lobby, a football field and an outdoor pool. The hostel belongs to the organization IVAJ (public company), which means that it has subcontractors, e.g. reception is part of another company, as well as the cleaning service, life guards, etc.

The main choosing point in selecting the destination of volunteering was the proximity of the sea, and I definitely made the right decision here. The first beach was only 300 meters away. I took advantage of the beach every day to take a swim, to read my romantic novel and spend some time on the phone. Since I like being active, I also went running many times, I walked several kilometres every day, and I also climbed the Torre del Cap d'Or tower.

My job was helping at the reception, where 4 persons were already employed in addition to the administration and the manager who joined it a little later. At the peak of the season, he was on vacation. I am also working in tourism and am not allowed to take vacation in the middle of the tourist season. Yes, Spain is a much friendlier country. My workday started at 9 a.m. and ended at 2 p.m., weekends were free. Sometimes I had to adjust a little, but I was glad to do it. I sometimes helped a colleague for a couple of hours out of my schedule or I just hung out with them, as it was also important to me to get to know my colleagues, to see how the system works, to hear their opinion about the work. Let me note that the team was only 1 month old , they were of different ages (an average of 45 years) and therefore they were also learning new things and were adjusting to the system. Guillermo, Clara, Emilio, Gabriel were at the reception, Triana was the administrator and main help to everyone, and manager Pedro, who took care that everything ran smoothly. Visitors to the hostel were mainly groups with special needs, minors (immigrants) from Morocco and families from the Valencian region. Since the group of Moroccan boys was present for the longest, I quickly interacted with their escorts, especially with Alfred, who was responsible for taking care of them. We often chatted on the playground, in the dining room and even had a beer at the end of his shift. I also got along with Clara and Triana, and we even went on two parties together, which was great. I also won't forget the friendly cooks who always greeted me with a smile and made this trip even more unforgettable. There was also Luis, the janitor, and Jaime, the life guard at the pool, who explained to me how to get to the most beautiful beach in Moraira (El Portet). Everyone helped me a lot, they were friendly, had warm hearts, they were all amazing people.

There were many amazing adventures, which created this precious memories, which will be in my heart for ever. I am deeply grateful for all the new acquaintances and knowledge that has been shared with me, and for all the smiles and kind words. I recommend that you give yourself the opportunity to enjoy something so beautiful, to visit a new country, to meet new people and to do something in exchange for all of the mentioned. It's never too late! Thank you from the heart Hostelling International.

Suzana Šket