Würzburg, falling bottles and the Armenian alphabet

The trip was long with changing of tree trains with Deutsche Bahn, but we were happy to arrive to Würzburg, which welcomed us with nice weather and promise of new experiences.

P.S. Nevertheless, the nice weather turned into a complete winter in few days, and we saw Würzburg differently pretty.

After warm welcome at jugendbildungsstätte unterfranken (JUBI), we were placed in our rooms and found out that all the rooms in the center are named after different countries and I was happy to find the room “Armenia”, but myself I was staying in the room "Madagaskar".

The whole seminar was very informative, well-organized with lots of interesting trainings and visits.

We made posters “Me and my ESC”, which were telling about our volunteering experience, our hosting organizations and what we do there. I was delighted and proud to speak about my hosting organization Solaris and my life in Chemnitz.

During the seminar we had a representative from the National Agency, who wonderfully carried out several presentations about various aspects of the ESC volunteering, giving us tons of helpful information about every part of our service and stay.

The days were full with getting to know Würzburg and many social projects, as well as the participants doing their own workshops. In particular, one of the volunteers from Italy made a wonderful workshop on mental health, volunteer Dasha told about her amazing experience at Svalbard and polar bears. As well as I and all the other participants brainstormed and shared their experience on travelling cheap in Germany.

People

This seminar was about people! So many amazing personalities from different countries, so many different stories and experiences. The group was quite open and we were able to share with each other our experiences, problems and happy moments. We were participating in the workshops, enjoying the breaks together, in the evenings we were involved in playing various games, chatting and creating unforgettable moments. People from Würzburg seminar, you are amazing!

P.S. And we will always remember the sound of the glass bottles falling on the ground :D

Würzburg Residence

Würzburg is an amazingly beautiful and lovely city! During our seminar we visited Würzburg Residence, which surprised me a lot for different reasons. There we had a very professional and entertaining tour guide, which introduced us the history and details of the palace. The guide was talking about the ceiling fresco of the Residence, which is the largest in the world, when I saw up there something familiar.

-What are those letters there?

-Probably you are from Armenia,- answered the tour guide,- only Armenians recognize the letters of the Armenian alphabet․

Of course, my next question was what the letters of the Armenian alphabet do on the ceiling of the largest fresco in the world. So... On the fresco we can see the personifications of the four Continents- America, Africa, Asia and Europe. Asia was considered the cradle of the written word, science, and monarchy. And the written word is represented through the Armenian alphabet, most probably because the painter of the fresco, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, had some connection with the Armenian priests at the monastery of the Mekhitarists, an Armenian Catholic congregation on the Saint Lazarus Island, Venice. Though, there are different explanations, why the alphabet is on the fresco. You can read more about the fresco in this article and here.

P.S. It wasn’t allowed to take pictures, but of course I couldn’t resist the temptation.

The palace also has exquisite rooms particularly with the one, where Napoleon and his wife slept when visiting the Palace as well as the Hall of mirrors.

A lot remains untold about what was going on those days during the wonderful seminar in Würzburg, but I want to tell thank you to JUBI, Solaris and all the people, who made my experience so unique and unforgettable!