Youth Exchange „Myths and Legends of Europe – Exploring the Roots of our Citizenship“ in Ireland

From June 23rd to July 1st 2013 a motley crew of 22 young motivated Europeans from Armenia, Bosnia&Herzegovina, Lithuania, Germany and Ireland came together in the Wicklow Mountains in Bray, Ireland. Reason for this was the invitation by Celtic Youth Bray organisation to a youth exchance, dealing with the topic “Myths and Legends of Europe”, aiming to share different stories and cultural values in order to discover our common European roots and citizenship.

After the getting to know each other through different name games and group building activities we started the workshops and sessions. Therefore we were usually divided into groups of 4 or 5 people if possible one from each country so that every nation was represented. This strengthened the group dynamics and increased the variable exchange of ideas between participants. The topics covered from the national myths and legends, the European community and everyone’s role and understanding of it to creative writing workshops. For example we created different fictive utopic states, discussed the characteristics of European society and shared our national stories. Moreover there were some playful activities to point out social and cultural prejudices and to find a way how to deal with cultural differences.

Our final workshop and a highlight of the week was the development of international theatre plays, combining elements of stories from each country, presenting the national cultures as well as making the unity of our countries visible. These theatre plays were performed for the local community of Bray in a great and memorable event.

We had workshops every day from 9.30 am to 6 pm. Every night we could enjoy the presentation of one participating country, introducing us to a typical meal, that was lovingly prepared, as well as dances, songs, games, and so on. This gave the group an insight into to the national culture and habits. Afterwards we would sit, play, talk, laugh and enjoy together till late in the night.

The project made it possible for us to discover our common European roots and acknowledge our cultural commonalities.

Concluding I would like to mention that I came across an open, lovely and funny group of young people. We had a lot of fun this week and I am glad to have been a part of it. Particularly nice is the fact that cross-border friendships have been formed.

Thanks for the great time!:)