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September 2016

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Sep 22, 2016

September 2015

The SUPER volunteers finally arrived in Murter Paradise

Aaaand BAM, we are here! Poland, Bulgaria, Italy, Spain and Turkey - we are the new team of SUPER volunteers. We are totally excited to face the Dry Stone Wall Extravaganza Project ! Maybe stones were not what we were dreaming about before coming here, but Murter and Argonauta is what we fell in love with! First and foremost, let me introduce you our amazing international family:

Natasha (lopata*) POLAND

Nazmiye (so serious) TURKEY

Altuğ (he is not snoring) TURKEY

Giovanni (the Italian who wants to be Vegetarian) ITALY

Valentina (the ˝hidden lemon˝, the ˝still water˝, but all in brackets) ITALY

Dilek (BUT first! let us take a selfie) TURKEY

Dimitar (Dimitko) BULGARIA

Alex (you will always find her on the beach) BULGARIA

Iskra (always deserves a punishment) BULGARIA

Jose (Hose with *J ! ) SPAIN

Else (never wants to talk) SPAIN

Fulvio ( only seems crazy) ITALY

Magda ( the too-much-HARDworker ) POLAND

Xurxo SPAIN and Marchin POLAND enjoy .. jaja

Sep 9, 2015 2 notes
#murter #volunteering #volunteer #EVs #dry stone wall #Croatia #colentum

April 2014

The Cooperation Thing

In every process that you start (even in the smallest one) which aims to achieve something, to build something, is better if you have someone next to you that is going on the same direction and is willing to help you and share the efforts in the name of the final successful result. In other words, the game of thrones will be won by the army who had gathered the biggest number of partner-armies!

But enough for Game Of Thrones, Quint is going to be much more glorious than the Dragon Queen when all this story with the Management Plan achieves its happy end! Now about our goal: the idea for the Archaeological Research Center-a place, which will be a meeting point for science, education and tourism, needs for its realization not only good ideas but a food for these ideas-proffesionalists to work on the implementation of the project and of course, fundings. To receive these essential things Argonauta’s team tries to cooperate on many levels: they are applying constantly for EU funds, but also they are trying to establish a strong partnership with the local municipality and the Tourist Board of Murter-Kornati community. The two organisations, Argonauta and the Tourist Board, and the municipality of Murter work together and support each other in their projects and activities in the name of a bigger efficiency and better quality of education, sustainable development and cultural tourism on Murter Island.

  We, the precious volunteers, also had the opportunity to meet the partners of our organisation, to ask them questions and to share opinions with them. Our first important meeting was with the mayor of Murter-Ivan Božikov. On first hand he explained us the current projects that the municipality is involved in: the building of a new kinder garden and the creating of a canalization system (Colentum has older canalization system than Murter, hohoho, archaeological joke). Then he shared his opinion about our project and the most important thing is that he considered the idea for recreating the ancient road of Colentum as a prioritet for the culture of Murter, so who knows, by the end of the summer we are going to have an old-new road on Gradina Hill. :)

  Some time after we met the mayor, we had a presentation of the activities and a lecture from the director of the tourist board of Murter-Kornati community-Šime Ježina. Basically he pointed the main issues of the local tourism and explained about the efforts that have been made during the years for changing the current situation. In his opinion the main problem of the develepment of local tourism is the abscence of a sustainable strategy for the future plus the total neglection of the cultural tourism in the region. By all the activities connected with Colentum that Argonauta is doing actually local history and culture are getting more and more vivid and known by the local people and the tourists. Both Tourist Board and Argonauta meet same problem and needs according to their  goals so they try to stick together in the name of the common good final results.

  Even if you make the slowest and the smallest steps directed to your aim be sure that with a true friend you will reach it in the end. :)…and Argonauta is on the right direction :)

Apr 23, 2014
Cultural Tourists Strike Again

  Some weeks ago we had the possibility to visit the Regional Museum of Sibenik. When you first see the outside appearance of the museum you are immediately fascinated by the authentic image of the building and this is not accidentaly: the museum nowadays occupies King’s Palace originally built in 13-14th century. But with your first step inside the museum you are again amazed but this time from the modern interior design. It is not only following the newest tendencies in museum interior design, but also is in a harmony with the local ethno-cultural traditions. 

  The exhibitions are mixture of archaeological and ethnographical artefacts and there is shown the history of the region from the prehistory times until the modern times. From Danilo culture to Faust Vrančić: you can examine neolithic zoomorphic figures (basically they look like sweet clay-made made animals without heads…or better: vases with legs) meanwhile you will hear the story of Mr. Faust Vrancic, who invented a new type of parachutte!

  

Apr 18, 2014
Office Time! Some Hard Work These Months...

European Voluntary Service Program involves a huge diversity of topics and activities so basically there is something for everybody. From social work till taking care of baby bears and organising a work process in office-this is your choice. But there are also these projects that can combine very different activities and this is the thing that makes them a bit more special. Our project is exactly this mixture of actions-doing some scientific work on the archaeological site, create workshops, organising events, writing a management plan. It is not only about the cultural herritage’s socialization and preservation, but also about education and involving the local community into voluntary actions. A multilayer process. The best thing is that as long as we are five of us, very different personalities with even much more different interests, we are able, everyone of us, to find her or his own “layer” in this project. :) 

You already know the story of Yordanka. Today is the time of Mathi and Alessandro. Mathi, a sweet blonde (very!) girl from North France, and Alessandro-sweet, but not blonde and all blue-eyed boy from North Italy are the new characters. Mathi has graduated recently from Communications, and I would say she has learned her lessons vey good-she has this unique sense of diplomacy and rationalism. So far she created a radio show program that is going to present our project and she, Alessandro and Anastasia (about this greek miracle: later on) wrote an article about us for the local newspaper-and beleive me, this girl knows how to do it, dude! When you hear the name of Alessandro you should think of nothing but gentleness. Similar to Mathi, he also has this diplomatical skills, but he developed them in a bit different way: graduated from International Relations, he made internships in Volgorod’s (Russia) as well as in Teheran’s Italian embacies’s. Phew, this guy has an experience, doesn’t he? :) From the beginning of our project untill now Mathi and Alessandro are working on the creating of the Management Plan of Colentum. 

Management Plan maybe at first sounds a little bit scary, but actually it is the most important document, concerning Colentum Site. This document will allow our organisation Argonauta to apply for fundings from the European Union as well as from the Ministry of Culture and local municipality. Creating of the Management Plan requires a lot of discussing plus a quite hard and sometimes boring work in the office space in front of the computer. But the thing is that now maybe is a boring-office-work but tomorrow will be an Archaeological Research Centre on the Gradina Hill-the dream of Argonauta’s members. So as you can see in the end Mathi and Alessandro are appeared to be builders of this huge dream. Even by sitting in the office you can make a change, you should be just patient and a keeper-keeper of beleif that dreams and reality are one and the same thing, the only thing you need is action. :)

Bok!

Apr 2, 2014

March 2014

Yordanka and the colours.

 

Once upon a time there was a sweet, smiley, bulgarian girl named Yordanka. No, she was not a princess and she didn’t wear a diamond crown, but she had something much more precious-she brought all the colours in her heart. She was this little fairy that used to turn everything grey and sad into a shiny rainbow. I will tell you a little secret: sometimes even fairies are sad and bored and are losing there special powers, but not Yordanka! Once she finds in herself even a little piece of a grumpy mood a small unicorn rises out of her smile and turns everything into colours and smiles. 

 The End. 

Mar 28, 2014 1 note
Rolling in the deep...

…into the Croatian culture, yes we do! Not only the Croatian language lessons are included in the “extra-knowledge-package” that is provided for us, the volunteers with capital “V” almost sounds like V. I. P., doesn’t it? :) Thanks to our friend Lovro we had the chance to hear a big variety of presentations aimed to introduce us to the depths of Croatian culture. Now we know that in Dalmatia for example we can have for lunch black risoto (my favourite) and in Slavonia the so called  "Čobanac". Lovro showed us a huge diversity of music: one of the most impressive-TwoCellos-simply genious! We know some funny facts also-vallium was invented in Croatia, maybe that’s why some of the Croatians are so calm and relaxed, hmmm… (joke time!) :) Very impressive and inspirational is the tradition of the croatian people to produce their own food, drinks and home-made souvenirs. You can try in Croatia not only one of the best olive oils in the world, but also a pumpkin oil, which, I promise you, deserves tasting especially as a ingredient in a fresh salad combined with a glass of soft red home-made wine. :) Oh, and I was about to forget, the islands… Those islands! Lovro has graduated from Geography so now we know some secret places to explore. Don’t be jelous, be a volunteer and for sure whenever you come to Murter don’t hesitate-knock on the door of Argonauta and there always will be hidden at least one small beautiful story about Croatia behind the door. We are waiting for you!

Mar 28, 2014
"Kad si sretan...

…lupi dlanom ti o dlan! Kad si sretan i kad želiš s drugim dijelit sreću svu
Kad si sretan lupi dlanom ti o dlan!“ Tako, dobro!

   Every EVS volunteer has the unique chance to recieve free language lessons in the language of the hosting country. This is one of the best aspects of the voluntary service-no matter if you are in Spain, Norwey, Croatia you as a volunteer always have a period in which you are taught in the language of the certain country for free. Can you imagine-you go abroad somewhere and you are not only practising already known foreign languages, but also after the end of the voluntary period you are enriched with some knowledge about a totally new language. :) There is another possible situation as well: if you can speak already this language you can help to the other volunteers to learn it. Actually, this is what happened with our friend Dominika: coming from Poland and graduated from Croatian philology plus being of a Croatian descent, she organized for us a language course and I would say, quite funny, jako dobro, mi smo vrlo sretani! As long as we are coming from countries belonging to different language groups: Greek, Roman and Slavic, for every one of us the difficulty of the lessons is different: some of us can hardly pronounce ”č", “ć” and “š”, others bought “Ottelo” in Croatian, but this is another stroy. So far the word “Bok!” has obsessed everyone’s daily life and with Otelo or without him we are everytime able to say: “Jedna Žuja!" 

 

Mar 28, 2014
Knock, knock, some guets are coming to us.

 Two days ago we met for a first time with two archaeologists from the museum of Sibenik. They came to visit us and to tell some more information about the local archaeological heritage and we finaly received a short scientific lecture about Colentum, which hopefully we can use in our future projects and especially in the writing of the Management Plan of Colentum. 

Mar 7, 2014
The Cosy Corner is here!

Nobody likes an office athmosphere that makes you think only of the connection between your humped back and dusty computer. Creativity needs colours, softness and a cosy space. We need it more than everything so we did our best to create these circumstances: found the most reddish couch in the whole Dalmatia, cleaned it so it is shinier than a summer smile and reorganised the space a bit and now we can use as well the old aquarium. 

P.S. Some pillows and benches are joining Argonauta’s cosy corner soon. :)

Mar 7, 2014
#evs
Meeting the other volunteers in Croatia.

  Far away from the chilling coast of Dalmatia, among the infinite meadows of Slavonia in a small town, called Orahovica was held our on-arrival trainig for EVS volunteers. We had the chance to learn a lot about the European Voluntary Service Program from two highy qualified trainers-Daniela and Suncana, who not only explained us how the program works, but also revealed different asspects of the non-formal education’s values and gave us ideas and useful contacts to implement during our voluntary period. The best thing on this type of meetings is that you are gathering together with all the others making EVS in Croatia at the same time volunteers and have a chance to share ideas and experience. Beleive me, you will meet at least one person with whom you can come up with a common idea for a project. You have to be always brave enough to dream and to see your dreams implemented in the reality and when you have another dreamer next to you a much bigger chance occures to see your plans not only in your imagination. :) Dare to dream, dream bravely and constantly. 

Mar 7, 2014
#evs #croatia #volunteering
Supporting our friends

   Last Saturday we were invited by our friends from the NGO “Modrave-Betina-Murter” to join in the construction of a touristic info-point, which is located really close to Vransko jezero. Actually this is their first project so they needed help not only from other NGO friends, but also from the local community. We were very happy to see that people from Modrava, Betina and Murter were really supportive and creative during the building of the info-centre. A curious and important fact is that the walls as well as the other constructions are made in the dry-stone technique, a traditional Dalmatian method for building and constructing. After the hard-working day we had this not less typical than the dry-stone technique dalamatian lunch-pastasuta. ^^ We hope that in the summer this place will be full with happy faces willing to know more about Dalmatian culture and why not to try a hot plate of pastasuta. :)

Mar 3, 2014

February 2014

Feb 17, 2014
Feb 12, 2014

May 2013

May 14, 2013
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April 2013

Apr 29, 2013
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Apr 14, 2013
On arrival training, Orahovica, 8-12/4/13

Our on arrival training took place in Orahovica, a small town near Osijek, at the Red Cross center. In the 4 days we were there, we had a chance to get an in depth knowledge of our rights as EVS volunteers, our responsibilities, and how to deal with EVS in general. It was a lot of work, fun and we got the chance to meet other volunteers. 

Here are some photos of us there !

Apr 12, 2013
Apr 8, 2013
Play
Apr 7, 2013
Apr 6, 2013
Making of Gradina Hill, vol.1

One of our tasks in Argonauta was to create a realistic model of Gradina Hill. Anja was the one who volunteered to do it, and later on when Laura came, both girls joined forces in order to make the best hill ever.

Step 1. While looking at the materials for some days Anja was thinking.. HOW WILL I DO THIS??

Step 2: Anja: Ok don’t panic. Lets draw a topographic map and cut the styropol according to it..

Step 3:  Anja: Voila! Now what????

Everybody was preoccupied with their own work…

but Laura was kind enough to join the “create-Gradina’s-maketa” team, as she already had experience with doing similar projects at the past

So! Laura and Anja made a team, as you see :)

Anja: HOW! WHAT ! WHY!

Laura: Chill. I’ve got this! We ll use papier mache (newspapers with glue)

Step 4: Finished ! 

Step 5: Using clay to cover the papier mache. 

Doesn’t really look like Gradina Hill.. Its a bit too hegh..

Step 6: So ! Anja and Laura had to ask for the assistance of a man, Dobri, to help them cut the model in order to lower its height :)

Stay tuned for vol. 2 !

Apr 5, 2013

March 2013

Mar 29, 2013
Visiting Zadar

We visited Zadar this weekend, and stayed there for one night. Zadar is a really beautiful city, with very interesting ancient architecture to visit! One of the most fascinating sightseeings it has to offer is the Sea Organ (its official name is “Salute to the Sun”). We also had the chance to watch the first football game between Serbia and Croatia after 13 years and had a picture of us taken that ended up in the newspaper! Check out our Zadar experience :)

Mar 22, 2013
Visiting Sibenik

Our good Croatian friends Marko and Cici, took us to Sibenik and Vodice this weekend, and toured us around the city. The weather was sunny finally so after walking and sightseeing we enjoyed a coffee under the hot Croatian sun :)
Here are some pictures of Sibenik and Vodice, hope you’ll get to visit them !

Mar 15, 2013
Working outdoors: Gradina

Simone testing an android JPS app for creating tracks. Simone’s assingment is to find and record the best possible tracks around Gradina’s hill. This will later help Mario in making of Colentum’s android app…

Mar 12, 2013
Some office activity

Everybody is occupied with something different!

Anja is building a 3d model of Gradina hill.

Dobromir is working on writing a story, about Quintus a Roman legionnaire that used to live in Colentum

Laura is creating the website’s design 

and Mario together with Simone are building an android application in order to find the best routes possible to get around Gradina.

But we all assit and help each other when we can !

Mar 4, 2013
Day off

Today, as we don’t work on Saturdays (Hooray !), we woke up early and decided to explore the island of Murter and discover its secret beaches.. The weather was sunny and once we found the perfect spot to relax and enjoy the sunlight, the living was easy :)

Some of us, the brave ones, tried swimming, others were juggling, whilst the rest were simple enjoying the stunning picturesque view of the archipelago..

Hopefully the weather will get better soon and we will have more of these sunny days to enjoy ! Maybe next time, we’ll have a picnic also, by the sea, and try catching sea urchins, which we heard are delicious!

Mar 2, 2013

February 2013

Feb 27, 2013
Visiting Raduc

Hello once again !

Today we visited Raduc, the highest hill in Murter. It is very interesting, as Murter has 7 hills, all of which provide an extravagant view of the island and its surroundings. Raduc is a military base in which the army has built a series of bunkers alongside underground tunnels that bares resemblance to “Lord of the Rings” Moria..

Spooky!

Feb 23, 2013
Feb 20, 2013
First visit to Gradina

This morning Luka, our project manager, took us to Gradina hill, in which Colentum is found, in order for us to survey the object of our work here! The journey was very funny and exciting as while climbing and hiking through the ancient ruins we discovered a lot of interesting stuff.. We were also accompanied by Amaia and Ivo, two volunteers that have already been in Murter since November and are part of a 1 year project with Argonauta. Check us out !

Feb 19, 2013
Walking around Murter..

Our first official walk around the village Murter and its surroundings..

On our way to explore Betina..

Relaxing on a bench after the walk :)

Feb 17, 2013
First Post

Hi, we are Anja, Dobromir, Laura, Mario and Simone, 5 volunteers in an EVS project, from Greece, Bulgaria, France, Spain and Italy. We will be in Murter, Croatia, for the next 3 months in order to work with Argonauta, our host organization, a Croatian NGO. Argonauta promotes sustainable development in Murter, and is specifically engaged in promoting an archaeological site found in this small island, ie. Colentum. Thus we are here to help Argonauta make it a better place! In this blog we will share the experiences that we will obtain the following 3 months. Stay tuned!

Feb 16, 2013
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