Members' Blog

On Friday 26^th July, 5 Members across Wales, along with the Chair of Rural Youth Europe Niall Evans, travelled to London to depart for their 10 days Rural Youth Europe experience. 

We caught up with Iwan Davies from Brecknock YFC to hear all about their experience in Estonia

“We travelled together with the England Team from NFYFC and arrived in the capital city Tallin on Friday evening. Having not met most of the members from both countries before, we soon developed a great bond and friendship. After we settled in in Tallin we went for a meal, where we met our first challenge of ordering off the menu that was all in Estonian. A bit of a Russian roulette of meals but luckily enough the food was top quality, which continued throughout our trip. We then went for a stroll around Tallin, but we soon got distracted and ended up in the sports bar watching the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics, where we chatted and got to know more about the members on tour.

On Saturday morning, we walked into Tallin old town, we all were in awe when walking past the old town defence walls and seeing all the old architecture throughout the town. We tried the breakfast out, luckily this time there was an English translation on the menu, then decided to go and walk inside the buildings and learn about the history of Estonia and the city Tallin. Whilst walking around, we decided we would walk up every tall tower we could. We started off well, climbing the towers in record time but as the day went on, we soon got fatigued as a lot of the towers where over 60m tall, but every tower was worth it, experiencing the beautiful view at the top.  That evening we went for a meal and then went for a few drinks, and it wasn’t an Irish bar we visited but a Scottish one, where we met up with the German team and got to know them having a good laugh late into the evening.

On Sunday, we woke up as fresh as daisies and packed up ready for our travel down to Voore – the European rally venue for the week. Before catching the train, we walked around the food hall and market, this was experience seeing all the different food that was on show. So, we hop on our 3-hour train to Jo̴geva, caught the bus to the venue where we signed in and met the rally organisers, shown to our rooms and met our roommates before going to do ice breakers which was good fun, there was music and drinking in the outdoor area where you got to meet other members  from all over Europe.

Monday was introduction day, there was the opening ceremony where we got see the other countries dress up in traditional clothing and flying their country flags. Following that we were introduced to the Olympic games they had planned, and we were put into buddy groups. My team consisted of Scotland, Norway, Germany and Latvia. In the Olympics you get awarded for punctuality then have set challenges that you have to complete throughout the week. After a break we got introduced to the topic of the week and a seminar about entrepreneurship. Then we were given a 2-hour lunch break where we had the chance to check the pool out and the beach volleyball. After lunch we had a chat about the code of conduct for the week, we finished for the day to prepare for the evening’s international buffet. We represented Wales with whiskey and fudge from Anglesey, cheese from Snowdonia, Tregroes waffles and of course we can’t forget about the Welshcake! The Snowdonia cheese black bomber was probably the hit of the night on food. It was interesting to see all the other food and drink from the other countries and getting to know their cultures. The eating and drinking carried on late into the night, there was a big debate of which had the best whiskey between the Celtic nations.

Tuesday after the international buffet we woke up not quite feeling as fresh as a daisy after getting to know different country’s cultures. We went to the seminars, first was with a  guest speaker, an Estonian young farmer to talk about what they do as a federation in terms of activities and competitions, then with Katrine Leitane, members of EESC group 3 civil society. We found this really interesting, after lunch there was an intense game of volleyball, followed by a people library whereby members across the rally spoke about what their businesses and jobs were, for me this was one of the best seminars of the week. There were some interesting people on the trip, and they were so approachable we could ask them questions throughout the week.  The evening programme for the night was cultural dancing so us from Wales showed the Jac Y Do, my dancing improved as the week went on as there was a lot of cultural dancing throughout the week!

Wednesday, we started the weeks topic entrepreneurship, we did quite different brainstorming session which were 3 hours long called a hackathon what was quite interesting, did you know that bolt – the uber and scooters you see in the city – came from the young farmers in Estonia while doing a hackathon. Later, that day we had to pick a problem, place and an item out of a hat, then had to create a sketch to solve the problem using the place and the item. In the evening we did a lip sync battle where our buddy group came second with our rendition of Tequilia, quite a hard lip sync battle song to do.

Thursday was our excursion day where we had choice of 3 trips, the Welsh team decided to go on excursion 1. Our first stop was a sheep and dexter cattle farm, quite interesting how they had to deal with the wolves, they had 2 great Pyrenees sheep dogs that will sit and guard the sheep 24/7. They used all herbal lays to feed sheep on a rotational grazing system where they would have a water bowser with CCTV camera on so they can check the sheep out throughout the day as they had full time jobs as well. After that we went to a nurture farm retreat where it was like a traditional Estonian farm that had been updated, they did weekend retreats for people to come from the city. They would come to chill out, eat homegrown food from the garden and spin wool, we tried their food which was delicious. Our last stop was a beef and arable farm where the farmer was very keen on soil health, he grew a variety of crops telling us how he would have crop rotation. He also had cracking herd of Aberdeen angus – they were shining! We returned to the camp, we had a quiz and interesting fun sports.

Friday we had a seminar on Estonian culture which was interesting, followed by a self-reflection afternoon where we could use the sauna, go to the pool or play volleyball, which by now the Welsh team had got pretty good at – Olympics 2028, watch this space! There was also Estonian traditional sports – welly wanging, tug of war and their take on Limbo. That evening we had a traditional Estonian dance company come and teach us how to dance.

Saturday was our final day. In the morning we had another guest speaker, then a few chats from Rural Youth Europe, then we had the afternoon off to pack before the closing ceremony dinner. The ceremony was where we all got dressed up in our formal wear and enjoyed the changing over of chair, so we said goodbye to Niall as chairman and welcomed the new chair Nicolai. We had the results of the rural youth Olympics; our buddy team didn’t do very well but we had fun and definitely became friends. Then we had food (wow!), what can I say it they had slowed cooked the pork all day on the BBQ, it melted in my mouth, and the chicken was packed full of flavour. As with any good dinners, there was an after party where there was a photo booth, so we took pictures to keep as memories for life. We drunk, laughed around table then sang karaoke into the early hours of the morning, followed by the last game of volleyball in a suit, which maybe wasn’t the best idea!

On Sunday we said our goodbyes, it was emotional day as our week of bonding came to an end. We made a lot of new friends and got to know about so many different cultures. Credit to the Rural Youth Europe team and Estonia E4 for putting on a great week! We travelled back to Tallin, for supper we tried bear (yes, bear!) meat, we do not recommend this as a Sunday roast alternative. We then caught the flight back to London.

If any Wales YFC members are still reading this thinking, should I apply, I was quite sceptic about the trip initially but I am so glad I applied, it was a fabulous inspirational experience. Estonia is a beautiful country steeped in some sad history but has defined itself as a nation. I have learnt about cultures from around Europe, different businesses and most importantly made new friends and contacts, I will definitely be applying again!