So, the first international meeting of our project is over. It started with the snow and ended with tears. With the tears of sadness because of the inevitable farewell, and the tears of joy, due to the new friendships that were formed in the past week.
For the majority of students this was the first international meeting, a trip to the unknown, that was expected with great anticipation. Like for the guests from Bulgaria, Spain and Portugal, it was the same also for the hosts from Slovenia. » I don’t know much about Slovenia, just that is very pretty and it used to be a part of Yugoslavia,« wrote Tomas from Portugal at the beginning of our meeting. »Ljubljana was Europe’s green capital in 2016,« added his friend Joao. Most of our visiting students described Slovenia as a very beautiful, green country with beautiful mountains and cold temperatures.
On Monday, after the official start and a short cultural programme, we went to the old town, where we took a walk around the historic city sights, and explored all of old town major attractions. Ljubljana castle, Dragon Bridge, The three bridges, Central market, Town hall, Robba fountain…. We saw it all. In the evening we (visiting students, Slovene students, their parents and teachers) all got together at the school, where we tasted delicious traditional Slovenian cuisine, such as potica, gibanica, Kranjska sausage…. »I tried everything that was at dinner. Generally speaking, I liked everything,« said Maria.
Tuesday was the Olympic day. Students were divided into 6 international teams which competed in 15 different sport events. The winning team – the immortal sport heroes – have become Henrique C. (Por), Desislava H. (Bul), Tjaša P. (Slo), Maria A. (Spa) and Nika O. (Slo). After lunch we attended an expert talk and workshop about mountaineering.
On Wednesday we visited Slovenian Olympic Educational Centre, where we relived all the great achievements of Slovenian sport at Olympic Games, and we learned something about Olympism, Olympic spirit and Olympic Games in general. Most families used Wednesday’s free afternoon for trips around Slovenia.
Thursday was the field trip day. And it was a perfect day. We went to see the biggest Slovenian sport event – Ski jumping world cup in Planica. 13,000 spectators, clear skies without a cloud in sight and a massive amount of white, almost untouched snow accounted for a magical scenery. “The most wonderful thing was the snow. I have never seen so much snow”, wrote Alejandro from Spain. A walk to the mountain hut in Tamar, where we had lunch, was accompanied with thousands of snowballs flying all over the place. A pure youth fun and playfulness. The great day was topped off by an evening campfire at Julija’s place.
On Friday we had a cycling workshop and then we chose the official logo of our project. We chose among respective logos prepared by each country. The winner was the Portuguese logo. Our first international meeting ended with a school dance. It was impossible not to see the affection and friendship that emerged between students. How lovely. “It was amazing. I really like the girls in Slovenia. I want to marry one someday;” wrote an unidentified student.
Saturday morning was the time for the final farewell that just went on and on and on and on…. Tears, hugs, laughter….Emotions were almost tangible. “I love Slovenia. It was very nice to meet the people, they are so lovely and nice,” wrote Violeta from Bulgaria.
We are all looking forward to our next meeting in Portugal which will undoubtedly bring new friendships and unforgettable experiences. See you all in Portugal!
Bombarral, Portugal, 15. -21. April 2018. By Martin Trajbarič
1ST DAY – SUNDAY
We started our Erasmus+ Portugal project on Sunday, 15th April 2018. The van picked us up at Ljubljana´s railway station at 5.45 a.m. We drove for 3 hours. Then we arrived to Venice airport. We checked in and then we had security check. We flew to Vienna with plane Embraer RJ-195. The plane landed at 1210 a.m. We waited 1 hour at the airport and then we boarded the flight to Lisbon. We flew with TAP Portugal airline, the plane was Airbus a330. It was amazing. We landed at 6.15 p.m. Then we travelled by a van to get to Bombarral. Our hosts waited for us in front of the hotel and took us to their homes where we stayed for the week. (Martin Trajbarič)
MONDAY
Monday was our first day at the school and we had to communicate with new people. Once we arrived at the school, they prepared a fire and earthquake drill and evacuated the school in order to train the students what to do if this were a real situation. In the afternoon they prepared some sports games for us (climbing, tug of war…) After that we had presentations about Portugal and stereotypes we associate with the country and the people. We met a lot of Portuguese people and their habits and it was a lot of fun. When we left the school we had some time to ourselves with the families. It was amazing! (Jana Poredoš)
TUESDAY
Tuesday was the day we went to São Martinho do Porto in the morning and in the afternoon to Obidos. Our roadtrip began at 8.30 when the bus took us to São Martinho do Porto. After we arrived we went for a hike around the bay. Then the bus took us to Caldas da Rainha. Later that, in the afternoon, we came to Obidos where we could buy souveniers and see the city by ourselves. (Iva Večerin)
WEDNESDAY
Respect, excelence and friendship are the values of the Olympic games and were stressed as the values we shared in Bombarral. All my friends participating in Erasmus+ project were very excited about the day where we all competed in sports and spread the olympic spirit.On Wednesday morning after the opening ceremony with the right olympic torch, we started our selected olympic games. We competed in table tennis, golf, atlethics, rugby, badminton and basketball.We all did our best. Gold, silver and bronze medal were fine, but even more important was to be a part of great EU Erasmus+ team! (Ajša Sašek)
THURSDAY
On Thursday we visited Lisbon. We took a sea-land yellow bus and saw the city and 25 de Abril bridge. We saw all tourist attractions and sang songs from the Sound of music with teacher Carlos. In Lisbon we had a bit of free time to buy souvenirs. On the way back we had a lot of fun, because we were playing truth or dare. When we arrived to school we had the afternoon off. Some of us went to judo lessons. It was very interesting and funny. (Pia Grad)
FRIDAY
Friday was the last day of the meeting in Portugal. In the morning we were at Pappy Tommy’s place. We had a really good time. We taught them some Slovenian words. Then we went in school. We were there for a couple of hours and then we went to Peniche. We had a surfing activity. It was a very good experience because a lot of people tried surfing for the first time. After the surfing we went back to school. In the evening we went to Pappy Tommy grandparents’ house and had a party. After the party we went home and slept for 1 or 2 hours, because then we had to go back to Slovenia. (Jakob Zajec)
The last day – SATURDAY
We woke up very early – at 4.00 a.m. Then our hosts drove us to the meeting square. There the van picked us up and drove us to Lisbon airport. We had a flight at 9.00 a.m. We flew to Vienna again. We landed there and changed planes.
The flight from Vienna to Venice was unforgettable. The weather was amazing, without clouds. It was sunny. We could take pictures of Slovenian landscape from the air. We saw Triglav and Soča river, Slovenian coastline and Koper, Izola and Piran. We landed in Venice at 2.00 p.m. Then the van drove us to Ljubljana. Here our Erasmus+ adventure ended. We had an excellent time! (Martin Trajbarič)
Sofia. Bulgaria. 1st to 5th October 2018. By Masa Julija Melinc.
We started our first day of the exchange with meeting up early in the morning in the Bulgarian school. There we were represented with the traditional dances and songs of Bulgaria. The stunts and dances were amazing as they were performed by students of the Bulgarian school. After that we had lunch. It was modest (in comparison to our lunches) but very tasty. Shortly after lunch we headed towards the nearest tram station and got onto a tram which drove us straight to the city centre. We got off in front of the monastery church of St. Aleksander Nevski. We took group pictures there and then had a guided tour of Sofia. The tour was very interesting as we got to see the beautiful architecture and listen to the guide as she told us about the remarkable history of the town. After the tour we all went separate ways. We had a free afternoon to bond and get to know our hosts and their habits.
On Tuesday we went to one of the oldest cities in the world called Plovdiv. It is a beautiful city with old buildings. First we went to big stone wall, from where we could see the whole town and 7 hills which are one of the symbols of Plovdiv. After this we went to the Ethnographic museum. There were a lot of old pictures, furniture, clothes and other historical artefacts. Then our guide showed us a big Roman period arena and the old part of the city. There was one long main street which was full of small shops and bars and a lot of small side streets where you can quickly get lost. We had 2 hours free so we could have our lunch and saw all the streets and shops. I think that Plovdiv is a really old and beautiful city and I loved those small shops and bars there.
On Wednesday we had to be in school at 8:30. My friend, my host and I took a bus and tram to school. In the morning, we had Olympic games. First, there was some kind of an opening ceremony. We were waiting for a long time before anything happened, but we went through it and the games could start. We were able to choose between football, basketball, table tennis and volleyball. Most of the games went well, except for the table tennis tournament and the volleyball. At the table tennis there was really no winner, because the organization was very bad and no one knew who got into the next round, so after the second round everything got really confusing and we just played for fun. With volleyball the problem was that a few of the students participating in Erasmus + project weren’t able to play, because some students that weren’t on the Erasmus team took their spots. In the end, everyone got a medal for every sport they participated in. There were no winners, which was a little bit strange, because the point of the real Olympics is to compete with each other and see who is best in which sport.
After the games, we had lunch and then we had our presentations about Bulgaria. In the evening, we had a dinner with traditional Bulgarian food. There were mostly banitsas and a few plates of sarmi which, in my opinion, weren’t very good, but that’s probably because I’m so used to Slovenian sarma. The banitsas and the desserts that were also there were good. The dinner ended at about 9:30 pm. I think Wednesday was the day Slovenian and Spanish people really became friends, especially at the dinner, where we sat in a circle and talked to each other.
On Thursday morning we boarded a tram which took us to the subway station. When we left the subway the bus was already waiting for us. But when we boarded we were waiting in the bus for some children who overslept. When they came, we went to a farm not that far away where we tried horse riding. It was nice. When we finished, the bus took as to a beautiful city called Bankya where we went for a walk across the park in the town. This city is famous for its thermal springs. And we were soon on the bus again. We went for a walk into a forest. The forest was very beautiful and very similar to Slovenian forests. After the walk, the bus took us to the Paradise center in Sofia where we spent a lot of time playing bowling. I think we all enjoyed it very much. Overall, Thursday was a great day with lots of fun.
On Friday we had to be in school at 8:30. When we arrived we found out that we will be there for two hours so we started to play cards with the Spanish and Portuguese students. At half past ten, we took a tram and then boarded a bus to Vasil Levski stadium. There we saw the medals and cups that the Bulgarian athletes won in the Olympic games. After that, we walked across the city and the park to the adrenaline park Kokolandia. In the park us girls went to level 4 and boys went to level 5. We laughed at each other when we were doing splits in the air because we couldn’t do anything else and it was really funny. When we finished, we went home. Later we got ready to attend a party at Krasi’s, a Bulgarian host’s house. There were also some of the Spanish girls and Portuguese boys but not all of them came. Anyway, we played truth or dare. After we finished, we all went home. We said goodbye to everyone and we were sad because it was over. The week ended and we were going home next morning.
We started our trip to Spain on Sunday with a 3-hour drive to Venice. Then we took a flight to Paris where we had a little bit of free time and from there to Lisbon. In Lisbon we met with the Portuguese team and together we drove around 2 hours to Badajoz by bus.
Monday:
At about 8am all students gathered at the school entrance. We all together went up to the music room where a choir sang songs in different languages. After that we had a short break and then left towards the city centre and visited the city hall. We had a quick look at the hall and a short presentation by a representative of the mayor. At last we headed to the old part of the city and visited an old wall. We then all went home to rest for a couple of hours. Towards the evening everyone got together at a park by the river and we talked with each other. Finally, we went home to sleep.
Tuesday:
On the 2nd day of being in Spain we were getting along better. After an hour of lessons, we got on a bus and went to a city called Mèrida. We went to a museum and then took a train ride all over the city which was really beautiful. We also visited the Roman theatre and went to the park Cornavalo where we took a hike. In the late afternoon we went back to Badajoz. We rested for a bit and then went to the city park where teenagers hang out. The day of hanging out together went by quickly.
Wednesday:
On Wednesday we had Olympic games, but first we walked to the park on Guadiana River Banks, the venue of the games. When we arrived, we divided into groups and started to play a lot of sports which all involved a specific trick. We played basketball with one hand and football with our eyes blindfolded with filmy glasses. After that we had a polygon. There were a lot of games like bottle flips, archery and more. Sometime later we got medals and took a lot of pictures. When we arrived back to school, we had a lunch with parents and it was really good. There was a lot of typical Spanish food and drinks. When we finished, we went home and had a little nap. In our free time, we went to the park where we hung out, listened to some music, ate some food and played sports. The day ended up with a beautiful sunset.
Thursday:
We woke up, ate breakfast and went to school, which started at 8.30 am. We had the first lesson. I had English with two of my schoolmates Pia and Nika. Then we went to the bus and drove to Barcarrota, where we had orienteering for about an hour and half. After that we went climbing, abseiling and also tried the zip-line. In the afternoon, we had lunch and went kayaking until 4 pm. It was a lot of fun. Then we went back home and around 6 pm we went to the shopping centre together. In my opinion this was the best day of the whole week.
Friday:
On Friday we came to school and stayed with our hosts in the first lesson. After that we had our presentations, played an online game designed by the Portuguese team and said goodbye to Bulgarian people. Later we had calligraphy lesson. After we finished with that, we had free time with our hosts all the afternoon. In the evening we had a party at a pub. There were some fizzy drinks, food and music to dance. For more than an hour we were just taking photos outside. Everyone had to take a photo with everyone. The last 30 minutes were very sad, because we had to start saying goodbye. There were a lot of hugs and tears. We also had our usual circle with the song Perfect, like in Slovenia, to wrap up the project, which we started in Ljubljana. At 11.45 all the students sadly had to go home, to sleep for a few hours, before we embarked on the journey home.
Saturday:
On Saturday we said goodbye to our Spanish friends very early, at 5 o’clock in the morning. We then drove back to Lisbon with the Portuguese team. From there they took their bus home, and we took a flight to Amsterdam, where we caught a connecting flight which took us back to Venice. From Venice we had to drive another 3 hours to Slovenia and the arrival to Ljubljana ended our trip. We had an amazing time and a valuable experience, but most of all, we got to know some fabulous people and made new friends for life.
