On 5th May, students and two teachers from Grammar school in Ceska Lipa set off for their long trip to see their etwinning partners in Greece. They could go there because they had won the National etwinning competition. The journey was very long; it took 24 hours by coach. We were lucky to have such good drivers with us.
The first day in Greece, we stopped in Thessaloniki for 8 hours- compulsory stop because of the bus drivers. The weather was terrible. It rained a lot but we didn´t mind because we went sightseeing. We started our tour on the coast near The White Tower and then we went to the Byzantine Museum where we stayed for almost three hours.
My dear friend Despina Ganidou, who had been my etwinning partner some time ago, met us at the museum and spent the whole afternoon with us. She showed us the most beautiful places in Thessaloniki and we had excellent ice-cream together. We went to bed very tired in a small hotel in Leptokaria, only several metres from the sea. It was a pity that the weather was so cold.
On Wednesday, our nice bus drivers took us to Kavassila High School. It has been our etwinning school for three years and we have had a lot of very good projects. All the students and also the teachers were waiting for us and the welcome was very warm. We went to the gym, where we had a programme together. Our students had prepared a presentation about the Czech Republic and then they sang the song 14 Nightingales in Greek. The Greek students sang the Czech song Darmo sa ty trapis and they danced a Greek dance for us. We also got a very nice plaque from the headmaster, Mr. Paschalis / I call him Zeus / for our three-year cooperation. The Greek children invited their Czech friends to dance together with them and they finished the whole programme with Macarena together. All the Greek children who were watching the programme didn´t want us to go home and they chanted and chanted. When the program finished and the audience left the gym, etwinning children had a chance to speak to each other face to face for the first time. They also exchanged small presents. It was very touching to see all the children together speaking and laughing. They looked like one big class all together. We left the school in the afternoon and our dear friend Eleni Kostopoulou went with us. She took us to Vergina where we visited the Tomb of Filip II and when we stood in front of the door to his grave, we felt sacred reverence to the ancient history of Greece. / On our journey to Greece, the children watched the film Alexander the Great / Our long day went on in Veria, an old town not far from Vergina, where we went on a sightseeing tour with Eleni. She was very talkative and the children were thriller to practice their English. We finished our day in Goodies/ fast food restaurant/
On Thursday, we were supposed to climb the Olympos mountains, but due to the wet weather we decided to go to Meteora, to ancient monasteries on the rocks of fanciful shapes. We took a lot of very interesting photos there.
When we got to the hotel, the sun was shining and it was so difficult to give up swimming in the sea. We went to the water for a while. But the water was really very cold; it was like a razor, as we Czech people say.
The last day was sad. The trip was so short. The sun was shining, so we spent most of the day on the shore, swimming, sunbathing and shopping souvenirs for our families. We sang the Greek song to the owner of the hotel and he was so touched that he let us stay in till our departure which was really great. There was a possibility to cook in the rooms, so we could make some pasta before we set off for our journey back home.
We said goodbye to the sea and got on the clean coach to go home. The journey back was shorter. We all were tired and a most of the time all the children slept. The coach drivers were really very professional and they took us home safely. We had some problems on the border of former Yugoslavian countries and so our students could see the difference between the countries which are members of the EU and the countries which aren´t. We are happy that the Czech Republic belongs to the members of the EU.
The students filled a geographical test about Greece on the coach and the bus drivers helped us to draw the lucky ones who got small souvenirs.
We got home suntanned and happy after our short trip to the far away country in the south of Europe. We travelled four thousand kilometres / the total distance / to see our friends. We could compare our way of life and we could see the differences. Now we know that although we live on the other side of Europe we have a lot in common. Our common aim is meeting young people, making friends, studying together to be able to work for the better world in the future. We could learn about Greece from reality not from the brochures of a travel agency.
We would like to thank to all, who let us go to this beautiful trip.
Mgr. Naděžda Kadlecová
