Us, six students: Jakub Rybnikár, Tomáš Žilínek, Michal Ďurčík, Broňa Bendová, Alica Hudecová and Nina Mockovčiaková and our teachers: Ľubica Durcová and Lenka Líšková got involved in the project, Erasmus+. The theme of this project was to create a fictitious business plan, which we were supposed to present in the country in which we travelled to. After infinite weeks of meetings with our teachers discussing the business plan, the day of our departure, which we all had been looking forward to so much, finally came. Our final destination and the first meeting place of all the countries involved in this project was Chania. It is a city on the island of Crete.
We left Slovakia on Saturday. By airplane we flew to Athens and then directly on to Chania. At the airport in Chania we were greatly welcomed by the Greek students who would be taking care of us. They took us to their homes where we talked for a long time and got to know each other better. After that we had our first meeting. All the students from the other participating countries met and went for a walk around the town, and the Greek students told us something about Chania. The whole town was amazing; with small streets and a lot of restaurants everywhere and there were a lot of wonderful old buildings. But the most wonderful site was the bay. The water was so clear that I just wanted to jump into it. But this town also has a dark side. There was mess everywhere around with ´wild´ dogs lying on the pavement. Nevertheless, the overall impression was quite pleasant. After this walk we had a common dinner. Nobody knew anyone so everybody just talked to each other. Most of us spent the evening at a lighthouse in the gulf. The next day we, as well as the students from the other countries met in the school and presented our business ideas. Our idea was to create a mechanism for taking heat from compost. Later, we had a little snack and presented our logos for the whole project. The rest of the day was free, we went swimming in the sea which was quite warm although it was only April. Tuesday was really exhausting. Firstly, we visited a Venizelos grave, which was a park with the grave of Venizelos, their national hero. Then we moved to Terra Crete Olive Oil Industry. There we learned everything about the making of olive oil. We also got a present. It was an olive oil bottle, but unfortunatly we couldn't take it on the plane. The very next stop was at the oldest olive tree which was some 3000 years old. There was also a museum of olive agriculture. After having lunch we visited Agia Lake. It is one of the only two lakes on Crete. Around the lake there were bamboo and orange trees everywhere. Here we got to see how crazy our Italian friends were. On Wednesday we had a day trip to Heraklion, the second biggest town on Crete. We had an excursion of Knossos- the Minotaur maze. We also visited Cretaquarium and had lunch in Heraklion. Throughout the whole week, but especially on this day, we taught others to speak Slovak. It was really funny, mainly the swear words. On Thursday we met at the school and went to the Municipal library where we made mixed groups and improved our business ideas. The rest of the day was free again and we spent it buying souvenirs. On Friday we met at the school and presented our improved ideas of our projects. Then we had lunch and a kind of an after lunch party. Greek students performed their traditional dance- horos for us. We also played football and then we went swimming. The sea was not so warm this time. We stayed on the beach the whole day until the evening. Sitting on the beach by the fire playing guitar and singing was just wonderful. At the end we all said goodbye to our new friends, because we wouldn't see most of them the next day. And it was so. On Saturday tears appeared in our eyes at the airport. We didn't want to go anywhere and they didn't want us to go away. But we had to. We departed at 6:00 PM and left Crete. We made a little stop in Athens where we took a walk around the city. Unfortunately, we couldn't visit the Acropolis, but we had seen a lot of Athens. After lunch we flew from Athens and came to Slovakia. It was 9:00pm when we got back to Myjava. We had gotten up at 5:00 that day, so we were really tired. Our parents took us home and we all were really happy to sleep in our own beds again.
by Tomáš Žilínek
Year 2, Issue 3