Between 16th and 23rd November 2018 the third training visit within the Erasmus+ project (My passion – my future) took place in Greece. We visited our partners from 37th Primary School in Heraklion, Crete.
We received a very warm welcome from the hosts. The children stayed with host families who organised their free time so as to provide a lot of entertainment and various activities.
The theme of the visit was: From the Minoan Era to the Modern Times. During various classes, workshops and training sessions we learnt a lot about the history and culture of Crete. We saw traditional dance performances, theatre plays connected with the Greek mythology, we visited the Knossos Palace, where Theseus killed the Minotaur and got out of the Labyrinth with Ariadne's help. We took part in classes conducted by an archaeologist who talked about his job and showed the children how to work on an excavation site. The teachers had a great seminar on „Exploiting cultural heritage through the web tools in education: the case of Minoan Crete”. We also went on a few excursions, we visited the Cretaquarium, the Natural History Museum and the Foundation for Research and Technology of Crete. We made some robots during the robotics workshop and we took part in an international history and geography quiz.
There are plenty of olive orchards and vineyards in Crete, we managed to visit some of them and we even got the chance to see olive oil production process. We tasted a lot of local food, we were surprised to find that olive oil and honey are used so frequently. The teachers were also invited to a meeting with the local authorities in the Town Hall and in their free time they visited the towns of Chania and Rethymno.
At the end of the visit there was a festive farewell dinner for the teachers, the students and the host families. During the dinner each country presented their traditional dances and songs.
The visit to Greece was a great opportunity to gain knowledge and improve language and communication skills for both the teachers and the students. We also made new friends and were impressed by the great atmosphere, the hospitality of the hosts and the sunny weather.
