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Report on ComeniusTrip to Thessaloniki

Scott Bain and Matthew Reid 2I1 Kirkwall Grammar School.

Tuesday 13^th January 2009.

We left KGS at 1:30 pm for Kirkwall Airport. We met the 2 representatives from Aquatera there. Our flight to Edinburgh was at 3.40 which got us in at 5:00pm. We had enough time to have some dinner and a look about the airport before our flight to Gatwick at 8:10pm. We arrived at Gatwick at 9:35pm. Our hotel was just 5 minute bus ride away. After settling in our rooms we all met for a drink before bed.

Wednesday 14^th January 2009

We all met in the lobby early before getting the bus back tot he airport. After cheeking in we went for a coffee. Our flight was at 08:33hrs to Thessanloniki. The flight took three hours. During the flight we has a drink and something to eat. We landed at 14:00hrs, local time. Difference is 2hours ahead of UK time. It was cold and wet when we arrived. We took a taxi to our hotel, the Grand Palace Hotel, which was the nearest to the school we were going to visit.

We settled into our rooms before meeting for lunch. After lunch we spent time on the hotel’s computers. As the conference didn’t start until the next day, we went for a walk with Mr Henning and discovered a Lidl store. We made our first purchases in Greece, paying for juice and sweets for our room in Euros.

In the evening all the teacher from the nine schools, and us, went for a meal in a traditional Greek restaurant. I t was great sampling the local food and culture. We think we all had a good time before heading back to our hotel exhausted.

Thursday 15^th January 2009

We got up early for breakfast, which was great, and then we all walked to the school.

The school was called the 1st Geniko Lykeio, Menemenis. There were over thirty pupils from Orkney, Spain, Greece, Germany, Portugal, Denmark Austria and Hungary.

The pupils got a talk from the two representatives of Aquatera, whilst the teachers attended a planning meeting. The representatives from Aquatera spoke about their work and Climate Change. The second half of the session was question and answer and writing down our ideas about our ideas that might help to prevent more climate change.

For lunch we walked to a local cafe, when walked back to the school with Mr Henning and Mr Diack the long way so we could get some exercise and fresh air.

When we got back to school we wrote down and discussed what we and our and the others did about

climate change, for example recycling. We also looked at how countries were being affected by climate change

and what further things we could do as a schools to try and help. For example, reduce the number of lights in a school, walk to school, use rain water to flush the toilets, switch off all computers at the end of the day.

The Aquatera presentation and our listed ideas are available on the Comenius blog at http://web2class.edublogs.org

Friday 16^th of January 2009

After breakfast, we went on a sight seeing trip. Our destination

was Halkidiki, a very popular seaside area for both Greeks and

tourist from across Europe. We stopped at a beautiful beach and

everyone took lots of photographs.

We stopped for a drink during our sight seeing trip and eventually

had our lunch at a beautiful fish restaurant. All the pupils had time

to mix and have a chat in order to find out more about each others

countries, schools, like and dislikes. It was good fun.

Saturday 17^th of January 2009

After breakfast we got a taxi into the centre of the city and walked to

the famous ‘White Tower’. The tower is called the White Tower as

during the wars with Turkey, the Turks used to chop prisoners heads

off from the top of the tower so all local people could see what

happens to rebels. As a result the tower was stained red from all

the blood. Once the Turks were defeated, the Turkish prisoners

were made to paint the tower white so that all traces of the

be-headings were removed. This is why the tower is still called

today the ‘White Tower’.

Inside the tower to-day is now a museum which displays the history of Thessaloniki throughout the ages. The history was well presented by means of pictures and audio tapes which we listened to as we went round and up the towers 6 floors.

At the top you could walk outside and get a great view of the Mediterranean and the modern large city. Thessaloniki is the second largest city in Greece.

Sunday 18^th January 2009

After breakfast we packed our bags, then took time to walk all the way into the city for a final sight see-ing Mr Henning and Mr Diack showed us some more ancient building that are still preserved in the modern city.

We returned to the hotel to collect our bags and went to the airport for our fight back to London. We got back to London at 16:30hrs. We went back to the hotel we stayed at on our way to Greece and enjoyed a good evening meal before going to bed early.

Monday 19^th January2009

Flew back to Orkney via Glasgow and arrived back on Orkney at 12:00hrs. Mr. Diack told us he expected to see the both of us in school the next morning!!!

Scott Bain & Matthew Reid.