Trip to Trikala

  Wednesday, 30^th March

  First day

 We all met at a tripartite school. each country presented its own culture, school and traditional food.

 After that we all visited the Town Hall: Smart City control Centre. The most memorable thing for me is that the light in the city or even in the bathroom only comes on when a person passes through the city at night or enters the bathroom. Then we visited the Municipal Sport Museum.

 At 12:30 we visited Tsitsani’s Museum-Old Prison. It was very unfortunate that we were unable to see the entire museum as it was being renovated. After all the activities we went to have lunch with the host families.

 It’s not over yet. In the afternoon we had a tour around the amazing Trikala. After the walk we had free time with the host families.

   Thursday, 31 March

 The day started with presentation: Waste management in the prefecture of Trikala. Then we visited the facilities of the landfill site. There we saw how from rubbish is made clean, drinking water!

 Then we visited the recycling center. I learned that the Greeks use two types of recycle bins. One recycle bin is green for general waste and the other is blue for recycling. There is another gray recycle bin that is for glass.

 We also visited a cookie factory. There were amazing smells and they gave us amazing tasting cookies. And after that we went to host families to have dinner.

   Friday, 1^st April

Today we visited the University Forest (Uniforest). Later we had an online meeting with the forester. It was very interesting. 

 We asked a lot of questions at the end of the meeting. After the meeting we had dinner at the restaurant.

 When we got back to town we had free time whit the host families.

   Saturday, 2^nd April

Today we visited Lake Plastiras and Botanical Garden. In the botanical garden we learned how to make essential oils.  Essential oils can be prepared in two ways. Method 1 (cold method)

 Dried calendula is required. They need to be placed in a dark jar, if you don’t have a darker jar, you can wrap them in foil. Olive oil is still needed. It should be poured in the jar whit calendulas. Shaken every 2-3 days. And so it takes 4-6 weeks. Method 2 is (warm).

 The warm way is faster, but can compromise quality.

 At 14:00 is free time whit host families.   

   Sunday, 3rd April

Last day

Last day started whit guided tour of the Meteora-a unique geological phenomenon included on UNESCO’s World Heritage List.

Visit to the Holy Monastery of Varlaam and St. Stephan’s Monastery.

After that we visited the Natural History and Mushroom Museum. There are 7,000 different species of mushrooms, some are edible others are toxic. If a mushroom tastes good, like a nut, that mushroom can be deadly. The museum also has the most expensive mushrooms in the world, which cost about 4,000 euros per kilogram. The day ended whit goodbye party for students and teachers.

Nicola Sgarbi, Istituto

comprensivo in San Giorgio in

Mantova, Italy

IMPRESSIONS TRIKALA

Hello everyone!

I’m Nicola Sgarbi, a pupil of the Don Milani school in San Giorgio Bigarello and this year I took part in the “Be clean, go green” project. I want to thank the school that gave us this great opportunity, the professors who accompanied us to Greece, the European Commission that gave us the funds for Erasmus, the families who hosted us, but also the school that welcomed us and all the people who took us on tours. So I thank everyone for this fantastic experience that made me grow a lot and therefore I feel lucky.

We were hosted in Trikala which is a very nice and well kept city.

The excursions were:

• The smart city control center, the municipal sports museum, the Tsitsani’s museum, a walking tour of Trikala
• Visit to the facilities of the landfill site, in matter of recycling
• University Forest in Pertouli
• Lake Plastiras Botanical Garden
• Kalampaka and Meteora, the Holy Monastery of Varlaam and St. Stephen’s Monastery, the digital Projection Centre of Meteora’s History and Culture, The Natural History and Mushroom Museum, Gisemi

The excursion I liked most was:

– Meteora, a UNESCO heritage site, are Orthodox monasteries located on high rocks. The view and the landscape immediately made me fall in love with Meteora; in fact, it was my favorite excursion.

I also liked

• Pertouli, which is a small mountain village controlled and preserved since 1934 by the School of Forestry of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. I really liked the idea that a university safeguards a natural landscape.

• In visiting the Recycling center, I was intrigued to see how other cities handle the waste problem. Maybe we can learn from them by taking good practice and even improve them.

In my opinion, this experience can be useful to everyone because it helps you improve your English, and also learn how to deal with problems, socialize and get to know other people … and even overcome some of your fears. 

I will always remember this adventure; it was of great help to me and it will be for my future as well,now I feel more confident than before. I wasn’t at ease at speaking because I was focused on thinking whether what I wanted to do was right or wrong, but now I understood it is more important to try than to make mistakes, because you learn from mistakes.

I am delighted and satisfied to be part of the Erasmus project and I recommend everyone to try it. 

While working on the topics of the project I became aware of the urgency of taking care of the environment. I learned that the current problems of our planet are sometimes underestimated. On the contrary I think they must be addressed and resolved shortly to offer a good life to future generations. I also discovered how hydroponic cultivation would contribute to preserving the environment and planet. 

In my opinion this  trip was also a sign of hope. After two years of closure due to Covid, we can travel again .

Now I would like to thank the family who hosted me. I thank them for how they welcomed me, they were very kind, helpful, funny and sociable. I thank them with all my heart and I will always remember them because they have done a lot for me.