In February, we embarked on the next step of our two year Erasmus+ Programme. We flew to Greece where we got to know our partner countries – Poland, Spain, Germany, England and Greece. It was an incredible experience. Below are four reports from the children who went on the trip as well as a gallery of pictures from our week. To read more about the Erasmus+ project, please go to the Projects section of the website.
My Trip to Greece – By Dara Casey
On Sunday 12th February, Grace, Jasmine, Adem and I went to Greece with Ms. O’Sullivan, Ms. Doyle and Mr. Hussey. The first night, we stayed in Athens in an apartment and had great fun as we went bowling and to the arcade. Adem beat Mr. Hussey in a game of basketball! The next day, we got a bus to Patras which is the third largest city in Greece. We met our host families and I stayed the night with Georgio. The family were very nice to me and they had a lovely home. They had souvlaki in pitta bread for dinner which is a traditional Greek food. During the week, I visited the school and sat in classes. I noticed that all classes were in Greek except for after school classes which were in English. On Wednesday, we visited the nearby University and we saw a play and traditional Greek dances which were interesting. On Thursday night, all the host families and the Erasmus students went for dinner in Patras city centre and we went for a tour of the city afterwards. I really enjoyed it because we had good fun getting to know the other children. The pavements were all made of marble and there was a lot of graffiti on the walls around the city. The city also has a lot of homeless people. The Greek people were very happy and easy-going. My favourite part about the trip was the carnival day in the school where they had a barbeque and dancing and activities for the whole day.
Greece February 2017 – By Jasmine Durkin
On Sunday, 12th February, Grace, Adem, Dara and I went to Greece on an entrepreneurship project. The week was a lot of fun. My favourite part was the carnival day because we had a lovely barbeque where we ate some Greek food including souvlaki which is a tradition Greek food made from pork. Every morning we woke up at 6.45a.m. and left the house at 7.40a.m. Stella’s parents drove us to school. School started at 8a.m. We spent the day in class with other Greek children. We read our books and wrote in our journals during class. We tried to listen to their lessons but they were mostly in Greek. They did Geography, History, Maths, Computers, German, English and Greek. We played Bingo with them in German. We familiarised ourselves with the Greek cuisine and sampled pastries, cheese and vegetables. They had Greek cookies which were nice also. Stella’s house was right by the ocean which was beautiful. On the way to school, you could see the Bridge of Patras which was amazing. Stella has one brother and one sister, Elven and Andreas. In English it’s Helen and Andrew. The family were very polite, kind and assisted to our needs. We ate a pastry with custard for breakfast and for dinner we had pasta, minced meat and egg on the top. They had a garden in the back of their house with oranges, tomatoes, lettuce and other fruit and vegetables and all of their foods were handmade like tomato sauce, jam, marmalade, pizza, salad, spaghetti and pastries. Overall, I enjoyed my week in Greece. It was a great experience.
My Trip to Greece – By Grace Roberts-White
Last Sunday, 12th February, after an overnight journey to Dublin, Jasmine, Dara, Adem and I went on a Ryanair flight to Athens in Greece. We were very tired but went to a shopping mall and went to the arcade and played basketball and did bowling. We got the metro which was very easy and fast and right across from our apartment. That night, we went to bed early and the next day, we went shopping and we travelled to Patras where we met up with our host families. Jasmine and I stayed with a girl called Stella. She was very shy at first, but after a while, we got to know her well. On Tuesday, we visited their school. We didn’t do much that day, just observed. They had three breaks where they went outside and played volleyball, soccer, skipping and basketball. They had a shop in the school where they sold pastries, water and bread and juices. The food there were much cheaper that Ireland. A bottle of water in the shop was 14 cent. On Wednesday, we went to the University and watched traditional dancing as well as listened to music and watched a play about the history of Lysistrata who was the first female to stand up to the men in Greece and fight for equality amongst women. She helped to stop the war by refusing to tend to her family along with other women in Greece. This forced the men to end the war and come home. On Thursday, we participated in a play where we acted as tourists visiting the Acropolis in Athens. When we came back, we joined in with the events in the school where we had a barbeque and ate soulavki and watched dancing and sports. Afterwards, we went to a workplace where they created software for artists like Shakira, Coldplay and Bob Dylan. My favourite part of the week was visiting the workplace, bowling and the carnival. On Friday, we visited Delphi which is an ancient archaeological site. It was very beautiful. We went to the beach afterwards in a small village and got ice-cream. We also visited a museum in Athens and one in Delphi. Our tour guide Leonie showed us around. On our way home from Dublin, we text 2fm and they called out our names on the radio twice! It was a great end to a lovely week.
Greece – By Adem Gul
On Sunday night, 12th February, we left Kenmare to set off on our trip to Greece! We drove to Dublin and stopped in Cashel on the way. We landed at Dublin airport early in the morning and had breakfast and later that morning, we flew to Athens in Greece. We drove to our apartment in Athens and went on the underground to a shopping mall. We looked around and played bowling. We went to sleep early and the following day, we went to the mall and had breakfast and looked around for a few hours. We then went to the Acropolis museum with the other Erasmus students. It was a very big museum and very interesting. We walked to the Acropolis and saw the Theatre of Dionysus. After, we walked to our bus and travelled to Patras where we met our host families. I went to Konstaninous house which was very nice and big. He has a brother Alexander. I talked to them that night and got to know them. They were very nice and they had very good English. The next day, they drove us to school and we met up with the other students from my country. The school was quite big and I got lost a few times. The classrooms weren’t as modern as our school. They didn’t have interactive whiteboards or laptops in all the rooms. They had a computer room which we don’t have but we have ipads instead. A few times, we went to see the city. The city was very busy and big and had a lot of traffic. It was difficult to cross the road as there were not a lot of pedestrian crossings. The food in the restaurants was nice and I went to soccer training there and it was a lot more civilised than our training over here. There was no kids messing. It was very serious. My favourite part of the trip was probably the day of the barbeque because we got to play outside for nearly the whole day. I got on really well with my host family and they invited me back in July for my holidays. Overall, I had a great trip and would love to go back again someday.
