Our trip to Turkey - Estonian team
Four students and two teachers from Kärla Basic School were visiting Turkey from 24th February until 1st March 2014.
Our journey started on an early Sunday morning with a bus-trip to Riga from where we continued the journey with the flight to Istanbul with Turkish Airlines flight company. But Istanbul was just our stop-over to Izmir, which was our final destination. Our day began at 7am in Estonia and by the evening, around 10pm we were already in Manisa, which is about 50km from Izmir.
Some comments about the flights – all of them passed very smoothly without any problems and we were fed extremely well. For some of us this was the first real flight experience of life.
We were all in the centre of attention on our first day in Manisa on 24th February. At first we were introduced the local school. We were told that every Monday morning and every Friday after school it is common practice to sing the national anthem. The architecture of the school building was unique and different compared to that what we have in Estonia. Namely, you could see all the corridors of each stock while looking up from the bottom.
It was extremely impressive how the Turkish team had designed the corner of Comenius by setting up the national flags with informative bullets of each country participating the project.
After the instruction tour at school there were the presentations of the homework about „Vitamines and Minerals in Different Dishes“. Some of the presentations were way too long and quite similar to each other but they all were on a very detailed level in terms of healthy food. We personally think that our presentation was the best one because it differed a lot from other countries and it was very eye-catching and interesting to listen to.
Once all the presentations were presented we were introduced the local town – Manisa. We visited many mosques where you had to take off your shoes before entering the temple. We also admired the scenic views where you could see the moutains as a background of the city. During the evening we managed to pop in to many lovely cafes and enjoy local deserts.
On our second day in Turkey we went to Izmir which is the third largest city of the country. We were shown the city ant its most famous sightseeings. Among other places we were taken to the local market which is completely different than we are used to see or have in Estonia. It was very posh to walk along the Mediterranean Sea side. We also visited an historical place called Mevlevihane. It used to be the place where the roads of Rome and Turkey crossed and there was a building which is similar to nowadays spa. Before the end of the day we were taken to the Kursunlu Spa where we swam in the water that was enriched with minerals.
Our third day was very intensive. First half of the day we were thought and introduced sporty games by other countries that are usually played at their homes. On that day we could really feel the spring outside and therefore it was really enjoyable and fun to play those games. We introduced others such a game like Blue-Black-White, where the participants had competed in a sack race, on three legs (one leg of both runners was tied together into one), or do some other funny dancing moves based on the numbers and colours that were chosen by the participant.
Our day continued in a local vocational school. We introduced others kama-mousse with strawberries, kiwis, and bananas. As it was really easy to make, we finished quite soon. There was a party in the evening with the families by whom we were hosted, their children, guests, and teachers. In this gathering we ate the food that was made earlier by us, but also Turkish traditional dishes brought along by the families. Everything was delicious! In the meantime local folk dancers entertained us with traditional Turkish dances. At this event we were officially welcomed and thanked by the headmaster of the school as well.
Thursday was full of excursions again. We were taken to the ruins of St. John church and later on to Ephesus, which used to be an ancient Greek town at the west coast of Middle East. It used to be one of the most important trading and handicraft centre of Aegean Sea. Temple of Artemis that is located in there is one of the seventh wonders in the world. As the tours were carried out by the local guide we learned a lot about the area and Turkey in general. We also visited a small village in the mountains which tended to be the magnet of tourists because we met so many different people from various races in there. This day was extremely interesting!
On Friday we attended the classes at the local school which lasted 40 minutes each. The classes are completely different compared to that what we have in Estonia. It seemed that students were free to do anything they like in a class.
In the afternoon we drove around in Manisa. We visited many beautiful places, also the ancient university where very famous persons have studied medicine and meditation for example. After all these historical sightseeings we went to Mostem Vocational High School. The building was modern, massive but beautiful! We were introduced the building from inside and outside. Also in this school we attended couple of classes. In one of them we were shown how a small robo can lift the weights and how it reacts to the orders given by a human. At the same time there was an interclass football competition which had brought together a bunch of fans who were all cheering up very intensively and loudly.
We also visited a local food factory on that day. This manufactory was concentrated mainly on producing the food that can be served for breakfast only. We were demonstrated how to peel the potatoes and cut them, also we were shown different coolers and refrigerators. Again, the day was really educative and interesting.
On Saturday morning at 5am we headed back to our home. The journey was long and tiring but very memoriseable. We met lots of interesting people, made friends so it was really sad to say goodbye on that morning. But who knows - maybe we meet again in one day!
Paul-Mark, Sirli, Kristel, Helina