2nd Partnership Meeting in Greece - Photostory by Portuguese Team

Meeting in Athens, Feb 2011 by the Greek Team

Although many months have passed we still remember this meeting. End of 2010 beginning of 2011 Athens was on demonstration and strikes almost every day.  We were very stressed because we didn’t know if the participants could arrive to the venue because of the situation. Finally everybody was there although there were strikes and demonstrations the arrival day as well.

Our first meeting started with nice view from the tenth floor of the hotel. In front of us all the beautiful and historical monuments of Athens, Acropolis, Lycabetus hill,  Philopapou, Piraeus port. After our welcome/introduction meeting and the practical arrangement s we started our walking tour in Athens. Through Omonoia square we passed from the central food market and reached Monastiraki square under Acropolis, next to the roman bibliotheque, and to ancient agora.

After our traditional meal in a cultural centre we went back to the hotel to prepare our international fair. The fair was visited apart from some Greeks members of NGOs many young international volunteers who had their midterm evaluation meeting in the same hotel. So the meeting was very alive and it was nice to meet two generations there and learn the one from the other. One of the most impressive moments was the presentation of our Turkish colleagues who showed us their unique painting technique.

The next day in the morning we presented the portfolios and in the afternoon we visited Acropolis museum and the site around. Our guide’s description was very alive and we got a very good idea of the festivities in honour to Athena Goddess. Our coordinator’s meeting was held in the cafe of the museum.

Next day we visited some other cities near Athens as the archaeological site of Mycenae, Nafplion and the ancient theatre of Epidaurus. During this visit we had the opportunity to learn how many different tribes passed from Greece and the influences of each one.

On our way back to Athens we stopped for coffee over new Epidaurus village and there, enjoying the beautiful view of the forest over the sea and the small village hidden in the green environment we discover each ones’ secret friend.

The meeting for the greek participants it was a very nice break from the everyday hard reality which we live the last two years and we still remember it with happy and love.

Thanks to all the participants, thanks to the partners we have nice memories and enrich our knowledge and experience. 

MOSQUES ARE SAD IN ATHENS.

There aren’t any people to perform  their praying and The mosques are closed.

Athens,the capital city of our neighbour Greece,used to be a small city like Ankara, it became a modern, cultural and developed city after the Republic.

We arrived in Venizelos Airport.(Venizelos is an important person for Greek people.) The airport is about 30 kms.far away from the city center and we had three choices to go to the center ;taxi,bus and tram and we decided to try the bus.It took about an hour.After we got off the bus we arrived at our hotel.The hotel is on the main street and very near to the Parliment buildin and other important buildings.

The hotel is very large and it had a lot of facilities for the guests;cafeteria,meeting rooms.The top storey is very impressive,you can see the whole city from the top floor.

If  I were in Konya today.I would participate an anniversary meeting but as I am in Athens ,it is not possible but my soul is in Konya.I send my best wishes to my friends.

I wanted to perform my praying but I din’t know which direction I should face for Mecce.I tried to guess the approximate direction and I performed my praying.

The next morning I understood that my direction was correct  when  the sun rose.In the morning we had our breakfast with our team.And we decided to see the city .

It was a different day for the native people,because there was a strike.All the officers,workers and police were in the streets.And most of the shops were closed and the main roads were blocked for traffic.

As far as we could observe the people were accustomed to such activities and they closed their shops and the poice were waiting at the corners of the streets.In democracy it is their one of their natural rights to protest and demand a better life for themselves.

We preferred to go to the touristic area.The shops were open here and the shop owners were waiting for their customers.The streets looked very clean and quiet.They kept the old buildings as it is,and they restored some of the buildings too.

While we were having a rest in a cafeteria, we saw a couple and we thought they are Muslim.Soon they started to talk to an old man sitting and reading books.As I am a curious person I approached them and introduced myself They saluted us.The couple came from Palestine .As the old man learnt that we are from Konya-Turkey he began to talk about Mevlana ,Konya,Islam,Prophets.and angels.After having a small talk we said good-bye and left them.

We decided to return to our hotel to perform our praying.When we approached the main street,everywhere was in a mess.There was a strange scent,it was very affective we tried to close our noses and eyes and hurried to the hotel.

As our host had warned us about the strike,we brought some food with us,in the hotel we met our friends in one of the rooms and had our lunch together.

In the evening we went outside and saw that everything was quiet.The workers were cleaning the streets.

The next morning we met our partners while we were having breakfast.After the breakfast we had a city-tour on foot and we had a chance to see the old part of the city.On the way we saw a music group performing a traditional music and some of our friends danced with the music.

As far as I can observe we have a lot of common cultures,products and habits with Greek people.

In the evening we had an international fair and a lot of people joined it.As Turkish group our participants performed a water marbling paint (Ebru) and I hope everybody liked it.

The next morning every country had a presentation about their parners’countries ,we liked it too.

We had our lunch in an old restaurant which looked like a museum,we had a chance to talk with the owner of the restaurant.He mentioned about himself and his family.As far as I understood he is an old member of  Athens Municipality.He loved music and painting.

We went to visit Acropolis in the afternoon.The building looks very impressive on the hill.The guide gave us a lot of information about it and the area,we went inside the museum and saw alot of impressive monumets and statues.

The guide told us that in ancient times they used to sacrifice animals for the new-born baby and this custom  is not only in Greece but also in Turkey,Italy and some Arabic countries too.

The next day we went to Troy to see some remains ,it was very amazing.

I left Athens with very good impressions.I hope the countries will have better relations in the future.

By Kasım Yazıcı

Turkish Study Group started to learn about their partners

The Project was approved in July,2010 and our contact person participated to the kick-off meeting that held in Poland in August 2010.We started to work to carry out the Project according to the application form.

First we announced that we are carrying out a EU Project:A local Tv Channel saw our announcement and we gave a speech to them, it was broadcast on the local Tv.After this programme a lot of candidates applied for the Project and we had to choose 20 of them as the first study group.

In September we had a meeting with them and we gave information about the Project.They were all volunteers to participate the Project.

Our first group started to learn about Italy and Italian.But unfortunately we couldn’t have a good contact with them.But our learners continued learning about the subject.They learned about the daily life in Italy,culture,food language and many other subjects.

And some of our members prepared Powerpoint shows about the subject and they showed them in one of the meetings.

The learners said that they understood that they hadn’t known much about Italy and the course helped them to gain a lot of information about Italy and Italians.

Our friends learned many things about Portugal and Portugese during the Project meeting in Lisbon.

As soon as we returned to Turkey,we had a meeting with our learners and gave them information about the meeting and showed them the photos that we had taken during our stay in Lisbon.,

In this period we are studying about Estonia and Estonians.We searched on the net and we get information from our Estonian partners.

Estonia is a far country to Turkey and there are a lot of things that we have to learn about,such as; culture,history,geography,food,literature and etc.

But our study group are very eager  to learn about our partners.

It is one of the targets of our Project.

We are going to have the next Project Meeting in Greece and we are getting ready for the meeting.We hope it will be a fantastic meeting.

I must tell you that there are many Turkish learners who want to participate the meetings but as it is known ,we have a limited number, but we are sure that when this Project ends ,we are going to prepare other projects.

By Tahir Demircioğlu, Turkey

Polish group studying about Estonia

Polish study group started European approach ... project meetings in October 2010. We have 22 participants who wants to learn more about other cultures and EU. The tutors of the group are: Anna Orzechowska and Malgorzata Tarasiuk. Our first partner country was Estonia. We started  with collecting general comments  about Estonia. Although Estonia is not so far from Poland, we realized we  don’t know  much about Estonian people, culture, country...

Every meeting we discussed about the most important topics: history,  food, local traditions, customs, economy, language, culture, art etc. We also tried to learn some general  words in Estonian language. Now we know what does it mean: hea päev, hüvasti, maitsev, tervis, tänan teid J. Important source of useful informations about Estonia was Internet. We saw interesting films about local dances, music, customs, architecture and history. We also used books and articles from the Polish newspapers. Our patricipants prepared powerpoint presentations: general about Estonia, Tallin, interesting places, costumes.

Unfortunately, we didn’t know anybody who was in Estonia. That’s why very important for us was meeting in Lisbon, were we had an opportunity to talk with Estonian participants about their everyday life.

According to our participants opinions project meetings helped them to find out more about Estonia. Some of them tried to learn more about this country on their own. Final opinions about Estonia and Estonians were very positive.

MT, Poland

First Partnership Meeting: Lisbon - 10th to 14th November 2010

As five hundred years ago the portuguese navigators discovered a new world, thirty people from six different countries had the opportunity to meet different cultures.

On the 10th November, the participants of European Approach Project arrived in Lisbon and in the next day, it all began with a presentation of the members of each country. After that, it was prepared an international fair, where each country shared the best of its culture.From music to pictures, drinks to finger food, a little bit of everything was shown.

During this afternoon, each country presented the project work developed by the study groups until the moment. Afterwards, the participants attended a session about 'Portuguese Discoveries and Discoverers'. The programme for the first day ended eating roasted chesnuts and drinking 'água-pé' to recreate the 'magusto', celebrating St. Martin's Day.

The 12th November was dedicated to cultural visits in Lisbon, including Belém Tower, Monument to the Discoveries, Jerónimos Monastery, Rossio, Chiado, Santa Justa Elevator and St. Jorge Castle.

In the morning of the 13th November, the group started a journey to Sintra to visit Pena Palace. In the afternoon the participants had free time to walk around and discover a little bit more about Lisbon.

The partnership meeting programme ended with a walk and farewell dinner, listening to Fado in Alfama, one of the oldest and most typical neighbourhood in the city.

After exploring, experiencing and exchanging in Lisbon, on the 14th November every participant returned to their countries.

Text by Portuguese Participants

Finnish Study Group

Finns showed a great interest in Greece

The KuuRet 55+ team of Kuusankoski Hiking Club started its studies of Greece, the Greek people and the language in mid September and completed them in mid November. There were six meetings and 35 participants. 26 participants we present at least four times. During this short course also some tasks of the EU were dealt with. The representative of the local EU Information Bureau, Mrs. Leena Halonen told the group about EU. The tutor of the group was Seppo Tahvanainen, the coordinator of the European Approach project. An important element of the studies was the meeting with the Greek Partner group at the Lisbon partner meeting.


At the beginning we collected opinions about Greece and the Greeks and sent them to the Greek partner group for comments. Later on we received their comments plus their questions about Finland and the Finns, and then we answered them. At the Lisbon meeting we had the opportunity to check some topics with the Greeks. Every meeting included some 20 Greek word or some phrases. We hope some of them will stay in mind. In addition, a food vocabulary was distributed to the participants.

According to the study schedule the following topics were dealt with: general information, history, natural environment, geography, politics, economy, population and culture. The material consisted mainly of information found on the internet and the tutor's own archives in copies for all participants. At the meetings during the starting coffee Greek music was played in the background. On the last evening we had Ms. Anna Fazou from Crete as our guest. Her comments were very interesting and refreshing. Anna is studying in Kouvola through a student exchange program. By the side of our studies we followed up news about Greece in the media and collected a lot of cut-outs to our portfolio.

Due to the size of the group and the form of the conference room interactive discussion between the participants did not play a very big role. However, in general the participants were satisfied with the methods used. There was some need for more information on traditions and everyday life of the people plus things connected with travelling. Maybe there could have been less history - although exact dates and years were avoided.

A written final assessment showed that (in spite of the short time) the results of the course were good and the course met the majority of the participants' expectations. Most of the participants had also found some further information on their own. Attitudes towards Greece and the Greeks were positive - in spite of the fact that Greece was often mentioned on the news because of the economical crisis, demonstrations and strikes. Most of the participants are interested to continue their studies concerning Greece.

ST