VISIT TO TURKEY

On October first, three teachers of our school who participate in the Comenius program , went to Turkey. The meeting with the teams of the other countries took place in the province of Kocaeli Ntermpent, approximately 120 km east of Istanbul.

The welcome reception given by the teachers, the director, the head of education of the area and the pupils when the groups from Greece, Germany, Poland, Portugal, Spain arrived at the school of Derbent was very warm.

 After exchanging gifts we went arround  the school, visited some classrooms and labs, we tasted traditional foods offered by the schoolteachers.

The next few days , Mr Ozcan Bicer, coordinator of the Comenius Project and other teachers showed us arround.  We visited Izmit, the large industrial and financial center of the region, we walked to the huge park and visited the Submarine Museum.

At the city of Adapazari we went to the Earthquake Museum.We where very touched to see  pictures of the disasters of 1999 earthquake and experienced the intensity of an 7.2 Richter earthquake in " EQ Room ".  Most of  the teachers and all students climbed to the top of the mountain Cartepe and the most courageous did waterskiing in the lake Sapanka!

Particularly touching was for the Greek team, the  day we visited  Istanbul. The tour at this wonderful city included a visit to the Hagia Sophia and Sultanahmet Square , Capali Carci market and the market of spices . In the evening we had  a spectacular evening cruise in Bosphorus.

The week ended with visits to other schools in Kocaeli, the Town Hall of Kartepe and gatherings in the evenings at the hotel. It was a beautiful week with many acquaintances, exchange of views and information between country representatives and tasting Turkey’s traditional flavors.

Below you can see photos from the process of the scale model of Hagia Sophia from the students of the 1^st Junior High School of Galatsi, Athens.