GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View

GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy

Czech Republic (Brno) Hungary (Sárospatak) Poland (Gdynia) Turkey (Gaziantep) United Kingdom (Bath)

Gymnázium P. Křížkovského s uměleckou profilací, s. r. o www.gymum.cz

Árpád Vezér Gimnázium és Kollégium www.avgsp.hu

Gimnazjum nr 4 www.gimnazjum4.gom.pl

Gaziantep Ticaret Odası Güzel Sanatlar ve Spor Lisesi www.gtoagsl.meb.k12.tr

Saint Gregory´s Catholic College www.st-gregorys.bathnes.sch.uk

Comenius Partnership 2010 – 2012

GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy

Contents:

Foreword Czech Republic

…………………………………….………..……………………………………………………... 2 By the Hungarian team .………………………………................................................................ 3 By the Polish team ...…………………………….………………………………………………. 5 By the Turkish team …………………………………………………………………………….. 8 By the British team ………………………………………………………………………..….... 10

Hungary

By the Czech team ………………………………………………………………………………13 By the Polish team ...…………………………….………………………………………………16 By the Turkish team………………………………………………………………………...….. 18 By the British team …………………………………………………………………………….. 26

Poland

By the Czech team ………………………………………………………………………………30 By the Hungarian team .………………………………...............................................................34 By the Turkish team …………………………………………………………………………….40 By the British team ……………………………………………………………………………...48

Turkey

By the Czech team ………………………………………………………………………………50 By the Hungarian team .………………………………...............................................................54 By the Polish team ...…………………………….……………………………………………... 63 By the British team ……………………………………………………………………………...67

United Kingdom By the Czech team ………………………………………………………………………………71 By the Hungarian team .……………………………….............................................................. 74 By the Polish team ...…………………………….……………………………………………... 80 By the Turkish team …………………………………………………………………………… 84 Epilogue

…………………………………….………..……………………………………………………..88

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GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy

Foreword

In August 2010, five schools from five countries (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Turkey and the UK) unified around a project idea of exploring and mapping partner countries to create a ”tour guide” brochure Ad fontes rerum Europae from the Pupils´ Point of View with information on the visited countries of all the host schools. As the title announces, we focused mainly on the sharp insight of the pupils´ perspective.

We started in the Czech Republic in October 2010, further went to see Hungary in April 2011, flew to Turkey in June 2011, visited the United Kingdom in October 2011 and finally met in Poland in March 2012. During the meetings as well as in history classes, pupils were acquainted with important cultural achievements of each country. There were 50 teachers and 300 pupils involved in the international project.

Of course, not all of us had the opportunity to explore the partner countries – and this is why those lucky ones (aged 15-18) and their teachers worked together and gathered their experiences into this brochure. Using English as the project language, the pupils shared their impressions in the guide section

displayed

on

the

project

websites

(http://afremeetings.shutterfly.com

and

http://afre.shutterfly.com).

The aim of this work is to point out differences; things which are common for us but give foreigners the impression of peculiarity or are simply an interesting in themselves. The investigated aspects supported our cultural, social scientific, historical as well as biological/geographical European awareness.

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GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy

CZECH REPUBLIC Observations from October 2010, when the project named Ad Fontes Rerum Europae started in the coordinating Czech school.

By the Hungarian team The first meeting took place in Brno, the Czech Republic. Apart from the fact that the city is the second largest one in the Czech Republic, we hardly knew anything about it. Not to mention the Czech people, students, culture, language, habits, so it was a great chance for us to learn and widen our horizons.

Our journey began on 12th October. With two teachers and a driver we had an eight hour ride from Sárospatak to Brno. Naturally, as we were getting closer to our destination, our excitement grew. Questions kept running through our mind: What are the Czechs like? What are our hosts going to be like? And so on. But after the first encounter with them, we became much calmer. They were helpful and very hospitable indeed.

When arriving to an unknown country, place people can only rely on former notions, prejudices. And then, after spending more and more time with the hosts, we start to put the pieces together and the experiences change what we had thought before. This is exactly what happened to us as well. Every day we learnt something new about everything.

First, we would like to talk about the people. In Hungary –we think- the communication would be much more difficult. In Brno we saw that people spoke very good English, let it be a passer-by or a student. And as a result of speaking languages we may think that the Czechs are more open-minded than the Hungarians. They were more helpful as well. For example, when two of us were asked with the Polish girls to do a field research in the streets of Brno (about Czech literature we had previously worked on), people were surprisingly helpful. We worked in groups and had more than 15 questions but in an hour or so more than 20 people did our little “quiz”. We were prepared that we would be refused but fortunately people helped us. We believe that in Hungary people are busier, more stressed, we do not like being bothered. In a similar city in Hungary a successful field research could not have been finished in such a little time.

All in all, the people were very helpful and kind.

On the 13th October we visited a new museum which is quite unimaginable in our country. It was the Museum of the Romani Culture. In Hungary there are lots of gypsy people so it was not new to us. However, the attitude toward them was totally different. The Czech people seemed to be more understanding, liberal, so to speak. This unique museum was dedicated to show the Romani culture. It puts a great emphasis on education (educating local, minority children and educating the majority as well). We were shown the neighbourhood and in the museum a really interactive programme started.

We discussed the major prejudices about the Romani people, why these prejudices are wrong and what we can do in order to reduce these negative points of view. In Hungary such a museum would not be very popular, unfortunately. In Hungary, people are often impatient with gypsies, have very strong negative prejudices toward them. In Hungary they often live in the outskirts of towns, villages. In Brno these people seem to live actually next to the most fashionable part of the city which was a bit strange for us. The following pictures show some Romani flats (they are very similar to those of Budapest) and the museum interior.

What are the Czech teenagers like? To tell the truth, they seemed not much different from us. After talking to each other we realised that we have lots of things in common. We listen to similar music, watch similar films, etc. They definitely were very helpful and kind; they did their best so that we could feel all right. At the last lunch we spent together it was a great feeling to sing the well known English/American songs with them (and with the other students as well). It was great to see how other students from the school were involved in the programmes. Czech students (who were not hosts) escorted us, talked about their city (in a professional way) and everybody seemed to be very enthusiastic.

If we look back, we can only recall happy, smiling faces. Probably this good relationship was formed because even before our travel we could have our hosts’ email/Skype address so we were not entirely strangers to each other.

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GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy ¨ In connection with the school system we saw not much difference from the Hungarian one. However, we were bit envious when our hosts told us that they usually start school at 9 or 10 (in our school our first lesson begins at 8). On the other hand, they often get back home later in the afternoon. What we really liked about the school was that all the walls are decorated with pupils’ work. It makes the atmosphere of the school better, we believe. For us it was strange that students were wearing slippers at school. It is something we do not have at secondary grammar schools at all, but the idea seemed logical, practical and convenient, too.

The Czech language seemed very different from Hungarian. For most of us it was too hard, we could hear too many consonants next to each other. While preparing for the final presentations of the last day, some of us (who were in the Literature/Language group) had to “learn Czech” because they were to sing in Czech. As they told us, it was not easy, but they spoke carefully, with practised pronunciation and we liked their songs very much.

What were the cities like in the Czech Republic? In a nutshell, beautiful. Brno and Prague are full of historical, old buildings. They were in very good condition; we could feel that the locals do care about their environment. In both places we saw cathedrals, wide and narrow, intimate streets full of cafés, little shops, so in most places the whole atmosphere was fantastic. However, we saw what socialism and communism did to these cities as well. Around these cities, in the outskirts there were lots of blocks of flats that did not really fit into the landscape. It is something we can see in Hungary, too. And naturally there were very modern buildings from the last 20 years.

It was strange for us that at crosswalks cars slowed down, let the pedestrians cross the street. It is pretty new to us, because in Hungary the “traffic morals” are far too poor.

Drivers do not care about overtaking by-passers, sometimes crossing a street can be “interesting”, mainly in big cities. We did not experience it in the Czech Republic, fortunately. So, it was something we could get used to. Another thing we really liked in Brno –in connection with transport-was the tram. We were simply not able to count how many tramlines you have. They were of various types, old, modern, but it was very convenient (and environmentally friendly). After getting home one of our teachers asked us to say the very first thing that came into our mind about Brno.

Without hesitation we replied: “Trams!”

Our overall impression was that streets were clean, just like in Western Europe-unlike in some parts of Hungary.

Another strange thing was to see that people used special bags for the needs of their dogs. These bags (with a picture of a dog) were attached to refuse bins in the streets and people used them because we saw no “dog signs” anywhere. We really liked this idea, because it does not cost much, and with a little effort and attention dog owners can help keeping their environment clean.

We feel that we are lucky to have been able to see Prague. Maybe teenagers find older cities boring, with lots of old buildings, but actually we were looking forward to the trip to the capital city, and we were not disappointed at all. Prague is a little piece of pearl in the heart of Europe. It is definitely different from Budapest, our capital. We saw very nice and famous buildings (the National Theatre with its gilded rooftop and interior, the Charles Bridge, the Prague Orloj (astronomical clock), Wenceslas Square, Prague Castle as the biggest castle complex in the whole world) and learnt about their history. It was something we will never ever forget. The pictures show the Wenceslas Square and the National Theatre.

And last but not least, we would like to talk about the food and drink. We had the chance to try new, unknown dishes every day. We can say that the Czech food is a bit different from the Hungarian one, but delicious, too. The drinks were interesting as well.

We knew that the Czechs are proud of their world wide famous beers, so we had to check it… We had the chance to visit the Starobrno brewery, where we learnt how beer is made and it was interesting. Another interesting drink we tasted, was the Kofola. It is 4

GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy some kind of national cola for the Czechs and in bars, pubs it is served from the tap, just like draught beer. And we did like its taste. Unfortunately, this kind of cola is not available in Hungary….

As a conclusion we can say that we have learnt lots of new thing, have seen lots of beautiful places, saw some familiar things, but one thing is for sure: we liked Brno and the Czech Republic, its hospitable, helpful people and after 6 days we returned to Sárospatak with memories we will never forget.

By the Polish team After a long journey by car we arrived in Warsaw early Monday morning. Warsaw wasn't our final destination because we still had to fly to Prague and then to Brno. The flight was a thrilling experience for all of us because we've never flown before.

After arriving in Brno, we went sightseeing with one of the Czech teachers who showed us all the attractions of the city. It was very exciting and we found out many interesting facts about the historic buildings here.

There are many areas in Poland which are poor economically but what we saw in the Gipsy area in Brno was an indescribable experience for all of us as we had never seen so many devastated buildings, poverty, lots of children hanging out with their peers and adults listening to loud music and smoking cigarettes in the same place.

We also had an opportunity to talk to a Gipsy woman who answered our questions.

Some of her answers were a surprise for us - e.g. most Gipsy children don't go to school at all because their parents don't see any point in education, as none of them will get a job in the future.

We then took part in workshops led by another young woman. She is a person who wants to improve the standard of living of Romany families and wants them to believe that they can control their own lives. She and a few other Czech people received some fund from the EU to provide Gipsy kids with proper education which means that they don't spend all their time playing outdoors and beyond the control of their parents.

Taking part in several different types of workshops, gave us a great opportunity to find out and enrich our knowledge of a number of European languages and our historical connections. We were divided into two groups: a history group and a literature group.

The history group went to Olomouc with our history teacher, a few Turkish students and the Czech history teacher-Mr Tomasz accompanied by his assistant-one of the Czech students who was also his interpreter.

Since Poland and the Czech Republic are near each other, our history is closely connected. We learnt about it during our trip to Saint Wenceslas cathedral - a fine Gothic building from the 15th century which was a fascinating experience for us even though we've got many similar buildings in Poland. We also found out that Olomouc was one of the most important settlements in Moravia and the seat of the Premyslid government, ruled by one of the princes. In 1306 King Wenceslas III stopped there on his way to Poland, where he fought Wladislaus I the Elbow-high to claim his right to the Polish crown. Before we started our trip Ms Kasia told us about the Polish king Jan III Sobieski who stopped in Olomouc on his way to Vienna in 1683 to feed the soldiers' horses. The recent history of Olomouc was also connected a bit with Poland: during 1942-1943, the remaining Jews were sent to the resienstadt and other German concentration camps in occupied Poland. John Paul II visited Olomouc several times which underlined even further Polish and Czech relations. We are glad that the Comenius trip provided us with an opportunity to extend our knowledge of Polish and Czech history. It's much more beneficial when you can experience history with your own eyes. We enjoyed our trip to Olomouc very much.

The literature group worked on the origins and similarities of many different Polish, Czech, Turkish and Hungarian words. We realized that some words are so similar to Polish ones that it was even hard to distinguish which was Polish or Czech. We had to listen very carefully to tell the difference between some of them. However, it was quite challenging and funny to say Hungarian words which seem to be impossible for us to pronounce. Obviously we were not the only ones who tried very hard to pronounce words properly. The same was true for the Czech and Hungarian students who wanted to say Polish words. We all had a lot of fun during the workshops.

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GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy We also went to Slavkov near Brno (in German: Austerlitz). We learnt that it is a country town east of Brno in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. The town is widely known for giving its name to the Battle of Austerlitz which actually took place some kilometres to the west of the town. After the defeat of the Teutonic Order in the battle of Grünwald, the town became the property of a number of noble owners until, in 1509, the local gentry family of Kaunitz assumed control for more than 400 years. We all know this place from our history classes. So it was good to see it and imagine what it would've been like at that time.

Two of us worked with the Hungarian students and teachers on questionnaires concerning Czech famous people, poets and novelists. Before we came to the meeting we'd prepared a presentation about Czech history so that's why it was easy for us to design a poster and to devise questions. After drawing them up we went onto the streets of Brno to get them completed by asking, at random, Czech citizens the questions we'd prepared. Afterwards, we discussed the outcome of our survey with the Hungarian students. We have to admit that the Czech people did not disappoint us. They knew a lot about their national 'heroes' and what's more important they're genuinely friendly people. There wasn't anyone who refused to answer.

We all know that Polish beer is said to be the best in the world but honestly we have to admit that Czech beer is very popular in Poland too. In fact, many people agree that Czech beer is the second best. That was the main reason we wanted to visit the Brno brewery. Our guide told us that lots of beer was exported from Brno to Poland before World War I. As souvenirs we all bought glasses with the logo of the brewery on them.

On our way to the Czech capital we stopped over in a mini museum of Josef Lada who illustrated 'Good Soldier Svejk' which is a very popular novel in Poland - there's hardly anyone who hasn't heard of this character.

Then we went to Václavské náměstí where we saw a statue of Saint Václav with other patrons: St Anežka, St Prokop and St Vojtěch and learnt about the legend of St Agnes.

She was canonized by the Polish pope in 1989.

The Charles Bridge was the next stop on our visit to Prague. It was something that we were looking forward to seeing. It's beautiful and we would've liked to have stayed there for longer but as the weather was gloomy we moved on; the National Theatre - a NeoRenaissance building which was truly impressive. On our way we passed the cafe in Prague where coffee was first served. This delicious drink was shipped to Prague from Turkey.

Since we were a bit short of time we went to Hradčany. There were good views from the castle which is the biggest in the world. It reminded us of another large castle which is located not far from Gdynia - a castle in Malbork where Teutonic knights used to live in medieval times. Tired and a bit wet but happy and full of new experiences we returned to our bus.

We all got together at a club where all the students had the opportunity to have a go at bowling. Since we don't do it very often, we weren't very enthusiastic about it.

Finally, we were convinced by our teachers to prove to ourselves that we were good at it.

While bowling we talked to many students which was great because at last we overcame our shyness in communicating with other students. We all wished we had had more opportunities to talk to them. All in all, it was great fun and again we learnt something new, not only about ourselves, but also about our peers from other countries.

The last day of our meeting was full of artistic activities. All students had to collaborate with one another which was a good opportunity to get to know each other better. During the lunch break we exchanged presents that we'd brought from our countries and said ' thank you' for being with us over the six days of the meeting.

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GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy Some of the students gave a final presentation showing all of the work they'd done. The presentation began and ended with a Czech student beautifully playing the piano.

We had a lot of fun making pottery, especially as we have never before had any experience of doing such challenging and creative things. At our school in Gdynia we only have painting and drawing classes. That's why it was such a pleasurable activity for all of us. For sure, all participants had a wonderful time and got a lot of enjoyment.

We also learnt the Czech dance called 'Polka'. It's amazing that the name of this dance means ' a Polish woman' so this is the reason that almost everyone in Poland thinks that Polka originates from Poland.

Obviously only a few people know the truth about it. We loved dancing it as it mirrors our Slavic temperament. In fact, we weren't the only students who enjoyed it.

We saw that students from the other countries liked it a lot as well.

During the workshops we also had to prepare collages which showed us that all our peers are very talented young people who for sure will surprise us in the future with their creativity and artistry. We found out that one of the Turkish students sings extremely well and the Hungarian one plays the piano. They showed us their special costumes that they brought with them to Brno to present their folk dances. The high point of the day came when all the students showed what they'd made or had learnt during the workshops to everyone.

Our observations What was so surprising for us was the quietness in the school - every time we came to visit our teachers. Even though sometimes we turned up there in the early mornings, we still couldn't hear any noise, any unwanted sounds - the only thing we could observe were lots of young people who were hurriedly walking to be on time for their classes. It was absolutely unbelievable not only for us but for our teachers as well! They keep saying that we make a lot of noise, but most of us disagree with them. It was hard for them to get used to such quiet and well-behaved youngsters who differ so much from Polish teenagers, in our teacher's opinion ;) While we were travelling on the trams many times a day they announced the stops on the way. So we heard them lots of times every day. As a result after five days we were able to recognize familiar words that sounded like Polish ones but whose meaning was entirely different.

We learned about Czech family life and their customs which seem to be quite similar in many ways to Polish ones which was a bit of a surprise for us as we'd imagined that being in a foreign country it would've been different.

Another thing that was quite strange for all of us was that you couldn't get any sweet things, like cakes, in restaurants and cafes.

One day we were desperate to have something sweet to eat. Unfortunately, after 'doing some research' we discovered how hard it was to buy a piece of cake in a cafĂŠ in Brno. As a result, we gave up and went back to our families' houses where at least we had something nice in the fridge.

Surprisingly for all of us, there are still a lot of public restaurants and cafes where you are allowed to smoke. You get the impression that Czech citizens don't care about their health at all. They still smoke a lot these days whereas in other EU countries, the majority of people gave up smoking a long time ago. Even in Poland, which is considered not to be as responsible a country in that matter as, for example, Sweden or Norway, people have realized that breaking the habit of smoking is essential if you want to keep your health in good condition. At the same time you let other people who are next to you, breathe fresh air. In Poland there are only a few places where you can still smoke without punishment.

It was an unforgettable visit and we are going to remember it for a long time. Especially that we met many new people, learnt a lot of new facts about the Czech Republic and gained experience not only of team-working but also of being in a foreign country - far from our families and having to rely on ourselves which was a valuable lesson in our lives.

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GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy

By the Turkish team If we always look at the outside from the same window we always see the same view. If you look at outside from the different windows we can see different views. For that reason we started a journey. We started a journey between cultures. We would like to see the world with their perspective. We would like to meet and know them .We believe that if we know each other, we can love and understand each other better.

The Czech Republic was the first partner country we visited. These are our opinions with you before we went there, we would like to share with you.

‘I have never gone abroad before. This is a good chance to go to the Czech Republic. I think it will also be a good experience for me. Meeting new people, sharing opinions makes me excited.’ Tuğçe Aşar (student) ‘Last year we read an article about historical and famous places in the Czech Republic. It was one of my dreams to visit this country. Now it becomes true. I am very excited. I hope I spend a good time there.’ Ayşe Fatma Evyapar (student) ‘I am an art student. I am happy to meet people who are different cultures. I have seen many historical buildings in Czech on the net, they are all magnificent. I am very excited to be able to see them.’ Şule Nur Efe (student) When the weather was 30-35 degree, and while we were wearing summer clothes in our country, we wore our winter clothes there. We prepared ourselves for colder weather.

However, it was better than we imagined.

We visited this country in a beautiful autumn day .It was very nice and sunny.

This country is more to the north than Turkey. For that reason summer is short and the temperature only reaches 20 degrees. Winter is long and cold.

Also, if you go from Gaziantep to Brno by plane, it is 2150 km. There is no plane directly to Brno, so firstly, we had to go Prague. If you want to go by car from Gaziantep to Brno, and you need to go 2891 km. You may reach Brno after 1 day 11 hours. It was very a long journey for us. We started our way at 2.oo o’clock in the morning. First we landed in İstanbul and then we changed our plane. We came to Prague at 12.00 am. We arrived in Brno at about 3.00 o’clock so it was very tiring for us. However, we were happy to be there.

We met our new friends and went sightseeing into the city.

While we were sightseeing in Brno, we saw many nuns. We entered the church and we watched their ceremony for a while.

The cuisine of Czech Republic is very different from ours. We tasted different meals but had the same soup several times. We especially liked the duck and the sandwich with butter. We decided to make it in Turkey. As you can see, pork is very common in Czech Republic. These are the photos in Brno. We have to thank our coordinator: since we mentioned before that we do not eat pork, we had not seen any in our plate.

When we compare the prices of the meal in our country, they are more expensive than ours. They take money for rice and bread. You do not need to pay this in our country. Mineral water is very common there.

They like drinking alcohol. Students can comfortably drink near their teacher. This is strange for us. Since we are Muslim, according to our religion, alcohol is forbidden. Yes, there are some people, who do not obey this rule in our country, but teachers would not drink near the students, and students cannot drink near their teachers. It is also not suitable for 8

GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy our society. [Note: Of course, it is not really possible for Czech students and teachers to drink anything alcoholic together.

The only chance is when they decide to visit a factory producing it and taste a small amount of the product on educational purposes. However, foreigners often point out how much alcohol Czech people drink.]

We visited a brewery . We saw how it was made! Did we have to visit it? We do not know! Yes, beer is very famous in the Czech Republic. Pilsen is a city which is very famous for beer. In Turkey we have the Pilsner beer. We also have a basketball team whose name is Efes Pilsen.

We had to divide in groups (Geography, History, Language and films and Biology) to explore Czech Republic. We were three teachers and three students. Since we were art students, we went to the history group. We also have language problem: our English is not good. We can understand but we have difficulties when speaking. Our language is different from the language(s) of our partners. We have not had a chance to practice English much as we had not gone abroad before. We have some friends whose English is better but we were chosen to take part in AFRE because they had gone abroad before. Our teachers gave us the chance... Now we understand the importance of learning languages. We started to study English much more than before. We also noticed that our school’s schedule time is different. Since we have religious holiday (Ramadan Bayram), our school started at the end of the September and we came to Europe on 13th October.

Tuğçe wanted to be in the geography group: ‘We climbed the hill, it was very tiring. However, it was worth seeing the scene of a Czech village. Actually, you can see a lot of villages in this country. There are some big cities; Prague, Brno, Ostrava, Pilsen… And we took pictures of Czech nature, too. It is very different from ours. ’ We learned that wheat, potato, sugar beet and some fruits are grown and poultry and pork are common animals which are raised there. We spent good time with my friends. We learned a lot of things about the geography of Czech lands.

The Czechs do not have any sea but they have some rivers which flow into the Danube. The Vltava is one of river in Prague. We did not get a chance of seeing the sunset on the bridge. The weather was rainy and we had to walk very quickly.

The scene was marvellous. We wish we had sailed and felt the nature on the river. There were a lot of people who took photos, drew pictures and sold souvenirs there.

The history group went to Olomouc. It is an old city famous for being a trade centre and after Prague, it used to be the second biggest city with historical buildings. It is the fifth biggest city now. There is a university founded in 1853. There is also a big statue in the city centre, a historical fountain and a modern astronomical clock. Since we are art students we were happy to be in this group. We saw a lot of beautiful statues, monuments and other pieces of art…

Then we went to Austerlitz, a town connected with the Battle of Austerlitz. Napoleon, who was a great soldier, used great tactics in the war.

We learned that there had been 6 different countries in the same Czech‘s lands during 80 years. They had lived great pain. They resembled these men who were carrying these buildings, also carrying the difficulties of the life in their history.

When we were in Prague, we learned that the first café in there was opened by Turks. We can see the Ottoman influence in many places.

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GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy In the language group, we learned that there are some common names: Jacop – Yakup, Jesus – İsa, David – Davud etc… It was very strange hearing a word without consonant. It was also surprising that ‘čaj’ (tea) in Czech language is the same pronunciation ‘çay - tea’ in Turkish language.

Our general opinion We can have different cultures, different history and different geography. However, we can share the same opinions, the same feelings. We must not forget the tolerance and the smiles on our faces.

By the British team The UK group come from St Gregory’s Catholic College in Bath, in the South West of England, about 100 miles from London. Ours is an 11 – 16 school, our Year 9 students are going to carry on the project for the next 2 years, but this meant that they were the youngest group at the Brno conference.

This is their report on a very memorable and enjoyable week spent in the Czech Republic.

At 3.15 in the morning we gathered at Bath bus station and caught a transfer to Heathrow Airport in London. After we went through customs and border control we got on the flight at 7:30. We touched down at Prague at 10; 30am and spent 2 hours in a minibus to Brno, the Republics 2nd city with over 1 million people living there. In the late afternoon we went sight seeing in Brno, which seemed so lively and different.

The building we stayed in was a boarding house it was nice and comfortable, the 3 girls stayed in a room and the 3 boys in another. The first morning we had to be outside the boarding house for 8am so this meant us getting up at 7am and breakfast at 7.30am.For breakfast we had a puff pastry roll with ground almonds and dates in it, also bread and apple tea. The puff pastry was not very nice. We then had to walk with our Czech host students to their school. The building was old, it is a small school of only 200 students, but they concentrate on the arts, it had a lovely atmosphere and a grand piano in every room.

After we had all settled we went into our groups. Half of us did biology and half did social studies.

In biology the boys travelled by train to south Moravia where we walked up to a ruined castle where we could see over Moravia, we could see where farmers grew grapes for wine. We also went to the reservoir and had a tour of a brewery, and a sample of the beer!

The girls went to their classroom and we were made ‘secret spies’, to find out about life in the Czech Republic. We were given envelopes with questions in, our mission was to go around Brno city and find out the answers by asking local people.

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GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy That evening we caught a tram to the restaurant, for dinner we had soup for starter and chicken with cheese inside, the food was interesting and different to say the least. We then went back to our rooms and went to bed.

The next days the girls had to be at school for 7.30am, which meant us getting up at 6.30am! We managed to find our own way to the school we then went up to our class and had a presentation on the history of the Czech Republic. Our group then took us to have lunch. It was so fun, we learnt about each other and where we came from. After about an hour we made our way to the city centre to do a survey that we had prepared about Europe. It was fun but also embarrassing as lots of older people did not speak English but we had our Czech helpers with us.

We also visited the Romani museum of Romani culture and saw the slums that people lived in. We got to see the struggles and hardships these people faced in day to day life. The museum runs an education programme to help the Romani children to celebrate their own heritage and to encourage them to do better at school. In a way it was good that this part of Czech life was not hidden from us. The people at the museum thought it would take many years before the Romani people felt at home in the Czech Republic.

That evening we had dinner at a bowling restaurant that also was a lot of fun to get to know the groups from all the countries.

The next day was an early start, we were up for 6.30am to be on the coach for 7’o’clock. That was the day we went to Prague. The shops were so good and we spent nearly all of our money. For lunch we had a McDonalds. After lunch we visited the Royal Theatre and had a really good tour of the whole theatre which was the second electrified theatre in Europe. We then went on a walking tour of the beautiful city of Prague and saw the Prague Astronomical Clock and watched it come to life. It was raining as we walked through the narrow streets of the city and across King Charles’ Bridge to Prague Castle, it was amazing and so big. It was a lot like Buckingham Palace. After looking round we then got back onto the coach and made our way back to Brno, stopping off for supper at a gas station.

The next day was our last as we were going back home to England. We only had the morning to see all our friends and say goodbye. For lunch we went to a nice little pizzeria, the pizza was lush but we had to eat it on the way to the airport as it was not ready in time for us to eat there. We stopped off at a supermarket to buy some last little presents. Then after a short drive to the airport we were on our way home to England.

Part of the Project was to learn about the history of our host countries. In the Social History group (that the girls took part in) we learnt about the history of the Czech Republic since World War 2. It was a sad history but it seems like there is a happy ending.

We looked at the experiences of an artist Peter Sis, who wrote a book called The Wall, about growing up behind the Iron Curtain. Our group made a presentation to the school assemblies on Remembrance Day, November 11th. It was to help people realise that in-spite of our histories people in Europe are able to live in peace with each other.

This is the script we used to tell the story of the history of the Czech Republic since World War 2.

Living in Fear The country had been taken over by the Nazis.

Times were terrible. Jews were being rounded up and taken to the concentration camps.

People lived in fear, near to starvation for 4 years.

Then came liberation, except it was not the British or the Americans who came to their rescue – it was the Russians.

Instead of freedom the Czechs became a state

within the USSR – behind the Iron Curtain.

It was the days of the Cold War. Years of control by the Communists, the East against the West.

The people of Czechoslovakia were caught on the wrong side.

As tensions between the West and Russia increased, borders were closed, travel banned, even listening to the news of the rest of the world was blocked.

Communist symbols and monuments appeared everywhere.

The Czech government took its orders from Moscow.

The Communists took control of schools, indoctrinating the pupils.

Children were encouraged to report on their families and fellow students.

Parents learnt to keep their opinions to themselves.

Telephones are bugged, letters opened, there are shortages of almost everything, people stand in long lines.

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GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy Then bits and pieces of news from the West began to slip through the Iron Curtain…

The Beatles, Elvis, the Rolling Stones – everything from the West seemed colourful and desirable.

But in Czechoslovakia long hair was the sign of Western decadence – police had orders to cut it.

In January 1968 a new Head of the Communist Czech government is elected, Alexander Dubcek. Things began to open up.

It is the Prague Spring.

Censorship is lifted. People get permission to travel – a first taste of freedom!

Then on 21 August 1968, 500,000 troops of the Soviet Union invade.

The Czech progressive government is sent to Moscow for “reeducation”.

It is all over – Russian tanks are everywhere.

The Iron Curtain descends again.

The Secret Police provoke riots so that the government can exercise tighter controls.

Phones are bugged again, mail opened, people watched.

But banned books are secretly translated, copied and circulated.

2 students set fire to themselves in Wenceslas Square in Prague – “to wake the nation from lethargy”.

But very few people dare to stand up and criticise the government.

People are followed, monitored, harassed, imprisoned, deported and tortured.

But they dreamed of being free.

Then in the mid-1980’s even the Soviet Union realised the need for openness and the ideas that led to the fall of the Berlin Wall spread through Europe.

One country after another became free.

Poland 1989, Czechoslovakia 1989, Hungary 1990… Romania, East and West Germany re-unite and the Soviet Union breaks up.

It is 1991 and the Cold War is over.

We went to Prague ourselves the next day and walked down Wenceslas Square to the Memorial of the two students who burnt to death in protest against communism. On either side now the city is alive and thronging with tourists. The shops are full of Western goods. There is M&S and Tesco’s, H&M and Starbucks. We ate in McDonalds; down the road are KFC and Ben & Jerry’s. The tourists are from the UK and China, the USA and rich Russians. It seems a whole world away from the history lesson we had from our Czech hosts.

But there are 2 things that stick in our minds. Actually some people, the older generation, still think of Communist Rule as the Good Days – it was certainly better than being at war and under Nazi occupation. The infrastructure improved a lot; people had housing – although they mostly had to live in tower blocks of flats. The trams and trolley bus system was introduced so you could get about easily and the Health Service improved. But this was at the cost of personal freedom and the younger generation put a greater value on that.

When we got on our plane on the Saturday it was less than a 2 hour flight home, but in those 40 years of Communist control in Czechoslovakia it was a whole world away.

Attitude to Europe survey The other important contribution we want to make to the Guide is our Attitude to Europe Survey. We wanted to find out what young people in particular felt about their place in Europe. We devised the survey in school before we came. There were 10 questions we asked. The 10 questions were designed so that we could gain a spontaneous response from people in the street. Most of the people we surveyed were Czech. Since this survey was conducted in English we quickly discovered the age range of people able to understand and speak English and to establish where they learned the language. Most of the people willing to answer the survey were aged under 40. The largest number were in the 15-25 age range. A significant number of respondents learned English at school.

Question 2 asked respondents to name as many European countries as they could in 2 minutes. Most people could name 10 or more, with some being able to name many more, up to 27. We were impressed with the knowledge of Europe that people displayed.

Question 3 asked for the first thing they thought of when they hear about 12

GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy different countries. The countries included England, Hungary, Poland, Turkey, Germany, and Spain. The responses to these questions were broad and varied, some reinforcing the stereotypes we share in the UK. E.g. Spain – bulls (2), Flamenco (2), sun and sea, Holland – windmills (3), cheese (3), flowers (2), weed (2)! Many countries suggested football to our respondents, but not more than once for any country. Several countries suggested political activity including strikes / demonstrations. A surprising number of respondents said they thought of Hitler for Germany (5).

Question 4 asked what they were most interested in about Europe with a choice that included news, sport, weather, history. Of those people that answered more were interested in the weather than news / politics. The highest score was for history / culture.

Questions 5 – 7 asked about travel in Europe. Most of the respondents had visited at least 3 European countries, some many more, up to 12. Those they would like most to visit included England (4), Spain (3), Italy (2) and a number of Northern European countries e.g. Sweden, Finland, Norway and Russia. The countries outside of Europe most people wanted to visit included Australia, New Zealand, North America (7) and South America (3).

Question 8 asked what brings people of Europe together. History, culture and tradition were most often stated, although a number of people responded “nothing did!” (3). ¨ Questions 9 and 10 asked if it was a good idea to have a common currency: most agreed and a common language: most agreed.

We were very pleased that people took our survey seriously and helped us with the answers. People were very friendly and interested in giving their opinions.

We want to find out if people in our other partner countries will think differently and if they find it more difficult to understand English. It will be interesting to compare the survey results from all of the countries. We intend to conduct the same survey with people of similar age groups in our home city to see what people in England know about Europe.

Thank you everyone! We had a great week we saw new things we made new friends and went to amazing places.

We did new things and explored a country new and exiting to all of us.

HUNGARY In April 2011, the project continued in Hungary.

By the Czech team Five students from our school had the opportunity to go to an international students meeting in Hungary. We had not known what exactly to expect but it turned up to be a great week. Hungary is not far from the Czech Republic but it is a completely different country: colourful and interesting. The week was amazing.

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Inhabitants The first two days we spent in the centre of Budapest and the capital of Hungary made a very strong impression on us: a lovely city on the banks of a mighty river, a wonderful example of the architecture and buildings – although it cannot be observed – were built in a short period between 1867 and 1914. Historic styles (Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque) served only as a free sampler for the creation of the frontispieces. We went by the oldest underground in Europe, saw the hall of the Western railway station designed by Alexandre Gustave Eiffel – Hungary tried to impress foreigners at least in the capital then. Current Budapest lives differently than the provincial part of the state as well – we noticed immediately that there are big differences between Budapest and the rest of the country: whereas there are two million inhabitants in the capital and a million commuters, the rest of the ten-million country (apart from the western part near the border with Austria) is undeveloped.

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GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy Not only jobs but also shopping possibilities are unrivalled in Budapest: in the huge shopping mall of West End City Centre by the Western railway station we got lost several times and compared the prices to ours. Whereas the Czechs pay less for food when at home, going shopping for designer clothes (especially quality shoes which are four times cheaper there: 5 000 vs. 20 000 HUF) so Hungary is worth it. This might explain why the Hungarians – in the view of the prices – tend to buy less food before going on long travels abroad compared to other nations. The more surprising it was for us when we found out that the prices in restaurants are not that different from Czech prices – and the portions were big and tasty everywhere. Sometimes we were a bit surprised by some combinations of side-dishes (rice and steaks, more side-dishes with one meal, relatively small choice of meals for vegetarians). In the Czech Republic, we have either rice or chips but never these two together.

The more to the east, the more it is apparent that the rich Budapest is really far away – Sárospatak lies 12 km from the border with east Slovakia (and the nearest cultural centre of Košice) and 70 km from Ukraine whereas it took four hours to get to Budapest.

The inhabitants of Hungary mostly consist of the Hungarians as the minorities are practically neglectable. However, since the Treaty of Trianon, many populous Hungarian minorities have stayed in the neighbouring states. Although we could not notice and judge this ourselves, statistics show that Hungarian population is rapidly decreasing.

As for the relationship between the cities and countryside, we learnt that during the long Turkish occupation the inhabitants often moved into countryside-type towns which were under direct protection of the sultan. Thus huge Hungarian areas were depopulated (i.e. forsaken = “puszta”) and it was there where after the era of the Turkish predominance people from other places (including Moravia) moved.

Speaking about the countryside, we were astonished when we saw a lot of fire in the fields basically everywhere.

We had thought that the country suffers from conflagration but we were told that it was a tradition when lazy people burn the field when they want to avoid ploughing it.

Language abilities of the population are very similar to other central-east European countries: older generations speak German, the middle generation has forgotten Russian which they had to learn and the youngest ones speak English. Although Slovakia is near the place where we stayed (Sárospatak), the Hungarians spoke no Slovak at all.

The grammar school at Sárospatak offers its students the possibility of quality language education: English, German, Russian as well as Italian. It was very practical for us to learn a few Hungarian words and phrases which we highly recommend to all visitors of this country.

The Hungarian population, despite of all the handed-down clichés describing their “fiery temper”, mostly behaves politely; pedestrians right of way is not violated at all. We were highly amused by the fact that a greeting common in the Czech Republic – when a girl kisses another girl – was considered a clear sign of homosexual orientation.

Some Hungarians asked if the Czech girls were lesbians. And it was just a sign of friendship! As they were told by other groups, too, this custom has taken off practically all over Europe.

We also noticed that – despite the visible neglected infrastructure (buses, trains, non-fixed facades which are being repaired only recently) – the Hungarians are trying to have everything clear. You can observe this in Budapest: no cigarette butts on the ground, no spits. Who knows why it is different in our hometown where people do not hesitate to spit on public places and make a lot of mess. Also, the drivers seemed to be more careful, letting the pedestrians cross. To us, Budapest looks like a very peaceful and quiet place.

Visual style The relationship to folk art was very strong in Hungary since the end of the 19th century. Like in other countries, the artists tried to join modern styles with components of folk art. We learnt about the national romanticism of the end of the 19th century. Hungarian interest in folk art influenced romanticism as well as art nouveau: one of the best-known modern composers of the 20th century Béla Bartók collected folk songs too. However, we considered some current pieces of art really strange, e. g. the decalcomania at 14

GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy Holloház (many thanks for the possibility to decorate their great ceramics with our own ideas): the functionalist traditions are apparently stronger in Brno than in Hungary… The last works of Imre Makovecz that we could see in Sárospatak look really magnificent but reminded us of stage set: compared to the impressive foyer, the halls of the grammar school are rather narrow, high rooms unpractical and surely not of much use in winter, they say that the interior also suffers from rains and snow… The local spa by the same architect is also strange as the most attention was paid not to the swimming pools but to the entrance towers… As if carefreeness and a certain operetta stage scenery (long live the Csardas Princess!) were preferred to grey reality…

Similarly the uniforms of the Hungarian policemen looked funny like children’s paper cut outs.

You see, not only buildings attracted us visually: the clothes that local policemen wore looked like made of paper.

In the Czech Republic, there are lots of jokes about policemen and authorities as such so… policemen wearing “paper” do not look serious. We liked them, anyway.

Music We learnt a couple of Hungarian songs and it was quite surprising that these had sad melodies and optimistic or at least neutral lyrics. We were told that when a typical Hungarian is happy, s/he cries. Very interesting. We also learnt some typical Hungarian dances – most of them quite fast so that we had to listen to the rhythm carefully not to kick someone else’s leg…

History The Hungarian relation to their own history is evidently an important part of their own story – national memorials, statues of their personalities, turuls (mythical birds) who brought the Hungarians into their current homeland. The coronation jewels that we could see under the dome of the parliament are not just museum exhibits but also symbols of statehood around which guards of honour walk.

On the other hand, the protection of historical sights is sometimes really catastrophic in Hungary: on the top of a hill in the castle district a cross vault of a cloister was “restored” as a part of the Hilton Budapest hotel, the castle has the most awful plastic windows imaginable, the ruins of a castle that we visited are mostly hopelessly embedded in concrete, next to the nicest baroque church in Pest there is a modern administration building, the National Theatre was nonsensically demolished because of underground construction in the sixties (and now they call it the “national hole”)… Unfortunately, Sárospatak does not fall behind: the gothic church is “decorated” by the design features of the seventies – glass blocks or confessionals that look like public toilets… However, on the other hand we can find very carefully preserved café interiors including all details and at Sárospatak we admired great stonemason’s renaissance works…

Environment During our travels through Hungary we did not only visit historic sites but also their “hills” – e. g. Zemplen with the castle ruins. Apart from the Matra Hills with the highest peak of Kékes, the possibilities of mountaineering are very limited. The Hungarian natural riches that attract tourists the most include thermal spas: not only those in Budapest as the biggest spa city in the world but also those in the small country towns which surprise tourists with incredibly low entrance fees. It is not surprising that the Hungarians stand out in water sports!

Unfortunately it was impossible to fail to notice frequent fire in the landscape which – as we were told – are started by farmers so as they do not have to work on the fields.

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GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy Religion The partner school set the topic of religion and our relation to it as a basis for our presentation. Unlike in our country, religion is very important in the lives of the Hungarians, the towers of Catholic and Calvinist (reformed) churches are typical of all their towns and so it is in Sárospatak where next to the building of the grammar school was a Greek Orthodox church (Carpathian Ruthenia is really near). The kaleidoscope of Hungarian towns was completed by the Moorish features at the synagogues (of which the biggest we could see in Budapest and we tasted kosher meals in a nearby restaurant). Apart from Budapest, after WWII there remained no bigger Jewish communities and the synagogue at Sárospatak was changed into a shopping centre.

To this day, there is a clear division of the population according to their faith, i.e. e. Catholics or reformed Calvinists.

The place where we stayed in: Sárospatak Sáros means mud or muddy and Patak stands for a spring or water. Thus, Sárospatak can be translated as Muddy Waters (like the blues musician from Chicago). We went to check if the name fits.

And the answer? Yes, it does. We saw a river and a lot of mud all around.

If you walk down the streets at noon, you can hear készenem, sziésta or egeszegedre everywhere. People look and most of them are very peaceful and nice to everybody.

Miscellaneous You can see that we had a great, truly Hungarian experience. We would like to take the opportunity to thank all the teachers and host families. We made a lot of new friends and saw places where we would like to go again. ☺

By the Polish team In April 2011 we were with the Comenius Project in Hungary. We were there for 7 days and we had a really good time with our new friends. We spent the first two days in Budapest. The city is so breathtaking. There were also students from Czech Republic, Turkey and England.

Besides, a few students from Hungary came to the capital city too. Sara, my flatmate, was among them.

After the two days in Budapest we went to Sárospatak. There we saw the school, where later we had a lot of classes. The family and the house where I lived were so amazing. I had never felt so good in someone’s house. We visited a lot places in Sárospatak. It is really a small city, but very nice also. One day, we were doing some artistic works, which later we could take home. The food there was very good but unfortunately, I cannot eat anything when I am outside my house because I feel sick.

In the evening Hungarian students showed us their folk dance and next, they were teaching us it. Czardas is really a great dance because in a few minutes I knew how to dance it. After that, everyone could show us something from their countries. The girl from Turkey was singing a folk song, and I had goose-flesh, because she had an amazing voice.

The students from England were also singing more commonly known songs. We did not show anything there but we showed our presentation later in the school. And there I played the flute too. I think everyone enjoyed that.

I very much enjoyed the trip to Hungary and I hope I will go there again. I met a lot of friends and I amalready missing them, especially Sara. I amsure that we will keep in touch with each other for a long time. The Comenius project 16

GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy makes us happy because we can meet incredible people and visit lovely places. I amvery happy that I could be in this project. Klaudia Hinz, Gimnazjum no.4, Gdynia, Poland There is no other such amazing country like Hungary, there is no other city as beautiful as Budapest - anyone who has ever visited the country can admit such an opinion is really true. For many years Poles and Hungarians have been connected by links of fraternal bond. Friendship should be nurtured and cared for so that it would not disappear - it should last and be developed.

The workshops in the Hungarian school were also pleasant. We could develop our English during our mutual talks. We were very glad we could not only represent our country at the meeting and work with our partners, but also visit Sárospatak. We did not know it is such a beautiful town!

We learned some Hungarian vocabulary too.

The Hungarians appeared to be open and friendly.

The meeting was a wonderful experience which we will never forget!

Dominika Śliwińska & Angelika Strzyżewska

By the Turkish team In the beginning of the term our teachers made an examination and we were chosen for the project group. We would go somewhere, but we did not know where we would go. We were very excited when we learned that we would go to Hungary. It was like a dream. :) Yes, our dream became real. We started to prepare for the journey. It was the first time for all my friends. Some of us have never flown before. We lived many firsts on this journey.

We made some searches about Hungary. We prepared two presentations before we went there. The first one is about religion in Turkey, and the other one is the relationship between Hungary and Turkey from past to now. It was very interesting to prepare this. While we were preparing it, we had been learning common points of Turks and Hungarians. This gave us great excitement. We were looking forward to being there in a short time.

And…That day came. We were going to go Hungary. We met at the airport at 6:30. After the check in, we were in the plane. We were all 5 girl students, our 3 teachers, and İlayda (the daughter of our English teacher). We were 9 people altogether. We were all excited and happy.

If you want to go Hungary, first you need to go İstanbul. It is about 1129km. between Gaziantep and İstanbul. You may go by car. It takes 13 hours. We preferred to go İstanbul by plane.

After 1 hour and 45 minutes later, we reached İstanbul and waited one hour there. Then we were on the plane of Budapest.

After two hours later, we were in Budapest. We felt as if we were abroad, after we got on the plane. Because the people who were sitting around us were all spoke different languages. At about 12:40, we were at Budapest. After the passport control we took our luggage. Different people, different faces, different places and different aims. We were there.

We took a taxi and we started passing the streets of 17

GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy Hungary. While we were looking around, we were taking photos at the same time. After 20 minutes later, we were at the hotel. We met with the other groups there. We were all tired, but we are all excited. We rested in our rooms and then we started to go sightseeing of Budapest.

It was about the midday. While we were waiting for the bus, we made a short trip in the place where we were. The buildings, the streets were all very authentic. We saw the historical buildings, streets, museums and the magnificent Danube.

We stopped at the “Hösük (Hősök) tere”. ‘Heroes Monument’. It was built in heroes square which is one of the major squares of Budapest. There is a 36 metre towel features the archangel Gabriel, and he is surrounding by fourteen important Hungarian statesmen (such as King Stephen). There were statues of some famous people.

We have learned that this beautiful square is very important for Hungarians, and their national independence. Millennium monument begun at the 1000th anniversary of the founding of Hungary. It was not completed for 33 years. There are some symbols around it of peace and war; work and welfare; and knowledge and Glory.

There were a lot of people who were of different nations there. There were some young people who were skating and riding bicycles. They were making acrobatic movements. We have learned that this place is also very beautiful at night with the lights.

There is an Art Exhibition Hall near this place.

We learned that in the art museum, there are a lot of artworks which belongs to German, Dutch, and Italian, and Spanish, French and English artists. It has got big collection artworks.

And we came to Varosliget. There was a lake which is used as an ice rink in winter. There is Vidampark and an agriculture museum. It looks like a castle, but we have learned that it was a museum.

There is also a spa there. Hungary is very famous for its spas. We learnt that there were 1300 spas in Hungary. In Budapest, there are 800 spas. Szechenyi Gyógyfürdő is the biggest spa in Hungary. Dudos (Rudas) fürdő which was built

by Mustafa Paşa, Kallert (Gellért) furdo are the famous Baths. There are a lot of Turkish Baths. They are still used as baths today. We saw the Ottoman influence there.

We also saw the city park. It looked like a nice romantic place. There were some people who were resting. Some of them were having picnic. Some of them were riding bikes. The children were playing on the grass. We think that it was like a nice typical Sunday.

We liked the view of Budapest from the castle. It was very nice place. We will never forget the sounds of melodies with this beautiful view. There was an orchestra group there. After they had learnt that we were Turk, They played a Turkish sound ‘Üsküdar’a Giderken’. We sang together. We were very happy to share this emotion with them.

It is not possible to come to Hungary and not mentioned the bridges. Margaret Bridge, Arpad Bridge, Elizabeth Bridge, Chain Bridge etc. They were all very nice and had different stories.

On of the magnificent bridges of Budapest is Margaret Bridge. It is the second oldest public bridge in Budapest. It leads up to Margaret Island, its two parts enclosing 165 degrees with each other at the embranchment towards the Island.

In order to make a connection to Margaret Island, they built it like this.

We went to the Parliament Building.

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GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy

This is the biggest building of the country. After Germany and England, This is the third biggest parliament building. It was built by Architect İmre Steindl. There were 300 statues around the building. There are 27 doors in order to enter the building.

It is said that 40 kilograms of gold were used for the decoration of the building. There are 2 Gothic towers and one dome. It is 96 m. in height. There are 10 courtyards, 29 ladders and 691 rooms.

When we entered the building, we saw that there were 2 bronze lions on either sides of the stairs. There were a lot of busts of important people; Arpad. King Stephan, etc. We also saw the ceremony of changing of the guard. It was also used by Turks. It was a very magnificent building.

Hungarians wanted to get their freedom. They were under the control of Soviet Union and there was a rebellion. A lot of people were killed during this rebellion. 2000 people died.

13. 000 people were injured. A lot of people had to escape from their country.

Behind the Parliament building, there were statues of people who died during the second World War. We were surprised when we learned that the world second first subway was under the Andrassy Street. The Hungarians were very keen on Operas in the past.

They did not use to go to opera because of cold in winter. For that reason they had built this.

Another famous historical place is Magyar Allami Operahaz. As we said before, there are a lot of historical buildings in Budapest and Hungarians likes operas. This building was built in 1884 by Miklós Ybl. We learnt that the world’s second biggest Synagogue is in Budapest. We could not enter it.

There was a Daphne tree which was made in metal. While we were walking on the street of Vaci Street, There were a lot of cafes and shops there.

We saw a shop which sells handmade dolls, handmade embroideries, ornaments etc. They were very nice. We really spent good time there Zoli and Rebecca helped us go around.

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GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy Budapest is a city with a great culture, nice buildings and monuments.

We fell in love the city of Budapest. We liked all the historical buildings which we saw. We learned that Hungary used to be an important place for people. Because of its geographic situation, people could easily invade it. We are happy to see freedom Hungary now here.

We would like to talk about the Hungary cuisine which we liked very much. We would like to taste every famous meal. We liked them very much. We had a very good time in Hungary. There was not any time that we were bored.

We stayed in Sárospatak which is one of the historic towns of Hungary. This city lies at the foot of the Zemplen Hills on the river Bodrog. It was small and calm place. It is one of the historic towns of Hungary.

We have learnt that this region is famous for Tokay wines. When we were coming to the city, we saw the vineyards two sides of the road. We visited grape cellar in Sárospatak. There were many kinds of wine which was produced in Sárospatak.

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GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy We have learnt that Sárospatak is twinned with Tekirdağ in Turkey. Sárospatak was the birth place of Saint Elizabeth in 1207.

When we saw the school building, we were fascinated. We learned that it was built by a famous architect Imre Makovecz. The architect thinks that columns of the building were trees. There were some branches of these trees. Maybe students are the fruits of these trees. The school has a good atmosphere. It has got a big gym. We played basketball, volleyball etc.

We really had fun, while playing together. The headmaster of the school was very kind. He gave us some information about the school. We met with the students. We got to know each other by playing some games.

Our teachers visited the city manager. He gave them some information about the city of Sárospatak. We wish we had known to visit him. We would like to give some present to him from our country.

We worked in the school together.

We presented our presentation which was about the relationship between Hungarian and Turks from past to today, and the religions in Turkey.

When we searched the history of Hungary, we learned that we were related. We learned that there are a lot of common points about the history, culture, music and language. You may learn these similarities from the presentation which we prepared.

We heard a lot of Turkish names and surnames which are used. We saw Török Utca (Turks street), Turk baths etc. We learned that we had a common leader ‘Attila’. ’Gül Baba Tomb’ We lived during 150 years together with great tolerance and respectful way. We fought together during the first war.

We spent good times when we told this sentence ‘’Jembemben Çok Kiçi Alma Van.’’ (in Hungarian: Zsebemben sok kicsi alma van) Cebimde Çok Küçük Elma var.’’ ‘’There are a lot of small apples in my pocket.’’ Having a lot of common points with you makes us very happy.

We think that it was very useful for us. We learnt a lot of things about the other countries.

We went to Hollóháza porcelain Manufacture in another day. Hollóháza lies in the middle of a valley surrounded by Zemplen.

We visited the porcelain museum which displayed huge selection of porcelains and glass-works. We saw how cups and plates were made. We were not stranger to these. Because we also have some porcelain factories in Turkey especially in Kütahya. We liked the activities which we did in there. We painted the cups and plates etc. This gave us great pleasure. On the last day, we took the material which we painted.

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GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy

We visited Füzer castle. It was 57. 8 km far away from Sárospatak. Its height was 442 m. We spent a very good time while climbing the hill. The hill was quite step. We were tired. But the view from above was worth the strain.

We went to another castle after the delicious lunch. It was very surprising when we took a message in our phone. ‘You are welcome to Slovakia’. We were very close to Slovakia.

We visited Sárospatak castle. We have learnt that The castle of Sárospatak on the reverse side of 500 Hungarian Forint banknote. We visited Sárospatak Castle. The owners of the castle include many important individuals in Hungarian history. In the 16th century, It was owned by the Dobó Family. Balint Balassi, the most important Hungarian poet of the century married Kristina Dobó at the castle. The bride was the daughter of Istvan Dobó, who defended the castle of Eger against Ottoman Turks.

We went to another city, Eger which we saw the beautifully preserved Baroque architecture. We learned that Hungarians like to visit Eger because it was here that their ancestors defended off the Turkish occupation.

Yes, this city was also important for Turks. We saw the minaret. The 40 m-high Minaret with 100 narrow spiral stairs twisting to the top, is the northernmost Turkish monument in Europe. Only one person can climb it at one time.

There used to be a mosque there before. It was used as a hospital before, but now there is only a minaret there. We have learned that there are many public baths in Eger. This town was occupied by the Ottomans in 1596. Through that a very special and prosperous Turkish bathing culture was established in Eger. We spent some time there. Whatever happened there in the past, whatever our ancestors and Hungarian ancestors did there, we were now there together with great friendship, hospitality, kindness.

We really had good time there. We gave presents to each other. We danced together. We laughed together. The programme which was prepared on the last day was perfect. We were very happy to be there. We can say that the Hungarians were very kind. They helped us go to the station.

All the host families were there. We would like to thank them all their help and kindness. It was very difficult for us leaving there.

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GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy We went to Budapest from Sårospatak by train. We saw the different parts of this country. We were going to stay one more day in Budapest. We went to the hotel by the taxi which Marica had arranged for us. We were looking forward to a boat tour on Danube. It was one of our dreams.

Our boat tour was very good. It was very beautiful to watch the city which we thought fascinating.

Historical buildings, modern buildings monuments, bridges and Danube etc.

We were very happy to be in Hungary. We spent good times with other groups. We hope that our friendship will never end. Thanks for your all effort. Thank you for your great hospitality.

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GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy

By the British team Our Journey On the 3rd-8th April, the UK group set off to Hungary. We had been very excited about it for weeks and when it came to the day all we could think was ‘How long?’ ‘When are we leaving?’ and ‘How are we getting there?’ The answer was 2 hours and a half and we would be in another country making new friends.

As soon as we got in the car we all started getting excited. The trip we’ve been waiting for, for so long. When we got to Heathrow, after a few rounds of misunderstood text messages we met outside Terminal 5. We met Mr Jackson and Mrs Bowden in a sweet little café and then we began to check in. We all just prayed we had the right paperwork! We checked our bags in and went through to Customs which took forever. We all went through without a problem until, of course, Mr Jackson went through and it beeped. A gasp came from all of our mouths and great shouts “Mr Jackson, I am surprised at you!” Luckily he wasn’t carrying anything he wasn’t supposed to be so they let him through.

We had just got time to buy some Krispy Cream doughnuts and some magazines to read on the plane too. We boarded the plane and pretty much all fell asleep at least once as we were fairly spread apart from each other. The plane journey took ages! But when we got there, we knew it was worth it.

We got on a minibus and they took us to our Budapest hotel. It was beautiful! There were two double rooms and two singles. But we couldn’t leave Jane and Niall by themselves so all the girls went in one bedroom and the boys in another. We went ‘out on the town’ and had a look around at the massive shopping centre and that’s where we first encountered Hungarians trying to do English food. Then we had our first encounters with the people we would be spending a whole week with in a different country, first impressions. We were all going to get along!

We barely got any sleep that night, no surprises there! The Turkish girls came into our room and we sang and played a few songs for them, it was a bonding moment! We woke up and went down for breakfast, and then packed our suitcases and went to get on a coach and off we went to see The Parliament building. We had a look around by a fantastic tour guide and we learnt loads about the history of the building and of the recent history of Hungary. After that we got back on the coach for a 4 hour journey to Sárospatak. When we got there everyone else went off to stay with their Hungarian host families, yet the English group (plus the Turkish teachers) stayed in a hotel.

The hotel was more of a B&B, but was really nice the rooms were clean and next door to each other and it was very small so we could all stick together.

The rest of the time we spent on the coach going to wonderful places where there’s adventure and mystery and beautiful sights.

Sárospatak is a beautiful town and it is one of those places you would never have gone to unless given the opportunity. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity, and I want to thank all of the Hungarians and all the other groups for making our stay most enjoyable. I have many happy memories and will keep them dear to my heart for ever. A whole week spent with my best friends, isn’t something I’m going to forget.

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GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy

Hungarian castles There are far more than 2000 castles and mansions that our still standing today in Hungary, with about 700 of them under protection and privately owned. Castle building and construction thrived during the politically calm and peaceful time of the 18th century, which became one of the most important periods in the history of the cultural development of the country.

The style of these castles varies according to age and region, but invariably they show their uniquely Hungarian character. In spite of being modeled sometimes on foreign examples and built by foreign masters, they still bear the stamp of a style rooted in the Hungarian way of life.

While we were in Hungary we visited many different castles ( although many were not classed as castles because they are now ruins). Most of the castles were located in higher regions of Hungary. On hills and small mountainous regions. the planning for these castles almost seemed flawless, one for example was on the absolute pinnacle of the highest hill around and this must have served as an invaluable lookout tower and defences.

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GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy We noticed the styling was rather different to the castles in our own country. These castles seemed much more purpose built, instead of having many a dining room or baths it would have much more guard rooms and etc. The castle seemed to be well made and the ones that have survived until today seemed solid and impenetrable.

And so these glorious and iconic castles still standing today really should be one of the many prides and joys of Hungarian society and History.

Hungarian food I’m going to talk to you about the food in Hungary (because that’s what I really concentrated on). On our first night we went to this little ‘fast food’ Hungarian restaurant which was… Different. We didn’t want to seem rude so we tried to eat as much as possible. There was a strange chicken dish and rice and a lot of other things I didn’t recognize and I didn’t feel like trying something new on the first night seeing as I didn’t feel well but Mr. Jackson persuaded us to eat a Hungarian ‘delicacy’ with custard bread, poppy seeds and other things I didn’t recognise. Yummy!

In the morning of the first full day we had a very sweet breakfast with toast, pain au chocolat, whipped cream and chocolate sauce. The food was very different in Hungary they have chicken with cheese inside with bread crumbs and we always had three courses. Normally we had soup, mashed potato with vegetables and meat then sometimes a pudding. Certainly we never went hungry in Hungary!

Although there were many ‘international’ fast-food places which can be a bit similar, we really enjoyed the Hungarian hospitality and the wonderful cooking. Perhaps the best night was spent by the riverside in Sarospatek. We had been treated to a final meal, it was more like a banquet.

At the end of it we sang a thank you song for the group leaders. They deserved it.

The People We Met When we were first introduced to everyone involved in our trip to Hungary, we were quite excited. We didn’t know what to expect from all of these different and interesting people who were coming to meet us. However, we were also quite nervous because we wanted to make the best possible impression of our country and us.

However as soon as we met all of the wonderful people and got to know them, we realised we shouldn’t have been scared at all. No matter where they came from (be it Poland, Turkey, Hungary or the Czech Republic) we had so much fun with them because they were so funny and welcoming.

Over the course of the whole trip, we all got to know each other in lots of different ways (visiting castles, giving presentations and doing very cringe-worthy but amusing quizzes). However, the main way that we all got to know each other was simply by eating with each other. We spent most of our mealtimes exchanging stories about our countries and us, giggling hysterically at people’s impressions of 26

GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy English accents, and trying to swallow the strange food we were eating (although it was delicious!). The dinner table was the most common place to get to know people and almost everyday we sat with someone from a different country than the day before.

It wasn’t only at dinner that we had fun with the people from other countries, but also when we were travelling round the many beautiful castles and buildings of Hungary. Although we had to be sensible when going round the important buildings, we still had fun because we all got on really well and found it easy to talk to each other.

Weirdly enough, we also got to know each other well when we were travelling on the coach because we were on it so much! Every time we were on the coach we made sure that we sat next to someone from a different country-and the girls had great fun taking embarrassing photos of everyone asleep (now all over the internet). Although a coach isn’t the most ideal place to chat and get to know each other, all of that travelling helped us to get started.

As well as visiting the different places in Hungary, we also had a lot free time to spend simply in Sárospatak town. We used this time to go exploring and found the River Bodrog with the people from the Czech Republic and Hungary. We found our way thanks to some guidance from the Hungarians (thank you Levente and Abraham!). It was really fun to play games and run around next to the river and it was a great memory that I will keep!

Overall, the trip had united many different people from many different countries. No matter where you came from, you found something in common with someone else, whether it was music, art, drama or clothes; it was a good starting point.

Towards the end of the trip, people had to say their goodbyes, and all of us from Britain realised just how much we were going to miss the people from the other countries. We had really got along and been with everyone on the trip for a whole week. It was going to be strange not being around everyone.

When it eventually got to the last night, we enjoyed a group concert with some amazing costumed dancing from the Hungarians, teaching us all the dance so we could join in.

It was so upsetting to say goodbye and many of us cried! We had such an amazing time and it really makes you realise what you can make of one week with such a brilliant, creative and hilarious group of people! We are trying our best to stay in contact with everyone who came on the trip via social networking sites etc, and one day I really hope to return to 27

GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy Hungary to meet up with the brilliant people we met there. Thank you Hungary for a memorable, exciting and brilliant trip!

The School’s Architecture The schools architecture is beautiful, with parts made from wood which is then carved into the shape of wings; they say they chose this design to bring them closer to nature. Árpád Vezér Gimnázium is about twenty years old. We were really impressed because there was no school bell, their school bell is a tune played on the pan pipes. When the lesson changed some music came on the loudspeaker, and for each break you could hear something from a chosen pupil’s playlist played around the school. We thought that was a great idea.

We visited the school most days. We were there and joined in some of the lessons. We went into an English lesson and we were paired with some of the students who were much older than us (we were 13/14 they were 17/18!) They all thought we were the coolest people as we could actually speak the language. We heard a tape, like we hear in our French, German and Spanish lessons and it was of an imaginary scene in England where a lady who was going to jail for not giving her exhusbands Christmas presents to their children. We couldn’t help but laugh and afterwards we let them know that we weren’t that strict and you wouldn’t go to jail!

The school had a very friendly atmosphere but we felt a little intimidated as there were several levels and when their lessons finished we could have sworn there were thousands of people standing glaring down at us as we walked to another lesson. We went to their art room as we wanted to practise our songs and paint our ‘costumes’. Mrs Bowden was shocked as when we went in there was no artwork on the walls, anywhere. We were practising our songs and people outside started watching including our friends Levi and Muha (Abram). I guess it was because we chose to sing the James Bond song to represent England.

The school was located in the middle of a little village and was the first and last ‘educational’ building we saw. We knew what it was as soon as we saw it and gasped at how elegant and beautiful. The school sports hall is gigantic. We had an international sports session playing volleyball and football. It was interesting to see that the school was open in the evening for sports and youth club activities.

We miss Hungary. It was a beautiful place full of history, intellectual people and gracious weather (apart from one day when it rained!) It was a once in a lifetime opportunity and a place you wouldn’t visit unless you were on a trip like this. Sárospatak is an intelligent and exquisite town. I thoroughly enjoyed this trip, and remember fondly all the friends we met.

History of Hungary and Parliament Invaders The Hungarians established Hungary in 896AD, after they had arrived there from their previous, Eastern European territories. Prince Árpád was their leader at the time. He also established the first royal house of the country, the Árpád-house.

In 1000AD, after the first king, Saint Stephen had been crowned, the country became a Kingdom.

In 1241, the Tatars (Mongols) invaded the country, causing many deaths and damages. In 1301, the Árpád-house died out. Later on, kings from various houses were ruling over Hungary. The greatest of them is Matthias Corvinus, famous for protecting the country against the Ottoman aggression. However, 28

GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy some decades after he had died (1490), the Ottomans defeated the country in the Battle of Mohács (1526). The Kingdom was cut up to three parts: the western and northern areas remained Hungary, the southern region fell under Ottoman rule, and the eastern parts became semi-independent as the Principality of Transylvania. There were many nationalities living in the country at this time; except Hungarians, there were also present the ancestors of modern Slovaks, Serbs, and Romanians.

The next most important event is the "Hungarian Revolution of 1848", when the inhabitants of the country rebelled again. The uprising ended in 1849, with Habsburg success. The leaders of the revolution were executed. Austria and Hungary signed a treaty, and they established the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. The new situation was feasible for both sides: the agreement brought massive economic growth.

The first World War saw the end of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In the second World War Hungary came under German rule.

After the fall of Nazi Germany, Soviet troops occupied all of the country. So Hungary gradually became a communist satellite state of the Soviet Union. However in 1956 the Hungarians rebelled against communist rule and today Hungary is a democratic republic.

Elections are held in every fourth year. The current president of the country is Pál Schmitt, and the prime minister is Viktor Orbán. he was Prime Minister from 1998 to 2002, and was elected again in 2010.

Our Trip to Parliament On our second day in Hungary we visited the Parliament Buildings.

We all had our bags and bodies searched before we entered the building, like at the airports. As soon as we entered we could tell it was designed very precisely. The staircase seemed like it went on forever and in every room was a grand chandelier.

When we reached the central room we saw statues on every corner of famous people throughout Hungarian history, such as King Mattias. In the middle was the crown jewels in a glass container. As each hour approached we saw 3 soldiers in uniform moving towards the jewels in a sort of marching dance. once they had finished they stood around the crown jewels guarding them. After an hour they would go and have an hours rest before returning to guard duty. This process would be repeated all day.

The Parliament or Országház was built between 1885 and 1902, at the time the largest parliamentary building in the world.

The building has a length of 268 meters and is 118 meters wide. The parliament house contains more than 20 km staircase, and 691 rooms. The elegant dome has a height of 69 meters. Today, the Hungarian Parliament Buildings are home to the National Assembly of Hungary as well as a popular tourist attraction. Visitors can enjoy the many works of art both inside and outside these incredible buildings, from frescoes and stained glass to the many statues scattered throughout. But during the World Wars the stain-glass windows were taken down from there places and preserved in sand bags in the cellars of the building. along with the windows lay the crown jewels, which was moved from place to place to keep safe but it didn’t stay as safe as it might, if you look carefully the cross on the top has been bent (as seen on the coat of arms) . It is believed it bent when it was being kept in a castle in Poland.

We thoroughly enjoyed our stay in Hungary, and we just want to say thank you for taking us to such a beautiful, interesting place.

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GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy

POLAND In March 2012, the last meeting took place in Poland.

By the Czech team People People in Poland are much kinder and nicer than in the Czech Republic.

Despite this, they look very strict and cold when you enter a shop. They look very angry, do not ask you if they can help you, never smile and almost never speak.

That was strange.

In the Czech Republic it is not much better but you are not afraid like in Polish shops.

The shop assistant just says “Good morning, can I help you?” or “Here you are, thank you. Have a nice day…” Before visiting Poland, I had thought that it was not enough.

Then we went to the school. There were posters saying “Welcome in our school” everywhere and photographs from the partner countries were hanging in the halls. I really felt the warm welcome. And all the people’s behaviour proved me right. All students were incredibly kind. There were willing to help us with whatever we needed and did their best trying to make us enjoy our stay. Compared to schools at home, this is very sad. I think in our country such behaviour would be possible only if individuals were obligated to do so, not spontaneously so much.

I also did not notice any individuality in Poland. People do not join any groups or styles as often as they do in the Czech Republic. Everyone was just going with the flow, nobody stuck out.

Young people dress in a modern and sporty way and middle-aged ladies are very elegant. However, in the streets you do not see anyone with rasta or wearing crazy original clothes, which is normal in my homeland.

Also, teachers are very different. They are often young and also strict; they lead their classes with a firm hand. Every single one of them was dressed very elegantly, women always wearing high heels and quite surprisingly walking with their purses everywhere. They always came to the class with perfect makeup. In the Czech Republic, every teacher has their own style and so s/he wears different clothes. However, nobody comes to the classroom with purse.

Next, the Polish head teacher: in our school, we have a really kind and willing head teacher, the Polish one was like our friend. She was asking you every day how we were, hugging us and nothing was a problem for her.

Also, young people in Poland are very polite. They have very good manners. They are not rebels like in the Czech Republic. Czech people are nice but in comparison with the Poles, it is something completely different. I have never met nicer and more helpful people than in Poland. You feel like in one big family. So, it is true what books say about the Polish: they look very strict but they are great people.

Architecture When I went to Poland I was very interested how different architecture can be in a neighbouring country.

However, I must say that it was a little strange for me…

We arrived quite late to Warsaw. We moved to our hotel quickly and then hurried up to a dinner.

The next day we could do the sightseeing. But honestly, I must say that I did not like it there. I was a little bit disappointed. The previous evening was much more impressive for me. I was missing something like a city centre, full of people and their meeting points. We have this in the city I live in as there are places with lots of people in every hour of a 30

GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy day. I also found Warsaw a bit empty, maybe we could say “desolate”. I was also surprised that I could see no park or a place with lots of greenery and nice environment. There were only long, empty streets.

Of course, the biggest shock was the prefab houses. Certainly, we should not forget that Warsaw was bombed during the Second World War. It could have been really beautiful and historically important. But… There was an old building and next to it there was an old, ugly, grey, communist prefab. And it was surrounding the poor building from both sides. It was horrible.

The Royal Castle did not really look like a castle but inside it was beautiful. It was huge, big and the tour took a long time. And it was great experience. It was an official residence of the Polish monarchs. Between 1926 and 1939, it was a residence of the Polish president. Today it is a part of the National Museum. The castle was rebuilt by many rulers. During World War II it bombed by German army like the whole city. In 1944, it was damaged again by Warsaw Uprising.

I also missed the centre in Gdynia where we spent most of the time of our visit. Gdynia was not particularly interesting. The whole city was organized and the buildings were mostly made in the 20th century. However, there was one interesting place: the harbour, of course. The beach was absolutely dazzling with all the beautiful, velvety sand, pier, seagulls and swans everywhere. It was lovely.

The third city we visited was Gdansk. It was really breath-taking. It was so beautiful. It looks like a good restoration but most of it (or at least the centre) was newly built. Yes, the centre: there I finally found the heart of the city with lots of people. Also, there were lovely small streets with narrow and high houses. In them, there were small stores or lovely coffee shops and in front of those houses stood stalls with amber. We also noticed a promenade with people and pigeons.

The St. Mary Roman Catholic church was founded in 1379 and completed in 1502. They say it is the largest brick church in the world and it used to be the biggest Evangelical Lutheran church in the world. It is 105, 5 m long, and the nave is 66 m wide.

Inside the church there is room for 25 000 people. There were white walls, unbecoming and – sorry to say – kitsch décor. There were pieces of decoration of different styles and that all was creating the impression of kitsch. The ceiling and upper walls were empty, just white colour.

Except for this church, the city is really nice, wellpreserved and tasteful. The best view is chiefly in small streets by the sea, where are coffee houses (and, of course, more stalls with amber) full of people just drinking and relaxing without shoes, getting sun tan…

Generally speaking we can say that Polish architecture is similar to ours. Trying to spot the most striking differences as for the design of Czech and Polish towns, this is what we found: In Poland, especially in the north, there are different Gothic works – brick Gothic which almost cannot be seen in our country and if so, only in connection with the Polish roots (Czech queen of Polish origin named Eliška Rejčka founded brick churches in old Brno and Hradec Králové; Polish influence can be also traced in Opava).

Poland had to put up with the consequences of World War II with more effort than our country; many cities lost its historical centres whereas Czech lands suffered almost no direct war damages. This is why – from the vantage point of intactness of our monuments – Czech country represents an exception in Central Europe. While the restoration of Warsaw as the capital started and was paid attention to systematically right after the end of World War II, other cities (such as Gdansk or Wroclaw) had to wait for their renewal for decades. In the design of these cities rules of preservation of monuments had to be applied, the foundations were better processed and the result makes a more authentic impression than in Warsaw. This is why we did not identify that the centre of Gdansk used to be as much destroyed as Warsaw! In Warsaw, we admired demanding work of renovators at the royal castle which was (as the last building in the centre) finished as late as 1980. Here again, the 31

GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy modern approaches in the preservation of monuments showed a great difference between the older and younger restorations of the damaged objects.

In Poland, like in our country, there is a double tradition in architecture: quality works of important foreign artists for the richest customers and traditional domestic hand-crafted products – and these two often meet in one building. The disputed Palace of Culture and Science by Soviet architect Rudnev also represents a building which did not follow in the original (and unfortunately non-preserved) street network nor in traditional Polish architecture and copied the skyscrapers of Stalinist Moscow.

In Poland, it is really quite difficult to say what “Polish architecture” is – many historical cities are not in Poland any more (Vilnius or Lvov) and many were not a part of the Polish state in various periods which influenced them a lot (for example the design of the historical city of Gdansk was more influenced by the other Hanseatic cities, e.g.

Lubeck, than Polish architecture of that time). The political separation of Poland into the Russian, Austrian and Prussian (German) manifested itself in the 19th century in the design of public buildings (railway stations, theatres, schools and hospitals) in different ways and these traditions remain an identifiable part of Polish towns.

Last but not least, we would like to share some funny differences between Czech and Polish language. For example, in my host family, one of us used a Czech word to describe a young boy. The word was “chytrý” (= intelligent) but caused embarrassment because in Polish it means “selfish”. And there are many more: when we say “čerstvý” (= fresh), in Polish it has the opposite meaning – old. And moreover a strawberry in Czech means a blueberry in Polish...

Food, nature and traffic Now it is time to tell you something about food, nature and traffic in Poland regarding our trip. First I should tell you about our travelling in Poland.

On our first day we travelled by train, looking out of the windows at beautiful Czech nature passing by. When we crossed the border, the scenery changed.

Everything around the train was dirty and dull; nice buildings surrounded by that environment. We were confused and surprised. We did not lose hope though and were looking forward our first lunch.

Our reward was magnificent!

We were in KFC on lunch. Twisters, fries, coke and more divine delicacies!

The dinner was excellent for me though other members of our group did not like it and claimed it was alive! So my advice was - eat fast until it eats your potatoes.

We had the other lunches and breakfasts with our families and I tasted a lot of Polish food most of which tasted the same as Czech food, such as chicken with potatoes or fish with potatoes. We also enjoyed dinners in restaurants because there were professional chefs.

In Warsaw, we were travelling by bus and train whereas in Gdynia we just went by public means of transport. It was very much like the system we are used to from our homeland.

Everything was great and we enjoyed it. We are looking forward to our next trip to Poland because there are nice places for beautiful holidays.

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GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy School The fourth day of our trip we planned to visit the school, meet students and participate in a dance workshop with all partner schools. Nobody knew that dance would be taught. We were surprised that they wanted to teach us polonaise because it is dance which every year inaugurates our balls. We went to learn to dance the polonaise. The workshop took place in a huge gym. Each guest had a Polish dance partner and even some teachers joined us. We enjoyed it very much. The last dance of polonaise included all figures. Then we were divided into groups by our nationalities. Each of these groups took a Polish girl or boy who guided us through their school.

The school seemed to be very uninteresting and boring. The same inside. All the walls were white, only at some places there were photos from the students´ trips, diplomas of their school achievements but no pictures nor paintings.

However, the Polish head teacher surprised me as she stopped me and got acquainted with me, despite her workload.

Our Polish friends had taken us into classes and then we had a meeting in the gym. We all had gone to different classrooms. Trachet welcomed me in Polish language and we sat in the back of the classroom. Five minutes to end of the lesson, Julia (girl, which accommodated me) pulled out her exercise book and wrote the end of their subject matter. The whole time someone kept looking and smiling at me. When the lesson ended, everybody stood up and came to me. About twenty students got acquainted with me. And I kept repeating my name for them. All Julia’s classmates were very nice. I was surprised that they were interested in meeting someone older and moreover a foreigner. They were not shy, they were very active. They explained immediately where the toilet or gym are. Their English was not excellent but we always made ourselves understood.

The school was big, had a lot of classes, two gyms and in the basement there were big changing rooms. The Polish boy showed us the classrooms and lessons. The pupils sometimes asked us questions (where we were from and our names or age). Some classrooms specialized in history, biology, language classrooms or social sciences with contemporary furniture. We had a possibility to visit an empty classroom, too. It was biology classroom. At the back of it there was a cupboard with stuffed animals and next to that was a skeleton.

We also noticed that in classrooms there always hung a cross above the door. Under the cross there was an orange light. Why? We did not know. Only after the end of the lesson did we learn that it was a signal that the lesson was over as the light switched on. No annoying bell!

The next difference were the uniforms worn by some of the students. However, we did not find out if they really must wear them or if it is just an option. They were blue with a white school logo. Most girls had T-shirts and boys wore waistcoats. Although it was a uniform, it did not look too formal.

In the whole school we could observe very good manners. Maybe they did not have any problems with students. In the corridor during the break, students were very loud, but we did not see any conflict. Everybody behaved very well; they were considerate. In lessons, the students were silent.

When they did not understand something, they asked the teacher about it immediately. And moreover, they did not chat during lessons, which is sometimes a bit different in our school. The students also waited for their teachers in the corridors before the lesson started. In every class there were about 15-20 students. I think it is an optimal number of students in one class.

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GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy Teachers usually wore elegant, fashionable clothes, just like all middle-aged women in Poland. We did not see anybody in jeans. Only teachers of physical education had tracksuit trousers.

Our overall impression of the school was very good.

We also learnt that the Polish system of education is different from ours.

Polish elementary school (szkoła podstawowa) lasts six years and children begin to attend school when they are seven years old. That is almost the same as in elementary schools (in the Czech Republic, elementary school education lasts nine years). Then children go to a “gimnazjum” three years, which is the same as a Czech elementary school. “Szkoła ponadgimnazjalna” (secondary school) lasts three years and there are the following types: general education lyceum (liceum ogólnokształcące), which is the same as Czech grammar school; “liceum profilowane”, which is the same as a specialized Czech grammar school (usually computing or languages) or college (economic, business, fine arts); there is also “technikum”, which corresponds to Czech industrial schools; and apprentice training centre (zasadnicza szkoła zawodowa). Uczelnia wyższa – university/college.

By the Hungarian team The small delegation of our school spent seven days in Gdynia, Poland and visited some remarkable places in the Baltic area and the capital city as a part of the Comenius program in March 2012. This short but extremely exciting and mind opening stay gave us opportunity to obtain an insight into the cultural and historical traditions, the educational system and the inhabitants’ everyday life with the help of host families. Let’s see the details!

Preparing for the trip, we checked internet lexicons like Wikipedia, just to know what to expect. As part of the guide, we would like to share this objective information, and then you can get to know our personal experiences, so the following section is a quote, but the forthcoming ones are ours.

Gdynia (Kashubian: Gdiniô, German: Gdingen) is a city in the Pomeranian Voivodeship of Poland and an important seaport of Gdańsk Bay on the south coast of the Baltic Sea. Located in Kashubia in Eastern Pomerania, Gdynia is part of a conurbation with the spa town of Sopot, the city of Gdańsk and suburban communities, which together form a metropolitan area called the Tricity (Trójmiasto), with a population of over a million people.

Brief History: The area of the later city of Gdynia shared its history with Pomerelia (Eastern Pomerania); in prehistoric times it was the centre of Oksywie culture; it was later populated by Slavs with some Baltic Prussian influences.

Construction of the city: The city was constructed later than the seaport. In 1925 a special committee was inaugurated to build the city; city expansion plans were designed and city rights were granted in 1926, and tax privileges were 34

GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy granted for investors in 1927. The city started to grow significantly after 1928.

Education: There are currently 8 universities and institutions of higher education based in Gdynia. Many students from Gdynia attend also universities located in the Tricity.

Sights and tourist attractions: Gdynia is a relatively modern city. Its architecture includes the 13th century St. Michael the Archangel's Church in Oksywie, the oldest building in Gdynia, and the 17th century neoGothic manor house located on Folwarczna Street in Orłowo. The city also holds many examples of early 20th century architecture, especially monumentalism and early functionalism, and modernism.

The surrounding hills and the coastline attract many nature lovers. A leisure pier and a cliff-like coastline in Kępa Redłowska, as well as the surrounding Reservation Park, are also popular locations. In the harbour, there are two anchored museum ships, the ORP Blyskawica destroyer and the Dar Pomorza Tall ship frigate.

A 1.5 kilometre long promenade leads from the marina in the city centre, to the beach in Redłowo.

Most of Gdynia can be seen from Kamienna Góra (54 metres) or the observation point near Chwaszczyno. There are also two observation towers, one at Góra Donas, and the other at Kolibki.

Gdynia is also the host of the Heineken Open'er Festival, one of the biggest contemporary music festivals in Poland. The festival welcomes many foreign hip-hop, rock and electronic music artists every year. Another important summer event in Gdynia is the Viva Beach Party, which is a large two-day techno party made on Gdynia's Public Beach usually held in August. Gdynia also hosts events for the annual Gdańsk Shakespeare Festival. And now let’s see our experiences!

Buildings and architecture The Polish buildings are very varied and because of this it is easy to talk about them. As we had the chance to visit places different in size, we got a fuller view. First of all, the walls of residential buildings are not just white but colourful or have a pattern and some ornaments which are not too harsh, still make the settlements lovely and stylish. In Warsaw, we saw the Old Town Centre (which was almost absolutely rebuilt after the II. World War), the wonderful Royal Castle and the breathtaking exhibition in it. Then we saw the Copernicus Centre which is like the Hungarian Palace of Wonders. You can see it in the picture (on the right) with the Vistula river and a suspension bridge in the background. This building is really modern and high tech. The space used inside the building and outside in the park around it, really sent the message: open your mind! And if you pay attention to it, you really can!

Then we went on a sightseeing trip where we could see Warsaw’s highest buildings and the stadium where the European Championship will take place in 2012.

After seeing big, monumental city buildings, it was nice to see Golub-Dobrzyń castle which is like a small jewel box sitting on the top of the hill. This castle is a really romantic place to get to know more of 16th century country life, everyday’s, crime, punishment and religion.

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GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy Our trip to Gdansk was another exciting and charming tour. We visited Mary’s Church, (Europe’s biggest brick church) a museum and the city gate, which is called "Golden Gate" too, because there is a beautiful gold decoration on it. Then we walked to the Old Town, which was lately renovated, so that the visitors can see the old buildings’ styles. In this area there are colourful and patterned buildings, which are in the picture on the left.

This interestingly renovated church has a different approach on the original building.

The striking and extreme style directed our attention to that the destructions of war can be rebuilt, but should not be forgotten because that is the way we appreciate peace more.

In connection with the buildings we found it interesting to see how the old and new town/city quarters meet and mingle and how important architectural history is for the Polish. Moreover we could witness that development is a remarkable part of the skyline. „No way! Food again?!”☺ Before the journey I already knew that I will have no problems with the long trips and with making new friendships or sleeping, but I really feared that I will be starving, because in foreign countries the habits are different, so the kitchen is different too. I am keen on delicious food; it can make my whole day bad if I can not „eat a good meal”. I have to say that I was unnecessarily nervous because of the food. There is almost no difference between the taste of Polish and Hungarian foods.

We tasted very delicious soups: In Gdynia, in the school we got tomato soup for lunch, which exceptionally was completely different and I think cheesier than in Hungary.

The picture also shows that it is different in colour too. It is full of vegetables including carrots and potatoes, and I tasted not only the tomatoes but also the variety spices like pepper or salt.

Without meat and vegetables eating is not a meal. I was happy when I found everywhere that for the second course they served different kinds of salads starting from the carrot salad through the cabbage salad till the beetroot salad. I tasted potatoes prepared in different way and I ate very tasty meat which personally I was very happy about.

In this picture you can see a small pot with chicken breast which was served with cheese sauce. In addition to its taste I liked this food because there was a tea light under the pot and it was heating the sauce not to congeal. In the front you can see carrot salad and in the background two types of potatoes (mashed potatoes and „chips style” fried potatoes) with fantastic seasoning. I cannot make a complaint about the fried meat, meat balls, and either the fish. Everywhere they made meat with different tastes but all of them were mouth-watering.

The quantity, quality and taste of the food was perfect. We often laughed because we still felt our stomach full because of the lunch and we already went to have dinner. At those times Dalma always „outraged” and said: „Do we have to eat again!?”☺ I think everyone had the feeling of being full, but the food was so delicious that you simply could not stop eating because you wanted to feel the heavenly taste. Well, in Poland for most of the meals I felt this.

Our host was so attentive providing us with the tastiest that they really set us an example of the perfect hosting.

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GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy Fashion in Poland As soon as we arrived to Poland I noticed how amazingly nicely people dress in Warsaw and in the Gdansk-Gdynia area. Basically there are three main groups of people in the dressing style – just like in Hungary, and in all the European countries. First of all, there are the elegant looking people, whose clothes are always tidy, well-ironed, and if they are men, they are also quite frequently freshly shaved. An example for this kind of people can be seen in the upper right corner.

The other main type of people is the alternate dressing ladies and gentlemen. Mainly they are younger people, who are trying to express their individuality by their clothes. I have to admit that they are not just trying to look good, but most of them also succeed in it, and they look right just perfect. An example for this kind of people can be seen on the left.

The third group’s members have to wear school and work uniforms. I especially liked the pretty dresses of the flight attendants, as the dresses for the Hungarian stewardesses used to be like a sack. So they did not look too lovely.

All in all: Polish people know for sure what style is!

Transport and traffic in Poland Our trip to Poland began with a plane flight.

This was the very first flight for most of the Hungarian students, and actually this was the first one for me too. We really enjoyed flying with a LOT plane, which is a thing Poland can be proud of. The services, and the whole time spent on board was perfect. When we arrived to Warsaw we got to see plenty of trams and buses – these are the kinds of public transport most people choose to travel by.

In this picture we can see another possible way of travelling. These „parking Pegasus artworks” open our mind to alternative ways of travelling too. But you know it is just a joke.

At my host family I got to see a TV show which featured police in action. I asked them what this reality show is about, and they told me that it is said that Polish people are not that good drivers, so they have this show where police stop drivers and fine them if they drive cars crazily. I found this interesting because I have not seen such a show before. And I also found it weird because I never experienced anything like Polish people are bad drivers. All the people who were driving cars around me were extremely skilled, including our bus driver, and I did not ever see a bad driver on the streets either.

I do love the way Polish traffic works!

Program On the first day we had a sightseeing tour around Warsaw by bus, and we saw things like the Jerusalem Avenue (where a live palm tree can be seen), Pope John Paul II. Avenue (which is lit with candles all the way long on memorial days) and the Sanctuary lamp at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (where big city gatherings and commemorations are held) after that went to the Old Town and visited the 37

GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy Royal Castle. We had fun in the Copernicus Science Centre which is similar to the Hungarian Palace of Wonders in Budapest. In the evening the host families waited for the groups in Gdynia.

We spent the second day in Gdynia. First the Polish students greeted the guests with presentations about the school and the city. After that we learned a national Polish dance the polonaise which is a slow, walking ballroom or showroom dance. In the afternoon we went to the harbour in Gdynia which is the busiest part in summer and the most famous place in this city. We took a walk near the sea which was a very nice experience for us, as we do not have a seaside and we can see the sea really rarely (ok, it is different on TV). The swans, the seagulls, the boats and yachts waiting for the season, the salty sea wind, the endless blue of the water all enriched us with an unforgettable experience. In the evening Polish students from the drama group had a performance and presented Romeo and Juliet in short adaptations.

On the third day we travelled to Golub Dobzryn and to Chelmo. In Dobrzyn we visited the castle where we could try interesting sports like archery, axe and spear throwing and in the afternoon we toured around Chelmo. In the evening we had fun with all the groups in a club.

On the fourth day we performed our national dance and songs in the local Navy Club. First of all we had the chance to learn Polish songs and teach our national song too which was really funny because of the differences in pronunciation.

It was really amusing. After that we had a task: we had to make a poster. The topic was: “Our best moments in the Comenius program”. In the afternoon we had free time and we spent it in the city with shopping and filming ships in the harbour. We are really lucky to have seen the Black Pearl.

Although we did not bump into Jack Sparrow, we could go onboard and imagine ourselves as part of the crew.

In the evening all groups presented their national dance and song. It was also a nice thing as by the end of the week we got to know each other more and more and these shows gave such a new picture of us and all the other participants, that we were surprised about every show. The costumes, the tunes, the dances, the whole atmosphere they created made us even more proud of being in this project. The message clearly came through: Despite the cultural, historical and linguistic differences, through art we get a better understanding of each other and pulling down the barriers we can be more tolerant in every respect. After the show we had a fantastic night near the sea with our new friends.

We spent the last day in Gdansk. We met with Lech Walesa, the former president of Poland. It was a special thing for us, as he is a living part of recent history. We had a sightseeing tour and after that we played a game in the street. We had some pictures about the city’s famous buildings and we had to identify them and find the building. I really liked it as I think with the help of this game I will remember the details of the city for longer. After that we went to the theatre in Gdynia and watched a performance titled Shrek. It was a fantastic with enthralling, Hollywood-like effects and charming tunes. The lyrics and lines were Polish, but it was no problem. Actually I had the feeling that I can understand it. ☺ The entire program was well put together, and thought over taking into consideration every possible need. Info spreading and gathering also worked without any problem.

School and education Our host students learn at the local grammar school in Gdynia. They like their school, and their educational system is similar to the Hungarian.

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GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy They have 5-7 lessons a day, they learn arts- and scientists subjects too. Moreover this is an 80 years old junior high school and they have first, second and third classes. In the third class they have to write a big test from all three years.

The students wear uniform every day; this is a special, blue T-shirt with the school’s symbol.

A class contains about 25-30 students. We spent a day in their school and we gained access to Polish school life. The school has a great drama class, which performed the modern Romeo and Juliet play written by the students themselves. It was so good and colourful, because the play’s language was our teenagers’ language and the students danced too.

The school has three floors. The building is modern and enormous with a huge gym and courtyard. We danced a Polish dance in the gym. The grammar school has a talented volleyball team which achieves lots of very good sport results. The teachers often use computer to project presentations during lessons. They were so kind and if we had a problem, they always helped us.

Our host school’s staff was well prepared for the program and they showed a balanced team. Everyone knew what to, where to, how to do. It was delightful to experience. „Polak, Węgier, dwa bratanki, i do szabli, i do szklanki.” Now, we already know that this famous proverb is really true.

Other aspects All the participants in our team appreciated the multicultural environment of the project; still they could go on with the new local environment. This parallel situation gave a new approach to our stay as well. The new and fresh eye of the team, the impetus in the young hearts and the inspiring surroundings gave us the idea of shooting the turned angle pictures below.

With these playful shots you might be in trouble for the first glimpse, but then you can figure them out and understand them in your interpretation. They might suggest that if you look at something – even a problem or a boring situation from another point of view, you might be surprised at what you see. It is possible that you might be inspired to another solution, or you will not see it as a problem, just something to learn from or laugh at.

As these photos were taken in Poland, they must be part of the report and part of our farewell. We would like to say thank you to all of you for being part of this project.

And we would like to say a big thank you to our lovely hosts! It is been great joy working and having fun with you!

Students: Levente Szabó, Zsófia Borfás, Béla Szalkay, Georgina Kalmár, Dalma Kovács, Petra Boglyasovszk; Teachers: Tamás Tóth, Antónia Baloghné Rozgonyi, Éva Csicsek

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GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy

By the Turkish team It is sometimes difficult to explain and understand some feelings… You may understand better when you experience it yourself. This journey was like that. It was an unforgettable journey for us. It was full of unforgettable experiments and memories for us. We are very glad to share these with you. We hope you find it interesting too. Let’s start!

We were very excited because we had not flown before. We had not been to a foreign country before. And now there was a chance to go. We were going to stay with host family. And see a new country and meet new people… All these things increased our excitement.

We were looking forward to being in Poland.

We first flew from Gaziantep to İstanbul. Then we flew to Berlin. You may say ‘Why Berlin?’

We have learnt that the cost of İstanbul to Poland is too expensive. In order to make our journey cheaper we chose this direction. It provides us a couple of hours to be in Germany. It was a good experiment for us. We had a chance of comparing three countries After we landed in Berlin, we travelled to Poland. It took eight hours to go there. The road was not crowded. We sometimes thought that we were the only vehicle which was using that road. We learnt that People prefer to use more the train or plane for transportation.

First we would like to give geography information about Poland. It is a country in Central Europe. Poland is bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian enclave, to the north.

The capital and the largest city is Warsaw, which is in central Poland, on the Vistula River.

We went to the city of Gdynia. Gdynia is situated along Gdansk Bay, the part of the Baltic Sea. Gdynia is one of the youngest cities of Poland. It is close to another two cities Gdansk and Sopot.

We met our host families. After we spent a couple hours we went sightseeing with host families and teachers. We spent a nice Sunday afternoon with them.

We went to Gdansk. We visited historical places there.

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GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy One of them is St. Mary's Church which is the largest brick church in the world. It is large enough for 25000 people to sit in. Then we walked towards the Old Town. Old Town is a most beautiful part of Gdansk. The architecture is very fascinating.

First we passed the Golden Gate. The gate itself is adorned with gold trim, but has a very clean, sharp look to it.

Eight figures stand proudly on top of the gate, four facing the Upland Gate (Peace, Freedom, Wealth, and Fame) and four facing Dluga Street (Concord, Justice, Piety, and Reason). Below the figures, but above the reads another Latin harmony, large

proud Gdansk City symbol, Maxim: ‘Small states grow in states fall in discord’.

While we were walking along the street we saw excellent antique and jewellery shops, besides this there were some souvenirs shops and cafes.

On the street, there were some street musicians who played their instruments very well. Before we went to Poland We had heard that Amber is very famous in here. We wanted to buy, however it was too expensive.

We passed another gate which is called ‘Green Gate’. This gate was built to serve as the formal residence of Polish monarchs, but was only used for that purpose once in its history.

Today, the gate is managed by the Polish National Museum and is the home of a great many exhibitions and galleries. Former Polish President and symbol of Solidarity, Lech Walesa, has his office in the Green Gate. This gate 41

GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy marks the end of the Royal Route. When we reached Motlawa River, we met with some pirates. We took some photos with them. We have learnt that street plays are very famous here. We spent good time in Gdansk.

Another city where we visited was Golub Dobrzyn. It is a town in central Poland. It is located on the both sides of Drweca River. In the past there were two cities but then they were united.

We visited Golub Dobrzyn Castle. We learnt that it was the castle of Teutonic Knights. It was built at the turn of 13th and14th centuries. So many years, it was destroyed and rebuilt.

We tried interesting sports like archery, axe and spear throwing there. We could say that we were very successful doing these sports. A man and a woman helped us do these activities. Their costumes were very nice. We felt as if we were in medieval time.

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GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy We had lunch in the castle. The soup was very delicious. It was like our chicken soup. It was served in a bowl. We learnt that you do not need to use spoon while you are eating this soup. Another interesting point was cooking the sausages. They gave us chicken sausages for cooking. In Turkey we say ’Cook it yourself, eat it yourself’ for self-

catering’. They gave us sticks for cooking them. There was a fire in the middle of the castle. We tried to cook them there. Unfortunately, we did not succeed because they were not cooking. They were all uncooked; however our Maths teacher, Mr. Tümay cut them into slices and prepared the sausages like Turkish Kebap. At last we cooked them. It was a very different and an interesting experiment for us.

After a couple of hours later we went to Chelmn and had dinner there.

It was the earliest dinner which we have had after the lunch. The restaurant was very authentic. Although we were not hungry, we tried to eat something.

In Polish people like eating meat. We were surprised that when we saw that they were even eating meat for breakfast.

They especially eat pork and donkey meat. Yes, donkey meat... It was very interesting for us. We never eat donkeys. Meat is served with vegetables (mostly cabbage and potatoes). The Poles are hearty eaters, and foods are always enjoyed in large servings. Before we went to Poland, we thought that we could have food problems. However, our host families and teachers took care of what we ate. We had a chance of tasting different Polish meals. Thanks for it.

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GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy

Activities in the school

On Monday we met at the school, there was a short presentation about Poland,school and school activities. We learnt how to dance their traditional dance. If you have a good polish partner ,it was not difficult to learn. We had great fun.

Then we met at the classes and played different games. We met eachother. We had lunch at the school cafe. Then we went sightseeing. The weather was so windy and cold on that day.

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GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy

We went for a walk to Kamienna Gora - a hill with a big cross on the top. Hill was about 54 metres high. The Cross is so big. We have learnt that it is also used by sailers as a lighthouse. We saw the panaroma of this city. It was very nice. Then we went to harbour.

We learnt that It is always very crowded in summer. There are festivals ,concerts..... We walked along the beach.

There were alot of yachts and ships which were waiting the summer. There were shipyards where people were reparing and making preparations for summer.

There were a lot of seagulls and swans. Some of them were flying,Some of them were swimming,and others were trying to eat something. We gave them some bread. We really spent good time with them. Of Course,We must not forget to mention the salty windy weather. We wish we had gone there in summer.

Climate in Poland Before we came here,in winter we followed the weather forecast in Poland. It was tooo cold. We had heard that some people died becouse of the cold. We were anxious about it. We prayed during the winter. We hoped the weather would be warmer in March. Fortunately, the weather was not too cold. We learnt that in summer the temperature could be between 20 or 25 degrees. (It is our spring. )

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GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy

Other activities The host school prepared a play for us. (Romeo and Juliet)It was different from the original. They made it more attractive with dance and songs. They were very successful.

We tried to teach a Turkish song to our Polish friends. The name of the song was ‘Memleketim’. We saw It was a bit difficult to pronounce our language for Polish students. They sang us a Polish song. We liked it.

This school was opened 80 years ago. They have school subjects and art lessons. They wear school uniform like us.

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GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy

There was a disco night. We danced together. Not only students,but also our teachers danced together. Music became a common language between us. We had great fun.

We made a collage work. Each school prepared a collage work. Our topic is ‘Our best moments in this Project’.

We drew a ship which has butterflies sailcloth. On these Project we set sail to new countries,new people ,new cultures, new experiments. We added our nice memories which we had taken during two years. All of us were very succesful on this.

We went to the place where we were going to perform our activities. Each group presented their tradional dances and song.

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GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy Each country worn their tradional clothes which were different style and colours. We all were very colourful. (We remembered our national day. On that day from all over the world ,children comes our country and they perform their tradional dance. ) It was like a feast day here.

First Polish Navy group sang their songs. Then each country performed their dances and songs. We liked all the performances. We can have different languages,different cultures but we all were sailing on the same ship to explore each of us. We are proud of being part of this project.

We have been sailing on the Afre Ship during two years. We had casted anchor many hearts, many cultures and places: England, Turkey, Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary‌ After the performances;we had a chance of knowing eachother.

We would like to thank our host country for their great hospitality. Polish teachers,students and families were all very polite and helpful. We stayed short time in Poland ,However; we turned back our country with great memories which we will never forget during our life. We hope we will meet again with you.

Thanks for everything. :)

By the British team Warsaw, the capital of Poland, and also the largest city in the country is where we first arrived and stayed after our flight from the UK. It seemed very different from our capital, London, as part seemed quite run down and many buildings had been abandoned following the destruction of World War 2 in which almost all of the buildings of the city were destroyed.

There are however now many new buildings including skyscrapers in modernised districts.

The old buildings, palaces, churches and historic buildings have been restored carefully so that the Polish architectural style, a variation of gothic can be seen. During our trip we were taken to a World Heritage site, a town square surrounded by beautiful buildings, filled with many tourists, buskers and cafes.

The most remarkable thing was that this square and the Royal Castle situated in the centre are all restorations.

The castle was rebuilt after it was blown up in 1944 by the Nazis. It has been intelligently reconstructed so it looked as if it had been there hundreds of years before.

Some of the cities inhabitants had bravely saved and hidden some of the paintings and furniture and salvaged fragments of the castles decoration and these pieces were used to reconstruct the building using only old photos as a guide.

Inside the Royal Castle it tells the story of the people who lived there throughout the ages and we were informed about all the history and shown precious historic artefacts of Poland.

Next we moved on 500 years as we headed to the Copernicus Science Centre. Here we were able to have fun with science such as standing inside giant bubbles and running inside a hamster wheel to generate electricity. We could learn science through hands on experience in a really enjoyable way.

The Copernicus Science Centre is one of the largest and most modern institutions of this type in Europe.

We learned that the famous scientist Marie Curie was born in Warsaw.

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GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy Gdynia School We really enjoyed this school. The students were very talented with musicians, actors and artists. On the first day at the school some students gave a tour of the school and it looked completely different to ours. Then we went to the hall and learnt the Polonez dance, which is a Polish traditional dance that is in 3/4 time. It was easier to remember if you had someone in front of you who knew what they were doing!

That evening, we had an awesome performance by the Polish drama students who did different versions of a classic scene from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. One version was done completely in Polish with the actors using puppets as the characters. It was very well done. All the other versions were performed in English which was very good as English isn’t their first language. We tried to learn some Polish from them but we weren’t as good Polish speakers as they were English speakers On the second day we were there we went into a classroom and taught some of the students our traditional song, which was The Water Is Wide, and they had amazing singers, a lot of them were better than me, although that isn’t hard as I’m a guitarist. That night we performed our song and dance, as well as the other countries.

Unfortunately they were the only two days we spent in the school and I wish we had been able to go a few more times as it was such a great school, and so different to ours. But the rest of the trip was great so I can’t really complain.

Both Gdansk and Gdynia are by the sea, so the weather can change quickly. Our first day was cold and windy but after that it got really warm for Spring. We were able to go to the beach at Gdynia and then even better to the seaside town of Sopot which is quite a rich area. It has the longest wooden pier in Europe, it was a beautiful day and we basked in the sun. The only sad thing was that this was our last day. We had a brilliant time in Poland and made amazing friends.

I think the best day was the international concert in Gdynia. We were the guests of the Navy club and it was very up market. Each of the national groups had to perform a song and dance to represent their country.

Actually the England team had a hard job deciding what to do, we don’t really have a national dance (so we decided to do Morris dancing, which is a popular form of dance)! However we were not to be out-done and we set about learning a Morris dance, which is from a very old tradition.

It is originally a Moorish dance which was brought over to England many years ago. It was originally danced by men to celebrate the harvest and other times of the year. To help us learn the dance, we took on the help of a local Morris dancer who knew the tradition well. He taught us an easy but well known dance called “Shepards Hey” which is a fun dance which uses sticks and involves a lot of hitting. Anyway, we all put in a lot of practice and we enjoyed it a lot. We had successfully leant it by the time we arrived in Poland, even though we were very nervous). The whole group had to wear traditional Morris dancing costumes which were very colourful however they made it quite difficult to dance in and though we enjoyed it a lot we will probably never try it again!

The song we sang for the performance was a popular folk song which is famous in these parts. We had originally decided on a different song but it had 23 verses and it went on for ages so we decided on “The Water is Wide” which we could do quite easily. It went down very well and we even got the chance to teach it to a class of Polish students, we could even hear it being sung in the corridors for days afterwards and we were very proud to have taught it to them.

It was brilliant to see all the other dances and songs performed by the different groups. They all wore national or dance costumes and had obviously worked as hard as us on their presentations. Although these traditions maybe a thing of the past it was good to learn about them and to share our own in an International Celebration.

After all this hard work the concert was great and it all worked really well and it went really smoothly, we were all very happy with our performance and had a great time.

Gdansk Gdansk is a medieval city near the Baltic coast. It is a great place just to walk about and enjoy the view. We were fortunate to have plenty of time to explore the old Hanseatic city, and the biggest brick church in Europe. A lot of the buildings had been damaged during the war and have been faithfully rebuilt.

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GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy A real highlight had been arranged. We were going to meet Lech Walesa who had been president of Poland in the 1990’s. It was his leadership of Solidarity, the trade union movement, and the Gdansk shipyard strike that had peacefully brought down communism and gave Poland its freedom in the 1980’s. It was an honour to meet him and to learn more about the struggles that happened in Europe in countries like Poland, Hungary and Czech Republic and how the freed themselves.

Lech Walesa is a very inspirational man. He spoke to the group about what had happened and told us that freedom has to be nurtured and developed, and not taken for granted. It is for young people like us to stand up for what is right, even if it is in our school or neighbourhood. It made us think about the sort of struggles that are happening in some of the Arab countries that are in the news.

Poland was an amazing experience. I made so many new friends who I am keeping in contact with. The trip has shown me how schools in other countries work. I have thoroughly enjoyed my trip to Poland and hope to return to see my friends again soon.

TURKEY In June 2011, the participants explored Turkey.

By the Czech team We are happy to present to you a set of reflections and observations of differences between the Czech Republic and Turkey. There were four of us students in our group (Ales, Denisa, Kristýna, Karolína and Libuše) and this is what we noticed was different. We hope you are going to enjoy reading and comparing our notes as much as we enjoyed the whole “Turkish” experience.

General information We were really excited about our trip to Turkey because had not known what to expect. We were familiar with the situation in Turkey. However, it is always different to hear about something and then really experience it. And for that we were looking forward to meeting new people and taste new culture (or we should better say taste Turkish food).

Turkey is a beautiful country situated with its main part out of Europe.

The south of Turkey is very different from the north-west (e.g. Istanbul). Firstly, it seems a bit poorer, intolerant, chaotic and generally more similar to Syria, Iraq etc. White people are something very unusual there. It makes you feel like a celebrity. We realize that it sounds funny, however, when you walk down the street and strangers ask you about your country, language and what is more they want to take picture of you, that really makes you feel special.

When we arrived, EVERYTHING seemed different. Overall it was hard for us to find out more about Turkey and its traditions because even when our hosts tried to show us as many traditional things as possible, when we had questions they usually were not able to answer because of their poor English.

One thing you notice immediately when you get to Turkey is that they are patriots. A very important thing is that their idol Atatürk is almost everywhere. On stamps, postcards, households, bureau offices, restaurants, toilets (!), streets, facebook accounts etc. It seemed strange to us because we do not honour our late presidents this way.

It means that the national flag and the portrait of their beloved former president can be seen VERY often. As Ales says: “The flags! Oh my God, the flags... they were pretty much everywhere!”

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GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy We went to the very east of Turkey. The landscape is close to what you can see in Greece or Israel. It is dry with lack of grass and few trees only. The colour you see when you look at it from the plane is sand beige or brick brown. And although it is possible to visit beautiful mountains in Turkey the country is flat most of the time.

Another interesting thing we noticed is that there still is a big construction boom.

As we travelled through the city of Gaziantep we saw hundreds of construction sites around the peripheries of the city. In fact there was no big financial crisis as in the USA or EU and other parts of the world. Turkey experienced a crisis a decade ago and since that time its economy is going very well. The Turks we asked about it assured us we were right.

Mosques When driving through cities, it felt very different for us to see mosques with their minarets everywhere. In the Czech Republic, we are used to seeing churches.

Food and drinks Food in Turkey looks and also tastes very unfamiliar. It took us a little while to get used to the new taste. Also, it is important to note and warn our countrymen that the taste was really unpredictable: what looked sweet turned up to be cheese and innocent-looking dishes were heavily spiced… Moreover, Turkish people (according to their religion) do not eat pork and this explains why they eat lots of lamb instead (how many times a year does an average Czech eat lamb? Well, rarely any…). Grilled vegetable and tons of different kinds of spices are also very popular.

There are two groups of sweets in Turkey. Group one is extremely sweet and group two has almost no taste. And it seems that pistachios are in everything.

We fell in love with Turkish rice. Unfortunately we cannot describe the taste as was so different from ours and tasted great! Also, the Turks eat much more vegetables and fruits than we do and these are sweeter and tastier. “I love melons so I was pleased to eat them all the time,” said Kristýna. And really we got to eat lots of melons. There were also little green plums that could be eaten with salt. That is different from us because our plums are purple-blue and we eat them just as they are. And the tea… Turkish tea is very tasty and is drunk from little glasses of a rather funny shape. As much as it might sound weird to drink tea in a country of hot climate like Turkey, it was fine and very good.

To avoid health problems, we were encouraged to drink only bottled water which is available not only in bottles but also in little plastic cups (which reminded us of those the Czechs use for yogurt).

If you want to buy ice cream on the street, you will not get a scoop like in Europe. Turkish ice cream is cut in pieces by a stick and that forms its shape.

What surprised us probably the most, was that Turkish people serve coffee before they go to bed. About 10 or 12 pm. We were shocked when they offered us coffee before midnight because in our country we drink coffee for breakfast or after lunch but usually not less than 4 hours before we go to bed. In restaurants, there are a lot of waiters (usually about 6 men, no waitresses) who take care of you. It was very comfortable and we enjoyed it. Compared to this, what we get in the Czech Republic is more like a “serve yourself” service. Also, when you go for a coffee, a water pipe is a commonly shared afterwards.

Traffic The Turkish traffic was scary: we could not get used to the high speed they drive. They kept beeping all the time and they never used seat belts. The police in our country are very strict about seat belts so we were surprised that it was okay not to wear them. And also, on our roads we only use the horn when there is something dangerous. In Turkey, they beep and they still seem to be relaxed. “The chaos on the streets was kind of what I experience in Italy but more radical,” said Ales. The "time-to-green" counters impressed us. While waiting at a red, the lights above show you how long you will have to wait for the green man. Over traffic signs, they have stop-watches that measure time when is red and when is green. Red there is usually 1 minute and green there is about 10 seconds.

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GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy When you go by Turkish bus, you do not pay for tickets when you enter. You are going to pay when ride is in progress. It means that your money may be passed from the very back of the bus to the front and be held by all passengers sitting closer to the driver.

The vehicles are below the European average. We guess that the average age of Turkish rolling stock is over 18 years. We saw lots of Fiats, Peugeots and Renaults, Fords and also Škodas but only few Japanese and Korean cars. Also, in Turkey, gas is very expensive. Sometimes it gets over 2€ per litre. “Now I know why are all the highways (with tollbooths) empty,” said Ales. In Turkey it is very popular to ride a motorcycle.

Generally speaking, we could say they are “relaxed” about the traffic (an example: a standard scooter carrying four people and no one seemed to worry about it).

Art The host school gave a concert on the very first day of our stay. And we did enjoy it! Turkish music is so different. Not just their musical instruments but also their voices. We could appreciate it because we attend a school specialising in arts. The concert really was a beautiful experience. Turkish traditional dance is quite simple, accompanied by drum and trumpet (very loud). We could see that Turkish people like to dance everywhere possible. Mall, bus, whenever there is music, they dance. We noticed that in the school, there were a lot of realistic paintings (in contrast to our country where we are also familiar with abstract paintings).

People and communication Generally said, people of Turkey are friendly. They are hospitable, helpful and they keep smiling. We miss that in the Czech Republic! They are also loud and seem to enjoy their lives. We liked that because at home we do not see people smile or chat this way. As mentioned above they are patriots. With passionate love for Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.

They were really lovely to us as their guests but not all Turkish men were that pleasant to meet. As Karolína said: “I wanted to get out of an airplane but I just could not because there was a man who did not want to let me go. I was angry and surprised that no one gave way to me.”

According to the fact that English is not a required subject at most of the schools, Turkish students were not brilliant at it. That created complications but eventually we managed. It was a pity though because there could have been more conversation among us. Instead we only smiled. And what is worse, besides students, we did not find many people speaking English.

Usually people gave us strange looks when they found out that we came to Turkey knowing only a few words in their language. When talking to Turkish citizens, we also noticed that they use a different sign language. It was surprising but we got used to it.

Probably the most surprising Turkish habit is kissing when saying “hello”. Girls in the Czech Republic do it too but to see two men kissing on cheeks seemed strange to us.

We saw a lot of people smoking. Czech people smoke too but not as much as those in Turkey. What some of Czech students found funny was that next to a warning on a cigarette box such as “smoking kills” was also placed a picture with what exactly can smoking do.

The Turks have numerous families – one couple usually have about five kids. The head of family is the father. In Turkey, they are very hospitable.

Clothing We noticed that the Turks love to wear shirts. And why not?

Shirts look nice (girls could tell). But our boys rather wear t-shirts especially in hot summer days. The 52

GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy weird thing (for us) is they also wear vests under everything.

Next thing was the veiling. We knew it was not obligatory so we kept observing and comparing during the whole trip and we think it is fifty fifty. It really depends in what part of Turkey you are. In Gaziantep, young women do not wear them so often but when we go more to the south (e. g. Antakya), it gets a little bit more "popular".

Organization Turkish people do not seem to have a concept of time or at least they must have big problems with it. The lunch and the dinner time is the only time they know (and the dinner time is not specified as it is usually around the sunset).

We noticed that our hosts did not need so many hours of sleep as we did.

Maybe it was because of what food they eat (healthy and nutritious). It may not seem important but as much as we loved the program, we were exhausted most of the time (see the picture).

What we found bothering while being in Turkey was that we never could go anywhere alone. I know that it was for our protection and I was thankful that the Turkish students were willing to accompany us but it felt strange to keep having someone with us all the time.

Another thing that we had to get used to was listening to Turkish music all the time. As mentioned above, it is very different. However, our hosts enjoyed it and listened to it all the time. So that is how we learned a Turkish word “ses” (which means “voice” and when they shout it, they mean “louder, please”).

Students and holidays Children go to school by a small school bus where they listen to Turkish music, which is loud and has the same melody or rhythm. Holidays take three months during which time the students feel free to meet round the school and have picnics.

Shopping We found out that to exchange money in a bank takes insanely long time especially because people are not familiar with English. The traditional Turkish market is called “bazaar” and we enjoyed shopping there especially when we learned how to bargain with the sellers. It was interesting to see the small shops overfilled with different stuff.

We also noticed a “delivery” man who distributed tea to sellers in the stores.

We were surprised by the security check whenever we wanted to enter the mall. We had never seen anything like that but we could understand that was because of our safety.

Furthermore we noticed they do not use price tags in their shop windows.

Housing First thing you notice when looking at a typical Turkish block of flats is that they keep water in a barrel on their roof! So there is usually from one up to 20 barrels on one roof. To see something like this in the Czech Republic would be unusual!

Turkish flats are much bigger than ours. A typical small Turkish flat has a living room, room for guests (dining room), room for kids and a bedroom (for parents). In our country, young couples usually live in small flats which means two or three rooms altogether. Besides the size, it is also different because of all the decorations they use.

Conclusion: In the end we were so happy we could go. Even though sometimes we were exhausted or the whole situation was getting complicated, we truly enjoyed every minute of our “truly Turkish experience”. We enjoyed comparing the differences and seeing them with our own eyes. It was great to make so many new friends and have new memories. We do not think that any of us will ever forget this interesting trip. Thank you!

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GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy

By the Hungarian team Introduction The small delegation of our school spent eight days in Gaziantep, Turkey and visited some remarkable places in South-eastern Anatolia and the Mediterranean region as a part of the Comenius programme in June 2011. This short but extremely exciting stay gave us opportunity to obtain an insight into the cultural and historical traditions, the educational system and the inhabitants’ everyday life of this huge and multicoloured country. This short time made the drafting of the impressions and feelings possible instead of thorough analysis.

Journey, traffic The journey was a great experience for the Hungarian group which consisted of five students and two teachers because most of them had never flown. The journey filled with exciting anticipation was not a disappointment to us because we landed in Gaziantep without problems in a short time. The journey full of exciting expectations and tension was eased by the sight of the clouds opening up in front of us in several thousand metres of altitude and the high-level of service of the Turkish Airlines. We could have a taste of the flavours of the Turkish kitchen and could experience the tiny differences between the international and domestic flights.

It was a delightful experience to see the special atmosphere of the airport of Istanbul, where a large number of travellers showed the mixture of East and West. The specific world of traffic did not end with our arrival because the public transport caused several excitements for us. The Turkish traffic culture widely differs from the one to which we get used.

In the first evening the traffic morals seemed to be slightly unusual and chaotic for us. We can think as superficial observers that the non-observance of the traffic rules, the audacity and the continual honking are characteristic of it. It became obvious with the passing of the days that rules exist here and the number of the accidents may not be more than anywhere else in Europe due to the skilful drivers.

It was unusual to see the tram tracks, which were covered with artificial grass. According to the local people it serves primarily aesthetic purposes. We looked at the highways and the internal traffic roads slightly enviously because they are in a good condition. Unfortunately, it is not characteristic of the Hungarian roads.

School and dance From the moment of the arrival we felt immediately the touching manifestation of the Turkish hospitality on the part of both the teachers and the students of the host school.

On the second day of our trip we had the opportunity to visit the host school and we could get to know the traditions of Turkish music thanks to the students. The great hall, the corridors and the classrooms of this modern school, which is specialized in artistic education are decorated with the works of the students while the facilities of the musical education is suitable for several individual activities and the classrooms are well-equipped. The quality of the fine artworks shows the high standard of developing talents, which is reflected everywhere in the school.

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GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy

Developing talents was proved by the musical and singing programmes of the students where we could listen to beautiful folk, classical and modern melodies. The music and the songs reflected the eastern and western cultures affecting each other and the emotional richness of the Turkish people. It was a delightful experience for us to learn about such musical instruments like the bağlama, the oud or the darbuka. We could discover similarities between the melodies of Turkish folk songs and that of Hungarian folk music of different ages. During our whole stay we could experience that the Turkish people can sing with happy or sad feelings whenever they wish. Maybe the only difference is that they have more happy songs than we have.

We could try out the elements of the extremely temperamental Turkish dance in the evening and the men’s and women’s shouts and screams, which go with it. The handshake of men and women reminded us of Balkan dances. We could observe that the typical couple dances which are characteristic of the Hungarian folk dance are almost completely missing. It can be explained with the strict religious regulations and traditions of the Turkish people.

Gaziantep On the second day of our stay we could get acquainted with the city of Gaziantep which has more than one million inhabitants. The city is big but we had not heard about it before our visit. The modernity, the traditions and the peaceful coexistence of the Eastern and Western world made a deep impression on us. Firstly, we could walk in a quiet quarter of the city, filled with old houses, shops, cafés and narrow alleys and after that we could see glittering shop windows, huge shopping centres, wide streets, modern buildings, huge parks and a great deal of traffic.

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GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy

Apart from a few streets the city seemed to be clean and we could experience that the residents are proud of the heritage of their city and they strive to keep the memories referring to it. It was an unforgettable experience to visit the castle, the historical and ethnographical museum, the archaeology museum, the exhibition of glass and the mosaic museum which was not even opened officially at that time. The people who live here care about not only the past but also the present and the future of the city. This was proved by the multitude of factories referring to highly developed industry and the presence of continuous process of construction. It was interesting to experience that the residents are able to adapt to the natural conditions. One of its signs is the solar panel built on the top of the houses and flats. Their owners are cheaply supplied with hot water and electricity.

The Islam religion While we were walking in the host city we first met the permanent presence of Islamic religion which we could experience continually later on.

The Turks seem to be much more religious compared to the European average. They have a lot of old mosques, but some of them are being built now. People always pray in the mosques particularly on Friday, which is the holy day of their religion. Islamic religion is characterized by a strict gender separation in mosques where rooms are developed for women in order to pray there. The women must not see the men while praying. To tell the truth, while we were visiting the mosques, we did not meet any women.

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GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy

This gender gap was noticeable in the case of customs of clothing, which reminded us that there was the wearer’s adherence to religious traditions. While men get dressed in compliance with modern fashion, most of the women still wear head shawl and clothes which cover their bodies completely despite the hottest weather.

Apart from the manifestation of the practice of religion, their thinking is inspired with religious life and the respect of the old people; the traditions and the insistence on the importance of the families are due to this strong religious life.

Tourism and Turkish bazaar During our one week’s staying we could obtain an insight into the current situation of Turkish tourism thanks to our hosts. We could see that Turkish people lay emphasis on the development of tourism in order to make tourists acquainted with the natural, historical and cultural sights of the country and to give satisfaction to Western tourists. This is proved by the large number of hotels, their modernity and the level of services they provide. This was particularly felt not only in the seaside resort but also in Gaziantep. They insist on the importance of Turkish tourist attractions and they publish brochures of high level. These services would be worthless when the tourists do not feel the touching manifestation of Turkish hospitality, friendliness and thoughtfulness.

Turkey paid attention to the development of the industry, the trade and the tourism in the last decade and due to it we could travel on excellent roads and sleep in comfortable hotels.

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GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy Turkey and the Eastern world cannot be known without the specific European confusing world of bazaars. The rows of the bazaar reminded us of the mood of the treasure and fabulous East with their valuable and less valuable goods. It was a particular experience to see the craftsmen’s work and the features of domestic industry where representatives of almost every trade were present. We could see young and old masters as well as products of high level and products of poor quality. A great deal of merchandises reminded us of it if there was such a huge demand of metal, leather, glass and textile products. We think there is certainly a huge demand of these products. The craftsmen's street working, the merchants' kindness and the fruitful, ancient customs of bargaining were surprising for us. However, we were disappointed because of bargaining because this was in contrast with the fact that we have read in the guidebooks.

We are of the opinion that the sellers were not compliant and they did not treat the customers to a drink.

Christian memorial places and the coexistence of different cultures On the basis of events happened in the past decade people have an impression that Islamic religion is on bad terms with other religions, particularly with Christianity. That is why we wanted to know what impressions we would have in Turkey in connection with it. It was a pleasure to experience that religious tolerance can be observable there and religious people can exercise the Christian religion freely, protect the ancient memorial places, and have a conversation about religion. We could visit the birthplace of Apostle Paul, the first Christian church and the Catholic community of Antioch, which is currently working. These observations confirmed us in our opinion that no people or holy day of the week should cause conflicts between individual countries and religions, but rather policy and struggle for power.

Other sights In the remaining days of our stay we could learn about the multicoloured historical, cultural, religious and ethnical traditions and memorials. It was surprising to see the richness of old relics whether they are Hittite sculptures or Greek vases, Roman mosaics, Arab or Byzantine ruins or Turkish mosques. It was a pleasure to experience that the Turkish government is trying to spend more money on the excavation and preservation of these relics. It was a great experience for us that we visited some ancient places of Christianity (Tarsus, Antioch) and we could experience the various religions living beside each other peacefully. On the basis of the trip and the conversations with the students and the teachers it turned out how much the inhabitants are proud of their history and Kemal Atatürk’s country-building activities. We have 58

GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy been strengthened by the comparison of Turkish and Hungarian languages because the Hungarian people and historians think that the two people may take pride in common origins or long coexistence sometime.

The Turkish landscapes show fascinating sceneries whether they are the peaks of the Taurus Mountains, the valley of the River Euphrates or the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. The inhabitants strive to modernize the agriculture taking the natural conditions into consideration. It was surprising to see the big mass of plastic tunnels and greenhouses in the Mediterranean areas or the huge olive tree plantations of the inside areas. The country takes advantage of the climate conditions that is why we could see wind power plants and solar hot water systems.

Turkish eating habits The tasty Turkish dishes differ significantly from the products of the Hungarian cuisine. The raw materials of pork origin are totally missing because of the religious regulations. They prefer lamb and beef which are consumed as kebab, minced or grilled meat. These flavours can rarely be found in Hungarian cuisine, but they do not lose their value. Due to the Mediterranean climate Turkish people eat a lot of fruit (for example: melon, figs) flavoured with honey or sugar and they can be dried fruit as well. Their procedure of making bread differs from ours and it reminded us of the biblical times.

They eat much more vegetables, salads and fruits but the soups are almost completely missing. Their favourite spices are the parsley, the black pepper, the paprika, the thyme and the mint. Their desserts such as baklava or kanefeh are delicious but too sweet for us. Tea without lemon and coffee boiled with sugar and filled with coffee grounds are the most dominant among the Turkish drinks. The Turks usually predict fortunes from the residue of the coffee grounds.

As it is an Islamic country people must not drink alcohol although there are some shops where alcoholic drinks are sold. Our experience shows that despite the fact that life is accelerated by the result of the modernisation in Turkey, residents eat different kinds of foods in a leisurely way. It is not characteristic of Hungarian eating habits.

One of the features of the Turkish restaurants is the polite service and their location is also worth mentioning. We could experience in many cases that there are a lot of waterside and open-air restaurants which were built next to parks or gardens. They have special atmosphere, which gives the opportunity for peaceful meal and coexistence.

However, foods (for example: hamburger, pizza, hot dog, coca-cola) can also be found there which were spread all over the world. You can find them in big shopping centres, and foreign-owned restaurant chains as well.

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GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy The encounter of modernity and traditions During our whole stay it was a significant experience to see how modernity and traditions meet. We could observe it in the case of clothing, meals, and free time activities and in the image of settlements as well. We felt that this country, which respects traditions, tries to keep pace with the process of modernization. This process started in the first half of the twentieth century thanks to Kemal Atatürk's country-building activities. We could visit the memorial places, buildings of modern university, huge shopping centres, zoo, planetarium amusement park, botanical garden and the museums. The Turkish museums try to preserve the historical heritage of the country.

Turkish young people prefer having fun in the big shopping centres and having hamburgers or coca-cola. They like wearing fashionable clothes. We were not able to gather much information about the changing of their ways of thinking and their lives because of our short stay and the language barriers. However, our impressions were that the globalization makes its influence felt, which is not necessarily wrong. It can result the risk that Turkish people may forget about existing values. We could experience that our host school tries to pay attention to keeping the traditions of Turkish folk music and dance (Henna party). In spite of this fact, one question remains. This question is how Turkish people can preserve the values of their specific culture against modernization.

The River Euphrates and Sanliurfa We went on an outing before the day of our departure. One of our most exciting and interesting experiences was the trip to Sanliurfa and the River Euphrates. Despite the hot weather, it made a deep impression on us because we could get acquainted with the historical and cultural richness of the Eastern world. We felt as if we turned pages of the book, One Thousand and One Nights.

During the trip we could see the huge olive tree plantations, the valley of the River Euphrates, the desolated villages, the abandoned castles, the birthplace of Abraham and people who were smoking hookah peacefully in the cafés.

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GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy Our hosts and friends In the end of the report we would like to talk about Turkish people and their hospitality and kindness. As I mentioned before we felt immediately the touching manifestation of Turkish hospitality on the part of the teachers and the students of the host school, the members of the host families and drivers. This hospitality accompanied our stay, and we could experience throughout our whole visit that Turkish people turn their attention to their guests so that they can have a great time there. This effort expresses itself not only in the literal sense of hospitality but also in the customs of passing of the lesser or greater gifts which have already disappeared slowly in the western cultures.

The organization of the programs must have been very tiring for the teachers of the host school. In spite of this fact, our journey was accompanied by joy, music and dance. We will keep many nice memories of the mood of common meals and the presence of the host families. We felt that our hosts are very proud of their culture and traditions and they would like to show them to us as precisely as possible. If they acquire English language better and more accurately, their efforts will be crowned with success. However, they have a lot of important and successful results.

It was a delightful experience to feel the love of Turkish people which they made us feel. The reason of it is that the historical past of the two nations goes back to relationships of more thousand years and it can be observed in the similarities of our languages, culture and folk music. We have been strengthened by the comparison of Turkish and Hungarian languages because Hungarian people and historians think that the two nations took pride in their common origin or long coexistence sometime.

It was interesting to discover that the judgement of the historical events (for example: the 150-year Turkish occupation of Hungary) creates other traditions. It was instructive that the aversions to common events of past centuries (for example: the admission of Rákóczi and Kossuth to Turkey) was turned into mutual respect and friendship.

The most important experience for all of us was to see the kindliness, openness and love of the Turkish people. As a result of it on our way home we formulated our desire that it would be good to visit Turkey again.

Thank you very much!

Klaudia Móricz, Rebeka Tóth, Sára Sárosi, Zoltán Bihi, Ádám Kavecsánszki

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GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy

By the Polish team We set off on 12 June 2012 heading for Gaziantep in the south of Turkey. Our trip was far too long as we had to take first a coach, which took us to the airport in Berlin. Then we took two planes: first to Istanbul and the second one flew us to our Turkish partners in Gaziantep which is situated in southeast Turkey.

When we finally reached Gaziantep we were all exhausted but excited at the same time. Our friends from Turkey waited for us and they had smiles on their faces which made up for all the inconvenience we encountered during our long trip. Before we got to the hotel we had to survive the journey there with a ‘brave’ and unpredictable van driver who was driving in a crazy and not very responsible way. We were a bit terrified with all the manoeuvres he performed. Eventually, we arrived at the hotel where we stayed for almost a whole week.

The accommodation was nice, clean and quite comfortable which was a bit of surprise for us (we did not expect that) as the cost of staying there was not too expensive compared to prices in Europe. However, there was one thing that surprised us a lot – the hotel receptionist could not speak English at all so communication was really difficult. He was not even able to understand numbers so when we wanted to collect our room key he did not have a clue what we were talking about.

13 June. All the project participants met up in our host’s school.

The atmosphere there was friendly, warm and all the Turkish participants of the project turned out to be open, warm and hospitable people. It seemed to us that Turkish warmth is their national character trait which we were impressed by. However, if the Poles are renowned for their exceptional hospitality throughout Europe, then the Turkish should be considered as one of the most friendly and hospitable nation that ever existed as well.

Spaciousness is a noticeable feature in Turkish life. We noticed that both the hotel and the school, unlike Polish schools or hotels, were spacious and airy. Also, Turkish flats are big and have at least four or more rooms, two bathrooms which is untypical for the average citizen of Poland.

Huge and wide corridors, bright classrooms, and a big staff room: that is the environment in which Turkish people live and students study.

There was also a great deal of student’s work on show - on the walls there were pictures painted by the students of the school - which made a big impression on us as they all were painted by amazingly talented young people.

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GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy The school we visited was for artistically talented youngsters whose passions are music, sculpture and painting.

We had an opportunity to hear the Turkish students sing and play their instruments. While having a short break for coffee and cake we were accompanied by a group of boys who performed one of their folk dances. They were also playing guitars and violins. The music was lively and lovely – we liked it a lot.

The music hall was the main venue for our meeting - a music concert was performed by most of the students. Their performances were so moving that we could not forget them even a long time after watching them.

What we have noticed is that Turkish music is very different to the Polish traditional music that we are used to. The way of singing and dancing differs so much that we were all very impressed and touched. At moments it was breathtaking. Our hosts prepared a big surprise for us – they sang two Polish songs ‘Hej, sokoły’ and ‘My Cyganie’. We were not only surprised but also found out how many different ways there were to interpret one song. At the end of the concert our Turkish friends played a few pieces of classical music for us but, frankly speaking, they did not feel that particular kind of music in their hearts.

After all the presentations and workshops in the school we saw a very impressive show prepared by a group of Turkish students who were again dancing their traditio nal Turkish dances, however this time they were wearing their folk clothes which were colourful and flouncy. They were also covered with lots of gold ribbons - they looked stunning. At the end of the dance all students from the partner’s school joined in and it started to remind us of festivals that are held in Poland. We discovered that Turkish people are spontaneous; they all love music and are incredibly good at dancing and singing.

At the end of the event we met a Polish student from Gdańsk who was working as a volunteer in Turkey. She was involved in one of the educational European projects. As she had been there for over one year she knew quite a lot about the Turkish lifestyle, the language and culture.

Speaking of similarities between Polish and Turkish languages, we found out that we use many of the same words e.g. kefir, jogurt, bilet, bagaż.

Sightseeing On the next day we went sightseeing in Gaziantep - the city which is considered to be one of the oldest continually inhabited places. Despite the fact that it is so old we could not find many old buildings or monuments there.

However, we did manage to see the oldest ones which date back to the 18th century. We also went to the Ethnography Museum in Gaziantep. The old 63

GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy lifestyle decoration and collections of various weapons, documents, and instruments used in the defence of the city as well as photographs of the local resistance heroes - all of these objects were exhibited and they made a big impression on us.

We were fascinated by a Turkish dance called the ‘Dervish dance’ where a dancer, by his whirling, realises the spiralling of the universe….

The most unforgettable place that we visited during our stay in Turkey was Zeugma Mosaic Museum which is the biggest mosaic museum in the world. It contains 1700 m2 of mosaics. We were a privileged group as we were permitted to see all the treasure before it was opened to the public on 9 September, 2011. We spent a wonderful time there looking at, and admiring, the treasures of the museum.

All the exhibits were well-displayed and lit. In fact we were the first group allowed to see the museum before it opened to other tourists.

Another interesting and exciting thing about our trip to Turkey was walking around the typical Turkish market. The whole place was a sight to behold – there we could smell various exotic scents of herbs and spices.

What was amazing for us was the fact that people can still get homemade products there and can also observe craftsmen making copper plates, trays and kettles. It is still popular to buy meat which has just been prepared by butchers. We also had an opportunity to see shoemakers while they were making leather shoes.

The other exciting and inspiring event was an invitation to a presentation of painting on water. Patterns are created by floating colour on either plain water or a viscous solution, and then carefully transferred to an absorbent surface, such as paper or fabric.

The Castle of Gaziantep was our next destination. The moat around the castle is 30 meters long and 10 meters deep. Access to the castle is possible only via a bridge, which opens on the interior.

We were all amazed by the huge size of it – it is gigantic and so impressive.

We went to the Botanic Park in Gaziantep where we saw a wide range of flowers, plants typical for that region of Turkey. It is a beautiful, colourful and tranquil place located in the centre of ‘concrete’ Gaziantep.

Solar heating system What created a striking impression on us was an extraordinary and efficient way of heating water – a 64

GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy solar water heating system. It is possible because of the Turkish climate as it is located in an advantageous position in Europe for the purposes of solar power. At first we did not realise what the containers on the roofs were. Almost all of the buildings in Turkey use solar energy in order to heat water - a collector, often fastened to a roof or a wall facing the sun, heats working fluid that is either pumped (active system) or driven by natural convection (passive system) through it.

Mosques A mosque is a place for Islamic worship. Muslims pray at the mosques five times a day. They start their prayers early in the morning. Every single morning we heard a bell ringing – it called up all the Muslims to do their duties in the name of Allah.

We saw a few mosques during our trip throughout Turkey. We noticed a great deal of similarity – they were all circular-shaped with a characteristic tower called a ‘minaret’. The inner decoration is pretty much the same – they all have floors covered with carpets.

Our Turkish friends told us the appropriate way to behave in a mosque e.g. all Muslims perform their ablutions before entering a mosque - one of the Turkish students showed us how to do that. They also take their shoes off and leave them in front of the mosque. Many worshippers carry their own rug in order to kneel on it while praying. Women have to wear head-coverings during religious services. So we had to do exactly what was said in order to be allowed into the mosque.

Over the next two days we visited a region of Turkey stretching along the Mediterranean coastline.

During our trip we went sightseeing in the place where St Paul was born – Tarsus. The well that he used is still there. And surprisingly, despite the long period of time since St Paul was alive, it is still being used these days.

The Church of St Peter near Antakya (Antioch) is a cave carved into the mountainside on Mount Starius with a depth of 13 m, a width of 9.5 m and a height of 7 m.

We learned that this cave, which 65

GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy is one of Christianity's oldest churches, was used by early Christians in the Antakya region. And this time we told our foreign friends about the customs of proper behaviour in a Catholic church. They were a bit shocked that we are allowed to enter church wearing shoes.

It was an amazing experience to be inside one of the oldest Catholic churches, especially since we were aware that St Paul used to visit the building on a daily basis.

Turkish cuisine What we particularly loved about Turkey was its cuisine. It is absolutely delicious.

The very first day we tried lots of typical Turkish food. Everything was homemade and prepared by our hosts.

On the following days we had breakfast in the hotel, whereas we enjoyed lunches and dinners in restaurants located in many different places.

Breakfast consisted of cottage cheese with olives, tomatoes and cucumbers, Turkish bread with butter. Coffee and typical Turkish tea which is refreshing and its taste differs from the tea that we are used to.

Turkish people use special a kind of small glass to drink it from.

Turkish coffee was something that we enjoyed immensely maybe due to the fact that the coffee that we usually drink in Poland is very different – boiling water is just poured onto ground coffee and that is it, whereas Turkish coffee is made with a special sense of celebration. Turkish coffee is drunk in small cups so the amount of it is just enough to get a rich flavour of that delicious drink. You are supposed to wait for a short while until the coffee grounds go down. After that you can relish your coffee.

Our lunches varied a lot. Every single day we had something different. To begin with, Turkish roasted omelettes – they were thin - stuffed with vegetables or meat.

Another time we tried shish kebabs which were served with salad and, very popular in the Turkish kitchen, mint and parsley, lamb, grilled aubergines, courgettes or tomatoes which we had with pita. ’Pita’ is a slightly leavened wheat bread, flat, either round or oval, and variable in size and it often acts as a ‘pocket’. People fill the pita with various ingredients to form a sandwich. These are sometimes called "pita pockets" or "pocket pitas"- we liked them very much.

Humus – the next dish we enjoyed was served as part of an accompaniment to falafel (a deep-fried ball made from ground chickpeas, fava beans). Garnishes include chopped tomato, cucumber, cilantro, parsley, caramelized onions, sautéed mushrooms, whole chickpeas, olive oil, hard-boiled eggs, paprika, sumac, olives, pickles and pine nuts.

It is an undeniable fact that Turkish desserts are as good as they are said to be.

One of the world-renowned desserts of Turkish cuisine is baklava. Baklava is made either with pistachio or walnut. Its flavour is so sweet that it is hard to eat more than just a small piece. Nevertheless it is good and tasty.

What was also noticeable was that the Turkish consume a large amount of fruit: strawberries, watermelon, melon and cherries.

To sum up, our trip to Turkey broadened our horizons. It was unforgettable journey. We had an opportunity to find out many different things about Turkish culture, customs and its people. We made lots of friends there who we are in touch all the time.

Although we were not there for a long time – we enjoyed everything, including the weather, which was sunny and warm.

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By the British team Preconceptions and Realities When we started to get ready for our trip to Turkey we thought of all the things we had heard of ‘It’s very hot’, ‘We wouldn’t like the food’, ‘The bazaars would be crowded and we’d get lost’, ‘The girls would have to cover up from head to toe’. In fact there were also websites that said there could be political disturbances near where we were going as the General Election was the day before we arrived.

How wrong all these preconceptions turned out to be! What a brilliant place it is and what friendly people we met.

Our host city of Gazientep is way down in the south of the country quite near the border with Syria and only about 100 miles from the Mediterranean, so it could be hot.

The land looked pretty dry but actually there were clouds the day we arrived so it was nice and work and even us British were comfortable! The hottest day was pretty hot but we were heading off to Tarsus and that is by the coast, so there were breezes and then we got to swim in the Med to cool off – brilliant!

The food was amazing – so much variety and so much to eat. There were a lot of vegetable dishes like stuffed peppers and spicy things which we got used to by the end. Well, the bazaars were crowded but somehow we all found our way back out. What was really helpful was our Turkish hosts being on hand to help us barter to get the best deals.

We saw some women fully covered, but really most people, particularly the young were dressed just like us, although some of the girls wore headscarves.

Turkey is like a place that is looking 2 ways. It has its string traditions and a great pride in its country, there were flags flying everywhere. But it seems to look to Europe too. Maybe it is at the crossroads between East and West.

It is a very welcoming place to visit and very popular with British holiday makers, millions come each year and one day we hope to go back.

Religion in Turkey Turkey is predominantly a Muslim country.

Mosques and minarets abound in the towns and cities we visited. A new mosque was being built near our host school to serve the nearby houses under construction. The architecture seemed traditional in spite of it being a modern building.

We went to several mosques during our visit. When entering, everyone had to take off their shoes and the girls had to cover their heads with a shawl. Mostly the inside was quiet, occasionally there would be a person sitting quietly.

We had a chance to see how the mosque works, with women and children’s spaces separate from the men.

The floors were covered in carpet prayer mats. In one of the mosques there was a pull out stairway leading to a pulpit for the Imam.

Another had previously been a Christian church and you could still see the remains of some of the Christian decoration on one of the walls.

Some of the Turkish boys in the group demonstrated how to wash in preparation for going into prayers. There were special places with rows of taps and benches so all the men could wash before they went into the mosque.

Our Turkish hosts were very sensitive to the fact that the other groups were not Muslim, being mostly Christian, so they arranged some special visits to Christian sites, particularly in Tarsus, which was the home of St Paul.

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GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy We got to see St Paul’s Well and walked down an excavated Roman street as well as visiting the oldest Christian church in Turkey, which was built into a cliff side.

There are a few Jewish sites still in Turkey and in one place there are the 3 religions right close together, this has been made to show that people of all religions can live together in peace.

Food and hospitality Turkish people are most hospitable and made us most welcome. Their meals were always exciting and different. It seems to me that the food tastes sweeter, they particularly enjoy sweet cakes made with nuts and fruit – like figs and pistachios, flavoured with honey. A favourite cake is baklava, which we enjoyed and took home to our families in the UK. Our main meals were always varied, usually with vegetables, like aubergines or stuffed peppers and a meat course, maybe a kebab of lamb, beef and chicken, of course the Turkish people are Muslim and do not eat pork.

Very often you could see people drinking hot tea, without milk or sugar, and when we tried it it was very refreshing, which surprised us since we were in a hot country. You could see tea sellers in the bazaars going from stall to stall for the stall keepers, it seemed they were constantly filling their glasses.

The restaurants we visited were always in interesting places. One was beside a waterfall. It was almost as though the waterfall was in the room. Another was beside a lake. We were surprised that there were only waiters and no waitresses serving us.

One of the best meals we had was in the school itself when all the parents had helped to make the menu. This included many different courses and lots of fresh food. Some of the meats had been cooked on a barbeque.

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GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy Turkish dancing Turkish dancing is pretty energetic – especially the men. Dancing is one of Turkey’s main cultural aspects and is very enjoyable to watch. The most dominant dance forms are like a ‘line dance’, with circles of people interweaving with each other. It was easy to join in because you held hands and people pulled you along.

The dancers wore beautiful costumes and this adds to the overall effect. The women’s costumes are full of beautiful detail and add to the charm and energy of the dancing. The bright colours bring a positive atmosphere and enhance the experiences of dancing in another country.

We had a brilliant evening of Turkish music and dance at the school in Gazientep. There was high energy and loud music from the school band and fast moving dances for everyone and occasionally some flashes of solo dances, mainly from the men.

It seemed that whenever there was a chance to dance, Turkish people got up and danced, whatever time of day it was. On one eventful journey we had everyone (except a few teachers) dancing in the aisle of the coach all the way to the beach.

Our host school specialises in music and art and we enjoyed a superb concert by the students of the school playing a variety of instruments, including some traditional instruments like the oud and the baglama.. This was an unforgettable experience.

The corridors and classrooms of the school were filled with wonderful artwork, paintings and sculptures by the students. Each of the visiting teachers had been drawn by one of the Turkish students. They show amazing talent, we heard that many go on to study art or music at university.

Historic sites and museums With a country so steeped in history from Bible times onwards we were surrounded by interesting remains, buildings and museums to visit.

The city of Gazientep surrounds a spectacular castle on a hill, which seems to guard the city. The interior is now a gallery which tells the story of Gazientep with life-like figures from every episode of its history. There was a monument to ten martyred children who had protected their city and given their lives. They are remembered with pride.

Many Roman remains could be seen including spectacular mosaics, we were privileged to be taken to a new mosaic gallery, which housed vast scenes in mosaic which has been saved from a Roman temple, which had to be moved because a dam had been built and would have flooded the temple site.

We also visited the archeological museum and glass museum. We also spent some time at a museum which explained about the Islamic religion.

This included some very intricate calligraphy and explained about dance in Islam, including the Dervish dance, which would send you into a kind of a trance.

It was as interesting to see the metal workers in and around the bazaars being as creative as their historic forebears. They made beautiful dishes and vessels to sell in the markets.

The beautiful country of Turkey We were taken on a visit to Heaven and hell, which is a deep chasm in a valley. There were 300 steps down and 300 steps back up. Some of the teachers waited for us at the top.

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GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy For a very hot country it seemed there was always some water still to see. We visited The mighty Euphrates River and drove on to the Mediterranean. We passed desolated villages and abandoned castles on our picturesque journey.

Sanliurfa is a quiet bay with crystal clear water, out at sea was a mysterious castle which had been built to house a beautiful princess to guard her from unsuitable men. They would have to swim a long way to meet her. We thought we’d just enjoy our dip in the Med without taking the risk of meeting her father!

What memories we have of our visit to Turkey, we each promised that we would return again one day.

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GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy

UNITED KINGDOM In June 2011, the participants explored Turkey.

By the Czech team We are happy to introduce reflections and observations of differences between the Czech Republic and Great Britain. There were four of students in our group (Kamila, Lukáš, Monika and Václav) and this is what we noticed was different. We hope you will enjoy reading as much as we enjoyed the whole “British” experience.

Transportation When you say “roads in England“, people from the continental European countries will look left and explain that the British drive on world has to be careful. However, it is not all that you can observe England, we were surprised because the way from the airport was our British driving system. We saw strange signs Czech Republic: there were signs with lights and the signs (Why? We wondered. It is always rainy

the left so the rest of the there. When we arrived to first experience with the which you cannot see in the solar panels at the top of in Britain; at least this is

what we hear at school.). Most of signs consisted of lights. In the Czech Republic we have simple signs so the British ones might seem a bit complicated without knowing a proper reason.

Another strange thing is the colored roads with words written on the surface. It looks as if you took a brush and drew arrows and lines. It also looks very untidy, informal and old. The outer lines are yellow or white and can be double.

In big cities, there are special routes for bikes because a lot of people often ride a bike to work, shop and school. Sometimes, these are marked red. We also noticed that the pedestrian crossings are different than ours: there are not the thick white lines. The British pedestrian crossing is colored and indicates where you must look when you pass.

Driving on the left People going to England for the first time are recommended to drive on the left but it can be quite problematic. Personally, to us it took some five days to adept to this rule and when back in the Czech Republic, we had a problem to get back to the standard… Driving on the left side can be found not only in the UK but also in Australia, South Africa, India, Indonesia, Japan or New Zealand. The only problem is that these countries are not frequently visited by us… So it is unnatural for us to see the driving wheel on the right side of the car… Dear Czechs, when getting on a British car, remember your guest seats or you will have to drive in the UK which would surely be a most dreadful experience ever!

Double-deckers A double-decker is a typical British red bus with two floors and stairs. Most double-deckers are about 9.5 m and 11 m long. The old types of double-deckers must not be used any more.

Typical taxis The color of the cabs is black. To become a London taxi driver, you must study the street of London about four years. You must learn all of them as well as the rules and signs by heart.

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GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy Using bags with sand Strange thing which I do not understand is the solution against wind for temporary road. In the Czech Republic we have simply solution for provisional signs with some concrete for weight. In England have some black bags with sand.

Underground The tube is the oldest underground railway in the world. The first section was opened in 1863. The underground consists of 270 stations and has 402 km of track. Every station has a special individual design. The tube is the second largest metro system in the world. There was an attack in the underground on 7th July 2005. A group of Islamist extremists attacked a number of transportation lines in London.

Horses in the streets In English streets we can meet a lot of policemen riding on horseback.

There are so many of them and so special traffic signs were created. In the capital we can meet a lot of sentries, saluting soldiers, who protect the Queen and her family, keep guard of honor and pay tribute to the royal family.

Houses Most houses in the outskirts of the cities are very similar. Most of them are made of brick. They have small front gardens and have two floors. Some older houses have sliding windows. Inside there are thick carpets in all rooms including the staircases.

We can find many ancient but wellpreserved buildings in England. For example the spa in Bath that was built by the Romans. Such antique buildings are often made accessible for the public and the monuments are presented in an entertaining and interactive way to show the history to people of all ages.

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GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy

Food Most dishes served in the UK have strikingly hot taste. You can find chilli in every meal, in any meat, any sauce or in cooked vegetables. Some restaurants mark dishes in their menu with 1 - 6 or provide a small picture of chilli peppers depending on the strength. But the rice is prepared completely salt-free and tasteless and you do not see boiled potatoes in restaurants.

Typical English dishes include fish and chips, fried cod, tortillas, jacket potatoes, various pieces of coated savory chicken breast and hamburgers. Everything is very often fried and served with chips. You can also taste many kinds of Indian dishes today. The English people have adopted them as parts of their cuisine. Stewing and spicing came probably from India.

The size of portions is different. The restaurant portions are mostly quite small but students at school canteens have a rich choice of meat, rice, chips, vegetable, salads, baked dishes and always some dessert follows.

English breakfast is very rich. It begins with a glass of orange juice. Then toasts, butter, jam, scrambled eggs, sausages, ham and bread come on the table.

You can drink black tea, coffee and milk for breakfast. The British like orange juice and coffee with a small biscuit or gingerbread with sugar icing sometimes during the day.

Clothing The British are very tough as they heat their houses during winter only around 18 degrees Celsius. The eastern and southern coasts of the British Islands have got a mild and relatively warm climate but the inland is much colder. When we visited this nice and interesting country we often felt cold in spite of wearing winter jackets, scarves and caps. Our English friends, though, were wearing Tshirts and summer clothing. Most of them put on as similar fashionable things as we do… especially girls. Also, students have to wear school uniforms which differ according to the school. Students are very proud of their own schools and uniforms, too. These uniforms consist of light shirts, ties, classical pants for boys and light blouses, skirts and shoes for girls.

Nature When you say “English lawn”, you get an image of nice, fresh green, thick, cultivated lawn that exists in English parks and gardens only. You cannot compare our ones with English lawns because our climate is different. No wonder the British love to relax sitting on the grass of their parks. Groups of students in uniforms can be seen sitting in parks around the schools during their lunch time. The beauty of these parks and lawns is well-known all over the world.

The gardens around the houses are grown very carefully. The lawns are always cut, bushes formed to various perfectly sculpted shapes.

Everybody wants to have his own garden better and nicer than his neighbor. Gardening is a widespread hobby.

British taps Very typical are the two water taps: one for hot and the other for cold water. We found it very complicated to wash, especially in the morning.

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GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy Most toilets we encountered on our trip to England were flushed with a lever that does not allow for an economical flush. Thus all the water in the tank was used during the flush which resulted not only in wasting the precious fluid, but also made it impossible to flush again within several minutes which was very inconvenient when more people needed to use the toilet quickly.

Another typical thing of the UK is a doorknob. In the middle of the doorknob there is the door lock.

Singing We noticed that girls in Great Britain have very pleasant voices but we were surprised that they all sing in a higher register when compared to the Turkish girls and other women that were there with us.

England is a very interesting, beautiful place as for historical sights, transport, nature and culture. We like the country and lifestyle. This is why we recommend a trip to England. The people are very nice and men are gentlemen. If somebody asks us if we want to go to the UK again, our answer will be YES. ☺

By the Hungarian team Travelling and getting around When we arrived at the airport we had to go straight to the checkin desk where our tickets and luggage were checked. We kept our hand luggage and our suitcases were taken to the plane on a conveyor belt.

Then we could go to the departure lounge, before our Ids were checked, our bags were x-rayed by security cameras, and if we seemed problematic, we were given a body search and my luggage was searched by a security officer too (plus I had to take my shoes off…). Then we had to wait in the departure lounge until our flight was called and we were told which gate number to go to. Finally, we boarded our plane and we were showed to our seat by a flight attendant. The flight was really interesting for me, I loved it. The travel was about 2 hours long, the plane was at 10000 m high so the view was beautiful. During the trip we were given one sandwich and one glass of drink (juice or tea).

In London there are 4 airports: LONDON LUTON AIRPORT (LTN) LONDON HEATHROW AIRPORT (LHR) STANSTED AIRPORT (STN) GATWICK AIRPORT (LGW)

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GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy

The latter was ours; there we had to check out.

London is a big capital city so its population is really high: 7 million people without agglomeration. I think for so many people the best transport is the underground. London has eleven lines and there are further ways to get to our destination.

The underground lines

The „Tubes”

The control gates and an elevator for the underground In the end I would like to show an idea I really liked and I saw in Bath.

Near the city there is a huge capacity parking. Here the people can park their cars and they can go to the city centre by bus. Benefits: 1. in the city are there are fewer parking cars and as the streets are narrow => less cars in the city centre => better traffic 2. the air is notcontaminated that much=> fresher air 3. we do not have to pay that much for parking = cheaper The English buses have 2 floors and have many more seats. Although they are big the bus drivers can drive them well.

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GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy

S Some pictures of the typical English taxi cabs and a bio bus István Fábrik Architecture In The United Kingdom there are big differences between the different sized and located cities’ architectural habits. In the smaller cities there are brick houses which are traditional and old-fashioned. For example in Cambridge where we were on the first day, there are a lot of old-fashioned houses. Or for example in Bath there are a lot of terraced houses and semi-detached houses and they are made of brick too. In the suburbs of the bigger cities, there are brick houses too, but in the downtown there are high buildings and they are made of glass.

When we were in London, we went to the Heron Tower. When we entered the building we saw a huge aquarium with 3 sharks and more than 1000 fish and with a huge lifelike coral-reef. Then we could go to the thirty-seventh floor, from where the view was beautiful. The tower has 46 and a half floor.

When we were in Bath we could see a lot of Roman baths.

We could go to one, which was amazing. We could see the floor heating system; it is awesome how they could use it. The water was warm. We saw a lot of video installations about everything. For example how they made the stones for the building.

In the United Kingdom we saw a lot of beautiful and amazing buildings, and a lot of parks everywhere. It was wonderful.

However, it was also interesting to see the “fight” of nature and buildings. In London we could enjoy the beauties of bigger and smaller parks too with their fascinating flora and fauna. But this small patch of green in the above picture gives a nice and interesting colour to the surrounding greyness, although it is evident that here we can see man’s territory, with perfect architecture and a thought of globalised nature.

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GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy Fashion The fashion in England contrasts strikingly from Hungarian. People in England are really special and freaky.

They freely wear gumboots or rider shoes, but they do not seem to like high heel shoes. The girls like stretch slacks, jeans and short skirts. They do not use makeup, and usually have braces. In the school they have to wear a uniform. The boys have a suit and tie, and the girls wear short skirts and shirtwaist and sometimes a tie too. So they spend a lot of time in their uniform, they cannot wear whatever they want. I think this is the reason why their fashion is freaky.

In autumn we feel cold, but the English people do not! They walk in only a t-shirt when we wear a coat. They have only short jeans or a short dress. It was so funny to see when our groups moved together. Some of us wore a jacket, a pullover and a cap, while our hosts were wearing light clothes we put on mostly in summer. However, I guess it depends on what we are used to.

It was interesting to see the UK’s multicultural and multi-national society from the aspect of fashion. Many far-eastern and eastern countries’ immigrants wear their traditional clothes, and it is not something unusual.

This phenomenon is treated with absolute openness and tolerance. This is also something absolutely positive about e.g.: London, as a global village.

Looking at the people doing their everyday things in London gave us a cross-section of the world, so sometimes it felt like we travelled further than London and in a different direction too. I think witnessing this made us more open-minded, flexible and tolerant.

And I almost forgot. I loved the dress-up possibilities in the museums.

This activity gave a really special experience to all our museum visits. Each gown, hat, skirt and accessory made us part of the historical time and place presented, so our travel to England was not only in distance but back in the timeline too.

Dorina Aros Food in England During our stay in the UK we tried a lot of kinds of food.

First of all, I can say that their taste differs from ours, because in many cases they do not use spices at all, and it can be strange and disturbing for a foreign person, especially for a Hungarian. Anyway this aspect of tastes gave more chances to feel the real original flavour of dishes, which gave a new approach to eating too.

On the second day we went to a restaurant where cooks, waiters and waitresses are studying how to be real pros in cooking and serving. I loved this restaurant because I tried cod for the first time in my life and I found it wonderful! I had never eaten such a delicious fish! The dessert was brownie. Well, I love sweets and chocolate, so it was also great.

We can think that their chips are very delicious. Sometimes it is nottrue, but ignore it! ☺ On the last day we realized that English doughnut is fantastic! There are a lot of special shops to buy them, and we can choose from about 50 kinds of doughnut. They were so cool that we could not resist buying a lot but it was quite expensive, unfortunately.

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GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy Finally I can say that the British cook (usually) with no spices, with a lot of sugar but their traditional foods are cooked well.

Evelin Korda Programmes Most of us had never been to the United Kingdom before, so this week provided us quite a lot of new experiences.

The first two days in Cambridge and in London were simply fascinating.

Although it could have been quite difficult to organise a programme for a group in Cambridge while the other ones arrive constantly during the day, we must tell that it was perfect. The colleges and the Fitzwilliam Museum were as exciting as standing in front of those famous and important monuments and buildings in London that we had met only in English books before!

Moreover, we had the opportunity to have a wonderful view from the Heron Tower.

In Bath we could see what a lesson in an English school is like and how the students learn. Both sightseeing tours in Bath and Bristol helped us to get acquainted to the history of the cities and the free time enabled us to discover some interesting places.

The two programmes that we enjoyed the most were the petanque game and the bowling evening. We played in mixed groups and thus the nations got to know each other better and made friendships.

This way one of the main aims of this programme was fulfilled: the use of the English language.

Moreover, we can tell that we had learned an English ball game The next day in Wales was also a great trip. It is amazing how different England and Wales are, although it takes only an hour and a half to get to the other territory. The feeling of being in an old – and still working – coal mine was quite unique. We could experience the miners’ working conditions which were strengthened by the special helmet and the equipment we had to carry.

Orsolya Karajz

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GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy The School Saint Gregory’s Catholic College, our partner school, is a really nice place to be a student at. All the special technical classrooms were really well equipped; we especially enjoyed trying the food lab. The whole arrangement of the school and the houses were all really practical, perfectly fulfilling their function and absolutely student centred respecting their age too.

The language of England The language of England is British English, the one I have been learning pretty much my entire life, and it was quite a pleasure to experience and hear it in person. We do listen to listening exercises, but it is just not the same – not only because speaking in person is interactive, but because it sounds much more real.

I guess it is because the people I talked to were young, somewhat younger than me, so the words they used were fresh, young, and not so official. It was really interesting to express myself with a more difficult sentence structure, knowing that they would understand it. Speaking of which, I even ear-witnessed two of the English students talking about what tense would be proper to use. I nearly laughed out loud from the seriousness in their voices!

What I like, and liked, most about this language, is that it is easy. Not much prefixes or suffixes, so even those, who might be in a miserable fight with English, could express themselves with a few basic words – that is pretty much how I communicated with the Czech boys. The dialect is another exciting spot: I was expecting a bunch of mumbling people, and to my surprise, everybody’s speech was clear and clean. Maybe because I was concentrating really much to understand everything, although I realized after a time, that I could hear everything easily, so from then on I just switched to casual talking instead of the strictly-sticking-to-the-rules talking.

The other language we experienced was the Welsh.

Well, all I really have to say about this: the people who speak this language have all my respect. It seems bloody difficult, judging by the words seen on traffic signs: they really looked like a creepy cipher of some sort, and I could not find any sign of logical system in it, no matter how hard I tried.

Luckily enough, we learned some new words, like ’coot’, which is not a duck, and if we call it a duck, it will get sad, and ’No hard shoulder ahead for 100 yards’ – I still cannot figure out, what this sign is trying to tell me, because my eyes were popping out but I could not see what this ’hard shoulder’ was.

All in all, using the language was real fun, and listening to some kids talk about the latest horror flick was quite interesting and disturbing to be frank.

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GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy The weather of England I would start off with saying: well, honestly, there is not much to say about England’s weather. From what I experienced I can tell, Hungary’s and England’s weather is quite similar, moreover, almost the same – it is just a bit warmer here in the summer, and a bit colder in the winter.

There is one interesting thing, though. Whenever you watch a movie, a series, or even some documentary, you will see cloudy sky and wet ground, maybe even some rain. This suggests that England is the land of infinite rain and miserable mood. Well, this is not quite true. It does rain sometimes, yes, but I would not even call it actual rain, rather just some water spray coming from the sky: it is really weak, and it lasts only up to twenty, twenty-five minutes.

The mood is not miserable, either. It does have some of the calmness and politeness of the Brits, but England is a very joyful and vibrant place: the sun shines a lot, the temperature is more-than-bearable, and the wind rarely blows. The mornings are especially beautiful, with the mist whirling above the fields, and the sunshine fighting its way through the leaves and bushes – it is really picturesque.

There is a possibility, that I am wrong, and we were lucky enough to be there on a good week, but we really did experience a fine weather, maybe even better, than Hungary’s.

Ferenc Viczmándi

We thankfully think back to our carefully planned programs as we visited sites an average tourist would not think of. Moreover we mustn't forget to mention the importance of experience-exchange and relationshipbuilding we gained during our stay.

Congratulations to our hosts!

By the Polish team We went to England for a meeting of our COMENIUS - AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE – project. We landed at the Heathrow airport. Mr Andrew Jackson met us there and he accompanied us on our way to Bath. For a few days we were hosted by St. George’s College in Bath where we also met our partners from Czech Republic, Hungary and Turkey.

All the meeting participants learned from each other finding out more about different cultures we represented. We all were enchanted with the kindness of our English hosts who took care of us so very well.

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GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy Multicultural diversity England is a multinational country. It is one of the reasons why tourists find the country so interesting. We met many people of different nationalities there. The biggest diversity of the nations we could notice in the streets of London.

Many of the people we passed by must have had some connections with the old British colonies. Dark-skinned persons might have had their roots in Africa and Asians possibly in India, which had been the pearl of the British colonies.

In the streets of London, Bristol, Cardiff and Bath we noticed school children who wore uniforms. In many schools in Poland, including ours, we have dress code but Polish students most often tend to dislike wearing uniforms. When in England, we could see the school kids were proud of wearing their uniform.

At the beginning of our meeting its participants divided themselves into small groups connected with the cultural differences, as we were from different countries. Some problems were also caused by language issues. We had thought we would not be able to communicate in English so at first, us Poles were sticking with the Czech. Our languages are quite similar so we could simply speak using Polish and Czech, and understand each other pretty well. The English, Turks and Hungarians were staying in their own groups at the very beginning. Later, thanks to all the project activities, we managed to break the ice and communicated with each other using English. Our prior fears disappeared and we made friends with our project partners.

Places we visited London On the first day we visited London. We had known it is a very large city and during one day visit we would be able to see only some of its attractions, but we enjoyed visiting London a lot.

Since the Olympics start in July in London, we began the sightseeing with visiting the Olympics’ village. We could see how much work had been done there and how modern all the area was.

After that we admired the view over The River Thames, The London Eye and also some other popular tourist sights of the city such as The Parliament area, Big Ben, The Tower Bridge, the James’s Park, Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square and St. Paul’s Cathedral. We were quite excited when we stopped at Buckingham Palace but the mid position of the flag placed on the mast informed us that the Queen was not in her Rooms. All of us enjoyed watching the Ceremony of the Changing Guards near the palace.

London is also the birthplace of the Shakespearian Theatre. The students of our group are part of the school drama programme that is why they were really interested in seeing the Globe Theatre. Besides, we could see in our own eyes the famous London double-deckers and London cabs. At first, we found difficult to get used to the left sided traffic and what also was rather strange to us, that the coach door was at the other – ‘wrong’ - side.

A very nice surprise was an opportunity of watching the view over the city from the top floor of the highest building of London. A lift took us to the 44th floor – the view was breathtaking indeed.

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GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy Bristol First we went to the Bristol bridge situated over the River Avon. The view from the bridge was quite amazing. Later we admired the modern and historical parts of Bristol: we were amazed at its medieval cathedral, we also enjoyed the cruise by a river cab. It reminded us our sea trams of the Baltic Bay region. One of the most interesting activities when in Bristol was visiting the Great Britain ship. We spent almost three hours watching its details and learning about the way people had travelled overseas by that ship. It was fun. Bristol surprised us with some architectural attractions such as the stairs – fountain and a big glass ball.

While flying to England by plane we could mostly see sea waters below us. Of course England is situated on an island. Poland is also located by the sea but our country is on the mainland. While visiting England we could notice some differences in the landscape (comparing to our home region). We were struck with the view of some kind of monotony of the flat and little afforested landscape. We had learned in history classes about the industrial revolution in England and the intensive logging which results we could apparently see. We found it strange as in Poland we have lots of forests and what is more, our home city Gdynia is surrounded by woods and the post moraine hills. When we reached Wales we could finally see some uneven ground.

Coal mine – museum in Wales and open air museum of wooden architecture All of us enjoyed visiting the old coal mine and going so far below the ground level. It was an exciting adventure.

In southern Poland there are also many coal mines but they are about 700 km far from our city. Most of us had never been to a coal mine before. Meeting a virtual retired miner who was our guide in the mine was fun too.

In the open air museum we expected to see some wooden huts similar to the ones we had seen in the museum in the north of Poland. We were really surprised when we reached a kind of a western shop with so many goods that we found it as an early kind of a supermarket. Our history teachers were very much interested in the history of housing construction – from the medieval ages up to the modern times. They also imagined all the interesting classes they could run in the Welsh museum.

Cardiff – capital of Wales In Cardiff we had some free time and an opportunity to choose our own sightseeing route using the map prepared by our hosts. Our teachers found all the monuments of the city very attractive.

Frankly speaking, us – students – enjoyed shopping that much. ☺ Bath Bath appeared to be a charming and hospitable city. All the buildings in Bath were built In so called King George IV style.

The hotel where we were accommodated reminded us Harry Potter’s school of magic that was why we called it Hogwarts. Walking along the halls of the hotel, trying to find the ways to our rooms and the showers we made friends with our Project partners.

The old Roman baths are the greatest attraction of Bath.

The ones who had happened to visit Rome could admit that the Bath baths are prettier than the ancient city itself.

We listened to the recordings in English which told us the story of the baths: The baths were founded by the Roman colonizers who also built the temple of Aqua Sulis there. The ancient remains are accompanied by contemporary spas where where Bath visitors can enjoy relaxing and therapeutic treatments.

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GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy We very much appreciated our English guides who were doing their best speaking to us as clearly as possible, it helped a lot and thanks to their effort we could truly enjoy the walk around the city. We Saw the Bath Abbey, the Royal Crescent building, (it is so large it was not possible to take a picture of the entire structure), the Pulteney Bridge, The Cirrus building, the Assembly Rooms and the Prior Park Landscape Garden designed by poet Alexander Pope.

We also found out that Jane Austin had been a citizen of Bath - she lived there in the 19 century. Bath was also visited by Queen Victoria.

A nice surprise was the meeting with the city Mayor. We had a short talk – the Mayor told us he had visited Poland a few times and he enjoyed Polish hospitality and tasty food. His son lives in Cracow with his family!

Next day the Mayor honoured us with his presence at our Project activities at St. George’s College. We were a bit stressed as we were to make a traditional Polish dish – sauerkraut and mushroom dumplings and present our version of ‘Suitcase Story’ – our project task – to other project partners. All went well!

All the dishes made by our friends were really tasty. The Czech pancakes tasted almost like Polish potato pancakes. We are quite familiar with the dish made by our Hungarian partners as we happen to make it at home too, but the spicy plate by the Turks was quite a surprise to us. We hope they enjoyed our dumplings too.

The final evening of the meeting was quite an unforgettable experience. All the groups had their presentations but the most memorable to us was the performance by the English students. The hospitality and kindness of the students’ parents were quite impressive also. The play presented by the students of St. George’s College was set in the times of WWII – it was all about patriotism but also about great love and partings. The performance had been prepared very carefully – perfectly. The set design, costumes combined with some modern music resulted in a terrific effect. It was great! We also appreciated the acting by the students. It was all like in a real theatre not in a school drama performance.

We enjoyed both the technical and the acting side of it. Congratulations to our English friends on such a great achievement. ☺ Poles in England When in England we often met our fellow country men who had started their personal and professional lives there.

One day, when we were getting on a bus we heard words spoken in Polish (‘you can speak Polish’) by the bus driver. He was Polish of course. He told us there were many Poles in Bath and also quite a few Polish children studied at the school we were hosted by. We met them of course.

In Bristol, while visiting the cathedral, a few little kids came to us when they heard we spoke Polish. They were having an active history class then. They spoke very nice and correct Polish though some of them had been born in England.

Talking to our teachers, the boys (apparently football fans) mentioned Jerzy Dudek, a goal keeper of Liverpool football team. The teachers recalled the famous match played by the Polish and English national teams at the Wembley stadium in 1973. The match resulted with a draw – which prevented the English from winning the world cup. Our history teachers reminded us about the Polish pilots and sailors who served in the RAF and Royal Navy troops during WWII. Also, long ago some Polish kings were trying to marry princesses of the Tudor and Stuart dynasties.

We will be glad if can continue the tradition of Polish – English connections.

All the project participants were really great, so nice and friendly. We got on well, that was why it was so hard to say ‘goodbye’ on the last day of our meeting. Luckily technology lets us stay in touch and meet our friends online.

Our visit in Great Britain was a great experience. We enjoyed all the programme activities scheduled by our hosts and meeting the people as well. We appreciate their sympathy, understanding, dedication and hard work. Thank you!

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GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy

By the Turkish team When our lecturers told us that we were going to United Kingdom, we felt so excited because we were going to have the chance to visit England. In the European Union Project, United Kingdom was one of the most interesting one to visit.

We started to get ready for the journey. First, we needed to deal with the visa thing. As students, we did not understand why we needed to take visa to visit some places (because, there was no need to take extra visa for the other European Union members).

After dealing with the visa, we were informed about the climate in the UK and warned not to get frozen there. :) We packed our bags; we had some information about the places and the history of UK.

So, we took our flight from Ankara EsenboÄ&#x;a Airport to London Stansted Airport at last.

When we arrived on Sunday, Mr. Jackson and English students showed us so much hospitality, with smiling faces. He made us forget the cold of UK. :) They helped us to learn a lot of things about their country. By the help of this project we have a chance of meeting a lot of people.

After we arrived, we first visited Cambridge area and The University of Cambridge. This city was full of historical buildings.

We started to go around this city. We saw many beautiful places there. The pleasant air of this city made us very happy. New people, new places and new emotions made us very excited. We had been taking photos since the first time we landed this country.

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GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy While we were going around we saw how English people have preserved their historical places very well.

Then, we stayed at a hotel in London. In the morning, we visited the city centre. In this country, people give a lot of importance to cycling.

There are bike paths near the road. You may even rent bikes if you want. We liked them very much. Because there is a traffic problem in our country and we do not have bike path like here. Before we went to Bath, we saw the famous places and important buildings of London. Especially, we had the chance to watch the landscape of London from the 35th floor of a building.

Also, Buckingham Palace is marvellous. There was a celebration on that day. There were a lot of people and soldiers on the street. They made a show. It was fantastic. One of the strange things we saw in this country are the policemen who are riding horse.

Beside the historical places, green grasses, trees make this city more beautiful.

This environment brought us comfort and joy. People had just started a new week. They were going their jobs. We could see the new hopes and the new emotions on their faces.

We saw that English people take care of their health. They like eating vegetables. English cuisine is very different from us. It was very good experiment for us to taste different things. We visited the area which is close to Shakespeare’s home.

Next, the journey took us to the Bath. At Bath, Mrs. Jackson welcomed us politely. We stayed in a beautiful dormitory, which is in a forest. Since we were very tired, we slept.

We saw many places in Bath; also we went to a historical bathroom which we liked so much. It was a roman bathroom. It was one of the best preserved archaeological buildings in North Europe. Having medicinal spring is another important point of this bathroom. This bathroom took his name from a fountain Goddess ‘Sulston’. Since this place is important for religious, nobody swum there. From the time of Roman, The names of the people who have visited this place were written on the grave. It has four sections. This place was really hot.

Another interesting point which we saw was that people made a wish and toss coins into the water. Some people in our country also do the same thing.

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GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy A double-decker is a typical British red bus with two stairs. Of course we would like to get on it. We liked them very much. There were newspapers on the bus. People read them while travelling.

Each country cooked their traditional dishes. We tasted all the meals. While we were cooking, the city mayor came and joined us. He tasted all the meals and shared his thoughts with us. We really spent a good time on this activity. We taught a Turkish song to others. We learnt how to dance.

Bristol is another place which we visited.

The ship which we visited was very nice. It was not real but it looked as it real. We felt as if we used to live in the old times.

We could see their life style.

We could see their difficulties. It was impossible not to be influenced by the atmosphere of the environment.

Then, we went to Cardiff, where we visited a coal mine. The guide mentioned that there was no work done at the mine at that time we visited.

Going to mine museum, breathing 90m underground, feeling ourselves as miners were our unforgettable memories in England.

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GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy Every night we turned back to Bath, our lecturers arranged tea parties, including the members of the project. The days we stayed at Bath was with joy, making the cold country warmer for us.

To tell the truth, we had a great time at that place. The host school prepared us farewell party. They performed a play. We liked it very much. The students are very respectful to each other.

After the entertainment the last day, all the groups said goodbye to each other with best wishes. It was very difficult to say goodbye to each other. Thanks for all your help, kindness and hospitality.

We visited the British Museum, and then we had a lunch. Then we went to the hotel to have a rest.

Unfortunately, it was time to leave, so we packed our bags. We said goodbye to UK.

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GUIDE AD FONTES RERUM EUROPAE from the Pupils´ Point of View Or Following the Cultural Footsteps of Middle Eastern Europe and the Cradle of Parliamentary Democracy

As a famous saying puts it, experience is incommunicable. Nevertheless… we would like to give it a try at least a little bit, having recorded important parts of our travels, too. Enjoy our videos!

Epilogue

…The international project was meant to be creative since its very beginning. This is why each participant should think of his/her own epilogue themselves and remember their experiences gained within the duration of the project…

However, it is necessary to say that we all had a wonderful time full of new experiences and impulses that will push us forward knowing more than we had done before the project was launched.

Many heartfelt thanks have to be expressed to the teachers who looked after the international Comenius project (especially the coordinators: Aleksandra Blalteberg, Mária Bujdos, Şebnem Haydargil, Andrew Jackson and Dagmar Vejchodová), their head teachers for the support we got as well as the students for whom we all did it.

We hope our friendship will not end with the end of the project.

Comenius Partnership 2010 – 2012 Coordinating school:

Gymnázium P. Křížkovského s uměleckou profilací, s. r. o

Project websites:

Gimnazjum nr 4

Language supervision:

Saint Gregory´s Catholic College

Information:

Ad Fontes Rerum Europae participants

Photographs:

Ad Fontes Rerum Europae participants

Video:

Árpád Vezér Gimnázium és Kollégium

Background of the project video: Gaziantep Ticaret Odası Güzel Sanatlar ve Spor Lisesi

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