The day for goodbye

Friday 26.05.17 Budapest

I have made it to the last blog, of this amazing trip to Budapest. Today we got to start the day off later, I arrived at 8.30 to find, that we are taking part in the weekly dance lesson. The dances were simple and didn't last very long to everybody's relief. Next we got to do our last project WORK of the week and practice how to presentations would be. Since we ran out of time we got to do the presentations to the school right on top of the practice and nailed it. This also ended the scheduled part of the week and meant that we could go enjoy our last lunch at Xántus János. Afterwards we decided to go and split into smaller groups to see the city and get more of what everybody wanted to do in on the last day. This led me to the shopping street with a cold Starbucks. We met up with the group as a whole in 2 and a half hours to something as a group and we decided to go to a festival taking place on the streets in the city. From this we found entertainment and decided to find a place to sit and enjoy the day, we only left to go get dinner. The dinner itself was really good, being at a hamburger place that offered all sorts of variations so everybody found something they enjoyed. The dinner also ended our day as a whole group as everybody started to go home at times they saw fit. As this ends the main project for us I am also ending this blog. Hope anybody who read this enjoyed it and good bye.

Hungarians showing us how to dance

Marta enjoying the marvelous music outdoors at a park

Eva, Marta, Luca and Eszter enjoying the weather on our city tour

 -Karl Erik Miller

Mission "Flip-Flops"

Thursday 25.05.17 Budapest

Two down and two to go, starting the day off early, more specifically 7.30 in the morning at the Parliament building. They let us in at 8 o'clock though so we had time to kill. Inside we got a quick half an hour tour of the building parts open to visitors, the building itself was impressive also being one of the highest in the city. Afterwards we left to go back to the school, where we just sat for a bit because we had nothing planned. To continue the day we came to the House of Terror, which is a museum about the way people were tortured during the period of the Hungarian Arrow Cross party and the Communist Party regime. The museum was built into a big house on the Andrássy street and had four stories, each of which focusing on a certain period and every room having its own theme. As we left the museum we went back to school for a quick lunch which in my opinion was very good especially for canteen food. Leaving school ended the planned part of the day and meant we could go out on the city. Budapest, being famous for its baths we decided to check out one of the most famous ones in the city. Before going we had to get flip-flops, which turned out to be a mission on its own and ended at Westend, a large shopping center in the city center. Having gotten to the spa/baths  we spent almost 2.5 hours there and felt relaxed afterwards, that being good for our tired from walking feet. Later we went on a wild goose chase to find a place to eat dinner, where everybody, all 12 of were willing to eat and ended up in a Thai restaurant, where the food was good and cheap. Leaving to restaurant took quite a lot of time because everybody liked the atmosphere so much. Once we were out the door the nightlife began and we started looking around the city with everybody ending up going apart by 22 in the evening to be fresh for the next day of school.

Two of the hosts in front of the bath

Our group in the Parliament building

-Karl Erik Miller

Sometimes, getting bored is good

Wednesday 24.05.17 Budapest

I'm back and today was mostly a day of tripping around the city. We begun the off with project WORK, which everybody had mostly done the day before meaning, we were bored. This lead us to ask to be freed for the time to explore the city and this we did by going to the market to look at the local foods on offer there. After coming back from the marketplace we had a luck at the school canteen, which was plentiful and good for school food. Due to having completely overestimated the amount of project time we need, we had another two hours given for it, which we used in different ways. We got to go to the basilica to see the huge church, even from the top of the building, which was quite an incredible view to see. Since with the visit we had filled in all of the free time we had, we went on with our basic scheduling. We went to the last planned place of the day, Hospital in the Rock, where we saw the old hospital and exhibitions put out on the same themes that the hospital had, most noteworthy being the Hiroshima nuclear attack. Having finished that we were going to do some simple sightseeing, which turned out into a long walk around the city, during which we saw many streets ending at around 18 going to dinner. We finished the day of touring by about 21 when the last of us started going home, ending the day. I arrived home at to finish writing this blog about the adventurous day we all had.

The central market was huge

The group enjoying the magnificent basilica

All of the Estonians and their hosts looking over the river at sunset

-Karl Erik Miller

On top of the world in Budapest!

Tuesday 23.05.17

As I learned from writing the blog a month after the project had taken, I will try to be more precise this time around and blog every day of the activities and doings. Here goes nothing…

                  

On Monday we, the Estonian group were just travelling and getting to Budapest, meaning that it’s hard to actually write anything of the day. We had fun during the long day, that lasted from 10AM till 20PM, during which we had a bus ride to Tallinn, two plane rides and a layover at Warsaw. By the end of the day though we all arrived to out hosts safe, without any luggage missing.

Today, Tuesday, we had an early morning, compared to the Estonian program, of 8.30 at school. During the day we got a lot done, starting off with the school tour, during which we saw the massive complex of János Xántus Secondary School after which we had the infamous project WORK part of the project. After this we had lunch, where we were also served a traditional Hungarian dessert. Next came the interesting part of the day where we rented a bus and got a private tour of the city with its main sights, like Heroes’ Square, Jubileumi-park (a lookout point of the city) and the castle district or old town in Buda. After the 2-hour long tour we took a bus to the city where we were left to trip around on our own. Back in the Pest side of the city we didn’t have much time to do all of the things the host had planned for us because it started raining hard enough to be referred to as “raining cats and dogs”. To end the day half of the group, me included, went home earlier as our families had made traditional local foods for us, while the other half stayed in the city and found something to eat. Somehow I have made it to the present moment of writing this blog and will just add some memories of the day in the form of pictures to finish off.

 

Marta and Eva posing with this incredible city 

Me and Marta showing our love for Budapest 

Meeri and Villem admiring a church atop the hill in Buda

-Karl Erik Miller

Wednesday 28/10

On Wednesday we drove to Võru, which is a town in Southern-Estonia. We were accompanied by the students from Sillamäe Gymnasium who were participating in another project in Hugo Treffner Gymnasium.

The first thing we did was visiting the Estonian-Latvian border. After that we headed to Võru Gymnasium and started group work, which was still migration-themed. A very interesting fact was that now the groups were even more multicultural since the student's from Sillamäe speak Russian as their first language. Students form Võru Gymnasium participated in the project work too and eventually all of the groups got the chance to present their work.

Later we walked to the lake of Tamula and enjoyed the beautiful surroundings. Soon it was time to go back to Tartu, where we had our farewell dinner.

Monday 26/10

In the morning we took the bus to the city of Narva, located on the Russian border. There you can see the remarkable contrast between buildings from the Soviet time and the new European era. We visited the local college and learned a lot about the interesting history of Narva. We saw the beautiful town hall from the inside and at noon we ate a delicious meal in the canteen of the university. Later in the day we went to the castle of Narva, which was built in the 13th century. We got a guided tour of the whole castle, with an excellent explanation of all the chambers. To top off this educational day, we paid a visit to the town of Sillamäe, located at the Estonian coastline. There we could enjoy our dinner with an astonishing view of the Eastern sea.

 The Belgian delegation

Tuesday 27/10

On Tuesday we had to wake up really really early to make it to Alam-Pedja nature preserve's bog trail before sunrise. Unfortunately we still started a bit too late and saw the sunrise from the bus windows as we were heading towards Seli-Sillaotsa bog. In the bog we hiked through the 5 km trail while listening to our guides, who told us about the animals and plants that can be found in this environment.

After the hike it was time to head back to the school, where our lovely canteen ladies had prepared a second breakfast for us. After enjoying the delicious pancakes it was time to start working. Everyone took their task seriously, but also helped others if necessary and this created a nice atmosphere, where everyone felt involved. And by the end of the day all of the groups had already completed a big part of their work, which was great.

The evening was meant for the food court, where all of the countries could offer everyone something typical to their culture. For example, the Germans had brought a lot of sandwiches with sausages and meat and also the famous Ritter chocolate. The Belgian delegation proudly presented their well known waffles, chocolate mousse and the Estonians offered typical Estonian sweets called ''kohuke'' and sandwiches with fish.

Sunday 25/10

We started Sunday with a tour around Tartu: we visited the university, the music School and the old cathedral. Then we went to the Hugo Treffneri Gymnasium where we started our project work about immigration. In the first brain-storming we saw the difference between the countries involved and afterwards the students showed us their school. Then it was time for some getting-to-know games so we got to know really everyone involved in the project. We even went to the sauna together afterwards.

The German delegation