Mobility in Creta, Greece
The second short-term exchange of groups of pupils took place in Agios Nikolaos of Crete/Greece (C3). The meeting lasted 5 days, from Monday (3rd October 2022) to Friday (7th October 2022), with Sunday (2nd October 2022) and Saturday (8th October 2022) as travelling days. A total amount of 19 pupils and 10 teachers from the sending schools participate in the mobility: 3 pupils and 2 teachers from Czech Republic (StrÄ›dní zemÄ›dÄ›lská škola a StÅ™ední odborná škola PodÄ›brady, pÅ™íspÄ›vková organizace), 3 pupils and 2 teachers from Turkey (Çorum Mehmetçik Anadolu Lisesi), 6 pupils and 2 teachers from Spain (Centro San Juan Bosco), 3 pupils and 2 teachers from Romania (Liceul Teoretic ”Avram Iancu”) and 4 pupils and 2 teachers from France - Reunion Island (Jean Joly High School). Spain and Reunion participated in this meeting with more pupils, as they were attending the meeting virtually in the previous mobility to Romania.
The main aims of the meeting were: enriching knowledge on the way a dam works, the scarcity of water, drought-resistant plants, local traditions about water, ways of cleaning/purifying the water, extravagant use of water. We aimed to recognize the impact that our activities have on the water and to develop creativity of participants', collaboration and communication skills, as well as general culture knowledge.
Monday, 3 October 2022
During this first day, the guest visited the school "2nd LYKEIO OF AGIOS NIKOLAOS" and then attended a presentation on drought resistant plants and olive cultivation by an agronomist expert. The visit of the school ended with a traditional Greek ceremony, "Mandinades". Then we visited the city where we attended a presentation of the project "Intelligent irrigation system for the management and saving of irrigation water in urban green areas" by a representative of the Municipality of Agios Nikolaos. At the end of the presentation, the students were invited to plant trees in the city center.
Tuesday, 4 october 2022
We visited a dam called “Aposelemi Dam” considered as the biggest management project of water in Crete. This dam was built in 2012 to meet the vital needs of provision of water and of irrigation in the northwest of the Crete, especially in Heraklion and Agios Nikolaos. This is why the people living here have access to quality water.
Then, we went to Lassithi Plateau whose most atypical characteristic is windmills, also called “the windmills plain”. Around 10 000 windmills have been created to help irrigation of the deep soil. However, most of the windmills stopped working during recent decades due to inefficiency and lack of maintenance.
Wednesday, 5 october 2022
We started the day by visiting a salt flat of village called Elounda. It is a touristic village where salty water is collected then evaporated. This allows the salt to stay at the bottom of the saltcellar. Spinalonga Island served different purposes throughout the centuries. In the XVIII century, Spinalonga was used as a fortress by the Venetians to protect themselves against the Ottoman empire. So we can find many warriors’ families and also fisherman at this time, on the island. In the XX century, a disease spreaded in Greece: leprosy. The authorities then used the island to isolate sick people.
Then we finished the day by visiting Neapolis museum retracing the life of the people living in the region in the XX century.
Thursday, 6 october 2022
We went to visit the Palace of Knossos located south of Heraklion. This visit is a must on any trip to Crete. Knossos is the site of the most important palace of the Minoan civilization. According to tradition, it was the settlement of the legendary Cretan king Minos (son of Zeus and Europa). Furthermore, the palace is also linked to exciting legends such as the myth of the labyrinth with the Minotaur and the story of Daedalus and Icarus. Also, for engineers and architects, Knossos is the evidence of the first underground clay pipes for sewage and wastewater supply in antiquity.
Friday, 7 october 2022
At 8:30 am, we left Agios Nikolaos the town we had stayed in. We first visited SYCHEM, Agios Nikolaos’ water purification station. There, one of the employee took care of us and presented us the different steps to obtain a filtered and treated water used for commercial, industrial and daily uses.
Then we went to Panagia Kera’s church, one of the most important monuments in Crete, built and dedicated to Virgin Mary’s assumption. 500 meter further, we visited Krista, a village constructed in the form of an amphitheatre to preserve the Venetian architecture. And we had the chance to discover a botanical museum with medicinal plants.
In the evening, a party was organised giving us the chance to have fun and get together one last time, a goodbye party. Actually, it was a really "tragic" goodbye as we all suffered a lot for leaving each other.
This short stay in Crete will remain in our memories forever. We really enjoyed our stay and it was very rewarding. Crete is a beautiful island. We met exceptional people who welcomed us extremely well, made us discover their city and their culinary specialities. Moreover, it allowed us to discover a new culture and a new language. This stay and these experiences will remain forever in our memories.
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