We - Liceo Scientifico Michele Cipolla

MultilateralComeniusPartnership“Don’t waste yourfuture!”“M. Cipolla”Scientific High SchoolCastelvetranoTrapaniSicily

Travel Diary:Trip to Portugal02-07 May 2012

school canteen, Portuguese dishes, we were engagedin watching several videos on pollution2 nd Day –Welcome and activities in the schoolThursday3 thMayThe second of the six days spent in Portugalsaw us involvedin a lotof activities. Infact we spent the first few hours visitingthe school premises, classes, anddifferent laboratories.In one ofthese, wespent theremaining time of the morning constructingrecycled, musical instruments. Lateron, we played under the coordination of amusic teacher.Immediatelyafter this fun entertainmentand eating Portuguese dishes, inthe school canteen, we were engagedin watching videos on pollutionand countries involved in theComenius project. In addition, theschool had an outdoor track,drawn on the ground, whichallowed us to enjoy ourselvesagain but in some special driving pedal cars and bicycles.Once this unexpected moment ended,we were invited to observe, in the chemistrylab, several experiments on someof the fundamental laws of the matteritself.

Definitely exciting was the moment when each of us signed aposter in which the word“Comenius", had already beenwritten to remember this uniqueexperience and all its participants.In order to make this eventmemorable an olive tree wasplanted in the schoolgarden, too.The day program provided anothermoment devoted to entertainment,but, above all, tosport, in the great hall of theschool: thanks to the explanationsreceived from professors,we spent the afternoon with anunknown to us, human table football.Finally, after recoveringfrom the excitement of the gameand going back to eat in the canteen,we watched a really exciting musicalrepresentation, performed with thesame instruments made by us in themorning.To conclude the day, we attended aparty held at school, which allowedus to enjoy and use our remaining strength to dance alittle in company of all the youngsters of Comenius.

and countries participating in the Comenius project.3 th Day –Exhibition of the works and visit toGuimaraesFriday 4 th MayIt was avery important date for all of us! We arrivedat school at about 8:00 a.m.. When everyone arrived we wereplaced in a large room , to share the results of the 2nd module ofthe Comenius project “Don’t waste your future!” focused on goodpractice for saving energy. Each team provideda detailed account of their accomplishmentsall accompanied by videos,power point presentations, CDs, documents,models…The first team to show their works wasours! We were really nervous beforeshowing our work but luckily everythingwent well and we were very praised by students and teachers fromother schools.After us the other schools introduced their works, all very interesting.The Turkish partners danced and showed us their traditionaldanceandsongs…

In addition, the school had an outdoortrack, drawn on the ground, which al-4 th Day -Visit to Braga and OportoSaturday 5 th MayThis day was really interesting because we visitedtwo famous cities: Braga and Oporto.We left Lousada at 9.00 a.m. and, by bus, we firstwent to Braga, the third-largest city inPortugal. About 11 a.m. we arrived atthe “Santùario do Sameiro”, theSanctuary of Our Lady ofSameiro. It is the largestMarian devotional shrine inPortugal, second only to theSanctuary of Fátima. In thisplace there are two churches, the former is older and it representsthe true sanctuary, the latter is a new church. It was built beforethe visit of Pope John Paul II in 1982, because the first one was toosmall. From this place you can see a beautiful landscape of the cityof Braga.Then we went to the Sanctuary of Bon Jesus do Monte, that is situatedon a high hill. It’s an amazing place and it’s one of the most attractivein Portugal. The big church is surrounded by a beautifulfountain and a small chapel that makes this place enchanting! Themonumental Baroque stairway characterizes the sanctuary.

At 01:00 p.m. we headed to Oporto. But, before this, we stopped ata mall where we had lunch and did shopping! At 04.00 p.m. we arrivedin Oporto and we visited the Museum of the Electric Wagon.In this museum, an old tram stationwas reconstructed and a lot of wagonswere restored and exposed there. It’sreally interesting and you can learnmany things about old trams and theirhistory. At the end of the visit we wentsightseeing in Oporto in thischaracteristic old wagon! Finally,we crossed the famousRibeira Bridge!It was a fantastic day and wewere really exhausted, butpleased with the beauty ofPortugal.In the evening we went backhome and, since it was Saturday,the Italian group together with the Portuguese guys that werehosting us , went to a nice pub in the nearby of Lousada. We hadfun with our new Portuguesefriends and , lateron, we went back homevery happy for the beautifulday.

5 th DayLISBON: THE MOST BEAUTIFUL DAY OF THE JOUR-NEY!!Sunday 6 th MayWe spent this day visiting the Portuguese capital,that is Lisbon. It was a long, arduous journeythat took about four hours by bus, but despite everything it wasworth it. This excursion was intended by our principal who rightlythought that the trip to Portugalwould not have been that if wehad not seen the capital. So themorning of the sixth of May wegathered in front of a landmark,and, after greeting our Portuguesefamilies, we began thejourney,dedicated almostentirelytosleep. A key step during the journey was thevisit to the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Fatima,an extremely charming place either for religioushalo around it or for the huge numberof worshipers. After a quick look both to theold Sanctuary and the new one wanted byPope John Paul II, we left with the anxiety of arrivingas early as possible in Lisbon. After about two hours of travellingwe finally arrived at the entrance of the Portuguese capitalcharacterized by a recently opened area built for the World Expo of1998. A series of futuristic buildings were opposed to the flat andendless expanse of the Atlantic Ocean which overlooks the city.And in this very advanced frame we spent the first hot hours of theafternoon, including walks along the seafront and shopping, ofcourse!

After which we resumed the journey to the historic center of Lisbon,and at the same time we enjoyed the view of a series ofneighbourhoods that were characterizedby pure vanguard compared to traditionalarchitectures. Arrived in one of the hugeplazas of the historic part of the capital,we walked the enormous distance thatseparated us from the desired Hard RockCafe, and at the same time we saw andphotographed the urban structure of theLusitanian capital, quite different from the periphery with thebuildings of the Expo, as the tradition was still present. In fact,while we were doing some shopping to buy lots of souvenirs, wehad the opportunity to see a typical procession made in honour ofOur Lady. Unfortunately time passedquickly, and at about five o'clock in theafternoon we had to take the bus to goto the sailors’ monument , built inhonour of all the Portuguese explorersin the history. But before we had theopportunity to see the cathedral of thesquare in front of the monument,which was a classic example of Portuguesearchitecture in Baroque-Gothicstyle. At seven o'clock we began the going back journey in the directionof Porto, where we slept in a hotel near the airport to getready for departure the next day.

6 th day- Time to go back homeMonday,May 07thOur adventure was almost over. Five days spentwith our Portuguese partners had flown away!Even if the weather hadn’t been so good, we had had a great timetogether visiting new places and meeting people from differentcountries. On the last day we spent the night at the airport hotel:we had fun sleeping together and taking pictures! At 4 o’ clock wewoke up, packed our suitcases that were full of souvenirs and giftsgiven to us by Portuguese families, and then we walked to the airport.The airplane to Rome took off at 7:10 and we were so tiredthat we fell asleep again during the flight. Once in Rome we hadtime just to have an ice-cream and to go window-shopping, becausewe had already spent all our money in Portugal! Then wetook another flight to Palermo, there we caught the bus to Castelvetrano,where we arrived after one hour and a half. We had left alittle piece of our hearts in Portugal, but at the same time we werelooking forward to telling our families and friends every detail ofthis interesting experience.Thanks to this Comenius project we had the chance to improveour English, but also to learn other foreign words! We also exchangedideas and opinions about a lot of topics with the studentsof other European schools (German, Turkish, Italian and Portuguese).We are sure this trip will be one of the most important experiencesin our lives.