During the first short-term exchange of groups of pupils, the activities have been continuously connected to the objectives of the project as follows:

            The first day of the meeting (12 October, 2022) started with the pick up of our guests in Zagreb. We then headed to Plitvice Lakes National Park where we took an eight-kilometre-long hike. Plitvice Lakes is the oldest and largest national park in the Republic of Croatia. The park is situated in the mountainous region of Croatia, between the Mala Kapela mountain range in the west and northwest, and the Lička Plješivica mountain range to the southeast. With its exceptional natural beauty, this area has always attracted nature lovers, and already on 8 April 1949, it was proclaimed Croatia’s first national park. The process of tufa formation, which results in the building of the tufa, or travertine, barriers and resulted in the creation of the lakes, is the outstanding universal value, for which the Plitvice Lakes were internationally recognised on 26 October 1979 with their inscription onto the UNESCO World Heritage List. In 1997, the boundaries of the national park were expanded, and today it covers an area just under 300 km².

In the afternoon we headed to Daruvar where our guests were accommodated in the hotels.

The second day (13 October, 2022), students prepared a guided tour of Daruvar and we visited the most important cultural sites. We also visited Foto Film klub Daruvar to see the Exhibition Prisjetimo se daruvarskih fotografa (In memory of the photographers of Daruvar) where we also learned more about the photo club and its activities. Then we went to the Count Janković castle to the heritage Museum to see the current exhibition Eva Fischer and the permanent exhibits.

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After the school welcome, the students had ice-breaking activities while the foreign teachers gave a class to the Croatian students about their countries. Then both the students and the teachers had a lecture “Let’s learn about Croatia”, followed by the Basic Croatian for students and the teachers’ meeting. After lunch, students had presentations on the topic – Photography – then and now.

In the afternoon, we had an International evening – celebrating Erasmus Days Learning with photography and also welcome dinner. Each partner prepared a performance (a song or a dance) to contribute to the evening while the Croatian school prepared the program for the partners.

On the third day (14 October, 2022), the students were given a lecture Web2 tools by our Turkish coordinator Orhan Erdogan while the other teachers had Outdoor activities to the Roman forest, educational trail - the natural, ecological and cultural sights of Daruvar region. There they were divided in 2 groups and had to complete Scavenger Photo Hunt. The students had two workshop: The story behind the Photograph and Abstract photography, while the teachers were working od editing their material from the first activity. The students were decorating Erasmus+ corner and setting up the photo exhibition from the material they had created during their workshops while the teachers presented their work and had a teachers’ meeting.

In the evening the foreign students were with their host students while the teachers had dinner together.

            On the fourth day (15 October, 2022) of the meeting, we headed to Zagreb where we visited the Museum of illusions. This was followed by the activity Zagreb Time Travel – part I, where we explored Zagreb Upper part sights and compared them with what they looked like in the past using the brochure that had been created by the Croatian students. Then we visited Galerija Kranjčar to see Mare Milin Godišnji odmor – photo exhibition. Then we carried on with Zagreb Time Travel – part II where we explored Zagreb Lower part sights. In the evening we said goodbye to our foreign guests.

The results of this short term exchange of students were not only material ones like- brochures, posters, drawings, videos, but also improvement of the participants’ skills like English and other languages, ICT, communication skills, team work, Geography and History knowledge about all partner countries, good language and manners, tolerance and patience.