day 2
Day 2 (Tuesday, 9th of May):
A day in Piran - much more than a trip to the seaside;
Slovenian history and mythology;
united in playing
A day in Piran - much more than a trip to the seaside
The second day of our meeting we made an educational trip to the Slovenian coast. Very soon we realized that this was much more than a day at the seaside. It was a chance to experience essential facts about Slovenia, our hosting country. For example, that it is a very small country: only 1,5 hours from the central position of Ljubljana and we had reached the sea side. In the bus, the Slovenian students gave us some information about the city of Piran and its diverse history - something we very soon could find out by ourselves as well. Because the Slovenian coast line is very small (and beautiful). Being in Piran we could see Italy on one side with Trieste as a big harbour city and Croatia on the other side. And the town itself showed its Italian history. Many buildings like the houses at the "Piazza di Tartini" and the "campanile" of the church Saint George made us believe that we were in Venetia.
Italian obviously is a second language; at the entrance of the local secondary school, for example, we saw not only the Slovenian and European flag like in Ljubljana, but also the Italian one.
But the very first thing that captured our attention was not the town itself, not only the glittering waves of the Adriatic sea: it was a group of dolphins that played in the sunshine, jumping out of the waves again and again.
The students started with a town rallye about Piran's history (the international groups that had been built the day before now working together). The teachers could relax ;-) and enjoy a coffee or walk through the narrow streets up to the church or castle.
Slovenian history and mythology
European history as OUR [hi]story had started with Greek mythology which also is the background of one of board games that we had developed together in international teams in Greece: the story of Jason and the Argonauts. This final meeting brought us back to this story as our common European heritage. Because Slovenian folktale is connected very much to this myth. On our first day, we had already learned about the dragon of Ljubljana which - according to Slovenian tradition - was defeated by Jason. Here in Piran there is a tale about the "Argo", Jason's ship: When it was damaged, the Argonauts carried it over land to the Adriatic Sea, restaured it there; so they could return home to Greece.
United in playing
Since sports and social games are perfect for socialising, we included this. We had a wonderful walk along the Adriatic coast to the nearby town of Fiesa, where we had a large lawn and a beach volleyball court at our disposal.
And the sea! The water had only 15 degrees. Nevertheless some Slovenian and German students went swimming.
Meanwhile, the other students were playing volleyball and the French students taught a card game.
After this, we all collected again for playing "Dragon hunt" in mixed teams.
Also the "white team" (teacher team) took part.
Some more kilometres and we reached Portorož with its sandbeach and old and new hotels. We took a last stop there for some ice cream, coffee. Some of us prefered another match of volleyball.
With this day, we connected the mixed groups of students and teachers even more and got a lot of impressions and knowledge of this small and interesting European country, Slovenia.
Click here for the third day of our meeting: