Lithuania 2022

28.06.2022 09:18
Zo školy

Autor : Sofia Knoteková, Gymnázium Ivana Kupca, Komenského, Hlohovec

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Our stay in Lithuania officially began on the sixth of June, which was Monday. We spent the whole day travelling to our pension in Ignalina. We met in front of the school around 12pm and our trip was ready to start. It took us an hour till we arrived to the airport – Schwechat. There were not any problems with our luggage so we had some extra time to buy food, drinks or snacks during the wait. The flight was quick, there were not any issues and the sky was pretty clear. There were two of our friends – Akvile and Austeja already waiting for us when we arrived in Vilnius. They took us to their school bus, which we used for the whole week. The journey to Ignalina took us about two hours. I was impressed by the architecture in Vilnius, some buildings were really interesting. When we arrived to our pension in Ignalina, we had dinner in the main hall and were handed keys to our rooms.We unpacked our bags and went to sleep right after, because we were already tired from all that travelling.

On the second day of our trip, we were driven to Ignalinos r. Vidiškių gimnazija and we saw a traditional lithuanian folklore dance, which was just an introduction to the programme that our Lithuanian friends prepared for us. After the introduction ceremony, we had a tour around their school and a walk around Vidiškes. After the tour, we had a meeting with the mayor of Ignalina. During the meeting, the mayor of the district municipality Justas Rasikas told us about how attractive Ignalina is to visitors, how the city and its surroundings are changing. We spent the rest of the day visiting the Ginučiai watermill, the Museum of Ancient Beekeeping. After that we went on a walk around the town of Ignalina.

On Wednesday we had a lesson called "The history of the relationship between mythology and astronomy". We worked in groups, tried to recognize the symbols of celestial bodies in Lithuanian folklore and created our own sketches with symbols of celestial bodies. The second part of the lesson was practical - we sketched the created sketches on T-shirts. After the programme we tried a Lithuanian traditional meal - Cepelinai and went to a town called Moletai, where we spent the whole afternoon doing interesting tasks. The last part of Wednesday's programme was a Museum of Ethnocosmology, which I consider as my favorite part of the day.

On Thursday we worked in mixed groups on collective learning and on presentations about the Velvet revolution and our school. We could get to know how Lithuanian students react and how much they know about our history. We have dedicated this afternoon to the part of the artistic creation of the Lithuanian nation - acquaintance with folk dances and games. We were taught various folk dances, circles and songs. After a lot of fun, we talked, we baked sausages and marshmallows on a campfire. The evening ended with the presentation of certificates and souvenirs, and a discussion of the activities.

On the last day – Friday, we had the opportunity to see the beautiful capital city of Vilnius. Probably the biggest impression left for us was the opportunity to visit the Seimas Visitor Center and the Seimas building itself. We spent the whole day exploring the streets of Vilnius. We also visited Gediminas Castle and admired the landscape of Vilnius from the observation tower. The hardest part of the day was the goodbye, which was emotional and full of tears and hugs.