Course of the meeting in Turkey
What do you think when someone mentions Turkey? Oriental cuisine, marvellous monuments and landscapes, Turkish coffee, muezzin's calls, exotic smells and lots of sunshine. Well, we experienced all of them, except the last point. Unfortunately, it was windy and cold, on one morning there was even snow. So Turkey can surprise.
On 19th April 2015 three teachers (Bożena Bućwińska – the project coordinator, Monika Bujas and Beata Kubianka) and two students (Natalia Stryszowska and Kamil Sakowski) from our school went on the sixth mobility to the Turkish town Kayseri. It is located in central Turkey, in Anatolia. The place itself dates back to 3000 BC and was known in the past as Mazaca or Caesarea. Now it's a big, industrial town, but still you can find monuments from as long ago as Roman, Byzantine or Seljuk times.
In order to get there we had to travel long, first by train to Warsaw, then by plane to Istanbul, where we changed planes and flew to Kayseri.
Day 1: In the morning we met in Kayseri Teknik ve Endűstri Meslek Lisesi, the school cooperating within the Comenius project 'Only Aware Can Act Fair – Students for sustainable food and trade'. Apart from the representatives of XIII LO in Krakow, there were students and teachers from other partner schools in Finland, Germany and Lithuania. The hosts invited us to the conference room and there, after being greeted by the school head teacher, we were shown presentations prepared by the Turkish students. We learned about Turkey, Kayseri and the school. Then the students explained in detail how to make traditional Turkish dishes, such as 'manti' or 'sarma', and desserts 'baklava' or 'halva'. It was essential for the programme of the mobility, as the hosts focused on sustainable food. After the presentations we had an international snack, which is a tradition in our project and quite a joyful and educational opportunity to try food from different countries. In order to integrate the students our hosts organized a lot of 'energizing' games. Everybody had a lot of fun taking part in them or just watching (teachers).
Later the participants of the mobility went on a tour of Kayseri, however it started to rain heavily so not everybody took part.
Day 2: The first point of the programme on that day was a visit to a company called 'Nostaljii'. It is run by women, produces and sells traditional, organic Turkish food. We were shown how this food is made and were given a chance to make it ourselves. It wasn't easy but we did our best.
At the end of the workshop we were invited to try this delicious food. All of us admitted that traditional Turkish dishes taste great.
After the workshop we went on a trip, first to the Kayseri Kent Museum, which is housed in a magnificent modern building, and which shows the history of the city. We could find out aboutthe history of Kayseri, which is really long. To see the remnants of the Ottoman period our hosts took us to Talas, a small town near Kayseri, where we could see a 200- year-old Ottoman street and a house which belonged to Yaman Dede, a Turkish philosopher and activist, showing how people used to live in Anatolia at the beginning of 20th century.
Day 3: On that day we were shown how other food is made. We travelled to the industrial zone in Kayseri, first to a modern drink factory. The factory produces juice, milk and other soft drinks and sells them in Turkey and also exports them to countries all over the world. The process of juice making is highly automatic, the procedures are very sterile so we had to wear protective clothes. The guide explained to us all the technological process and showed us the production line. We were fascinated by the machines which can make the drinks in the fast and ultra-modern way, and still produce very healthy drinks.
Then we visited another factory, which makes traditional Turkish halva as well as jams, cheese and butter. We could see the production line and taste all the products.
After lunch in the school canteen we went on a trip to the highest mountain in the region – Erciyes, which is a volcano and reaches the height of 3,916 m. Although it was April (and it was in Turkey!) there was still plenty of snow. We went up the slope in cable cars. Unfortunately, it was cloudy so we couldn't see all the views from the mountain, however, we could play in the snow. There was a group of skiers who after each ride down the slope danced in sang. Lots of people from our group joined in, especially the Turkish students who knew the songs. We had great fun on the mountain despite poor weather. On the way back to Kayseri we stopped at Hisarciklioglu Private School, where we were served traditional Turkish tea.
Day 4: Day 4: Thursday was devoted to a whole-day trip to Cappadocia. This is a region west of Kayseri with unique moon-like landscape, rock formations, numerous caves, underground cities and monuments from ancient times. Cappadocia is a World Heritage Site known all over the world, so we were thrilled at the opportunity to go there. We travelled by coach, with a very friendly guide Fatima, who told us a lot about the places we were passing.
First, we visited a traditional pottery workshop where we saw how pots are made; some students even tried to make a pot themselves using a potter's wheel. Then we went to see the Kaymakli underground city with lots of tunnels, chambers and storage rooms. The city was used in the Byzantine era, for protection from Muslim Arabs during the Arab – Byzantine wars for a few centuries (from 8th to 12th centuries). A few thousand people could find safety in the place. Nowadays only four levels of the underground city are shown to the public, and we could visit them.
Our next stop was Uçhisar, where we admired 'the castles' – tall rock formations which, being the highest rocks in the area, served in the past as watchtowers. From there we went to Göreme. Here, all the village is situated in a valley with lots of stunning rocks. Some people still live in the caves there, there are also shops, hotels and restaurants inside them. In Göreme we had a chance to see the open air museum in which we walked around and inside cave churches from the Byzantine times. In some of them there were ancient frescoes.
The next place we went to was Ürgüp with a Valley of Monks – a name given to mushroom shaped rock formations located there. The whole area we visited in Cappadocia is a national park and it is nothing you can see anywhere in the world. The breath-taking views of rocks look like from a fairy tale or a science-fiction film (some people found resemblance to Star Wars scenery). Whatever you compare it to, it isn't what you see, it's like out of this world! Unfortunately, it was the last day of our stay.
The Turkish team organised the mobility in a perfect way. We had a chance to find out about sustainable, organic food and drinks, we got to know about the Turkish traditions, culture and landscape. We fell in love with traditional Turkish cuisine and the sights from Cappadocia will remain in our minds for ever. What is more, due to great Turkish hospitality we made long-lasting friendships.