From the 24th to 29th April, we visited the North of Macedonia, a country in the East of Europe. Our stay was in a hotel known as Kumanovo Spa Hotel; located in a city called Kumanovo, it was 40 minutes away from the capital, Skopje.
The journey on the first day was long. First we took a bus to Barcelona’s Airport, then we took the first plane to Turkey. We had to wait around two hours to take the next plane to Skopje, North Macedonia’s capital. We took a bus to go to Kumanovo. We arrived at the hotel around 9 p.m. That night we met the Portuguese team.
The second day we were doing activities, we went to the school of our hosts. Then we had a tour around the school. It was nice but very different from our school. It was the biggest school we have ever seen. It has a big hall where we met the other students involved in the project. We played some games there. At lunch time, we went to our host’s house to have lunch and meet them. The food was delicious and tasty. In the afternoon we went to Skopje with the Spain team along with their families. They gave us a tour around the city center and the old town. We saw some important monuments, for example one from “Alexander the Great”. Then we had dinner and we went back to the hotel. We were enjoying ourselves with our Portuguese friends.
The third day we took a bus to a city called Ohrid. It was a four hours long trip, we met some Macedonian teammates. In Ohrid, we saw an ancient theater, a rampart, some churches and the clearest lake of all the world, the Ohrid lake, that is protected by UNESCO. We walked all day and listened to a guide who informed us about the history of the ancient monuments. We went back to the hotel, it was so late and we were exhausted so we fell asleep so soon.
The next morning the Italian team arrived in Macedonia. We had breakfast and we took the bus again to visit the Bislim Gorge, where we learnt about local flora and fauna. There were guides who were explaining all about the most important things that we were discovering. Then, we went along the Pchinja river, to see flora and fauna. In the afternoon we were with our host families, we had dinner with families and they brought us to the hotel and some of us went to the pool.
The last day we were doing different activities. They were maybe the best, the most entertaining. It was so emotional too. In the morning we were performing crafts. And then, we prepared a group presentation. Some of the groups showed their presentations. At lunch time we went to our host families and in the afternoon, the parents prepared a good-bye party. We were dancing, eating, singing and having fun. Later at night parents brought us to the hotel and we had to say goodbye to our hosts. We prepared our luggage, because the next day we were to leave for home. When we had everything ready, we met with our Italian and Portuguese friends in a room to talk, to share our experiences and feelings. Then, we went to sleep.
It was time to come back home so when we woke up we took a bus to the airport, because we had to leave the country at 8 a.m. We had a long trip ahead. We are so grateful because we lived this experience and we would like to repeat it and also to recommend it to our classmates.
