Communitek Mobilities

Mobility 3, Tripolis, Greece

The Finnish delegation, our music teacher Katja and myself, left Lapua already on Thursday 23.10, by train, in order to catch a morning plane. Finland is far away from Greece! We changed planes in Copenhagen and saw once again that the airport there is a dangerous place: full of lovely shops and restaurants waiting for your money. We would take full advantage of it on our return trip.

We arrived in Athens at 1 and, following Nicky’s good instructions, took the bus to the bus station. When the bus left the airport, it started raining, and it rained, and rained, and rained... the trip to the bus station took 1,5 hours. And we ended up spending the next 5 hours in the next bus, as you all know. Quite an experience! We arrived safely in Tripolis and had time for a short rest at the nice hotel Nicky had found for us. Then, what a nice welcome dinner in a large, cosy room in a tavern, with a fireplace, delicous food and wine, meeting everyone... Thank you, Greek partners!

On Saturday morning we visited the IT Academy Boutsoukli and had a nice and productive meeting, structuring the future project tasks and other activities.  The day continued with a varied selection of Greek culture: interesting visits to a brand new local archeological museum, a very special cave, and a local winery where a student gave us a tour in English. We were also offered lovely snacks and wines to taste, and we bought some to take home as well. We still had time to visit a very pretty mountain village, where the IT Academy also gives lessons.

In the evening, another tasty Greek dinner with everybody, and we even continued with “drinks at the bar” –could not skip that part of the programme! It was fun, and a perfect ending of an eventful day.

Some of us had already visited Athens on Friday, our schedule allowed for this on Sunday. We took the bus in the morning together with Marta, courteously accompanied by Christos who happened to have a meeting in Athens. We visited the National Archeological Museum and, of course, Acropolis. We took more photos than any Japanese tourist ever has, so we cannot make fun of them anymore. What an enchanting place! To end the day, we had dinner on a rooftop in Plaka (this was a bad choice since it was almost freezing), and did some souvenir shopping as well. We are sure this was not our last visit to this lovely country, where we can get in touch with the history and the origins of our Western culture and democracy, and also enjoy the relaxed lifestyle, lovely weather, delicious food and sunny beaches.

On Monday morning we had breakfast and said our goodbyes with Marta, before buying some gifts at a stationery shop near the hotel and then catching a train to the airport. We admired the very clean and modern subways in Athens. On the way back home, as planned, we succumbed to the temptations of the airport of Copenhagen: shopping, sushi and Champagne. One more night at a cheap hotel in the centre of Helsinki, train home on Tuesday morning, and straight to work. Lucky Katja had a day off and went home to have a sauna.

We are looking forward to receiving our partners in Lapua in February!