When the Konya travellers spoke about the trip in class, I was very interested in the individual insights of the culture and experiences with the host families. I enjoyed watching the video of all the Turkish children dancing with our students. All in all I think it was a recommendable trip and an enjoyable way of learning about life, tradition and school in Konya. We were told the hospitality of the hosts and all the students they had met, were unbelievably overwhelming - it must have been terrific! (Foto: Wikipedia)
Im Rahmen unseres von der Europäischen Union geförderten COMENIUS Projekts fuhren wir vom 05.-09. Mai 2014 nach Konya/Türkei und besuchten die Büyükbayram Oberschule. Die TeilnehmerInnen wohnten in Familien, wurden dort versorgt und betreut. Wir hatten ein gemeinsames Programm mit den Schülerinnen und Schülern unserer Partnerschule und trafen uns täglich in der Schule zu gemeinsamen Aktivitäten. Mehr über unser Projekt erfahren Sie auf/ Read more about our COMENIUS Project on forawonderfulland.
I was very excited the first day, because I met a new person. When I saw Lina I got more and more excited. I like Lina and my family like her very much, too. We have many photographs of all of the activities and we had a lot of fun. We were accustomed to her but she had to return to her country. It was the best five days in my life. I have already missed you, Lina and all the other friends. (Bahar Çil)
For me it was a very special time. I got to know a lot of young people and a beautiful country. The people are very helpful, friendly and humorous. I hope others will be able to do this trip, too. We had a nice time, which you can see in the pictures.(Cassandra)
My highlight was a connection of the pictures 7-10. In fact, that was our program for Wednesday. As I have reported before, the day started with a tour to the historical village called Sille. To give you a clue how important this village was back then; I give you closer information:
During the Roman period, Sille, also called Sylata or Sylla, was one of the most important settlements when you travel from Jerusalem to Istanbul. But actually, really famous and historical noticeable, Sille became as Helen, the mother of Constantine The Great, has been there and invented, constructed and built up the still existing Hagia Elenia Chruch, which we have visited as noticed above. Furthermore Sille was a town dependent to the capital Konya, under the regime of the sultans period. Additionally, as mentioned above, during the population exchange, according to the practice of suppressing the, mostly, Christian religion, many Christians emigrated to Greece. That huge amount of happenings in Sille, made it one of Konya's most historical and cultural villages, which is popular for tourists nowadays.
Since of this impressing and interesting history, I was curious to be in Sille and excited at the same time. I couldn't wait to explore the village by myself. Therefore my friends, my host sister and me visited the church, which had a very Greek-orthodox inspired architecture; means the Christian influence was noticeable. It was beautiful and foreign, which made it mysterious and new. After taking nearly a thousand pictures we continued our tour but this time up the mountains. In company of our teacher, we climbed up to the caves of the mountains first. Many years ago, the Christians used these caves to hide from the Muslims and to have a place to be safe. I liked the caves; they reminded me of a labyrinth, where you can play hiding games perfectly. But that wasn't enough!
I wanted to reach the mountain's top. Together with some Turkish students and my friends we started climbing, which wasn't that easy for me, because I had flat shoes on, which made climbing up even harder. Nevertheless it was a great challenge for me, although I fell down so often and once even with the result of a landslide. I can tell you that wasn't funny – I had sand all over my body and even in the side bags of my jackets! But still I continued climbing since I wanted to be as high as one can get doggedly.
On my way up I met a beautiful blue-metallic lustrous scarab, that I called 'Ra'il' which means poisoned in Hebrew. Furthermore I fell down again but this time on a hideous scorpion, which was nude coloured, ugly, small and dangerous since it was poising deathly. We screamed and ran away but first I had to bring him the stone back, the one I fell over, since I destroyed his home. The scorpion I called 'Mecho'ar' which means simply ugly in Hebrew. Well maybe I see these two animals, which I gave names again one day. Finally we arrived at the top of the hill. Wow, it was so beautiful, breathtaking, stunning. I could see all of Konya! I was able to even look above other hills and high buildings. Being up gave me a feeling of freedom like a bird has. I wanted to ran in the other direction against the horizon on the left, because I was curious what was behind the other mountains.
Sadly, we had to come back on the ground, because our tour continued to the miniature world in picture 8 and 9. For the perfect ending of such an adventurous day, we have been visiting the Dervish dancers, as we have been to their religious ceremony in picture 10. It impressed me how the dancers built up a connection to Allah in their kind of own world. Turning circles like dolls and different feelings in their face, I liked giving these figures characters and features to separate them from each other. Sounds childish but it is fun. I really enjoyed this day very much. I have been able to see so many new and interesting things, that at the end of the day, I was delighted and overwhelmed by all these great impressions.
Written by Adina