An informal trip to Serres!

Choosing the warmest and sunniest day of this year that we had so far in Komotini, we decide to leave it behind and to go for skiing in Lailia. This trip we organized on the first weekend of the February 2017, together with Ivi, Evgenia and 40 pupils from Sapes we went out for two days and one night.

The trip started very early on the Saturday’s morning at 7am, we went with the bus from Komotini to Sapes where all the pupils were waiting already in front of the school ready to get inside of the bus.

I have to admit the trip to Serres were awfully long, we arrived at 12 in the noon, to the motel. Which were up in the mountains in Lailia. After everyone got in their rooms and left their luggage. We went to the bus to go for skiing. At an altitude of 1600 on the north side of the mountain. The ski resort it’s found just 27 km from the Serres.

The ski resort wasn’t far, after everyone put on the ski equipment children went to ski, I have to say we spend a lot of time outside, were everyone could enjoy the snow. A good thing was that almost everyone didn’t know how to ski. And if at the beginning they were falling almost every second and I was having to stay close to them to help.

After a while everyone became very good at it.

After the skiing lessons, fights with snow and frozen legs. We got back at the motel. Were everybody decided to take a nap before the dinner.

After the diner Ivi organized a party for the pupils with Fanta, Cola, orange juice and snacks. With their friends around and with good Greek music nobody was sitting, children were dancing, talking and it was fun. It was nice to see how children from different ethnic groups or religious minorities, are having fun together like all the problems that the adults are creating in order to segregate the society, for this kids doesn’t have any meaning.

Next day was full of actions. Right after the breakfast, everybody got into the bus and we left the mountains. We decided to stop in the city center of Serres giving free time to the kids to explore the city which was full of sun, and energy.

After a two hours of walking I can say that Serres is very unique and beautiful, a city where I could easily take as my second home. Even if it’s far from the sea side. During my walk I had the chance to visit Serres Archaeological Museum. Located in a very nice building made from bricks. The archeological museum od Serres has been housed since 1970 in a listed monument, the “Bezesteni”, a closed and covered 15th c. market lying in the city center of the city of Serres. It is one of only a very few buildings remaining in Greece.

After the whole sightseeing, for which we had exactly 2 hours, we got inside the bus. And we continued our trip. The next stop was the Archaeological Museum of Amphipolis, located in the city with the same name, Amphipolis. The building was having 2 floors and a very modern look located outside of the city. I could see the whole history of the city including the Neolithic and Byzantine periods.

The next stop that we had was at one monument that was representing a lion, which remains were found during the 1st World War by British solders and reconstructed with the help of the Greek diaspora and other enthusiastic historians of the Greek culture.

At the end we stopped at one very nice Tavern called Bostani in a village on the way back to Sapes. We took our dinner outside because the weather was perfect after diner most of the boys went to play football on the stadium located on the territory of the tavern.

We arrived home around 9pm. With a lot of new nice memories and with a lot of positive energy, even if everyone was very tired.

P.S. At the end I want to mention that I got very impressed by the methods that Ivi as a teacher was using during the whole trip to give new interactive information to the kids. Always using jokes. And interesting information that everyone was listening with a lot of curiosity.