From Tarrega to Zvolen

Finally, has arrived the final day. We were all excited to a start a new experience. We met at 11o'clock in front of the school. While we were going to the airport, we enjoyed ourselves.
Before checking-in we were worried about the weight of our suitcases, but we were fine. Once we saw that there was no problem we had lunch together. Then we had free time before taking the plane and some of us took the opportunity to buy the last souvenirs for the family.
When we saw the plane was there we moved quickly to the queue and waited nervously  before boarding.
THE TRIP HAS JUST STARTED!!!!!!!!!!!!!

By Laura & Laia

Goodbye Zvolen and Vienna

On Friday 11th, we met all the students in the school for saying goobye and thanks for all. Everybody cried a lot  for the reason the exchanged  was finished. But, we weren't returning home, we were going to Viena to spend the last day together. We arrived at the Wombat youth hostel and we went to leave our bags. Also, we went to a macdonalds near the hotel to have  lunch, we were hungry!
Later, we visited the city centre, so we had to take the  underground. But we didn't realize that the prices were very expensive! So someone had a bad experiene... a coffee was 3,80 €.
Finally, we went to a typical  restaurant to have dinner, all the food was delicious! And then we returned to the hotel where there was a little concert of hardcore metal, but  we went to sleep early because the next day we had to wake up at 6:00. We enjoyed ourselves a lot :))

A huge castle and a wooden village

We were at Bojnice castle and I think it's the biggest castle I've ever seen. The weather was cold and rainy but we enjoyed this visit a lot. That castle had a lot of rooms. In fact I don't know how the medievals cleaned all that castle, it is enormous. After seeing a lot of paintings and sculptures we went for lunch in a restaurant and we caught the bus to go to an picturesque village called Cicmany where two shepherds explained to us many things about their culture. It was really interesting!!!
By Eloi & Vlady

How to make coins and the most freaky museum

Today we needed to meet up at 7:15 am, so we had to wake up very early. We went to Kremnica. Firstly we visited the Mint museum where we could see the way to make coins with machines. Secondly we went to the Church of St. Catherine and we went up to the top, the sights were very beautiful. After that, we had lunch and  then we went to the
Museum of kistch where there were different rooms with kistch objects (junk). The last thing that we did together was go to the middle point of Europe. It was a lovely day!
By Iris & Alba

Banska Stavnica

Today we visited Banska Stavnica which is a UNESCO world heritage town.
First of all we went to a really tiny castle which was surrounded by lovely houses.
Later we divided into two groups and visited a mining museum called Kammerhof.
Once we had finished the visit we had some lunch. At 14:00 one group started a guided tour through the beautiful village Banska Stavnica,  the other group started st 15:00.
Finally,  some brave students went to Calvary which is a church situated at the top of a hill, from which we could see some awesome views!
When we arrived at school some went altogether to have a barbacue and others went home to have some rest.
By Salma

Slovak paradice

Saturday morning I got up very early with my Slovak family. I enjoy staying with them, they are very nice.
They took me to the Slovak Paradise, a place in the mountains surrounded by beautiful green forests. We walked for 5 or 6 hours, climbing through stairs in waterfalls.
At night I went with all the teenagers to the disco called Ministry of Fun, I enjoyed it a lot.
On Sunday we got up not as early as sometimes here, but for me was too early. They took me to the most fantastic and interesting caves of Slovakia. I saw a salamandra and deers.
When we arrived home I fell asleep because I was very tired.
It was a fantastic weekend!!!

By Ramon

Basketball, cave and disco

It was the first family day. First of all, Erik's family took me to see a basketball match, because there was playing a daughter from Erik's parents friends. After the match we went to Ochtinská aragonite cave, which was discovered accidentaly and is inscribed in the World Heritage list, inside the cave was cold, but it was really gorgeous. After visiting the cave we went to have lunch and then we went to a huge forest where we walked for a long while. Later we came back home, I had a shower, then we had dinner and, finally, me and Erik went with other students to Ministry of Fun, a disco club which was in Zvolen, and we enjoyed it.

On Sunday we didn't do anything. We stayed at home in order to rest and to sleep more. But in the afternoon we went out, with some others students to a bar to take a drink. Later we returned home to have dinner and then we went to sleep.
It was a really nice weekend!!

By Guillem

Zvolen castle, the Treasure Hunt and a party all together

Today we woke up earlier and went to visit Zvolen's Castle. Once there, we were welcomed by the school headmistress. Then we split into 2 groups -Slovaks & Catalans- and a nice guide guided us through the castle. We saw lots of amazing paintings and sculptures! Then all together again we made teams of 8 mor or less, and every team had to paint a paper like how they want to decorare it.
After lunch, we participated in a Treasure Hunt where we had to go around the city in order to answer some questions we had been given before.  That way, we learnt some interesting facts about Zvolen! The winner was Guillem!!!
This evening we had a party at the school canteen with the teachers and the parents. There we saw  dances and instruments from Slovakia. We changed presents with them, from Catalonia we gave them 'cantirs' and they gave  us t-shirts. We also ate typical food from here made by the Slovak families.  We had a good time all together!!
By Sandra & Jordi

Weekend at High Tatras

Last weekend was like no other one in all my life. There were completely different days, which I discovered the real Slovakia and its gorgeous nature.
The weekend was free, so I obviously spent it with my family. Although I also spent these days with Raquel and Mireia and their Slovak families.

First we just took the car, it was only 2-hour-trip going to the mountains, we were going to High Tatras, probably the best place in Slovakia.
We got to a village, a little one called, Nova Lesna, it was a cold and deserted place, where during the ski season it's full of people.
The was house was nice and we had a nice time there.

The first day was so tiring, hard, but also I had the opportunity to see the gorgeous landscape I've never seen before.
We took a couple of trains in order to get a ski resort, Tatranska Lomnica. There some cable cars took us to the top of the mountains.
From there we were able to see beautiful sights.
The mountain was completely covered in snow, and a lot of people were skiing there, but also a lot were just spending the day like an excursion.
In that mountain we could visit a lake called Skalandé that was completly frozen.
From that part of the ski resort, we were able to see an astronomic observatory, which can be visited just taking a huge cable car that takes you to the top of one of the highest mountains in Tatras, but we didn't visit it.
Then we decided to go down again, but on foot!!!!!
We took a gorgeous route going to parts of the mountain covered by snow or frozen... Also we got into the forest, which has enormeous trees ans beautiful rivers.
But also there we could apreciate the horrors of nature, because a hurricane destroyed parts of the forest 10 years ago. A lot of trees and wood is still there, there are zones that reminded a desert, because there was no tree there.
A part from this, the route was beautiful and very enjoyable, the union of snow and forest made something unforgetable.
But also that route was long, it took us nearly 4 hours and more than 20km done to complete it, so it's not a piece of cake.
At the end we arrived in a village where we had lunch and finally we came back to the house.
That night we prepared a catalan dinner, doing a potato omelet and Pa amb tomàquet. The Slovaks enjoyed them a lot.

The second day was not as tiring as the first.
We just visited a couple of lakes. The first one, Popradske pleso, we had to walk one hour, 7km more or less, but the way was incredible. All was covered by snow and the forest was surrounded by huge mountains and everything there was perfect.
We arrived at the lake, which was frozen, but it was starting to melt because of the hot weather.
Then we took the car and we got to another lake, Strabske pleso, which is a very turistic zone, full of hotels, spas and ski resorts. But the lake was even bigger than the other but also frozen, and the sights there were incredible.
Then we came back home, because the next day we had more activities, but with everybody.
We had an awesome weekend!!!!

By Roger

Pottery and museum

In the morning we made two groups and then one group went to the museum in Zvolen and the other went to the school. In the museum we saw ancient objects from Pusty Hrad and in the school we made a pottery workshop. We had lunch at 11:30, we couldn't believe it!!!
In the afternoon we had free time.
By Blanca & Anas

Their school and the biggest Medieval castle in central Europe

Today has been a really tiring day. In the morning we met at the school at 9 o'clock and they showed us all their classrooms and their well-equipped gym. We saw a class of zumba! We could see the big differences between their and our high school!!!!
In the afternoon we visited the ruins of Pusty Hrad, one if the main castles in Europe during the XII century. It has been interesting because it's huge, in fact there are two castles: the Upper castle and the Lower castle which were discovered not long ago.
However, they're built at the top of a hill and now we're exhausted!!!!
Let's see what we'll do tomorrow!

By Cinta and Marta