Cyprus weekend of Erasmus November 2015 first visit with students

Visit to Paphos 

Sunday was a day for free time as the students settled in with their host families. Everyone was happy when they met their families and had a great Sunday together. 

Marina took us to Paphos where we visited the old fort castle that had been occupied by so many it was hard to keep track. It was built by the French with Venetian walls. It was later conquered by the Turks and they lived in rooms on the first floor where they also had a small mosque. 

There is also a prisoners hold below the castle. 

The Paphos castle.

Incredible views surround the fortress and you can see for miles; a clever vantage point! 

We went on to a world heritage archeological site that houses numerous incredible mosaics that made up the floors of the Roman soldiers and was part of the Roman Empire in Cyprus. 

The patterns and pictures feature many Greek mythological gods and their stories are told through the mosaics. This stunning yet undoubtably painstaking craft gives you a feeling of the grandeur of the building that used to stand here.

In the evening we met with all the teachers except from Romania who will arrive late tonight, for a lovely meal in a local restaurant .  We are looking forward to s great start to our work week tomorro - presentations for our project "The  Place Where We Live" 

Saturday visit to the famous Bran Castle

Better known as Dracula's castle, we embarked on an excursion to the beautiful mountain region about 3 hours outside of Bucharest. 

The castle was very busy as it's the most visited attraction in Romania. There were many stalls selling traditional Romanian  goods. An opportunity for some great photos! 

The castle was built in 1377 and was given as a gift to Queen Mary of Romania and then passed on to her daughter in 1932. Following the rise of communism in Romania the royal family was exiled and the castle became government property. After the fall of communism, the castle was returned to the children of the princess Helena the daughter of queen Mary in 2009.

Certainly it can be said that a "once in a lifetime" visit or a check for the "bucket list" of places to see in the world has to be this legendary Castle inspired by Brahm Stoker's Dracula. 

The castle is located in the mountains of Transylvania between the Valakya region and Moldova.

Strategically located on the hilltop you can imagine how Brahm Stoker got his inspiration! 

Interesting read about the Teutonic Knights and their crusade. Above you can see one of the Knight's robes.

The doors to the rooms were beautifully hand painted. 

After a delicious lunch st a local resort we travelled back to Bucharest to get ready for Sunday departures. 

We made a short stop I a lovely city called Brasov which has a beautiful old town and main square. 

The weather since Wednesday had been outstanding with sunshine everyday though temperatures dropped to -2 at night and in the mountains it was very cold. 

Bucharest truly exceeded my expectations and the group of Erasmus partners are fantastic. We worked hard and enjoyed our time together! We look forward to meeting our larger group of 50+ people when we all visit Cyprus in two weeks time! Thanks for following!

Visit to the Parliament buildings in Bucharest

Today we visited the grand parliament buildings, which were the vision of former president and communist dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu.  

He envisioned living and working and here; his dream home which was 100% made in Romania and it is the 2nd largest parliament building in the world. 

A very paranoid leader wanted to have all luxuries available to him in one place which he and his wife designed and decorated. The irony is that he never saw its full completion or spent a day in the building as he and his wife were executed by firing squad in December 1989. His regime collapsed after he ordered his security forces to fire on anti-government demonstrators in the city of Timișoara on 17 December 1989. Revolts began all across the country and as he tried to flee by helicopter he was captured by the military forces and tried for many crimes including genocide.

The parliament buildings. 

There is over 1 million cubic meters of marble in the building. The main steps replicate those in st Petersburg parliament.

The building is the official offices of the senate and Deputy chambers.

The crystal used here is from Transylvania as Ceaușescu declined the offer of Bohemian crystal from the Czech republic and had a factory built for his parliament in Romania to make the crystal for the building.

Some amazing facts: 

The carpets equal 220,00 sq meters and the building houses the largest single carpet in the world. 

There are 200,000 square meters of glass for the windows. The building is 2 sq km and the grounds, 3km! 

The largest chandelier has 6000 light bulbs and weighs 7 tons.

The building was completed in 2005 but was used in 1989. However, Ceaușescu did not live one day here as he was executed before this. 

There are bunkers underground and apartments for his extended family. It was considered the safest place in Bucharest. It was said that he had all of the workers and bankers killed so that they would not reveal the secret passageways to anyone.

There are 30 meeting rooms but the senate has 4 for their meetings from when they arrived here in 2005.

This room is where weekly meetings are held by the senate and international summits like NATO which was held here in 2008.

From 1984-1989 over 5 million people worked in the parliament building - when the population at the time was 22 million; the population now is 19 million! 

Over 25% of the workforce worked here which is why it was nicknamed the People's house! 

Many Romanians have left their homeland since the fall of communism and  Ceaușescu's heavy handed regime.

This room referred to as the "small lobby" is where business meetings are held along with conference registration and Santa Claus visits once a year!  The buildings' upkeep is quite expensive so the government rents out many parts to businesses and for special events.

We then moved to the green room or the "wow" room as it is so grand! Green is the colour of the senate hence its name. There are176 of them and here is where they have live transmissions and vote on policies. All political parties are represented here and they invite the press to the balcony spaces as well as members of the public who are allowed to attend. However, many people do not want to be senators as they are only paid 1000 euros a month but are always in the public eye! 

We had lunch here and then returned to the school for an afternoon of meetings. 

It's the weekend now so tomorrow we will visit Dracula's castle! Our evening meal was fantastic in a traditional Romanian restaurant with live music and yummy food!