Monday 12th of October

Nine taxis drove us to the airport of Sarajevo. The hometrip went well and was totally opposite than the trip Fredericia-Mostar.

Everyone relaxed and looked foreward to come home. At 16.15 the bus arrived in Fredericia and the students were welcomed by their families.

In a short personal evaluation I am glad that:

• 3.c had a succesful exchange with the students from Mostar Gimnazija. The acitivites went good: sports, work-shop about town-life, lessons together, and meeting with the hospitable families in Mostar.
• Some visitors and hosts are planning to see each other in the summertime. 
• Thanks to all the parents in Mostar and Fredericia - with your support to the exchange-idea the students feels confident to cross borders and cultures. By being supportive you give the students competence in diaolouge with and understanding of other cultures.
• The teachers had a good time togehter. Jens and I had good talks with: Mladenka, Vanja, Tanja, Branka, Igor, Sascha, Mirko and Mirsada. Sorry if I can't remember all the names - but thanks for the warm-hearted treatment. It seems like the exchange has become a partnership that lasts for some time.
• Thanks to the leaders of Mostar Gimnazija: Ankica Covic and Krpo Bakir.
• There is a possibility that we can develop on a project based on how to improve the water-quality of the River Neretva and some local water in Fredericia.
• The contact with Green Vision has developed - Jens and I percepts them as essential for the biology-project. Thank you for a wonderful trip to Perucica - it has become classic.
• The contact with the embassies in Sarajevo and Copenhagen are important regarding the contact with the political players in the relations between BiH and Denmark.
• We are very dependent on our network in Mostar and Blagaj - thanks to you we have a base in your country. 

Lets work for a revisit of students and teachers from Mostar Gimnazija in May 2010 - it takes a lot of time and money. But nothing is impossible - lets give it a try.

Thanks to every one for a good experience - Tommy and Jens

Sunday 11th of October

Sunday morning and none really were awake before twelve o'clock. Tommy and Kathrine went for bread, juice, youghurt and coffee.

In the sitting-room we watched: "Hangover" and it was a perfect starter for the sunday.

There was a hike and discover Sarajevo on the programme. Althoug it rained and a some were ill the majority made their way through the centre of Sarajevo - "Little Jerusalem".

In the last night in Sarajevo we went to a nice restaurant in the old city: Barhana. Later on we packed and prepared for the hometrip which started exstremely early at 4.00

Saturday 10th of October

We woke up in Sarajevo and everyone was tired after the hike in Perucica.

Our programme this day was a visit in the danish embassy, in Splitska-street and a meeting with Thierry Joubert from Green Vision.

After a nice breakfast in the small kitchen of the Hostel we took the trolly to the Parlament and strolled towards the embassy. Here Ambassador Kirsten Geelan waited for us. She gave an orientation about the danish foreign service, the work of an ambassador and the actual state og BiH from a dansih point of view. We were charmed by her intelligence, oratorical gifts and attentiveness. 3.c gave some good questions to the ambassador - like how is the daily life? and how is the situation between the ethnic groups in BiH? In all there was a good dialouque between the students and the ambassador - interesting to visit a part of Denmark in BiH. We all wish to thank the ambassador for a good lecture.

After a short break we went to the office of Green Vision in the nearby Radiska-street.

Thierry Joubert told us about the story of Green Vision, eco-strategies in BiH and eco-tourism. He represents the idealistic NGO-type who devotes his life to eco-life and preservation of original culture in BiH and the Balkans. Green Vision is doing a good job but there are a lot of barriers like corruption, short-sighted tourism, economic profit and ignorance. Sadly Denmark is having some of the same problems with preserving nature.

Thank you Thierry - we really hope that we can work together in the future.

The main-event in the evening was the two football-matches: BiH-Estonia and Denmark-Sweden. Both BiH and Denmark won their important matches and Sarajevo was happy - people were cheering in the streets - what a nice experience.

Friday 9. th

Today we met with some guys from Green Vision, who should show us the primeivel forest called Perucica. We was surpose to meet at 6 am in the bus, but we got a bit late and took off at 6.15. On the way some of the students got sick, so we hat to make some stops. When we finaly got there, the guides told us about some rules we had to obey and showed a waterfall called Skacavac.

The leader, Lorence also known as Lory, showed us around and told us a lot about the forrest. It was a long walk, and lasted 5 and a half hour, because we had to go down, up and down. The guides brought us some food, tea and coffee and if it was'nt fore them, we've never find the way trough the forrest.

Three of us did'nt go with the others on the walk, because they we'rent well, so they stayed in the bus, while the other walked. 

They drowe us the way to Sarajevo at 6 pm and we were there at 9 pm. We checked in at the Hostel city center and after a quick dinner and beer, we slept like babies.

Written by Carina and Jonathan

Thursday 8th

Today we went up to the ford of Herceg Stejpan and saw the amasing view over Blagaj. While we saw the ford we also saw that some archaeologists who were digging there looking for artifacts. We also met a donkey up there and we gave it some food. On the way down we looked at different kinds of plants showed by Jens.

Later that day we had some lessons in the conference room in hotel Ada. In the evening we packed our belongings for the trip to Perucica and Sarajevo.

Written by Ditte E and Mia A.

Wednesday 7th October

Today we started with breakfast at 8 o’clock after a good night’s sleep. Some of us were sitting outside by the beautiful river in the sun and eating. About an hour later we were ready to go for a walk.

The weather was so good that almost everyone were wearing shorts or nothing. We walked about two km to Tejkae, which is a Muslim monastery. We followed the river Buna all the way, and it was very beautiful. We had a break by Norfish, which is a fish restaurant. Here the river was so clean that we could drink of it. It tasted like real Danish water. In the monastery all the girls had to wear a scarf, it was so funny! The boys took a lot of pictures. 

Then we walked back to the hotel where we had a good lunch outside consisting of first dish, main dish and a desert. After the good lunch we had our first real biology class down here. We found a lot of different plants and examined them. It was really exciting. We had a little free time before dinner. In the evening we all saw a funny movie, then goodnight after a good day with a lot of sun in Blagaj. 

Written by Kathrine and Lise 3.c

Tuesday 6th October

Our day started at 7.30 am at Mostar Gymnasium, where our hosts had to guide us through one of their normal school-days. Some of the classes that we participated in were biology, English, geography and Bosnian.

After that we went down to “Old Town” to see it own more time, and then we went to, what we call, the Bosnian version of “poolhouse”. At about noon we parted to our host’s home, to have the last traditional Mostar-meal.

At 3 o’clock we met up at Mostar Gymnasium, to talk about Mostar city vs. Fredericia city, the good parts and the bad parts. First we talked about it in smaller groups and then we made a common conclusion for both towns. When we were done we picked up our suitcases, gathered up in front of the Gymnasium to take a group-picture and say our last goodbyes.

While some cried and some swam in the fountain (Carina), Tommy called 8 taxi’s that would drive us to Blagaj. After the death race we arrived at ADA hotel where we should spent the next 3 days. After a god meal and some coziness, people went to sleep.

Written by Mia E and Sophia.

Monday 5th October

Today was Ditte Sofie’s 18th birthday. It was the teacher’s day in Mostar so the students get some free time on their own (; .This means that all the teachers including our teachers went for a ride to Croatia. In the meantime all the students were of any school activities for the whole day. 

We used the spare time differently. Some were staying in bed longer than usually and some got up early to see the city of Mostar. We spent the time shopping. However we weren’t all together. Some went shopping in smaller groups and others in bigger. 

At 3:30 pm a lager group met at a monument in Mostar and when Ditte Sofie came, everybody sang the happy birthday song to her. After a while the guys got hungry and many decided to go get something to eat, others started their shopping trip. 

To spend some time all together we decided to meet later the same day for dinner so we decided to meet at a restaurant in the old part of the city at eight o’clock. However because it was so late and people went eating we changed the plan and decided to visit the pancake house and eat at home instead. 

At about eight o’clock most meet in front of the gymnasium and walked together to the pancake house. Ditte Sofie arrived a little later and when she entered the place everybody sang the birthday song again. So at this point everybody had wished her a happy birthday. Everybody was at the pancake house and got to talk to each other so we think everybody had a great time. This was also the first time we were all together. 

After a great dessert everybody went to the pool house and stayed for a while. This was in short terms what everybody was doing at Monday the 5th. 

Written by Sara and Katja.

Sunday 4th October

We met at 8.45 at Mostar Gymnasium. Then we gathered in a bus which was paid for by Mostar Gymnasium. The bus took us to a catholic church called Medugorje. We had to remain silent and wear long pants to show respect to the catholic users of the church. We saw the statue of Mother Mary who is told to have been seen around the church by some local people in 1981.A strange experience was when we saw two women touching the knees of a Jesus statue. The explanation was that an architectonic mistake courses that when it rains, water comes out of Jesus’ knees, and the church users have turned into a religious phenomenon. We also saw large groups of people praying outside the church in some kind of labyrinth.

After that, we drove with the bus to the Kravica waterfall. This was 25metres high, and it was extraordinary to see such a beautiful view compared to the wannabe-rivers in Denmark.

We also went to see a reconstruction of how a village from the area would have looked like in old days. It had little houses and stables with a few different kinds of animals. Afterwards we had some sandwiches in the bus to take the worst hunger.

After we had sandwiches, we moved on to some ruins. A myth says that this was the town called Troy in ancient times, and that Achilleus’ adventures went on here.

Pocitelj was an old castle on a mountainside near the Neretva River. It was very hard to climb the mountain, but the refreshings in shape of pomegranates and figs helped a lot. There was a mosque which was open to curious tourist.

After a long trip on a warm, sunny day, we went home with care, because we had to watch out for the hooligans who could be very violent. Everybody had a rest, and afterwards we went to the billiard club to have a coke/juice or two. At last we all went tired to bed to be well rested for the wonderful upcoming next day.

Written by Christoffer, Søren and Ditte Sofie

Saturday 3rd

After the first night by our hosts, we met at Mostar Gimnazija 9.30 am. At the school we made different sport activities such as table tennis, basketball, volleyball and football. When people got exhausted, we had free time. Some went to the old town and "the old bridge".

The bridge was very beautiful and exciting to watch - some people were paid by the tourists, to jump from the 28 m high bridge into the 7-10 m deep river. After that we went to the nearby museum where we watched a film about “the old bridge”. Here we saw the story of how the old bridge was build-destroyed-rebuild. Some people were emotionally touched by the film. At this time we were hungry so we went to a restaurant where we ate a traditional meal – it was called cevapi and it was made of a mix of meat and bread. After the meal we spent some hours at the billiard club, which is similar to our “Pool House” in Fredericia.

Afterwards we went home with our hosts and had dinner. In the evening we all meet at the disco called Oxygen. Here we had a lot of fun, until we were tired and sleepy – We have to mention that the beers are very cheap, so we drank a lot (:

Stine, Kevin & Elvan 3.c 

3.c arrived well in Mostar

The exchange has started in a good way.

3.c arrived yesterday afternoon at Mostar Gimnazija. All the hosts were assembled in front of the newly restored gimnazija. 3.c was welcomed by the headmaster Krpo Bakir and had a something to drink.

Vanja Kajgana told the students about the coming program and after this introduction the hosts took the visitors to their homes for relaxing and some bosnian supper.

The danish students started in Fredericia at 01.30, but there was no bus. The driver wrongly assumed it to be the next night. So all the students phoned their parents and in a half an hour they organized transport to the airport of Hamborg. It was a miracle. Thanks to all the parents ,who gave 8 hours of their sleep, - we managed to catch the plane in the last second - actually, 3.c delayed the takeoff with about 25 minutes.

In this exchange we already feel the hospitality of the people of Mostar. So we look forward to do the rest of the programme.