COMENIUS

,,W pracowni

europejskich artystów”

,,In the workshop

of European artists”

Będzin (Poland)

Trimiklini (Cyprus)

Chieti (Italy)

Caceres (Spain)

Agrinio (Greece)

Clydebank (Scotland)

Part One – Poland

“Hurry up otherwise we will be late!” screamed Lena.

“I’m coming,” I replied.

I came down the stairs. My stressed out friend was standing in the doorway. It has just

turned out that we are going on a two-day trip to London. It’s not much but still enough

time to explore the city.

We got into the car. Lena’s dad was driving and her mum was sitting next to him.

A couple of minutes later we got to the airport, got out of the car and were about to

collet the tickets when Lena’s mum screamed…

“Lena!”

“Yes, mum?” asked Lena.

“Take care of yourself!” she begged.

“Don’t worry,” I assured her.

“Don’t trust boys and always have your mobile with you,” she advised.

“We’ll be fine.” smiled Lena.

We hugged Lena’s parents and said goodbye.

When we were boarding the plane I had mixed feelings. It was not because it was the

first time that I was flying but I was worried about what may happen in London.

Nevertheless, I decided not to think about it in order not to destroy the trip. We sat

down.

“We are flying to London, isn’t it great?” Lena went into raptures.

“Fourteen-year olds in London, It sounds great doesn’t it?” I breathed.

“First we will go to the Museum of Natural History or to Buckingham Palace, what do you

think?” asked Lena.

I didn’t reply as I had already fallen asleep…

A COUPLE OF HOURS LATER…

I woke up and we got out of the plane. We caught a taxi and drove to our hotel. It was

12.26 when we unpacked our luggage, changed and left the building. To begin our tour,

we decided to visit the Tower of London. We took a lot of photos and then we went to

see Big Ben.

“Let’s go to the London Eye,” I suggested.

“You know I’m afraid of heights!” replied Lena.

“I’ll go then,” I huffed.

“But our mums said we shouldn’t separate,” stormed Lena.

“So where are we going?” I asked her.

“To Buckingham Palace?” suggested Lena.

“Ok, let’s go then,” I raced off.

I couldn’t wait to get to Buckingham Palace, but first I craved for a London ice cream. I

decided to break the rules a little and pretended to do my shoelaces.

Lena kept going. She was a couple of meters ahead as I hid behind a telephone booth.

Suddenly someone tapped my shoulder…

Part Two - Spain

It was a policeman asking me if I was lost.

“No, I just want to taste a London ice cream and then I am going to see the London Eye.”

I replied.

“Are you alone in the city?” asked the policeman.

“No, I´m with a friend, but we have separated for a while” I told him.

The policeman told me to phone Lena and then make sure that we go everywhere

together. Meanwhile, Lena kept on walking and a few seconds later she realised that I

was not with her…

“What a horror, where is I?” Lena cried.

She phoned me but I didn´t answer. Just as she was starting to get very nervous; she

saw me coming along the street.

“I don’t do that again, I was very worried!”

After I apologised we decided to go to Buckingham Palace. We started our visit along

the different corridors and marvelous rooms. We were very impressed at the beauty of

the monument but we started to feel a bit tired, so we decided to rest for a while on a

bench.

We were just chatting when we saw a red and black bag underneath the bench. Lena

picked it and it had our names written on it…

We couldn´t believe what our eyes were seeing. At first, we didn´t dare to open the

bag, but I, who was braver, finally did it.

We found a note inside and a small envelope containing 500 pounds.

The note said:

“I AND LENA: DO YOU WANT TO FIND THE COMENIUS SECRET? GO TO

CLYDEBANK IN SCOTLAND AND ON TOP OF THE “TITAN CRANE” YOU WILL

FIND MORE INSTRUCTIONS.

ARE YOU BRAVE ENOUGH?”

I didn’t doubt it, I wanted to go to Scotland as soon as possible but Lena wasn’t very

sure. She was scared.

“We cannot go to Scotland I, we are supposed to be in London for two days, what are we

going to say to our parents, we will be very worried!” she shouted.

“Oh come on Lena don’t be a child, we are in London and with 500 pounds, we can book a

flight to go to Scotland and come back the same day, our parents are not going to know

anything, this can be a great adventure!” I assured her.

Finally I was able to convince Lena, and we went directly to the airport to buy a flight to

go to Scotland. When we landed in Glasgow we didn’t know what to do next….

Suddenly, Lena’s mobile started to ring…

“Oh no it’s my mum! What am I going to tell her?” pleaded Lena.

“Don´t answer,” I replied “Let’s try to find out how to get to Clydebank!”

PART 3 – Cyprus

At that moment Lena woke up startled, only to realise that she was still on the plane

that we had boarded earlier with I. She was very relieved that her mum hadn’t actually

rang her as she definitely didn’t want to lie to her. She knew however that sooner or

later she would have to talk to her mum. Puzzled with these thoughts, she felt the plane

descending for landing so she decided to look out the plane’s window to get a glance at

Glasgow from above. She was astonished to find out that instead of a grey sky and rain,

she could see a clear blue sky and the sun seemed to be shining brightly!

“I look, I can’t believe it it’s actually sunny in Scotland! We are lucky!” cried Lena.

“That is truly something amazing Lena, at least we won’t get wet while trying to get to

the Titan Crane,” said I happily.

As soon as we landed, we realised that something was very wrong. The signs in the

terminal read “Welcome to Cyprus” and the two girls weren’t sure whether it was some

sort of advertisement or if we had actually got onto the wrong flight. As soon as we

reached passport control it was evident: We were in Cyprus!

As if their confusion was not enough at that moment, Lena’s mobile phone bleeped as it

received a text message.

“That’s definitely from my mum,” said Lena worried.

She opened the new message and was shocked at what she saw. The message read:

“KAZIA AND LENA: EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENS IN LIFE, HAPPENS FOR A

REASON! SINCE YOU ARE IN CYPRUS YOU MIGHT AS WELL MAKE THE BEST OF

IT. TRY AND LEARN SOME THINGS ABOUT THIS NEW COUNTRY AND MAYBE

THIS WILL HELP YOU GET BACK ON TRACK.HAVE FUN!”

After overcoming the initial shock from the mistake we had made which took us to

Paphos in Cyprus instead of Glasgow in Scotland, Lena and I collected their luggage and

decided to spend the day in Cyprus before boarding the next flight we could find for

Scotland. We took a taxi and asked the driver to take us to the most interesting part of

Paphos that he could think of.

After a short, twenty minute drive, the driver dropped us off by the medieval castle at

the old harbour in Paphos. There were people strolling along, enjoying the sunshine while

others were enjoying a coffee or a meal at the many cafes and restaurants. Some

families were visiting the “House of Dionysos” which lay nearby with its famous mosaics.

“Let’s get ourselves an ice-cream and visit the castle, the view from the roof of it must

be amazing!” said Lena.

“Great idea,” replied I. “Let’s go.”

The girls bought usselves an ice-cream and were soon standing on top of the castle

looking across the blue waves of the Mediterranean Sea. We could also see the whole

shoreline of Paphos with all its hotels and beaches.

“It’s great here I,” said Lena.” I wish we didn’t have to go.”

“You’re right!” replied I. “But we mustn’t forget that we have a flight to Scotland to

catch!”

“We better get down and see if we can find anything that will be helpful for the next

part of our journey,” said Lena.

Lena and I descended down from the castle and started walking when suddenly I’s phone

vibrated as a text message arrived. The two girls looked at one another…

“I’m too scared to open the message,” said I.

“Quick open it,” said Lena. “We don’t have time to lose!”

“IT’S NICE TO SEE THAT YOU ARE ENJOYING YOUR TIME IN SUNNY CYPRUS.

HOWEVER CLYDEBANK AWAITS. SOLVE THE FOLLOWING RIDDLE AND YOU WILL

RECEIVE YOUR RESERVATIONS FOR YOUR FLIGHT TO SCOTLAND:

WHAT LETTER COMES NEXT IN THE FOLLOWING SEQUENCE? D R M F S L T_

CAN YOU HELP I AND LENA SOLVE THE RIDDLE AND CATCH THEIR FLIGHT TO

SCOTLAND?

(HINT: THINK ABOUT MUSIC!)

PART FOUR - ITALY

Thanks to her music lessons, Lena told I that the last letter was D, because these are

the musical tones. With the riddle solved, the two girls took a taxi to the airport. We

looked for the ticket office, where we gave the solution to the riddle so that we could

book a flight to Clydebank in Scotland. We climbed the stairs onto the plane, and just

after the take-off, we fell asleep.

When we woke up, the plane was landing. So we looked out of the window and we realised

that this could not to be in Scotland, because we saw a famous dome and I said:

“I know this city, it’s not Clydebank it’s Rome! Great!”

“How could this happen?” questioned Lena

“Who is taking us around Europe?” we both asked surprised.

“Let’s go to the ticket office and see when the next flight will be!” asked Lena.

The lady at the ticket office told us that the next flight would only be in the evening, at

20.30, and if we solved a riddle, we would have a discount on the cost of the tickets…

To solve the enigma

answer the clues….

… and match the

colours to the letters!

Who was the founder of Rome?

The capital of Italy

Where the gladiators used to fight

So we decided to explore the city to find out how we could answer the clues to solve the

riddle. Lena decided to take a taxi to reach the centre of Rome as soon as possible, so

we could have a ride on a tourist bus. In two hours, we visited all of the major sights of

the capital, and listened to the story of the birth of Rome.

At the end of the tour, the bus stopped in front of a monument, and Lena and I

discovered that we were right in front of the answer to one of their clues. Happy, we

got off the bus and decided to visit the monument…

Part Five - Greece

After we visited the famous Coliseum and saw how gladiators were fighting, we met a

man who seemed quite serious and mysterious. The name ERASMUS was written with

large letters on his shirt. The girls started looking at each other and immediately

realised that we were close to the secret of their strange trip.

The man bowed to the girls and seemed as if he knew how eager we were for adventure.

He gave us an envelope and, after the girls thanked him, we quickly opened the envelope.

“I was sure that our next station would be neighbouring Greece!” said I.

“Great but how did you find out about Greece?” asked Lena.

“Because it says about the country which gave birth to the Olympic Games,” said I.

On the next day, we were in Athens. We knew that the first thing we had to do was to

visit the Acropolis and admire the Parthenon. After we toured the monument and visited

the museum of the Acropolis, we felt impressed.

On their way down from the Sacred Rock, Lena asked I if she wanted to have something

to eat. We sat on a nearby tavern and the natives recommended that we try souvlaki. We

were curious to find out what a group of friends, who were sitting next to us, were

drinking. Then, we tasted Greek ouzo.

On their way back to the hotel, we bought a tourist guide of Greece. We went to their

room, had a nap and then, I started browsing the tourist guide looking for information.

She read about the ancient site of Olympia, the Delphic oracle, the Mycenaean

civilization and while reading, the book fell off her hands as she fell asleep…

Lena grabbed the guide, opened the book and browsed a page about Crete, the Minoan

civilization and how Theseus killed Minotaur. She read about Ariadne’s thread and how

she gave it to Theseus so as not to lose his way inside the labyrinth.

Immediately, her mind went to the symbolism and thought…”I hope we will follow the

right guidelines for our unexpected trips so as to find out the secret and not lose our

way…Definitely, as long as the secret takes time to be revealed , we gain experience and

become wiser…” Lena fell asleep too and there was absolute silence in the room when, all

of a sudden, the hotel phone started ringing…

Part Six - Scotland

I picked up the phone, a booming voice from the phone said “To retrieve a flight ticket

you must go to the hotel restaurant downstairs there will be a note for you with further

instructions to receive your ticket.” The mysterious caller hung up the phone as Lena

woke.

”There was a mysterious voice on the phone.” I told Lena

“So what should we do now?” Lena replied.

Just as we were about to walk out the door the floor cracked below us and we fell into

an old creeky tunnel. We walked down the tunnel and felt quite scared.

“Let’s just walk on and see where this leads us”. I suggested.

We came out of the tunnel and found usselves at the restaurant where we went and

asked for the tickets but we weren’t there. As we explored the restaurant we went

around asking people if we saw any tickets in an envelope.

Finally a lady held up an envelope saying SCOTLAND and gave it to us. Next we hurried

to the airport to catch our flight to Glasgow. Four hours later we arrived in Glasgow.

When we got off the plane the weather was miserable and we got drenched by a passing

taxi. We asked if the taxi could take us to the Titan Crane.

“No problem I will take you there, it will only take a few minutes,” said the driver.

When we arrived we were amazed by the height of it.

”Wow it’s massive!” I exclaimed.

‘’Isn’t that the biggest crane you have ever seen?’’ screamed Lena.

As we walked up we noticed there was no one there.

‘’It looks like the elevator is jammed so we can’t get up,’’ I said.