Project partners from the Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Latvia and Lithuania have met each other before. A year ago in October, 2010 a preparatory visit for initiating a new Comenius multilateral partnership project took place at Alytus Panemunes Secondary School, Lithuania. (Later, in 2011, due to the school reform system taking place in Lithuania the school has been reorganized into Alytus Panemunes Basic School)

On October 1 – 8, 2011 the first meeting of the Comenius multilateral project “Promoting Magic Places in Europe – Living Europe Past, Present, Future” took place at Alytus Panemunes Basic School. Schools from ten European countries – Germany, Latvia, Greece, Portugal, Czech Republic, Cyprus, Spain, Italy, Turkey and Lithuania -participate in the project. The project will last two years and its main objectives are to promote interest in the European historical heritage and at the same time enhance the identification with local and European community in the sense of unity and diversity, to help the students to develop their English communication skills and their knowledge of ICT and modern media, achieve a greater awareness of the importance of intercultural relationships and widen their abilities for team work and work through projects.

In the morning of October 2^nd 23 guest students and 18 guest teachers were welcomed at Panemunes Basic School. They were warmly met by the school headmaster Mr. Zenius Kunigonis. Host teachers and students showed their school, the rooms where different subjects are taught, the staff room, the library, the renovated gym.

The day was warm and sunny and it was a perfect time for the all of us to visit Alytus Mound where we had a workshop on the history of the mound from the top of which we could enjoy a beautiful panorama of Alytus town.

In the afternoon we went to the workshop of one of the most famous blacksmiths in Lithuania – Kazys Babravicius who has been working in smithery for more than thirty years. He showed us the process of his work and how he designs his works – crosses, using the Christian and pagan motives such as the motives of the sun and the moon, the plants and a grass – snake motives…

The day ended in the ethno – disco: meeting participants, teachers and students, taught each other to dance their dances – Lithuanian, Latvian, Greek…

The morning of October 3^rd started with the meeting at Alytus Town Hall. Project participants were welcomed by our town vice – mayor Mr. Dobilas Kurtinaitis and other officials. Our guests had a short excursus into a complicated history of Lithuania. They also learned lots of interesting facts about the past, present and perspectives of Alytus town.

After that it was the right time for the students to discover Alytus town. Students worked in multinational groups. They got some questions about the sights and cultural places in Alytus and had to ask the passers – by about these places. Later students prepared presentations of their discoveries and showed them to other teams.

At the end of the day we had a sports hour in our renovated gym playing basketball and volleyball with our PT teacher Marius Sukevicius.

On October 4^th we travelled to Trakai town and Trakai region. In Trakai, which was the medieval capital of Lithuania and is very important in the history of Lithuania, we visited the 14^th century Trakai Island Castle located on the island in the Lake Galve. Now it is a museum telling the story of the castle and the town through archeological finds.

During the free hour students and teachers treated themselves to “kibinai”, the national dish of Karaims (or Karaites), a small Turkic – speaking religious and ethnic group resettled to Trakai by Grand Duke Vytautas in the 14^th century from Crimea after one of his successful military campaigns against the Golden Horde. The descendants of Karaims, who are very warm and friendly people, still live in Trakai. They have kept their religion as well as cuisine which became very popular in the south – eastern region of Lithuania…

We also visited the other gorgeous place located on the bank of the Lake Galve and seen from the Trakai castle.That is Uzutrakis Manor Estate which flourished at the turn of the 19^th and 20^th centuries. The manor house from the terrace of which opens a beautiful panorama view of the Trakai Castle and the lake, is surrounded by the park created by a well – known French  landscape architect and botanist Eduard Francois Andre. We’ve learned that Uzutrakis Manor Estate was owned by Count J. Tyszkiewicz and now, after the reconstruction, the manor house is used as the concert hall and the place for the art exhibitions.

The last place, where we had turned to that day, was Dalgedu homestead. There we had the educational programme on baking Lithuanian bread. While waiting for the baked bread we listened to the stories about path of flax and tried to learn weaving… A really busy day full of various impressions…

October 5^th started with doing posters using IT, our IT teacher Zydrunas Tauvydas helped the guest students to do this. Then we visited Alytus Museum of Ethnography. Here we divided into two groups, while one group was visiting the exposition of the museum, the other group was learning how to make candles and vice versa. Candles were made by hand using the old technic known from the 14^th century. It is really surprising that such an old technic of making candles has survived till nowadays. Returning back to school we had the display of the candles brought from ten countries arranged in one of the school halls.

In the afternoon our project partners together with the school community watched and listened to a concert during which our school students, danced, sang and played different musical instruments. This way we appreciated and honored the teachers as in our country October 5^th is known as the Teachers’ Day – a special day for appreciation of teachers.

After that we had a quiz “What do you know about your Comenius partners and their countries?’’ Students and teachers had fun answering questions on art, geography, history, of the countries – partners of the project…

The day ended in the Song Evening: we listened to traditional songs from ten countries and learned to sing them and, of course, again we danced traditional dances… We all enjoyed the atmosphere of the evening and the whole day, it has been so warm and friendly…

On October 6^th we had a whole – day trip to Kaunas, the second largest town of Lithuania and the temporary capital during the interwar period. We saw the Kaunas Castle and had a walk in the Old Town, visited Perkunas House, one of the most original examples of the late Gothic secular architecture and had a lesson on medieval dancing there. We visited the Church of St. Gertrude and lit the candle there and we did some shopping in the pedestrian Laisves Avenue and visited the Devils’ Museum having the collection of 2000 sculptures and carvings of devils from all over the world. The collection was initiated by painter Antanas Zmuidzinavicius and was established in his house. The collection of the museum is so rich in devils that all our partners have found not a single devil representing their countries…

On the way back we turned to Prienai Cross – making centre and learned about making wooden crosses there. Cross- making is a unique branch of Lithuanian folk art inscribed on the UNESCO Non – material and Verbal Heritage Masterpiece List, so we could compare how Lithuanian crosses are made of wood with the crosses made of iron …

It was really difficult for the guest and host students to part on the early morning of October 7^th… During five days they all lived through lots of wonderful moments which helped them to know each other better and become closer to each other…

After a tearful farewell in Alytus guest students and teachers travelled to Vilnius, our capital, from where the following day they had to go home… On the way to Vilnius we turned to Kernave, the ancient capital of Lithuania put on the UNESCO Heritage List. It’s the area of the historical five mounds located on the bend of the river Neris. Despite the cold wind blowing from the river we all climbed some of the mounds and enjoyed the picturesque views of the Pajauta Valley…

Then it took us less than an hour to reach Vilnius, our present capital city. Here the guide was already waiting for us and we had the excursion in the Old Town of Vilnius which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site too… We hope that our guests enjoyed visiting the Cathedral and St. Peter and St. Paul’s Church as well as strolling through the narrow streets of the Old Town…

So, this way we hope that we’ve reached one of the project goals – to show magic places in our country, as we are the only country having four capitals – the ancient capital Kernave, the medieval capital Trakai, the temporary capital Kaunas and the present capital Vilnius. All these places, we think, carry some magic…