Thank you dear All!

This will be our last postL 

We really had a great two weeks in Lithuania, experienced nice things and made a lot of new friends. Like a LOT!!! We will never forget you guys! 

IPF3 Finland

On Friday morning we had our closing ceremony in the Kaunas College conference hall where we heard the final presentations of each countries, thank you- speeches from the teachers of Lithuania and Belgium and got the official diplomas and the coolest non-official diplomas from the Lithuania's team.  We also heard musical performances from a few of Lithuanian musicians. We also had a great cocktail-party, where we had delicious snacks and afterwards some coffee and ForteIII-cake (which was Delicious!). Closing ceremony was nice and we really enjoyed our last day in Kauno Kolegija all loosened up!:)

Veera R. and Edita waiting for the ceremony to start!

Our girls!

Suvi presenting environmental aspect

Pieter & social aspect

"Kestis" & Cultural aspect

Franziska and Sandra with ICT aspect

Dandja & economic aspect

Some flute music

I gotta feeling!

Our coolest diplomas, thx Lithuania Team! <3

We want food!

Yammy!

Piece of cake!

After the closing ceremony we had a little time for packing our belongings in the Hostel before we went bowling all together! Bowling was relaxing and exactly what we needed to do on our last day together! Finnish girls played successfully, three of us got a score over 300points;)! Eating in an Italian restaurant (the greatest pasta ever!) just crowned the last day and even though it was just so sad to say goodbyes to everyone we enjoyed our evening so much:')

Suvi, Silvia, Jenna and Stephanie @ Bella Italia 

Carla, both Veeras, Edita & Romina waiting for food

On Saturday morning it was time for us to leave Kaunas & Lithuania behind, when we started our homeward-bound, yet again through Riga. In Riga we went to Zeppelin hangar markets and to a shopping mall to do our final shoppings! The day was looong and the last moments we spent eating good food in Steiku Hauss. 

Enjoyed some smoothies to be able to do some more shopping!

Suvi & Veera P. goofing!

We had some great steaks.

Finally on the flight back home

We arrived to Turku, Finland a bit before nine in the evening with mixed feelings; it was nice to be home again, but it was sad that this project had come to an end:'(

Team Finland quietens, who knows for how long...

<3 Team Finland

     Jenna, Veera P., Suvi, Veera R. & Edita

Hard days are almost over!

Some relieved greetings from Lithuania!

Today we have been working only with the final report, and guite surprisingly  we got it done and even early! We were expecting that we will be working with the report still in the night, but actually the only part we are still missing is the easiest, tomorrow's presentation:)

It starts to be the reality that tomorrow this awesome project of 25 students will be over:'( It's nice to go home, but we just started to get to know eachother better and the last couple days have been a lot of fun, although also tough work!

We have spent almost two weeks here in Kaunas, Lithuania and it all comes together tomorrow when we present our outcomes in the closing ceremony. We will be presenting the highlights of our report to the Kauno Kolegija's 1st and 2nd year hospitality management students, to the teachers, to the director of Kaunas Region Tourism Information Center and of course to our 20 awesome participant buddies!

After our official closing day we are going bowling with the other teams and probably have a slight competition then as well! We'll see who strikes the most!(we do ;) ) Bowling will lead us to a restaurant where we are going to have the last dinner together:'( Early on saturday morning we're going to leave Kaunas and Lithuania, and be headed to home with 10,5 hours of pitstop at Riga.

From Kaunas with Loooove
Team Finland

Excursion day vol. 3!

Team members ready for today's adventure

Today we had a great study trip to Kaunas open-air museum in Rumšiškės. Museum was already interesting as it self but as we had a guide, we got to know a lot more about the buildings and lifestyles of different epochs and social strata. After a couple hours' guided tour at the museum we had an excursion about Lithuanian Easter-festivities, where we got to decorate our own easter-palms and taste typical Easter-food. Last but not least at Rumšiškės everyone got the opportunity to ride in a horse wagon which was unexpected and nice ending for a great day - a cherry on top of a cake! 

Three daughters in the house?

Christian artifact hand made by locals

Veera and Jenna playing with Martynas from Lithuania

Great views down from the tower

Every country presenting their easterpalms
(Spain, Belgium, Finland, Lithuania, The Netherlands)

Waiting for the "easter breakfast" 

After the open-air museum we went to Park Inn Hotel Kaunas, where we got to experience a culinary show. We got to learn how Lithuania's traditional dishes beetroot soup and Cepelinai (potato-meat dumplings) are prepared. Experience of the local dishes was fulfilled when we got to taste the dishes. 

Beetroot soup

Cepelinai with sauce

The team's feelings after a sunny day are a bit blue for the fact that this project is about to end in a couple of days - but there's no time to feel sad since in this short period of time we still have a lot to do: Gathering and modifying all the results the teams have produced into the final report and making the power point presentation which will we presented on Friday in the closing ceremony. And what comes to tommorow's division of labour: the teams will come together to the national teams like in the beginning and work on their original dimensions.


Anxious and a bit stressed about tommorow's work load,


Greetings from the Finnish team,

ZzZz...

Social aspect in responsible tourism

Yet again it is time for our daily post!

Today we had a lecture of social aspect given by Carine Colson, Belgium, in responsible tourism. Because of the subject we "went" also social in our class, and had a great discussion within the participants regarding to the socially responsible tourism. For example we were thinking about how the tour operators among others could enhance ethical travelling and how they could interact with the locals and benefit from each others, because tour operators are the key figures to influence on the customers' choice.

Suvi, Edita & Veeras "being social"!

The class was fixed up to be a circle so that we could be "social"

When implementing sustainability into a company, the company should form a team which has a manager with strong knowledge about the sustainability issues. The team should stimulate knowledge and experiences through different kinds of trainings and courses, which are provided for example by Travelife. After implementing the sustainable culture (to the company) there should be measurements done both for the determined and indicated impacts and through these points the company can create sustainability management. Company also has to do an action plan and after executing these plans the company should evaluate and report their findings so that knowledge about the matters would be similar within the whole company.

Lisää kuvateksti

Today we also finished our last workshops in the international groups, and from now on we are going to work with the national group again! Our part from the final report is our topic, the environmental aspect. We will be gathering all the information brought out from the questionnaire and the recommendations which we've been working with in the international groups.

Some more workin' with the pies!

 We are going to start working with our part of the final report now so there's a lot of writing ahead, again!

We'll be back!

The Finnish Team

Feelings after weekend

On Saturday we went to another study trip, Pažaislis monastery and though the sun was shining, the weather was really cold. Hrrr... We also visited the old town of Kaunas and saw for example the castle of Kaunas, Kaunas City Hall and few churches. After the tour we had a lunch with Belgians and then we did some shopping. In the evening we spent time together with all of the teams.

On Sunday we had a day-off and used it as well as we could because today it is hard work again!

New week, new teachers. As the teachers after last week have changed we started the day with teachers' introductions. The support for Finnish team will this week be given by Inna Levanto, our lecturer in Tourism. After seeing the new teachers we had a lecture from Natalie Aldous, Rotterdam, regarding to the economic aspect of sustainability. We were discussing about the findings of a tourism survey data she showed us and afterwards in the national groups we did some problem solving considering the initiatives governments should take. Also we were thinking how to affect on the consumers' attitudes and behavior from the sustainable point of view.

Now we are going to work in the international teams again within the workshops. Today we are going to finish the cultural and ICT aspects and do some prework for tomorrows economic and social workshops.

Some working with "the pies"

We'll keep in touch!

Team Finland

Study trip to Kernave and Trakai!

Today we had a study trip to Kernave and Trakai, which are about one hour away from Kaunas. At Kernavė we visited Kernavė Archaeological Site (Cultural Reserve of Kernavė), which belongs to the World Heritage List of UNESCO, to experience among others the five impressive hill forts. As Susanna mentioned an issue about the importance of sustainability management in these kind of attractions, we tried to observe our experiences of Karnavė also from that point of view. We noticed that already some of the hills are suffering from erosion for example in the way of landslides. 

Map of Karnave sight

Noticeable landslide

These were the only kind of guidance signs 

Suvi climbing the steps to the top of the hill

Jenna and Veera on top of the hill

Team Finland experiencing natural sights of Karnave

"Local transportation"

IPF 3 participators in sunny Karnave

After tasting a traditional dish of Kibinines and "buljong" soup we went to the Trakai Castle. First we got to experience some exhibitions of historical artifacts by our selves and after that we got a guided tour around the main parts of the castle. We thought it was quite sad that only few parts of the castle were original, and rest was renovated.

Kibinine & soup

IPF 3 in front of the Trakai Castle 

Inside the Trakai Castle

We had a great and fun day which culminated in the evening when we had a great dinner near the city center with Susanna. We went to a local restaurant called Zalias Ratas which serves typical local dishes. Food was great and the experience was very pleasant partly because of the way how the food was prepared in a fireplace next to us. 

Tomorrow we are going to another cultural tour which this time heads to Pazaislis monastery in Kaunas. 

To be continued...

Team Finland

P.S. Special thanks to the taxi driver for excellent service and getting us safe and sound back to the hostel. Keep up the good work, You made our day!