The third day differed a lot with the previous adventures. We started the day along the coast while performing a field study. Together we discovered the many invasive alien species that Portugal has to offer, amongst them we mainly focused on the Eucalyptus trees, pampas grass, ice plants, giant reed and the Sydney golden wattles. The guide that followed us on the walk told us more about these species. According to them, almost all of these IAS (invasive alien species) not only reproduce fast without natural threats but also easily lights on fire. The guides told us that Portugal has a big problem with fires in the forrest mainly because of the IAS’s wide spread. While walking we quickly noticed that big areas had been covered with a certain IAS’s without anything else growing there. For example, the Eucalyptus peels its bark by itself depending on the temperature. For the tree, peeling is only a way to adjust to the surrounding, but to the rest of the ecosystem this bark that falls to the ground prevents anything from growing because of its thickness. Later on during the day we continued our trip with a visit on a big marine center where we got a guiding and two different lectures about IAS’s and how they function in different habitats. However these lectures were meant for students with much higher pre-education than us. Because of this, the fact that the PowerPoint wasn’t readable and because of the horrible acoustic it was hard to understand anything at all. The consequence was a lot of sleeping students, now if we were one of the sleeping beauties is for us to know and for you to never find out.

When the day was over for everyone it continued for us Swedes. We went out to dinner with the whole gang including our dear teachers. After walking a bit we found a nice restaurant and spent the evening there. Anna and Johanna had the time of their lives, it is amazing what youth can do.

It’s scary to know how fast and dangerous these species are for the natural environment. Many of the plants that we saw today were really beautiful until you found out what horrible effects it has had on the surroundings. Maybe looks aren’t always worth it.

Hello again!

Our day started with a wonderful hotel breakfast. We had bacon, eggs, and pineapples. The bus left at 10:15 and our destination was Colegio de Amorim and we were greeted by the entire Portuguese student group, as well as the Slovenians and Belgians. We listened to presentations from all the countries and also presented our own. Next on the list for the day was a logo competition which didn’t meet our expectations.

At 12 o’clock we had a tour around the school and looked at their classrooms and sports facilities, which were very nice. We had lunch together with the Portuguese students in the school cafeteria. The menu for the day was mashed potatoes and meat together with some rice and lettuce. We had a great time and got to know each other better.

After this wonderful lunch, we started the ”real” project with a walk around the village to search for the invasive species pampas grass and we also took a ride with the bus to see more of the grass near the lake. When we came back to school we wrote about some invasive species and made posters which you can see in the pictures below.

Our day ended with a welcome dinner with all the countries and people involved in the project at restaurant Sao Joao. We had a lovely meal with our friends and of course the teachers as well. After having returned to the hotel we played pool with our Belgian fellows.

At the moment, we are sitting with some after eight and 7UP and it is soon time for the bed and get prepared for tomorrow which hopefully will bring some more adventures!

Go baj!

Many of you might have slept in today but that’s not the case for us. The day started at five am when we gathered at Landvetter (the airport of Gothenburg) with our luggage ready to leave for adventure.

Our first stop was Frankfurt where we had approximately one hour to switch gates and catch the next flight. However this small task ended up being a bigger hassle than we could’ve ever thought. When reaching our gate we were the last ones boarding the plane, but one of the workers did not let Nicke and Natha take the bus that was supposed to transfer us to the flight. They ended up trying to catch a flight to Miami instead but that’s a story for another time. Our teachers, Anna and Johanna, were in a state of shock and were afraid that the whole trip was ruined. In the end they somehow, in someway, got to the plane in time and the trip continued.

At last we reached our destination, Porto in Portugal. When first arriving and taking the bus to the hotel accompanied by the Belgian delegation we were quite nervous. How was this supposed to go?

We stayed at the hotel for a bit and made sure everything was comfortable before taking the metro into the city. The hotel we are staying at is called Hotel Brazao and is a really nice hotel with an old fashioned style, almost like being in your grandparents house. Brazao is located about 50 minutes away from the inner-city if you take the metro, which is exactly what we did alongside the Belgians. In Porto we roamed freely, had a delicious meal, and did some sightseeing in the rain.

A day packed full of new impressions – bring on the next one!

From september 2018 to june 2020 students at the natural science program at Aranäsgymnasiet in Kungsbacka, Sweden, participate in the ERASMUS+ Project Save Our European Heritage from Invasive Alien Species attack. This, together with upper secondary schools in Belgium, Portugal and Slovenia. The idea with this blog is for the students to post informative and interesting news during our Learning, Teaching, and Training activities in our partner countries as well as during the meeting in Kungsbacka, which will take place in may 2019.

During 25th november – 1 st december we’ll be attending the first meeting, which will take place in Povoa de Varzim, just outside of Porto in Portugal. Every day during that week our students will tell you about their day here on the blog, and we hope that you will follow us during our adventure!

/Anna Wallergård, teacher at the natural science program

Aranäsgymnasiet, Kungsbacka, Sweden