16 awarded teams from 14 high schools had the opportunity to make a study trip within the project Europa Diary from 9-13 May. During the 1700 km-long trip, they visited Ljubljana, Vienna and Budapest, accompanied by crews from several media outlets: RTS, TV Zona and Blic daily.

The awarded entries have mainly been focused on the environment, the opportunities offered to the youth in the EU as regards education and training as well as the promotion of European values at the local level. The trip was a unique opportunity for 70 pupils hailing from 10 towns to meet, hang out and share knowledge and experience.

Their first stop was Ljubljana. At the Ljubljana City Hall, pupils and their teachers had a discussion about Ljubljana being pronounced the European Green Capital with Simona Berden. Naturally, the subject arose the most interest among the pupils who dealt with “green topics“ in their works. The title was established in 2010, when it went to Stockholm and Ljubljana wore it with pride in 2016. She said it was important to educate children from an early age about sustainable development and local efficiency, as well as the application of good practice in relation to recycling and waste treatment. Following a guided tour and getting to know the capital of Slovenia, pupils visited the House of Experiments, founded over 20 years ago, where they conducted more than 60 experiments and had a chance to taste what it is like to be a scientist for a day.

Once they had left Ljubljana, they headed for Vienna, which has for the eight consecutive year been pronounced the city with the highest quality of life in the world. Following a guided tour and sightseeing in downtown Vienna, they paid a visit to Schönbrunn Palace, one of the most important cultural monuments in Austria. On the second day of the visit, they went to the Natural History Museum in Vienna to see a part of its 30-million items collection. After that they went to ORF – Austrian Public Broadcasting Service. At ORF, they made a guided tour and had a chance to see the state-of-the-art studios and technologies used to produce media content. They also had the chance to see how the bluescreen works. They ended the day with a visit to the highest point in Vienna – the 170 m tall Donauturm, or the Danube Tower.

Budapest is where the pupils and their teachers spent the last days of their journey. At the Central European University, founded in 1991, they learned more about studying opportunities after high school and toured the campus. They visited the European Youth Centre where they learned more about the Council of Europe, European youth funds and opportunities to join the Centre in an interactive way. After some more sightseeing, they headed back to Belgrade.

The goal of the trip was to bring high school pupils closer to EU cities and institutions and allow them to acquire new knowledge and skills they will apply in the future as young leaders in their own country.

If you’d like to win a trip, follow the www.recinam.rs web-site and sign up for the next round of the contest scheduled for September.