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SUSSET Trip To Greece
In order to improve the economy of our towns we should think of our town as a business – it’s our business too!!
Two extremely important tools in business are Networking and benchmarking and on the trip to Greece all parties carried out a great deal of work in order to accomplish both.
No one can underestimate the power of networking. This gave us the ability to learn about each countries culture, values and very importantly it’s people. For Susset this was worth its weight in Gold. I spent a great deal of time talking to others and for those of you who know me this is something I do very well!
I met Thomas and Igor of the Polish delegation and we discussed the matter that many people from Poland were now working in our area and the integration and opportunities arising in future from this issue.
I learned from the Swedish delegates from our partner town of Stromstad that Stromstad had now become a thriving tourist town because of the closeness to Oslo in Norway and also because merchandise and food was much cheaper than that in Norway. I mentioned that I knew several people who were now working in Oslo due to the oil industry and it would be interesting to see if they had visited the town or it is no doubt likely following a chat that they may well visit in the future. I felt having learnt something of the town that I also would like to visit the sometime when I have a little more time on my hands.
The people of our host country Greece could not have been better or more welcoming. They went out of their way to ensure that everything went smoothly and that we were all well attended to at all times.
The first day was spent in Pyrgos and began in their lovely town hall, which had high ceilings, gilded cornices and large marble pillars. We began with welcome speeches from all mayors and project leaders followed by presentations giving an overview of each of the participating towns and their findings from the project so far.
In the afternoon we were separated into working groups along with our partner towns. It was questioned whether this was the best way to work and should we remain working together within our partner towns or split into groups based the various themes of the project.
Together we established that we had all one common denominator in our partner towns – which was that we had all previously been thriving fishing towns on the coast and with the decline of the fishing industry at various levels we had all to find different ways of coping mechanisms to cope with our evolving, growing towns.
The most common future goal being the tourist industry and we had a lengthy discussion on how tourism was affecting our towns and how improvements could be made to make this more sustainable. We discussed the level of service given to our tourists and how action could be taken to improve this. All delegates were passionate about their town’s development and a good few hours was very quickly taken up with these discussions. We concluded that we were of course more than happy to work alongside our partner towns.
Following a short guided tour of the town of Pyrgos we were then taken to the Olympic Holiday village for dinner with traditional Greek dancing from the local dance group, which included several youths.
Friday began with a visit to Olympia home of the original Olympic Games from ancient times followed by a quick visit to the Olympia museum.
We then departed to our various partner towns in Greece. Stonehaven joined with Stromstad to visit the town of Messolongi but unfortunately our partner Polish town Leba had been unable to attend and had withdrawn from the project – the future Polish partner town to be HEL! (And believe it or not Hel does look rather appealing from the brochure!)
We arrived at Messolongi via a new bridge, which had been recently opened and spent a short while at the salt mines of Messalongi, which is the main supplier of salt to Greece.
In the evening we met with the Mayor in the Museum of History and Art. Here we were proudly told the story of the Exodus of Messolongi following the Turkish siege in 1826. It was apparent that this story had been passed down from generation to generation and that there was great knowledge and pride of the civilisation of the town from all ages. Early that evening we had a discussion with the mayor who wished to establish what could be done to improve the tourism in the town. We discussed that it was a town’s uniqueness that attracted visitors but at this stage it was difficult for us to establish just what it was that made Messolongi unique from other small towns.
That evening there was a youth music festival in the town square. A great and well-attended event the town was buzzing with vibrancy and people of all ages flocked to watch the event. The streets were narrow, paved and pedestrianised with small bars and cafes and a good selection of shops.
Later on that evening we walked around the lovely harbour and decided to learn Nick the Greek project Co-ordinator and interpretor some traditional Scottish Doric before our next meeting with the remainder of the Scottish delegates the following evening. He quickly learned ‘Fit Like?’ and ‘Far aboot div ye cum fae?’ this made him extremely popular and gave him an opportunity to go around talking to all the remaining Aberdeenshire counterparts.
The next day on touring Messalonghi it quickly became apparent what made the town unique. The beautiful harbour front and lagoon, which many locals regularly cycled. The peacefulness and tranquillity of the Lagoon, the ruined roman baths which could be linked with the salt mines to produce salt baths for tourists wishing a relaxing spa type holiday. Yes, I could quickly see myself having a holiday in this lovely town. A music festival for my children to relish, cycling along the sea front perhaps a little fishing and a rowing boat on the lagoon – the perfect get away from it all!! An extremely beautiful town and totally unique!
Well what could Stonehaven take away from all this?
The sunshine of Greece is the envy of all – however what was very thought provoking was the knowledge of the town’s history and culture at all ages.
The engagement of the youth through being proud of their independence and also the extremely well organised youth festival with clearly talented entertainers.
What could we do?
Perhaps by engaging the help of the Heritage society we could arrange for schools to be visited periodically and presentation given regarding our history, culture and maybe even a little Doric thrown in!
The youths in our town love music and we are lucky enough to have two music teaching businesses in the town along with an encouraging secondary school. Could we host our own youth music festival?
Hopefully by supporting and teaching our young then they would truly find a sense of belonging and proud to be a Stoney Loon or Quine!
I am extremely grateful to have been part of this project and if I can sum it all up - Affa fine toons wi affa fine folk!
And Stoney – well ‘it’s nae a bad place tae bide!!’
This report was provided by Jane Davidson from Stonehaven Community Council 16th May 2006
See another report here
See another report here
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