Force majeure decided that this meeting of the GLOBE project team should take place in Istanbul. We were originally supposed to meet in Tarsus in eastern Turkey, but the ground there was still shaking, and all the accommodation facilities in that and surrounding towns were taken by people who had recently lost their homes due to the earthquake.

A unique experience during Ramadan

Some forces also brought about that this meeting gets scheduled just in time for Ramadan, which is the holy month for Muslims. This implies specially decorated streets during the evening hours, a special liveliness around holy places such as Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque, and definitely a special atmosphere in the city.

An encounter with the city's rich history

This very unique experience began already with the arrival at the beautiful Istanbul Airport, which was built in the second decade of the 21st century and officially became the main airport in 2019. What followed was the imposing architecture of religious buildings, fantastic bridges, incredible crowds in the winding shopping streets, the colorfulness of local crafts, the beauty of the palaces in the coastal areas of the city, delicious food and numerous other attractions.

The project’s mascot was chosen – CT Digi

During our project meeting, we covered a number of different topics over the course of two days. The project coordinator from Spain presented us with the plan and tasks for the coming period, we agreed on who will finish which task and by what time, and we also chose the project's mascot. Although our Juca (owl dressed in Serbian traditional clothing) was somehow the most beautiful, we voted for the mascot to be an interesting microphone that we named CT Digi because it reflects the topic of our project, which is an effort to improve the digital literacy of students.

The consortium of the project, of which LINK and ITHS are a part, faces the task of preparing teaching materials that teachers will be able to use in classes while introducing students to digital literacy skills. We will try out all the designed tools at the five-day training that we will organize in Belgrade in October. We are especially looking forward to having the opportunity to present our city to our now dear friends – project partners. Pupils from their schools will come along with them as well, so we hope that they will create as many beautiful memories in Belgrade as we did in Istanbul.