BYE, BYE DUBROVNIK

Our journey to Dubrovnik is finishing. This morning we have had the chance of enjoying the astonishing views of the city from the top of the mountain, where we have arrived with our partners of A Step Furthers project by the cable-car. After taking lots of photos, we have gone down to have lunch together in a nice place close to the port of the Old Town, where we have received the certifications of the project and we have shared experiences and anecdotes. A great atmosphere to say goodbye until the next project.

THIRD DAY

Our journey to Croatia continues today with a trip to Peljesac peninsula and Korcula island. The first one is distinguished by the growing of mussels and oysters apart from the characteristic stones that cover all the country. From here, we have taken the boat to Korcula, which is one of the best preserved medieval towns of the Mediterranean and a traditional tourist and cultural centre of the island. 

Zubiri students

SECOND DAY IN DUBROVNIK

Today the sun shines and the students have taken some photos of the city while teachers were meeting. After that, we have had lunch all together in one of the typical restaurants of the old town of Dubrovnik. The last activity of the day has been the visit to the astonishing walls that surround the city. One hour and a half trough the history of the town camera in hand.

Zubiri students

LEONARDO STEP FURTHER

PARTNER MEETING. DUBROVNIK.

FIRST DAY: ARRIVING
We are already in Dubrovnik. This is the first day of our visit to this beautiful Croatian city where we are meeting our partners of 'A Step Further' project.
After the greetings and despite the rain, we have enjoyed some of the charming places of the Old Town. Tomorrow we will start with the arranged programme including a visit to the city, its walls, squares ... You will discover all of it tomorrow in our next post.

A STEP FURTHER LEONARDO PARTNERSHIP 2011-2013

5^th meeting in Donostia – San Sebastian

18-21 March 2013

The 5^th meeting of A Step further took place in Donostia. Our partners from Croatia, Slovenia, Polonia and Turkey came to Donostia. The partners had the opportunity to visit Donostia and Bilbao. Our colleagues, tourism students, worked hard showing them the best of Donostia and Hondarribia. The tourism students of Errekamari of Bilbao showed them Bilbao.

We presented the project brochure and the project agencies merchandising was exchanged among the partners.

We hope they enjoyed the Basque Country!!!

Many workers are forced to take early retirement

With the issue of the crisis Spain is suffering a lot in the economy and much of these aspects of the crisis is reflected in early retirement.

As we know, the retirement age is in 65 years but we can retired earlier. Many of workers between 61 and 63 years old are unemployed, so they are retiring. To think, just two months ago that the new pension act can have access to a voluntary retirement, early or forced to retire two years would enable you ahead of schedule. The self-employed are the most affected ones and that blocking the new law requires them to continue trading until 65 years old.

The central government suspended until March these sections under the act. Them, we’ll know what it will happens with all the workers and also, with the social security because they are in the limit as they hardly counted two taxpayers for every pensioner.

Xabier Alberdi

Traffic flow falls in spanish turnpike highways

Spanish highways are losing vehicle traffic since the crisis began. A recent study says that in the first 10 months of 2012 the traffic decreased in 17.193 vehicles, but the worst new is that it´s a progressive fall. This index was not known since 15 years ago.

There are many reasons for this decrease, as unemployment index, taxes increase, additional cost of expropriations and presence of secondary free roads.

In this situation 6 turnpikes are currently in insolvency proceedings and maybe some more will be in the near future.

In 2007 the vehicle fleet began to decrease after many years of increasing, up to now a 27% of the traffic flow exactly. This means the situation in the Spanish turnpikes at the moment is like in 1998.

What situation awaits us in the future? We have to start thinking about sharing cars, using the public transport or getting a bicycle. 

Xabier Torrado

Parking in Donostia

After measuring the costs of diesel when moving inside the city, now its the time to talk about the cost of parking your car in a parking lot or in an OTA zone.

There are 4 zones, the special zone, red, blue and green.

• The special one is the most expensive, because it’s located in the middle of the city( light brown color)
• The red zone is a bit cheaper than the special zone
• The green zone is the cheapest, placed in the universities and Zurriola

this is the map of the zones

Ayuntamiento de Donostia - San Sebastián

Lets compare the costs between the 4 zones:

1 hour

Special 1.94€

Red 1.48€

Blue 1.12€

Green 0.87€

If you want to park your car safely in a underground parking, we can difference 3 different prices depending on the zone of the underground:

(click on the links to see the map and prices)

1st group Okendo, Boulevard, Cervantes, Kursaal, San Martín

2nd group Buen Pastor, Easo, Txofre, P. Cataluña, Atotxa

3rd group Pío XII, Arco, Illumbe, Antiguo Berri, Zuatzu

Ayuntamiento de Donostia - San Sebastián

Now lets calculate the price of 1 hour like before:

1 hour

1st group 2.29€

2nd group 1.94€

3rd group 1.75€

To continue the example from the Diesel costs, lets add the cost of parking to that example:

From 14 to 24€ per month (diesel)

Parking in a OTA zone (green zone) for 6 hours: 3.49€ a day, 69.8€ for 20 days, for example, if you have to park there to work.

Now things don’t look that cheap with an estimated total of 87€ per 20 days.

Next time we’ll talk about the cost of maintenance and taxes, and then compare them to the cost of using the bus and bike.

Bastian Parra

The "eusko", the new basque currency

The “Euskal Moneta” association presented on the 16 of January bills of a new Basque currency called “Eusko” in the north of the Basque Country. This currency will be available in late January just is the north of the Basque Country.

Is scheduled that for the January 31  about 126,000 bills of one, two, five, ten and twenty “Euros” with the illustrations of the basque culture enter into circulation.

At the moment, 73 basque companies, traders, freelancers and associations from multiple sectors have joined the project.

The objective of this project is to create a coin that favors local development and support environmental preservation. This currency is looking for developing the basque culture, as well as the use of the euskera in public, for example, in the shops.

The consumers will buy the products at the same price as they would buy with euros but the supplier or dealer will provide the 5% to convert “euskos” in euro. The 3% is reserved for social associations, cultural, linguistic and enviromentalists involved in the the system. The other 2% will be used to finance this system of local currency. With this project, it encourages the reuse of “euskos” instead of changing them.

The people that want to participate in this system must adhere to the association by paying an amount between 5 and 20 euros, and choosing a collective that will benefit with the 3% of the amount of payments made with “euskos”, after having converted their euros into this currency.

Jorge Uceda

Tamborrada

The San Sebastian day starts in 19th of January at 12 p.m and finishes on 20 January at
midnight. This day is very important for the people from San Sebastian and the surrounding villages which are also part of this special day.

The celebration starts with to hoist of flag from the city in the square of the old town.
The representatives of the “Tamborrada” begin touch “La Marcha De San Sebastián”. The
companies are compost between 20 and 50 drums and between 50 and 100 barrels parade
during all day 20 districts of the city accompanied by band.

On the 20th at noon “Tamborrada” usually get the children. In this parade students usually
come from different schools with military costumes of two centuries ago.

There is an award called the Golden Drum, this award is usually given to individuals or legal
entities, as a consequence to work or performing trajectory in all the years which give a
positive image of the city.

The first Golden Drums was given in 1967 to Manuel Bastos, Miguel de Echarri, Guy Petit and
Guillermo Cebrián. This year if given the award for “La Clásica de San Sebastián”, is a cycling
race that has all the years to professional cyclists from around the world

Lander Sein