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First published in Polish by Barbara Gołębiowska

Anyone who has ever gone on a mountain trek knows that it requires stamina, decent preparation and making sure you have reliable companions, but the view from the peak and getting to know new trails are the best rewards for every effort. The same goes for Erasmus+ mobilities.

It is always a good idea to seek advice from experienced travellers before setting off. This article is a set of recommendations based on the experience gained in the project entitled Through interpretation to appreciation and preservation. Developing an adult education programme based on heritage interpretation method, as part of which 30 staff members of the Józef Piłsudski Museum in Sulejówek, Poland travelled to Croatia for certified heritage interpretation courses. The train we took for our expedition was called 'KA122-ADU - short-term projects for mobility of learners and staff in adult education’. The journey lasted from 1 October 2022 to 30 September 2023, and in fact is still continued. Every adventure is different, but I hope that our experiences can encourage, inspire and support the readers.

^{A view of the mountains near Ogulin, Croatia, where two of our Erasmus+ courses took place. Photo by Barbara Golębiowska.}

So first things first.

First and foremost - be daring! It is perfectly normal to feel apprehensive when setting out for the first time on an unknown trail. Sometimes you can hear cautionary tales about dangers lurking everywhere, huge precipices and wild beasts. We, too, felt concerns caused by stories of extraordinally detailed application forms and complicated European procedures, and the thought of estimating a budget for such a complex undertaking caused us nightmares.

Yet, it turned out that these stories were mostly exaggerated. The application form is designed in such a way that it leads you step by step through consecutive stages of the process, and the budget is largely based on flat rates, so the system makes all the calculations based on your project assumptions. As a result, the procedure is much simpler than in many national grant programmes. In addition, you can attend very helpful training courses, webinars and consultations organised by the National Agency.

Secondly – set your itinerary and destination. When you think about going hiking in the mountains, you do not immediately want to venture to the Himalayas, but it doesn't mean that you will not manage in the Carpathians. What's more - the Carpathians are not at all inferior to the Himalayas, they are just different. In our case, choosing the Carpathians (i.e. short-term mobility projects) rather than the Himalayas (cooperation partnerships) for our first expedition proved to be the 'bull's eye'. It allowed us to train our staff, gain experience and pave the way, thanks to which we can now consider more challenging expeditions. It was also very important to identify the challenges our institution was facing and establish how participating in the project could help us solve them. This way we could clearly define the purpose of our expedition.

^{We practice interpretive guided tours in the courtyard of Ogulin Castle. Photo by Barbara Golębiowska.}

Allow time! It is rather obvious to everyone that it is impossible to combine wandering in forests, pastures and meadows with business meetings, keeping an eye on deadlines and handling emails. Yet, everyone finds time for holiday. Running an Erasmus+ project and all its stages ranging from the application to procedures involved in signing contracts, management, reporting, dissemination, and settlements, take up a lot of time. If in your work, you are busy for 100% of time, consider delegating some tasks for the duration of the project and distributing them in such a way that you don't have to organise an international festival for 1,000 people or close an investment at critical moments. e.g. at the stage of writing a proposal, serving mobility or settling project accounts.   

The crucial question is: who do you want to set off with? A tightly-knit group who can work together and whose members can be counted on in difficult moments is a prerequisite for any successful trip. The same goes for the team you will build around the project. And this applies both to participants in mobility, and the team from the host institution or colleagues from your organisation.

In our museum, we adopted transparent rules for the selection to the project. All those who met formal requirements received an invitation, and finally everyone interested could participate in a course. The team was diverse and comprised staff from different departments, which we were very happy about, but it made it even more important to establish channels of communication between us and to clearly present the rules of participation in the programme. Also, from the first contact with our host institution - MUZEs Ltd. from Zagreb - we felt that we were on the same page, and this was one of important selection criteria for us. Thanks to the trust built, sincerity and swift communication exchanges, we were able to solve all the problems we encountered, which related to deadlines, contracts, travel planning and random matters.

The support of our legal and accounting team and, of course, the management was also very important - without them, our trip would have never materialised. And one more thing - every tour leader has a person who can support or even replace them, when necessary. This was also the case for us, so that project work could ran smoothly during the holidays. 

^{Polish-Croatian course group with our trainer Iva Klarić Vujović. Photo by MUZE.}

Before any trip, it is very important to carefully think about the equipment you need and get in advance. Even the best-planned trip can turn into a survival experience if you forget a rain jacket, a water bottle and a map. An up-to-date guidebook is especially important - and here's the great news: Erasmus has one too! The Erasmus+ Guide is updated every year and can be easily downloaded. Make sure to have it with you on the way, as you can find the answer to almost all of your questions there. To us,  Erasmus webinars, in which step-by-step procedures and activity phases are explained, served as excellent 'road maps' on our journey.

It is essential that you take care of endurance and skills of the whole team before the expedition. If you get out of breath on the first approach, you will not appreciate the beauty of the trek. Therefore, it is worth using organisational support resources effectively.

In our case, mobility participants took part in online group English classes. Not only were they more cost-effective, but also served as an opportunity for team integration. What is more, language classes focussed on vocabulary related to the topic of our course. In addition, a representative of a Polish-Croatian tourist organisation gave us a free lecture about Croatia. And here we have a tip for you: it is worth approaching embassies and cultural institutes of respective countries for assistance. At our museum, we invested our own resources in workshops on teamwork, accessibility, environmental responsibility and intercultural dialogue, which developed participants' skills in terms of Erasmus priorities, and at the same time introduced them to values on which the heritage interpretation methodology is based.

Customise your expedition! Instead of going with the crowd on a well-trodden path, why not discover the unknown, wild peaks? We did just that, and instead of using companies offering mass courses for Erasmus participants, we used a certified intensive course for a small group, which was tailor-made to our needs and allowed us to integrate with the host organisation.

Once you have set off, take care of communication and good atmosphere. Let everyone know your purpose and the rules of the trip. Wherever you can, make sure that participants enjoy each other's company, the venue and the moment. 

It's also a good idea for everyone on the trip to know that they can turn to you if they have any questions or problems. On the other hand, remember that these are adult learners who have made a conscious decision to take part in the programme and committed themselves to specific activities, so you don't have to fill in a questionnaire in the system for them and search over the phone for a parking space next to a hotel in a city 800 kilometres away. If - as it was in our case - people are going to the courses in groups, ask a trusted person from a given group to be the 'contact person' on site. This has worked very well for us.

It is worth making the most of the opportunity to get to know the country you visit and its people. After classes, you can have dinner, take a walk or sightseeing trip together. After our mobility, we consider ourselves the ambassadors of Polish-Croatian friendship!

A true mountain hiker is eco. And you can go green, too. Slow travel is healthy, trendy and relaxing. On top of that, it leaves a much reduced carbon footprint. So why not adopt an eco-friendly approach to travel. In our case, the most of the group travelled this way, and we are very proud of it. 

In the mountains, knowing the emergency number is a must. Mountain rescuers can always be counted on, and it is a good idea to ask about the conditions on the trail before going out. For you, such a contact person is the Project Supervisor at the National Agency. Do not hesitate to write or call them. Rest assured, it is better to do this than to have to struggle to solve problems later. Let your Supervisor know if there is an emergency situation preventing a member from participating in the mobility. They will tell you exactly what to do in such a situation. Isn't it nice to have someone you can always count on during your Erasmus mobility and who cares as much about the success of your trip as you do?

Don't forget to take photos and bring souvenirs from your trip! Hundreds of photographs, some pebbles, and stamps - who doesn't like to collect things that will allow you to revisit magical moments years later and brag about your achievement in front of the whole world? During an Erasmus mobility, this is no less important - it will come in handy both when reporting on the project, but also when sharing the results on your organisation's social media, website, EPALE portal, and during conferences and other gatherings.

Once you have reached the peak, be sure to document your feat! In the case of Erasmus-funded courses, this will be a certificate of attendance, which must meet very specific requirements, so make sure you have a good look at a respective chapter in the Guide! And last, but not least give yourself time to rest, celebrate and give thanks. You have travelled a difficult road together, so you deserve all the credit. And when giving thanks, don't forget about those who didn't reach the peak with you (i.e. did not participate in the mobility itself), but without whom this expedition would have never happened – employees of the accounting, administration and legal department.

^{Together with Croatian colleagues, we perform workshop exercises. Photo.MUSE.}

After the expedition, share your experiences. Our museum hosted a lecture for the team as part of online Thursday lecture series, and we are planning an international seminar in September to sum up the project and disseminate its results. We are looking forward to hosting our colleagues from Croatia, whom we have gowned to like very much. Erasmus really contributes to opening minds and building friendships, and this cannot be overestimated in the world full of divisions.

Once you come back, you will probably work up an appetite for more! Thanks to experiences, knowledge, and contacts you have gained each subsequent journey with Erasmus will surely be easier. Our next step will probably be submitting a proposal under Key Action 2: Small Scale Partnerships. We intend to carry out a programme in collaboration with a partner abroad that will allow us to use the skills we gained as part of Key Action 1. And after that? Who knows, the Himalayas are waiting 😊!

Have a safe and pleasant journey!

The article participated in the competition Sposób na Erasmusa+ (Way to Erasmus+). The text took first place.