Ein England-Reisebereicht

Sunday, 5th October 2008:
At 7 pm, the students who go to England have to be in front of the school in Dabendorf. After a few minutes, all students have arrived and are waiting for the moment when the doors of the bus will be opened. At 19.30, the bus driver opens the doors and we can go in. On the one hand, all of us are very excited and nervous, but on the other hand, we are happy. One week without our parents and brothers and sisters!!!
Moments later, the bus is rolling and the trip has begun. Everybody is happy and looking forward to seeing England, because it will be a great experience. First, the bus driver tells us about the rules for the trip on the bus. He says, that every two hours, we will make a break. Sometimes, it is very loud and the teachers are very strict, but a moment after this, we are quiet, again. So, the day comes to its end.

Monday, 6th October 2008:
Yesterday we crossed Germany from east side to its west side. Now, we can see the border with the Netherlands. It was very interesting to see the Netherlands. I think, in the Netherlands, there was our 4th or 5th stop in this tour. After a while we are in Belgium. As the petrol is very cheap, we fill the bus up here. That is also a stop for going to the toilet or buying food and drinks. So, after half an hour, we have to enter the bus again, because we are heading for France. On the one hand, it is so hard to leave the bus and later go again, but on the other hand it is good to move your body after two hours of sitting on the bus. So, we come to France and have to take our passports in our hands. In the lane for buses, which have to cross the Channel by ferry we are all happy to hear that we do not have to show the passports. They had just looked at the teacher’s passports. Well, we can put them in our bags again. The students would be allowed to go by ferry without a check. Now, it would take us 1 ½ hours to cross the Channel to our destination – England. In England, we have to go a few hours to come to our first stop in England, Canterbury. First, we go to the Canterbury Tales to learn more about the history of Canterbury. After this sight, a few students want to go in the Cathedral of Canterbury, but there is an alarm, so we have to be evacuated. The idea to go in this cathedral is destroyed. The rest of the day, we have free time. After this time, we have to go to Hastings – our host town. There, the families which look after us this week will be waiting for us.
The family is very delighted to see us.

Tuesday, 7th October 2008:
Today, we want to go to Beachy Head, where there are great cliffs. We have to wait at the pickup point at 9 am to be taken to our destination. The time of „our“ house to this bus stop is about two minutes. When we are at the cliffs someone tell us, that from these cliffs, a lot of British commit suicide. We are astonished to see the car and a motorbike on the ground. After this trip, we go to the Sea Life Centre in Brighton. There, we saw a lot of fishes, but the attraction was a very big turtle. A few students did not obey the rule, that we mustn’t touch the animals in this centre. Nevertheless it was very interesting to see these animals. Also here, we have free time for things, which are interesting for us after this visit to the Sea Life Centre. At the coast of Brighton, there are very high very strong waves.
It is really cool! It is so funny to see a big wave is come and girls standing too near the sea. So, they run away and scream: „Ahhhh!“
This day we do not get home so late, so we can go to the supermarket „LIDL“ in Hastings. It is six to seven minutes away from my home. Besides, it is the first day, when Kevin, my fellow occupant, and me have time to play with the dog of the family in England a little bit longer then yesterday. It is very funny, too. When, I came in yesterday, the dog ran to me and jumped at me. He is really nice! But when we see the daughters, I think it will be very loud. So, we let the Tuesday come to its end to begin the Wednesday.

Wednesday, 8th October:
Today, we have to be at the pickup point at 8 o’clock in the morning.
The teachers and we want to go to London, the capital town of Great Britian by bus. One of my dreams is to see this city and this dream will come true. Our tour is really long, because the distance is very big. On the bus I think, why is the trip so short, because tomorrow we have to go home to Germany. But today, we can see the most beautiful city of England! Senlac-Tours which is an English company to help students from other countries to see English towns and sights have organised our tour through London. We can see Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, Buckingham Palace, which has 775 rooms, the Tower of London, Tower Bridge and last but not least Madame Tussaud. In front of Buckingham Palace we do not have the luck to get a parking place for our bus. Therefore, we have to go to the next sigh. Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament are very, very nice. It is a pity, that when we cannot stand under Big Ben to hear the bell, but it would have been really loudly. So, we go to the Tower of London. I thought the Tower of London was a tower, but it is a castle. Tower Bridge is one of the most beautiful sights of London. Excuse me, at the beginning I said, that London was one of the most beautiful cities in England, but it is neither one of the most beautiful cities of England nor Great Britian, it is one of the most beautiful cities of Europe.After this sight-seeing-tour, we have ample spare time. Most of us go to McDonalds, because it is not a long way there. We also go to McDonalds to regain our strengths. After a small break, we up and down Oxford Street. I think of buying souvenirs of London or presents for our family in Germany. We have two or three hours for this, before we go to the last sight of London, Madame Tussaud! There are Bollywood Stars (like Salman Khan, Aishwarya Rai…), Cultural Figures (like Albert Einstein, Pablo Picasso…), Fashion (Including Kate Moss, Posh and Becks…), Hollywood Stars (like Brad Pitt, Cameron Diaz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Cruise…), Royality (Including Prince Charles, William and Harry, The Queen…), Popular Musicians (like Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Robbie Williams, Justin Timberlake, Amy Winehouse…), Sport Stars (like Boris Becker, David Beckham, Mohammed Ali…), TV Stars (like David Jason, Big Brother 9…) and World Leaders (like Vladimir Putin, Tony Blair, Martin Luther King, Georg W. Bush…). It was very interesting to see, how detailed the figures have been made. After that, we have to go to the bus. In the evening, I think, how quickly a day can be finished.

Thursday, 9th October:
Today, it is the day, when we have to go back to Germany.
This week was so beautiful. On Tuesday evening, we had been to LIDL, because we had wanted to buy a small present for Molly, who is one of the two children in our host family. It had been her birthday. Besides, we had bought food and drinks for the week in England. At this opportunity, we had bought dainties for the dog. This morning, we knew, it would be the last time with the family. So we left the rest of the dainties as a present him (the dog). The dad of the family have gave us 7 pounds for the taxi, which arrived 15 minutes before we had to be at the fish market. As I have said above, this day would be the last of this trip, so we stayed in Hastings, but all of the day was not for us, we went to the Schmugglers’ Caves of Hastings in the morning. There were also very interesting, because you can see the life of schmugglers in the past, e.g. a man in a prison. That was very funny, because, when you go in front of this man, he starts rattling at the bars. Every time, when a girl went there, he did it and she ran away and crying. It was fun to see them run and hear them scream. Then we had free time. That was the last chance to buy presents for the family and souvenirs for ourselves. At 3 pm we had to enter the bus, because we wanted to go home. Excuse me, I would have stayed in England for one or two weeks. But, for that, we did not have enough money. So, the tour about 20 to 24 hours was beginning. All two hours, we had a break, like during the tour to England. Today the tour would be 9 hours and tomorrow about 10 hours, but we would spend 1 ½ hours on he ferry, also like during the tour to England.
During these 1 ½ hours it was nice to see the Channel in the evening.
Besides you can go, on the bus you have to sit, but at the ferry you can go and do not have to sit. It is great.

Friday, 10th October:
Today, we have a tour about 10 hours before us. In the middle of the tour the bus driver plays a DVD so that we can watch a film and the next hours are not so boring. This film is about two Indians of the tribe of the Apache. We see a really well-known film „Der Schuh des Manitu“. It is very boring, because, I know this film, but nevertheless some scenes are funny.
So, we pass France, Belgium, the Netherlands and we go from the west side of Germany to the east side to Dabendorf. We arrive at the school about 10 am.
It is an experience, which I will never forget. My best tour or trip abroad.