From 10th until 15th September 2018, we, the class 9d, went together with Mrs. Jungbluth and Mr. Witkop to Eastbourne, a town at the south coast of England. We stayed there in host families.
Since we went there by bus (Why not by plane? A riddle never to be solved…), we left Blomberg at 6.00 AM (Continental Time). Our journey lasted the whole day long and we crossed the Netherlands, Belgium and France. We missed our ferry by five minutes, so that in the end we arrived around 10PM (English Time) in our host families.
England is (at least in my opinion) very different. They’re one hour back in time and they drive on the left side of the street (Hannah P. once said, „Look Mrs. Jungbluth, that car over there drives without driver!“, realizing a second later, „Oh, his steering wheel is on the wrong side…“). Speaking English with native English-speakers was not a problem at all and the guest families were very kind (at least I was told so). They say „please“, „thank you“ or „sorry“ for really everything.
On Tuesday, we discovered Eastbourne, went shopping and also hiked to the famous chalk cliffs, Beachy Headand The Seven Sisters. Parts of famous movies such as James Bondand Harry Potter were filmed here. Beachy Headis also the world’s second most popular place for suicide.
On Wednesday we went to London. We drove into the city on the Thames by ferry, crossing several bridges. We visited Big Ben (damn it, the tower’s name is Elizabeth Tower…), which was scaffolded from top to bottom, Westminster(it is illegal to die there…) and, of course, Buckingham Palace. The security is very strict in these places, but you could take photos with the Westminster Guards, although they wouldn’t interact with you in any way (no smiling, laughing, speaking or anything that would prove they are living creatures).
For half an hour, we could discover London on our own (in groups of at least three). After that, we took a flight with the London Eye. Though very commercialized, it still was fun. The flight took about twenty mintutes ‚til half an hour, and you could see for miles. But again, security was very strict here, too. I now want to quote Mr. Witkop: „If you still have scissors, knives, explosive bombs or anything alike in your pockets: Into the Thames!“
After that, we wanted to take the legendary tube from Waterloo Stationto to take us outside London. So we did. Most of us. Three students, it would be too embarrassing to name them here, couldn’t get into the train because it was too crowded. They didn’t know at which station to get off either. Besides that, you can barely call somebody by phone in the underground. Half an hour (around ten trains later), they arrived at our station, because we luckily had been able to call them, nevertheless.
On Thursday, we went to Brighton, one of the bigger towns near Eastbourne.
We visited the Royal Pavillion there. It is a very exotic building. From the outside it looks like an oriental mosque, from the inside it looks Chinese. There are golden dragons everywhere. The inside rooms also combine neoclassical styles with it. If you go there, you’ll get a audio guide, telling you interesting things about the different rooms, as you walk trough them.
After that, we could discover Brighton and The Lanes, small sidestreets with unordinary, but interesting little shops, in small groups. After that we went to the pier to eat the famous, but not that delicious Fish & Chips. But where there’s Fish & Chips, there are also seagulls, attacking tourists just like us.
In the end, we threw the remaining food together and left it to the seagulls. They fought for it, twenty, thirty, maybe fourty seagulls fighting each other to get the biggest piece of fish. Ten seconds later nothing but the box the food had been in was left.
After that we went to the pier. England’s south coast is famous for its piers, large bridges built into the open see where you can find lots of slots and other games that are fun to play.
Friday was our last day, so we decided to go into the centre of Eastbourne again. We could go shopping there and we all ate ice cream. Our bus should’ve left at 4:00 PM, but since this was the time when school was over, our taxis that should take us from our host families to our bus were late for half an hour and our bus got stuck in traffic jams a few times.
We drove home through the night and arrived in Blomberg around 7:00 AM at Saturday. This was the end of our long, exciting, astonishing, beautiful…….. you know what I’m about to say. Anyway, this was a cool classtrip! The End.
Jonas Rissiek