Our school has organised a trip to England, along with two other schools, one being nearby and the other being from Slovakia. The trip was delayed for quite a while due to some complications, but fortunately this adventure to a foreign country could proceed.

In September, the students from our (Cpt. Jaroše) and the nearby school (Komenského) met up at the bus stop for our trip overseas. The students said goodbye to their parents. Their luggage was loaded onto the bus, the children got onto the vehicle and took their seats and waited for the actual trip to finally begin. Once the traveling bus began to move, our announcer and guide throughout England, Ondřej made his presence known through the speakers in the bus. The few things he said included the fact that the current bus driver was going to leave at the border and be replaced with two other drivers, which, wasn't all too important.

He also told the children that there would be a clipboard circulating around the bus soon enough, onto which they were supposed to write their phone numbers and save his if they needed any help while they are staying in England. Ondřej sent out that clipboard and the children began doing what was asked of them, except for the author of this paper. He forgot to save Ondřej's number.

A few hours later the students were woken up at the border to have their passports checked before allowed onto the ferry along with the bus. The ferry was crowded and contained a few sleeping passengers which were entertaining to watch, considering how very differently people sleep. Yes, even people's sleeping position is different in other cultures and countries. Except for the mixed cultures' resting habits, there was nothing of interest on the ferry except for a few shops. An hour later, the students arrived in England. Well rested from the bus and ferry, they were sent out to their first adventure throughout Oxford with their guide Ondřej.

Oxford is a city of education, housing quite a few schools in it and all of them seemed prestigious with successful people having graduated from there in the past, like the author of Alice in Wonderland. A museum was also visited in which quite a few prehistoric bones and knowledge were stored. Something I'm sure most of the participants enjoyed, and those that didn't participate sure would have. The visit to Oxford was quite exhausting, but the visit to the museum made up for that and soon the tired feeling was gone. After this long day of walking throughout the city, the children were sent to their housing families and introduced themselves, had dinner and then went to sleep.

The next morning, the planned trip was to Cambridge. Another quite popular city of England. This trip didn't have that many entertaining stops except for a few historic places. The bus stopped at those places for a short while so Ondřej could tell us something about it. There were also a few spots where the children were able to get off and do whatever they wanted to. Of course on the condition that they return to a meeting spot afterwards. Most of them went shopping and others went to fast food joints to get something to eat while they walked around Cambridge. Once the trip was over, the children returned to their housing families, had dinner and went to sleep.

Next part of our trip was Rockingham Castle, which was quite fun because it was fairly small. Well, small as in there wasn't a lot to explore as the family which lived there closed off certain places of the castle for the sake of their own privacy, which is understandable. The guides of the castle were very helpful when it came to questions and nice to talk to. Not only being easily understood, but also pleasant personality wise. Some might not have enjoyed the trip as much as yours truly, however, the author found this the most entertaining part of the trip to England. Once everyone was done exploring and sword fighting, the students went back to the bus, returned to their housing families, had dinner and went to sleep once again.

The second to last activity was a trip to the zoo: a safari trip. The children spent a bit of the time on the bus, riding through the open plains of the zoo, amongst the bears, lions and even more animals. A monkey ended up jumping on the top of the tour bus and had to be pushed off by employees before the students could proceed into the actual zoo. The most fun part there were probably goose rides, little boats on a pond, and the gift shop in which there were a lot of silly things to enjoy. When the time ran out for enjoying the animals and the gift shop, the students went back to their housing families for the last time, had dinner and went to slee

The last trip was to the city of London, probably something to be considered as the „main event“ of the entire expedition to England. Most of the time in London was spent going around the most notable things, such as the London Eye (which wasn't allowed to be ridden), going to 4D cinema, Big Ben, statues, transport via a small boat, resting at the park a bit and in the end, going to the O2 Arena to get onto the bus and back to the ferry.

Although there were a lot of security checks in London, which is understandable with all the terrorist attacks, luckily nobody of us was found suspicious of carrying contraband. Back to where we left off, at the bus stop, the students were properly fed and then loaded into the bus on their way back to the ferry which would then take them back to Europe. From here they went straight back home to Czech Republic.

Once back home, the students gave each other their goodbyes, said hello to their parents, got back their luggage and happily skipped off to their real families rather than their housing families. The trip was a fun one, to be sure. A learning and bonding experience and an opportunity some people sadly missed out on. But then again, that's their loss right?

I hope you enjoyed the description of our trip to England which was a bit complicated to write, but was written at the end. Just like the trip which was delayed but ended up happening anyways.

text: Havelec Ondřej, 8. A

foto: Voplatek Jan, 8. B

korektura textu: Postema Mark Christiaan