An 11h flight... To South Africa. Damn it was long but I watched a lot of movies during the flight, which kills time perfectly. I am travelling alone but I managed to find some group mates at the airport. We all connected instantly and I felt directly at ease. I was seated in the airplane sandwiched by an older man and a younger man, both English, so sleeping wouldnt be an option. They also liked, what all men do, to spread their legs widely creating very little room for mine. On top of that, how ironicly, a child which liked kicking my chair was placed behind me... So there goes all of your patience. Anyways, the cabin crew and the options on the little iPad screen made up for it big time. We got great food and drinks... Even a pillow and blanket. When we arrived we met the rest of the group and we were transported to the Aviator Hotel, a 15 min drive from the airport. Where I am writing this blog right now. We decided to head out to the hotel bar, so that is what I am about to do. Afterwards a quick shower and very fast to bed because tomorrow we have to get up at 6.30 for a 400 km drive to Graskop. But first... Wine..
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Today we had an Island tour, this time in a comfortable bus with a guide who could tell us more about the culture and history of Zakynthos. We stopped at a few local villages, where we were offered drinks and some of the local snacks. After the first stop we visited the olive factory and the oldest olive tree of the Island, which is around 2000 years old, and which is actually just a really ugly tree. Fun fact too, you have to risk your life to take a picture of the creature because you have to stand on the road, and I can tell you... the locals driving there won't mind a tourist less. We again visited a vineyard and did a tasting. We were told the whole progress from plant to wine. The highlight of the day for me was the little pupper at the vineyard. It was sooo cute and energised! We again visited the shipwreck, this time only to watch other people do very dangerous stuff for a selfie #priorities #sheeple. We ended the tour at the 'Balcony of Zakynthos' where you could see across the whole city, but the view of 'Best Panoramic View of Zakynthos' was surprisingly better indeed. We stopped for the last time in Laganas to have dinner together and to lay on the beach one more time. We said our goodbye's to our favourite restaurants, bars and blue sea to watch the Zoo for a little. Not an actual Zoo, but one which consists of hardly dresses, mainly English, tourists in their natural and entertaining habitat, which literally goes on 24/7. You can also find them in their underwear in a ditch. With filled stomaches we walked back through the ocean towards our hotel, to be exactly 7h later on the airport... on our way back home... But... my travelling will be continued! A jeepsafari sounds fun, until you're on a bumpy road with a turned stomach and no clue if you're gonna live or not. But.. we did see some amazing spots. And again, it was worth it in the end. The first stop was a vineyard, where could taste the home-made wines and... we could join a lottery to win one of the wines, and guess what... I've something to take home! Afterwards we continued to the oldest village in Zakynthos, with about 25 inhabitants. There we enjoyed a coffee with a perfect view across the village. The third stop was the highest point of the island, which you could only reach by going off-road #yaymorebumps. We were able to take some pictures and recover from the ride, before you had to gather all your strength and will to live to climb up in the jeep again. We drove to the Galaxy Taverna for a lunchbreak, where that was... I have no clue because by now my directional sense was completely gone. Anyways, we continued our journey to the famous shipwreck. We could view the tiny beach from above, what sounds very easy but you first had to wait in the dying heat. If you managed not to burn until this point, you would now. For our last stop took the driver us to a tiny beach, some cooling sounded very appealing. But first you had to pass the lava pebbles in order to surround yourself with ice water. Okay, to be very honest. This day was the day I was looking forward to since we arrived. Scuba diving. I love swimming and I created an affection for snorkeling to due to this vacation and I had never did any scuba diving before. To be fair, I wanted to get my documents to be a scuba diving instructor this year, what do you mean by dream big? So, I could say I was a little, read a hell of a fucking lot, excited for this day. We were picked up with a jeep including a man and a woman, who took us to our diving place which was a 30 min drive. We were going to dive in a restricted area, no motorboats nor other activities but swimming was allowed to save the ecology system. Whilst being in the car I kinda got a little bit nervous, but the good kind of nervous. The basic principles of diving where explained and we could only go up for 4m because we didn't have and experience. We practiced a little bit and breathing solely through mouth is something I definitely have to get used to. I had some problems with my diving glasses and my weight vest, which were solved later. We didn't see that much of fishes and we didn't see any turtles but the whole experience was worth it. I am definitely going to scuba dive a lot more. Getting in and out of the suit is a sport on itself, but we made it. We were brought back to our hotel, where we rested and continued our day to the beach. We had a well deserved cocktail and went for some more snorkeling, which is actually a lot easier because you can breathe through your nose as well. But surprisingly, there weren't fishes to see. Guess they were taking a day off. Today we had our boat tour. We started off with some turtle spotting in the bay, where we didn't actually spot any turtles. We were lucky we already saw them whilst snorkeling. We continued along the shore to the Keri Caves. Where we stopped for a 40 min swim. Brian and I got our snorkeling gear to swim through the dark caves. The water was crystal clear and swimming actually through the caves was amazing. It was quite dark when you're swimming through them, which makes it a bit scary but very cool! After some time in the water we were pulled out for lunch, which was quite terrible but.... whatever the view was worth it. And... they had an oreo cookie ice cream! OMG! We continued to uninhabited island for a 1h swim. Again we could swim through caves and whilst snorkeling we saw a lot of fishes... and we spotted another turtle which made me very enthusiastic. We saw with it for a bit until our arms and legs were tired of all the swimming. It took us about half a day/ 5h on the boat before we returned to the Laganas bay. There we decided to eat at one of the many restaurants. All the food is delicious and we enjoyed the sun going down at the sea. Secretly I was getting more and more excited about the next day... scuba diving. Because our first trip was cancelled due to a lack of visitors we had the day off, so we rented a quad to discover the island by ourselves. We first had some problems with the quad we got so we were given the chance to switch to a 300cc. We decided to drive to Zakynthos city but first we had to find a place to fuel up, which was a challenge itself. When we arrived we first went for a swim close to the bay. We couldn't spot any turtles but we did see some different fishes. Because they still have siesta at the city there were very little shops opened. We walked through the shopping street and stopped for ice cream. After our stop at Zakynthos city we drove randomly to the other side of the Island. We drove on very poor streets and ended following signs of the 'Best view of the Island, Panoramic view'. When we got to the place we had to pay 3 euro entrance, but the sign didn't lie. It actually was the best view of the Island. And what should you drink at such a place? Orange Juice of course... orange juice with a view. After a day of touring we decided to turn back to Agios Sostis for an evening meal and we brought back the quad. We enjoyed our meal at a restaurant at the beach. Although we saw a lot and the fact that we were almost all the time hitting the road, it felt like a relaxing day. This month's second destination was a lot sunnier then Porto, my boyfriend and I booked a tour trip to Zakynthos. Where I saw the most blue water I've ever seen in my life.
We stayed in Studio Helena in a village called Agios Sostis. It was a perfect place, close by the boulevard and you could walk to Laganas, where more restaurants are located. Also, Laganas is the 'party street' of the Island, but really.. you don't want to be there... On our first day we had to meet up with an representive of the travel agency (Corendon) where we booked our trip. She gave us some information about the available tours and trips and offered us some extra's. We decided we wanted to do scuba diving too, along that we also booked a boat trip to the Keri Caves, a Jeepsafari and a Island Tour (Past & Present). After discussing the dates, we got our tickets and we had the whole day left so we decided to settle in our little studio and afterwards we went to the beach. Were we drank our first cocktail at a Beach Bar. We brought our snorkeling gear, which has multiple benefits because if you decide just to go swimming without anything to cover your eyes... you're gladly welcomed to hell because of the salt water. We swam far away from the shore and spotted our first turtles! We were both very excited to see them swim. We went back to dry up and enjoy some more cocktails. Later in the evening we chose a Greek restaurant to fill up our empty stomaches. Afterwards we discovered an amazing cocktailbar called Kui. From that day we visited the cocktailbar every evening... #sayyestoalcohol. As fast as days go... it was our last day. It was also the first morning we didn't get up early and even missed breakfast #oops. We felt very relaxed and went to the super market to get some food. Our legs were tired because of all the dancing but still we managed to walk to the city to catch a bus to the beach. It looked like we stopped at a whole other country. There were palmtrees, good roads, nice houses... it was so diverse then the Porto we used to be in. At the beach we worked on our tans, both red and brown. Around 6 we took place at a beach bar to, once again, drink sangria. I think I haven't been a moment fully sober in those 4 days, just alcohol running through my veins. Anyways, after our last sangria we made our way back to the hostel to go to a bar for one last time and to get our stuff packed. We decided to contact our Brazilian friends to join us at the sports bar to play pool and darts. We had a great time together and said our goodbye's. It were only 4 days but we met so many people and saw so much of the city... I'd almost say it felt like more. We once again decided to walk to the bridge, but now to cross it.. yes we were that stupid to walk all the way to the bridge and not pass it the day before. Shut up. Let's say it's good for our health. When we did we had to find a way to get down to the water, where the old ships carrying port (comparable with sweet red wine) would trade their goods. We decided to buy some bread and ham for on the bread, we found a tiny shop owned by really scary people, well they weren't that scary but just... weird. We bought some bananas too, which was a fantastic choice because the ham was really wet and the bread really dry. We sort of enjoyed our meal at the water and after that we went all the way back to the hostel. In the same street as our hostel we ate an awesome steak, recommended by Pedro. I don't like steak that often but this one, yep... foodporn! In the evening we decided to join a pubcrawl. To be honest, at first I really didn't feel like going because I had a headache but after all I'm so glad I did! We gathered at the fountain and went to the same bar we were on the first day to start off our night journey by drinking on the street and getting to know each other. There was one other dutch girl but we lost her soon after. We also met two Brazilian girls, who didn't vanish after 10 minutes and they became our friends of the night. After some socializing on the streets we went to some bars, at each bar we took one drink which doesn't sound that bad... but I have to say... you have to drink a hella fast. We saw some of the people we met the days before and talked to them shortly. The pubcrawl took us to a sports bar, which we liked a lot and decided to come back to because you could play darts and pool. We ended in a very fancy club where we felt very, very uncomfortable. We were wearing normal clothes, just some jeans and a cheesy top but all the people in the club where wearing cocktail dresses and tons of make-up. Think about Gordie Shore but then a little bit more fancy. We decided not to stay there and we walked with the Brazilian girls back to their hostel. We exchanged Facebook accounts so we could contact each other so we could make plans together for the next day. We had to walk up the street to our own hostel which felt like climbing the Mount Everest, but we did it! Fleur and I didn't feel like sleeping so we played UNO in the 'living room' of our hostel. We also played a very strange game where sardines wear clothing and you have to remember which sardine you got and which is shown in a group.... yes it was just a very weird game. I tried to sleep with some classic music playing on full, didn't work that good so I once again slept like 3h. We got up quite early to do a city walk. We walked all the way to Porto's famous bridge by ourselves, and there we ate pizza #yay. We visited souvenir shops, a whole lot of them...so so many. Whilst walking we passed tiny roads and it caused differente emotions among us. There is a lot of poverty and it reflects on the streets. It is hard to imagine that our daily lives is so different from theirs. We are used to all the luxury whilst it looks like they live in a whole other century. We just spent the day walking around the city and making photographs. In the evening we went back to the area close by our hostel to eat tapas, which was really nice too. The food is sooo good! We searched for a nice bar to have some cocktails and eventually we found one called 'The Wall'. We had their home 'made-up' cocktail which wasn't my taste actually. We met a lot of people from all over the world. We danced with a france Footballteam, which was really fun because they were 10 times our sizes. When I think about it, it felt like we were dancing with our dads which is a very uncomfortable thought... let's forget that. Around 1.30 we went back to our rooms, but there were two man snoring so loudly that I could not sleep #fml. I got so irritated that I moved down in the 'living room' where Pedro was working his shift. He let met sleep on the beanbags, which where surprisingly very comfortable. At least I got 3h of sleep. My friends (Lotte and Fleur) and I booked a trip at srprs.me because we graduated, which should absolutely be celebrated. We didn't know where we were going until we arrived at the airport. Our card told us that we were going to Porto! We were very excited and 2,5h later we sat on the airplane, waiting for a new adventure. After arriving at the airport in Portugal, finding the right metro and cards were not that easy, but luckily we had each other... and totally screwed up haha. We bought a ticket with 2 passes on it, we thought it could be used for 2 persons, but no... that is not how it works. Well you learn some, right? Anyway, we got to the hostel, being very illegal riding the metro on 1 card less... #badass We knocked on the door and when a hipster guy opened the door we asked ourselves where the heck should be staying. Whilst we were walking up the stairs we started to like it more and more. It was a typical residence for teens/backpackers. We slept with 9 others on a room, which I didn't mind at first... but they snored... loudly. After checking in and receiving some information, we went out for to search for food. We discovered a nice place with little baguettes and really good wine. After enjoying our meal we walked towards the park, where a fire show was taking place. It was really cool to see, but also a bit scary because there where no precautions taken in cause of an outbreak. We settled at a nice little bar called Porto 'o Lado and we tasted our first sangria of the trip, which tasted really good! About an hour later we met Fransisco, a Portugese boy who told us about himself and invited us to a birthday of a friend of his, which was taking place above the bar. We joined him and laughed about their enthusiasm. They gave us cake and told us to sing a long. We did and spent the night guided by Fransisco. It's tradition prior to a night out to drink on the streets and get to know each other. So we did, we had our drinks on the street whilst meeting people and talking about our countries or our hobbies. We didn't join them to go clubbing because we were really tired of our flight and we returned to our beds. But, that was a hella of a good first day! This is a perfect example of a romatic cliche. My boyfriend and I wanted to do something special for our 'half a year' statement. I came up with the idea of a 3-days trip to Paris. He dragged me down to Antwerp (Belgium) and Winterbergen (Germany). First things first, I'll tell you shortly about Paris. We had to get up early to catch our touring bus to Paris, which was totally not comfortable. It was a long way to the city so we tried to sleep a little. When we arrived in the city the bus driver told us, whilst driving, about the city and it's buildings. We made several stops to be very touristic, making pictures and stuff. We also got a lot of spare time to fill in ourselves. My boyfriend and I decided to walk throughout the whole city, which burns off a lot of calories. Don't worry... we ate them on again.. ohhh croissants! We visited Paris' famous buildings, like the Eiffel Tower. Luckily our hotel was very comfortable and made up for the bone breaking bus trip. We had an amazing time and walked our asses off, but it was all worth it! Today was my departure back to the Netherlands. I packed my bag in the morning, the rest of the day consisted of wandering around town and go for some shopping. We started at the Primark, at Gran Vía, which was enormous. We were a little worried that we weren't going to be able to get it all back to NL, due to the weight restriction for the flight. After some serious shopping we went for lunch at Dunkin Coffee, which was not that much of a success. We had some coffee at Starbucks afterwards, which is odd but we didn't realize it back then to get one at that coffee shop. To find the Starbucks was quite a challenge, we had seen a lot of them on the Gran Vía itself, unfortunately we didn't remember where they were exactly. We ended up by walking way to far to a small Starbucks coffee shop. Surprisingly there are a lot of Dutch people in Madrid. We manage to get an eye on them due to the way they dress and act. Extraordinary to see that people from other countries do differ. Shopping had a longer duration than expected and our legs were extremely tired. Around 4 we had to head back to the hostel to get on our bus, which was 45 minutes late. During that spare time we went to another souvenir shop because on of my friends still needed a bracelet. It was some true last-minute shopping. When the bus was finally there we hopped on and went to the airport. Check-in didn't go as fluent as we hoped for but we got on, which is what counts. We had a quick dinner at the Burger King, who serve 0,75 L Iced Tea with a burger menu. Trust me.. it was a lot. The cashier was notably happy for a 44 mans order, we slightly expected her to be grumpy because of the 44 Burger menus that had to be made. The flight itself felt really short because we had a lot of fun, we played games and discussed the past few days. The farewell was unfortunate, I would have liked to have just some more time with all the students. The four days felt like only one, getting of the plane and heading back home was a bit somber. To see my parents and my dog on the other hand was a relief and softened the goodbye. ¡Adios Madrid! Today was the first day that we could enjoy the sunny weather in Madrid.
We walked around town and sat down at the Jardines del Buen Retiro. There was a big lake and the park was fascinating and surprisingly big as well. It reminded me of my own hometown park, the Vondelpark in Amsterdam, which is in comparison very poor. On our way to the Reina Sophia we payed a visit to the Crystal Palace, which was utterly beautiful. It was located in the Jardines del Buen Retiro and there were a lot of turtles in the lake in front of the palace. In the Reina Sophia we saw some famous pieces of art, for example works of Picasso. We had to do this because of the educational intent of our trips. I'm not much of an art fan so after 1 hour we were outside again, which was tremendously pleasant. For dinner we found this delightful little restaurant named La Rollerie, which served marvelous pasta and pancakes. Sitting down was a relieve considering the amounts of walking we do. That is not to be taken for granted. Our group leaders thought it would be fun to organize a speed date in the evening, unfortunately it didn't went as planned and they cancelled it. They said it will be resumed later on, which was forgotten. This withdraw resulted in more spare time so me and my friends went to Gran Vía which is a long lane with a lot of shops. We bought some souvenirs, a sweater and a little building for my collection. Around midnight we got back to the hostel, we were exhausted. It was entertaining to see that some people were selling all kinds of shoes and bags (of famous brands) on the streets, they carried a big sheet with their inventory in them. When the police came patrolling they crabbed their sheet and walked away to get back to the place they were a couple seconds later. Not so entertaining was the amount of homeless persons in Madrid, which was quite depressing. After breakfast we were planning on going to the Faro de Moncloa, which had to be rescheduled for a bit because some of the students managed to get stuck in the elevator. Me and a friend wandered around the neighborhood close to our hotel and returned on time to continue our planning. However, 4 students had the idea to search for a Starbucks, which let to them to get lost. Luckily they walked by accident to the perfect place which was on our route. We told them to stay put and I planned a route which would let them to them and eventually to the Faro. The Faro de Moncloa was a success, there was a great panorama view of the city. Unfortunately the weather was still not in our favor but that didn't bother us to continue as planned. We had 1,5h to grab a quick lunch, which is harder than it sounds. The Spanish folk tends not to adjust to the fact that you don't master their language. Everything worked out eventually so we didn't starve. Afterwards we went to the Teleférico de Madrid, which is like a big zip line across a park in Madrid, which also gives you the chance to see the whole city from another level. When we went all the way up we had to get out, at first we were horrified because we thought we had to walk all the way down again, our day mostly consisted of walking (everywhere we go we do by walking). Luckily that was not the case and we could get in again. We walked across the park to the Palacio Real, which was huge. In the mean time we also visited Templo de Debod and the Jardines de Sabatini. Our next stop was the Almudena Catedral, where we also went inside. From there we walked back to the hostel and collected the money for our dinner later on. Because we did a lot of walking our feet had to rest so we chilled in our room and went to the supermarket in front of the hostel to get some chips and cookies. Around 6 we went to Plaza Mayor, were we seated down underneath some nice heat lamps and enjoyed a well deserved pizza. Our day was still not over yet, we went to the metro to hop on and go watch a flamenco dance, which is topically Spanish. We expected a nice dance but it was not what we wanted it to be. The ladies were a lot older then the boys hoped for. After a couple of minutes the dance became boring. We left early (around 23.30) and went to our hostel, we were again tired so we dived into our beds. All in all, a busy day with lots of rain but nevertheless lots of fun. Bienvenido a Madrid Today's destiny is the sunny Madrid. My departure was at 7 am so I awoke quite early. I have many travel companions due to the 'school trip', therefore I got to stay in Madrid for 4 days to go sight seeing and develop social and cultural skills. I checked the weather forecast for my stay, guess I will be taking the Dutch weather with me... Cloudy and partly rain...Well that's a bust. No tan for me then. After the flight we all waited for our busdriver to arrive, who was late which was actually no surprise. Her take off started amazing by dislocating a lamp which was attached to the wall, great driver! We were in a doubt if we were going to make it to the hostel alive. We surprisingly did. After we dropped our bags we decided to go to a super market to get a quick lunch. It started raining heavily so we are in a big hallway of a hotel, whilst sitting on a awfully cold ground. Our plan to make a walking tour around town literally washed away so we had the idea of going to a cinema, unfortunately it was closed and we were forced to return to the hostel. A couple hours later we went to a famous art museum (El Prado), which bored most of us. Because the museum was also a bust we walked to the metro station to view the turtles and flora which is represented there. With all the bad luck we had, the route was closed so we could not watch them. We continued our route to walk to a tapas restaurant, which was around 30 minutes. We first entered a bar, we were welcomed by shouting 'Beer beer! Who wants beer?!' We didn't quite know how to react on this and we were soon escorted out of the bar. Apparently the bar and the restaurant, which where identical where located nearby each other. We visited the wrong restaurant, not like the right restaurant was much better... We got bread with some really old cheese and weird tasting beef. They also served some fried balls stuffed with God knows what. Me and my friends claimed those because they were the only one which were not awful to eat. We tried the tapas, we gave it a chance but it didn't work out like we hoped. After our late dinner we were released, but we were too tired to go wandering around the city again. After some struggles we finally found our way back to the hostel. We showered and listened to music and eventually went to sleep. Last day.
Lasts days are always the hardest. Fei and I got up at 9 am to pack our last stuff, which didn't quite work because we were too lazy. We relaxed, played cards, did a weird photo session and had some breakfast (flavorless cereal for the last time, that was a relief). We met the others (Dario, Megan, Evelien) at 1.30 pm at the cemetery. We lunched at Lord Sandwich, a tiny sandwichbar in the Bournemouth Center. We went for a balloon ride afterwards, we had to because we call ourselves the ballooners. The view was amazing, really cold, but amazing. We went to the park afterwards and dreadlock guy from Spain and Paul played the guitar. We were all quite surprised that Paul could play, no one knew. Megan, Evelien, Fei and I needed to buy some gifts so we went to the giftshop next to Costa. We bought matching sweaters and I bought a present for my brother (which is really hard, to try to think as a guy... believe me I'm not good at it). For the last time we went to Costa to buy some coffee and to Tesco to buy some of our favorite snacks. As usual we met at the cemetery at 8.30 pm. It was an Italian celebration day according to the italian guys, we didn't do anything special for it though. My cheeks were hurting during that whole night because I laughed way too much (thanks Paul). Around 12 pm people were starting to leave so we had to say goodbye. Alina, Kate, Amy, Luca goodbye's are hard and hopefully I'll see you guys again. With the remaining group we walked to the Chicken Station. The italians were hungry (how can you ever eat at 0.30 am?). It was again cold but you'll get warm if you share a towel with someone while walking. In the chicken station there was a man with this great custom (it showed his butt). He had a nice butt. No, just joking. After the chicken station we walked towards our homes. We said goodbye to the last members of the ballooners group. Goodbye's feel so permanent and I didn't enjoyed that time at all. Fei and I slipped into our house not knowing we'd leave just a couple of minutes later to meet with Paul. We sat on the ground playing cards like homeless people while being accompanied by a black cat, they carry disaster with them which was actually true because leaving your friends and probably never see them again is similar to 'bad luck'. After the card games we went to a parking lot to watch the stars. Yes, we laid on a parking lot like every other person would do at 4 am. The hardest goodbye that evening had to be made and I struggled to keep myself together. I'd rather not call it goodbye because goodbye's are permanent. I don't want this to be permanent. Every time I look at the stars I'll remember this night. We look at the same constellation and that fact makes me feel close even though you're so far. Hopefully not a goodbye but a see you soon. Thank you all for these 2 incredible weeks. I won't forget. Today was a lazy day.
We went to Tesco to buy lunch and we had class afterwards. It was quite funny because we had to sing songs like: Row Row Row Your boat gently down the stream Merrily Merrily Merrily Life is but a dream Serena, Anna and I preformed 'Let it go' (yes the song used in Frozen), we are so mature. Today was my last lesson with Jan Mark, who said he'll remember me as the girl who didn't know the exact christmas date (it's all too confusion okay) and I'll remember him as the guy who looks at a frozen screen to seek the time. We, the dutchies, had dinner at Zizzi. Their pizza was like pure heaven. Fei and I shared because it was really big, which was quite clever because we'd have some space left for a well-deserved dessert. We stayed in town and waited for the others to come. Evelien and I were freezing so we bought some hot chocolate at the balloon-stand. The others ran late but that didn't matter because the night was lots of fun, like always. Because we were running into the end of our vacation Fei and I went to a little giftshop around the corner of our neighborhood. I bought a class Big Ben and a set of cards. We wandered around the shop for hours until we made the choice.
We bought some lunch again at Tesco's and the others went to the Mac as well (after the huge disappointment of the sandwich which I bought in London I didn't feel like trying it again). We had some time left so we just looked around the shops. Class was fun and Jan Mark and I had lots odd conversations. After school we went straight home for dinner which consisted of lasagne, lettuce, salad, carrots and some bread. We played some card games while listening to music before we went to the park again. One thing you'll learn during your stay in England: every evening you'll be cold. Even if you wear 2 sweaters and a jacket... you'll still be able to freeze to death. Apparently there was a fight in the park after we left, a guy who was walking in his undies started teasing people or something. I learned something today from Enrico. People who don't drink are boring. No exceptions. You can only talk after some beers, like he's so talk-able even when he had some drinks (please note: he absolutely wasn't). In the evening we went to the beach but it was raining again so we took the bus with Enrico who was kind of afraid of us facing the fact that he tried to have at least 3 meters between us. It was Bella and Ida their last day so we said goodbye to them, not knowing that we'd see them the next morning again. Drunk Russian guy tried to do hug us goodbye but I was afraid he'd fall or puke, well I actually don't like hugs that much, so we got subtilely rid of him. He wouldn't remember the next day. Hopefully. I promised myself to go for a run at least once during this vacation. And I can proudly say I did. Fei and I went for a run through the park nearby Megan and Evelien's host family. It felt great to finally run again. You can just forget everything and only focus on keep going forward, keep on running. We went for a long shower afterwards and met with Alina at 10.45 am to go shopping again. I didn't buy anything, I swear. We did try on some killer heels. Estelle and heels is a combination you'll not see often. I looked like a fool but we had fun! We went to the park to have some lunch and to Flirt afterwards for a smoothie. Our dinner consisted mostly of gravy. 'Would you like some gravy?' 'Yes a little please' *pours 5 liters of gravy on your plate* I swear, it went like that and Fei and I had silent laughs about it. Fei, Alina and I went to the the beach to watch the sunset but unfortunately the buildings where blocking the sun. We did went on the pier and watched the town and the waves. We took some pictures to be able to look back at them because the end of this wonderful 2 weeks where around the corner. Around 9 pm we went to the square where they were playing music to wait for the others. We sat in the park again and we met many new people for example Joris, a guy from Germany who can speak Dutch as well. The Harry Styles look-a-like almost set me on fire by dropping his sigaret on me. It was again a beautiful evening and I'll never forget these nights with these people. After a short period of sleep we awoke at 7.30 am to say our goodbyes to the family.
We had an enormous lack of sleep because of the evening in the park before. After hugging every member and thanking them for the wonderful time we went back to our room again. Sleeping wouldn't work anymore so I started to read my book. After a while we went back downstairs to have some breakfast and something magical had happened: there was ham in the fridge. We had to take our luck so we made toast with butter and ham. After a week you do miss meat, or a normal breakfast at least. Around 10 am we went to the center to do some window shopping. We had some coffee at Flirt afterwards and waited for Evelien and Megan. They didn't show so we went to Tesco, where we ran into them. We bought some lunch and did some more shopping afterwards. I bought new trousers at Primark because the host family mom was so generous to do our washing but she managed to make my pants even dirtier than they were before. Fei and I had to leave earlier because of our lessons which took place until 5.45 pm. The first lesson that day was straight hell. Ben wasn't in a good mood so we were expected to keep silence every second of the lesson. The following lesson with Bonnie was a bit better. Because the 'original' family had left to Italy their parents took their place. They were really friendly and the grandmother was exactly how grandparents are: trying to stuff you with all their food and always worrying if you haven't had enough. In the evening we went to the beach and we tried to find a good spot which was hard because of the rain (Go England! Finally showing your real face here). We finally found one underneath the oceanarium but we didn't stay for long and went back to the park again, it was turning into a hard habit to shake off. Today we changed shifts. This means that I'm now in the afternoon classes which is not pleasing because you are basically waiting for your lesson to start.
Alina, Fei and I went to Starbucks to get ready for school. The caramel macchiato was a-m-a-z-i-n-g. Well, if you are mentally ready to pay almost 5 euros for a coffee... why did I do that again..? We met around 12 with Megan and Evelien to buy some lunch at Tesco's. Tesco's was officially our shop-to-go. Every Monday is test day (I had to remember that it was a good idea to follow class during my vacation... it might was not). I made it and passed it but I don't want to talk about it, mentally not ready for discussing tests in your vacation just yet... Because of the changes in the shifts our teacher Christopher changed as well and we got Ben instead. We played a 'guess the star' game, I was a famous english football player. Good job giving that to a girl from another country... I could have totally have guessed that... not. In the evening we played cards again with Marijke and we almost ran late at our meeting place (cemetery, 20.15) because we had to play our last games with Marijke, who was leaving to Italy the next morning. She didn't want to say goodbye and I have to be completely honest... it did get to me to let her go. We ran to the cemetery to meet our friends and we went to the park again. Fei and I stayed longer than we used to but this resulted positively. We had some funny discussions. Apparently Luca is extremely anti-gay. There were quotations like 'we have too many people so let's kill the gays because they cannot reproduce'. He also didn't see the use of adoption. I personally think that adoption is the best thing ever. You offer people who can't have a child a change of having one and you offer people who don't want one another change for a better life. A child should be priority and I think you'd help him/her more with placing him/her in a family where they will be beloved. Luca doesn't think so. We still love you Luca, even if you are being this straight-lined. We gathered at Kings 51 at 8 am and as usual Dario was running late. He made it just in time which turned out to be excellent 'cause he was well-known with the underground system in London. It was a terrible long ride to London, approximately 2h, but... it was the first ride I had in England where I didn't fear my life. Thank you bus-driver! When we arrived we were immediately released, so we walked to the Big Ben and the London Eye. And the first thing I have to say: there are so many people in London. I live nearby Amsterdam so believe me when I say I'm used to crowded places... but London is next-level crowdness. Everywhere you look are humans. So. Many. Humans. I respect the people who have to deal with it every day. I had the urge to push every tourist who was posing like a total fool in front of the Big Ben. One picture is enough, you'll never use 101 pictures of yourself with a big clock. It is a really nice clock though. We went to the nearest underground and took the first ride from Westminster Station to Tower Bridge Station. We walked over the Tower Bridge, which is basically a huge bridge. That sounds really odd, why would you want to visit a bridge? Well it's quite impressing. It's beautiful so immensely big. To seek the Buckingham Palace we took the first ride to the Green Park Station. We were quite hungry so we decided to search an affordable shop (something like MacDonalds/KFC/Subway). We walked for almost half an hour because there was no, literally no, shop to be found. There were only really expensive restaurants, even looking at it made my wallet scream. We were relieved when we finally saw the yellow M (I have never been so happy to see the MacDonalds). No wonder that it was crowded (yeah, again crowded) inside; it was the only place you could get food without being immediately broke. After a long queue (note: they are big on queueing in England... seriously) I could finally enjoy a sandwich. Well enjoying is a different case because it was kind of tasteless but that didn't matter. You enjoy almost every kind of food when you have walked half an hour to find some. After our quick break we went all the way back to the Buckingham Palace. We took some group photos and we had to return to catch our bus. Funny thing there. Before we went on our trip we got a paper which said we had to meet at the London Eye. So we did. We were waiting at the London Eye but no one was there. Some of us got called by one of the leaders, who was mad (obviously). They had decided to meet somewhere else, that's a good idea when you're with many students and you say it when there are busses and cars passing so half of the group can't hear you... We ran 1h late but they luckily waited for us so we could hop on the bus after a long journey. Everybody on the bus hated us (of course) but hey.. we weren't the ones who changed the meeting point. We were back in Bournemouth around 7 pm so Evelien, Megan, Fei, Ida, Bella and I went to a restaurant where I ate some pasta and american pancakes (seriously... they know how to do their pancakes. It was truly heaven). We went home at 10 pm, totally devastated from the trip. One day in London is definitely not enough. Because it was Saturday there were no lessons scheduled that day, Megan, Evelien, Fei and I went shopping (which is actually a bad idea when you consider the prices they use for clothing). You pay almost 35 euros for just one shirt, no not with diamonds or gold on it. Just a plain shirt. The only affordable place was Primark. Loaded with 4 new items and a crying wallet, we settled in Flirt, our favorite bar at the Triangle. I ordered a panini which costs around 8 pounds (roughly 12 euros) but it was extremely good. It's funny to see that I'm willing to pay 12 euros for food but not for a crop top (it's a tiny piece of fabric, why would you pay 12 euros for it?). I don't like crop tops in general by the way.
It was a big bite so we just sat down for a while before we went to the H&M to get in our bathing suits: we were planning on swimming in the sea with the whole group (eventually it was just Dario, Enrico, Kate, Megan, Evelien, Daño, Fei, the other weird Italian guy where no one knows the name of and me). I grabbed a way too expensive pullover to 'try on' and changed into my swimming clothes immediately. The pullover was 'only' 20 pounds, I didn't even think of trying it on. The water was the same temperature as we are used to in the Netherlands, a bit cold but still manageable. However the Italian boys had a hard time trying to get in the water, they are definitely not used to the cold. Especially Dario made a scene and it took him forever to get in, which was really funny. Megan unfortunately didn't join us for a swim but we played cards afterwards while sitting in the sun and listening to music. It does sound perfect, I do realize that, but it was perfect at that time :). Later that afternoon Luca, Amy, Bella, Maxime and Ida joined us as well. Unfortunately Fei and I had to go home for dinner not long after. The others joined us for the walk back because they had to go as well. On those moments you just really wish you were in a residence like Amy and Luca, they can choose whenever they want to go home or not. The disadvantages of being 16... you mostly don't bother them but on some occasions they really do hunt you. We went to the park around 9 while being a bit sunburned. Listening to music, chatting and just having fun like always. These days should go on forever. I'm not joking. You can get sunburned in England. Yes England, the country where it rains all day every day. (Please note the sarcasm) Thank you. After our morning class we got on a bus to the Isle of Purbeck to view the Old Harry Rocks. The bus was really cool because it had an open second floor. It's awesome to be above all the traffic and to have a good view. To get to the Isle of Purbeck we had to take the ferry, which takes a decade to go back and forth. We hiked ±2 km to the rocks where we posed for a group picture. The thing with group photos is that there is always one person who looks off. It's always the question whom you're going to sacrifice, it's often me. Some girls take posing way too serious and almost risk their lifes while standing on the cliffside with, of course, a duckface. It looks so awful. Some thought it was a good idea to wear a dress and evening shoes when you're going to hike to a cliff, great thinking guys. Walking with high heels is not one of my talents so I did respect those who were walking, well more like stumbling, on their heels over the rocks. The group leader gave us the choice to A) go back for a drink or B) hike further to the top of the Rocks to view Swange Bay. Fei, Alina, Paco, Spanish girl and I took option B and hiked to the top. You can drink anytime, anywhere but viewing Swange Bay is like an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. The view was definitely worth it. We had only one hour to get to the top and back to the group so Paco thought it was a good idea to take a shortcut. Believe me... there is no shortcut. We walked through fields, wheat, bushes. We climbed over fences and crossed places we weren't allowed to cross. I'd be lying if I said it was no fun because it was. I like being lost and trying to find your way back with no GPS/WiFi or other devices whats however. We found our way back eventually after a long... long walk. The bus ride back was as every other ride in England: terrifying. Not only two little boys where screaming like they were being killed; the bus driver was planning on killing every bush he could find in his way. And again I feared my life. I didn't die but many branches did during that ride. After dinner we went to see the fireworks at the Bournemouth Pier. We sat on the beach while we watched the sky being lit up by many colors. We felt infinite at that time. We went to our usual spot, the park, later that evening. |
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