Dear diary,

today is the 30th September 2015 and even though more than two weeks have passed
since our trip to Canterbury, England I still can´t stop thinking about it. It has been an
amazing trip!

It started on the 5th, with was a little bit difficult for me, because I just returned from the
US on the 1th of September. So I spend two days of washing and packing back home in
Bavaria and returned to Siegen on the 4th. Even though I was still fighting to get used to
the german time, I was really excited and was literally bouncing up and down.
So when I arrived at the meeting point the other day, things couldn’t go fast enough. I
wanted to get on the coach, on the road, to England and into an adventure. By thinking
tactical (giving Svenja my luggage) I managed to board the coach right after Mr Bliss.
Svenja and I previously decided where we wanted to sit, so I was pretty sure we would
get our desired seat. Well, thing didn’t go as planed and Mr Bliss was also aiming for this
special seat. What a pity.

But the ride to England went well and fast, we had enough food and sweets, and our
motivation was high. In the coach we also got to know Marina, Lena, Jonny and Florian
with whom we shared the apartment and the tiniest pot (aka cooking bucket (because it
was a long day, we were tired and a bit stupid)) that ever existed.
The best day for me was definitely the trip to Dover castle on the 8th. The trip by coach
back to Dover didn’t take very long and Svenja, Marina and I were excited to see the
beautiful castle. Getting out tickets was a little bit difficult and confusing (we had to wait
at least half an hour to get them) but it was totally worth it. I was watching a few other
tourist during our waiting tie and came to the conclusion, that almost every other person
was from Germany. Very funny!

After receiving our tickets, we walked cluelessly around the castle ground for a bit until
be came by the entrance of the secret war time tunnels and decided to have a look. The
tunnels turned out to be incredible! They were my personal highlights of the entire trip. I
liked the atmosphere down there, the set-up and the whole story behind everything. But
because we had to wait at the entrance for about 20 minutes, the sightseeing of the
actual castle was more like a running through and taking pictures. Another highlight of
the day were the White Cliffs. The scenery was like always imagined England and even
though our stay wasn’t that long, we all really enjoyed it there. I also brought a little
piece of white chalk stone with me as a souvenir.

The trip to London was also amazing. It was the first time for me being there and I really
enjoyed it. After all it is big, beautiful and lively city though also very expensive. After we
survived the awful London traffic and arrived at our drop off point, Svenja, Marina and I
first wanted to go sightseeing. We bought a tube ticket and went to the Tower Bridge, the
Buckingham Palace and to the Parlament (where I found a 20 pound note. Yes!). We
spend a couple of hours just walking from sightseeing highlight to sightseeing highlight
but the time just spun away.

In the afternoon we decided to go looking for dinner and after that going shopping. Well,
we found a really good and not so expensive chinese food place for buffet. But shopping
didn’t go as planed. We unintentionally managed to get lost in China Town. Twice. In the
end we found the way out (thanks to the two very nice english gentlemen with their fancy
accents) but had no more time for shopping. However were still able to buy souvenirs for
ourselves everyone at home. And that was significantly cheaper than spending money at
Oxford Street.

All in all the trip was an unique experience which I surely won’t forget. The
accommodation turned out to be great, the mood among each other was brilliant and the
late night beer-pong games were quite funny.
I am looking forward to our last meeting, which will take place on the 4th of November.
Hopefully they will show us the self-made documentation which some of the students
filmed during our trip. I am sure it will refresh some memories and will be pleasant
ending of the wonderful trip to Canterbury, England.

Things i learned in England:
– German tourists are everywhere
– even the supermarket tea tastes better than ours
– London is an amazing city (and you get lost very easily)
– I love the accent
– the food tastes funny but good
– you will always find an ALDI (they are everywhere O.o)
– you will get motion sick on the little streets
– everything looks like from a Harry Potter movie
– it doesn’t rain all the time
– bring more money than you think you would need

Thanks to Mr La Presti and Mr Bliss for an amazing trip and to Svenja and Marina for
being awesome friends and really good musicians! (I couldn’t get the cup song out of my
head for about a week :P)

Lots of love,
Laura