25. Diary Entry: Dover, Broadstairs

Dear diary,

as you know, I am currently in Canterbury. Okay not right at the moment but I need to write a diary entry of one day I have been there. So I thought about diary entries. My result ist: diary entries normally are written right after one experienced a day. Therefore I keep it as realistic as possible.

So why am in England? My university in Siegen offered this excursion for students who want to improve their English language Skills ore just to visit a foreign country and explore a different culture. I had the chance to take part and so i did. Next to the possibility to speak and refresh my Englisch I really like to get to know new people and I like to experience new cultures. Okay, England is not that different from Germany, except they drive on the wrong site of the road (which really confused me every time I needed to cross a road).Ah, and for sure they have this money which does make everything so expensive. (Sad) Smilie.

As I wrote before (in other fictive diary entries) I did not know anybody else of the participants of the excursion before. But the boys and girls of the floor where I randomly got my room are a really good group to hang around with. Maybe some of them I can call friends one day. The last days we just got to know each other better and now we really are a good team. We play soccer or frisbee, drink something in the evening and chill with each other later at night.
Every day until now we had several opportunities to visit places around Canterbury. We got to know some Southern English spirit. The landscape is really beautiful, especially in Dover with the white cliffs and the sea. The locals are nice and friendly as well. I really enjoy those moments I have the chance to get into a conversation in English.
Not to forget: The best thing ist that we could not have been luckier with the weather during our excursion. The sun shines, it is very warm and comfy. In England, could anybody guess that?

The group of my floor and I decided yesterday to start this day a bit later. The earlier days we needed to stand up freaking early (for a student) so we decided to sleep a bit longer. Therefore we did not take part at the activity offered that day. We came to the decision to meet at 11 o’clock the next morning. We wanted to enjoy the perfect weather by visiting a near beach. We filled our bags with trunks, towels, a ball and for sure with a frisbee. Exactly the moment when the clock stroked 11 (maybe it was 12 yet) we took a bus downtown from the university and our apartments and chose to take a train to Broadstairs. We read that this was one of the nearest cities with a beach.

The Ticket was surprisingly cheap with only around 5 Pounds for both ways. For the experiences we made so far in England and as well compared to Germany this was less than expected. You would have payed much more for a ride with the Deutsche Bahn. And that for the bad services there. (blinking) Smilie. We searched the right train, got it right at time and some minutes later we were in Broadstairs. On our way to the beach we passed a supermarket and bought some snacks. After a 10 minute walk we were directly in front a small wall out of bricks which was the only thing between us and the beach. Here needs to be said that the sand and the area next to the ocean was even better than expected. So we walked down the stairs and a few meters more to get closer to the water.
We reached our goal for today. We threw our towels to the ground, opened our drinks and enjoyed the sun.

Some of the group also went into the (freaking) cold water. Others, including me, played frisbee and soccer. Sadly our frisbee broke that afternoon. At this moment we should have a moment of silence to remember all the great time we had together. Right from the moment we found it on top of the small roof in front of our rooms at the university until now. A sad moment of our trip, but the rest of the day clearly compensated that.
When the sun began to sink some of our group decided (wisely – explanation later) to take the next train home. Four of our group, including me, wanted to play some more soccer. After that (and just one hour later) we also left the beach. On our way back to the train station we stopped again at a supermarket to refill our provisions and also ordered some pizza for our way back to Canterbury. As we arrived the station we waited for the next train. The train did not come. We waited another couple of minutes and the display with the arrival times switched from “train belated“ to “train cancelled“. We needed to face the truth: All of us accepted to die in Broadstairs. Smile.

Like always life changes the rules after that and we found an other way back. But this way
seriously took some time. We needed to get a train into an other town. I forgot the name but it sounded very British and started with “R“. To keep it short: We waited there another hour, played some ball with local kids right in front of the train station. After that we luckily got another train back to Canterbury. Until here, one could say everything went well. Next step was to get a bus up the hill to the university. We got a bus. It was not the right one. So we drove out of Canterbury city and the moment we realized that, it was to late. We had to go another half an hour back to university/our apartments by foot.

(Uff.) That was a long trip, but the night did not end yet. We took a shower, switched our clothes and went back into Canterbury town. It was Friday which means “student night“ in Canterbury. We got randomly to a place where a bus took us to the next (and maybe only) open club. The rest of the evening, and night as well, we stayed in „Club Chemistry“. After hours of dancing we got a taxi back to our place where we still talked and chilled in a small group. Later on we all went to bed.Falling asleep never was easier.

As a conclusion: everything hurt after that day.

Julian Kugoth