Brighton
On Saturday, 11th May, we started our journey to England. We left the school at 2 p.m. Our bus was a double-decker and we sat in the top floor. It was so hot at first, but then, our bus driver turned on the air conditioning. We drove 3 hours straight to the first stop. It was a gas station, so there was only one toilet, so the break was a bit longer. Some boys bought things there while waiting for the others. Till the next stop at 8 p.m., the boys threw these things around the bus. This stop was already in France and our bus driver changed. Our new driver was Thomas. He was very funny, but sometimes he was very annoying. After some time, we started to get hungry, so we were very disappointed when Thomas didn't stop at McDonald’s. At 9:30 p.m. we made a stop in Luxembourg. The next stop we did was in Belgium from 0:30 to 1 a.m. We brushed our teeth and watched some adults dancing to loud music in the car park. It was very strange and funny, because these people were old. We went to sleep in the bus, but at 3 a.m. we were woken up by Thomas because he had to fill up the tank of the bus. He told us we were at a military place and shouldn't leave the bus, but the people who had to wash their hands were allowed to leave the bus.
After that we went to the ferry and had to wait one hour. This was very annoying, because Thomas told us that we had to hurry up to catch the ferry and for this reason, we didn’t go to McDonald’s, but when we arrived at the ferry station, we had to wait an hour, so we there would have been enough time. On the ferry we had a voucher for one meal and a drink so we had pizza. We also went to the upper deck and watched the waves. This was so beautiful, because we saw the white cliffs of Dover.
When we arrived at Brighton, we first walked to the gravel beach. After that, we walked with our teachers through the city and to a train station. Then, we walked to the Royal Pavilion and saw a lot of dogs. After that we had some free time. We made a group of four and decided to make a picnic. In the park there were many people with historical costumes. It was so funny and we wondered why they wore these costumes. We went to a supermarket and bought something to eat.
At 1:40 p.m. our guided tour through the pavilion started. The guide talked about that the Royal Pavilion was built for George the 4th. She also said the exterior of the pavilion was inspired by Indian architecture and the interior by Chinese culture. It was interesting, but we were very tired because of our bus ride, so we couldn’t pay attention very well. After she had shown us every room, we explored the pavilion ourselves. We weren't told we still had to walk behind our teachers, so one employee shouted at us. After that, we left the pavilion.
Then, we had some free time again and had to be back at the bus at 6:15 p.m. We liked to have free time, but it was a little bit too long, because we didn’t know what to do. At 6:15 p.m., we arrived at the beach to drive to our host family, but Thomas was late, he arrived at 7 pm. This was very bad, because we stood a very long time on the street and didn’t know when he would arrive. Finally, he arrived and he explained that there was a lot of traffic.
We drove to Eastbourne and met our families. The host family made dinner for us and we got to know each other. Our host mother ordered pizza for us. She was very friendly and she had two dogs named Marble and Crumble. After dinner, we all took a shower and freshened up. Then, the four of us sat in our bedroom and talked and ate sweets. Luckily, we had a TV in our room, so we watched TV for a while. At some point we got tired and went to bed. It way very cool to visit Brighton and the bus drive was better than expected. The weather was nice all day.
(Lena, Lea, Sarah und Jule, Klasse 9b)