Wednesday 25th April:
Our trip started with an early drive to the airport of Eindhoven. After some Starbucks we went to our plane. The flight went really well although some of us were flying for the first time and they were a little bit nervous. We arrived at Stansted airport where our hostess Deborah was waiting for us. She drove us with a hired minibus to the art gallery where the girls had to sleep, which is a beautiful, new studio. We got a tour in the art gallery of Gavin, Deborah’s husband, so we could see his work. The boys had to sleep in Deborah and Gavin’s house.
Very welcomingly, Deborah and Gavin are artists and very creative entrepreneurs. After googling Gavin Turk’s name we discovered that he is well-known. He has his own Wikipedia page. His most famous work is a big nail standing in London next to St. Paul’s Cathedral.
After leaving our accommodation, we discovered London Fields area including Victoria Park and Last Tuesday Society. This is a small museum of weird and curious things. After all these tours we were very hungry, so we went for a lunch at Moro’s. This is a small tapas restaurant that specialises in North African and Spanish dishes. After this delicious lunch we were ready for the next tour. We went to Columbia Road and Broadway Market, which are streets with small businesses, shops and restaurants. Because we could go to London with the profit we made on the sale of our cupcakes, we went to a local bakery called E5 Bakery and Violet Cakes. In this special bakery the wedding cake for prince Harry and Meghan was made. The last activity of the day was at The Institute of Light, this is a small independent cinema and restaurant. During the day it is a record shop but in the evening it is transformed into a cinema. London students of our age joined us, which gave us the opportunity to practise our English skills and socialize with them. We watched the movie ‘Isle of Dogs’, which is a new popular film. For dinner we had a spicy Ghanaian meal. It was a very long and busy day so after our meal we were happy to return to our accommodation.
Thursday 26th April:
We woke up at 8 o’clock and had a delicious local breakfast made by Deborah. We made a little tour by car and went to Loughborough university. This university is located in the building where the 2012 Olympics were held. We were taken on a tour of the university by a student. After that we went to Plexal, a modern building in which starting entrepeneurs can both relax and work. Deborah also took us to her little art gallery next to the university. This gallery is called ‘The House of Fairy Tales’. At 2 p.m. we had lunch in Here East Campus.
After that we took the Tube and went for the first time to London city. There we got some spare time. Some of us went to Hard Rock café, others shopped in Oxford Street and still others went to the Tate Modern museum. In the evening we gathered to eat together at Pizza hut. The atmosphere was very relaxed so we decided to stay there for a couple of hours. Afterwards we went back to our sleeping accommodation.
Friday 27th April:
We had another delicious breakfast made by Deborah. Afterwards we went to the city centre to see the most famous monuments. We went there with a Big Red Bus and took a lot of pictures. First, we walked to Tower Bridge, our next stop were London Eye and Big Ben. Our last stop was at Buckingham Palace. Some other students made another tour through London. They went to different museums like the British- and Comic Museum. We enjoyed our last lunch at Camden Market.
At half past 3 we went to the Tube station where Deborah picked us up to go to the airport. While driving, we noticed traffic was very busy. We were worried that we couldn’t get to the airport on time. 5 minutes before we arrived, a big accident happened on the exit. We got stuck in the traffic jam and had to stay there for 45 minutes. We thought we would never make it on time but we still tried. We took all our luggage and ran super fast through the airport. Once we arrived at the customs, we were stressed and shouting so they gave us the permission to get through customs quickly. We all hurried to our gate but it was too late. We went to the helpdesk for returning passengers to search for a solution. But we had to wait very long because a lot of passengers had got stuck in the same traffic accident and had also missed their plane. After hours of uncertainty our teachers found a solution for us. Four of us could fly the next morning to Eindhoven and the others to Cologne. We were all very relieved, even though that meant that that we had to spend the night at Stansted Airport. We got very creative and threw all our clothes on the floor to sleep on them. Luckily we could get through the customs again at 3 a.m. There were some very comfy seats so we slept there for about 2 hours. In the morning we all took off and got home safely.
Anne Vangerven (6EW)
Mirthe Theuwissen (6EW)
