On 11th September we, 22 students of class 7B, and our teachers Mag. Christiane Hackl and Mag. Andrea Pickem started our journey to Eastbourne. After our flight to London Heathrow a coach took us to our destination Eastbourne being situated on the south coast of England, where we were immediately picked up by our host families.
During the week we attended a language course to improve our language skills and to enhance our cultural awareness of the UK.
A walking tour through Eastbourne on Thursday helped us a lot to get a first glimpse of the town. Visits to Brighton and Hastings offered us information about English history (Hastings Castle and the 1066 story) and sea life (we visited Brighton’s aquarium).
Our day trip to London was exhausting, but it was worth it. We started our trip at Victoria station and walked along some busy streets. We went past Westminster Abbey, the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben, down to the river Thames to take a ride on the London Eye. What a stunning view!
Then we spent our lunch break at Covent Garden, where we were given enough free time to do some shopping or just stroll around the streets of London. On our way back we walked across Leicester Square, Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, up the famous boulevard “The Mall” until we finally reached Buckingham Palace.
On our second day trip we headed for Canterbury and Leeds Castle. The flower show in the castle was quite impressive and fortunately we found our way out of the big maze being in the heart of the vast garden surrounding the castle. Lucky us!
We finished our language trip with our language course in the morning and free time in the afternoon. Some of us enjoyed the nice weather relaxing at the pier or having fish and chips, others went on a shopping spree in the shopping street and in The Beacon, Eastbourne’s new shopping centre. In the afternoon some of us met to have some typically British cream tea including British breakfast tea, fruit scones, jam and clotted cream.
It was a wonderful week. The trips to Brighton, London, Hastings and Canterbury were very interesting. During our free time my friends and I always found activities to do, but shopping was definitely on top of the list.
When I was packing my suitcase at home, I was afraid and didn’t really know what to expect, but the trip turned out to be great fun, informative and definitely worth the money.
It was one of the best school trips. We had a great host family and the teachers at the language school were very funny. I’m sad that the week is over and I would like to visit Eastbourne again. We’ll definitely stay in contact with our host family.