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| Dress-ups at Jane Austen |
On the morning of the 20th of September a group
of 29 girls made their way to Europe for the Marlborough Girls’ College
Classics Trip! After a year of planning and fundraising it was time for the 3
week journey.
Our first stop was London England; we spent half of our time coming to your Marlborough and experiencing your everyday routines! On our official first day we took a trip to Bath, where we went to visit the Jane Austin Museum and the Roman Baths.
Our first stop was London England; we spent half of our time coming to your Marlborough and experiencing your everyday routines! On our official first day we took a trip to Bath, where we went to visit the Jane Austin Museum and the Roman Baths.
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| Roman Baths |
We
then spent the next day at St Johns College, where we spent our time in classes
and performing at the assemblies. I can certainly say that we all felt welcomed
into the school and everyone seemed so friendly, which made it easy for us to
fit in.
For the next 4 days we spent our time in Central London where we made time to
visit different museums, Tower of London, Buckingham Palace, London Eye and of
course we made sure we had time for the all-important shopping!
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| In front of the Eiffel Tower |
Next on the itinerary was the trip to Paris through the Euro Star! We had 2 nights in Paris, and the obvious trips made were to the Louvre Museum
and the Eiffel Tower; which were both incredibly surreal experiences. During
our time at the Eiffel Tower one of the girls managed to somehow drop her
sunglasses of the 2nd Level of the Tower… Luckily they only fell
down to the 1st level, but she definitely caused a stir between the
tourists. My time at the Eiffel tower was a stand-out part of the trip, and I
don’t think I will be forgetting it anytime soon. We then headed onward to Nime and Nice where I encountered my first difficulty
with translation, and all for gelato!
Our time in Nime consisted of a visit to the Pont du Gard – an amazing structure
from roman History! And one thing that the tour guard said will stay with me
forever… That is that Denim originated from Nime, hence the name (De (French
for ‘from’) Nime) Denim! Woah! During our journey through Nice we spent a day in Monte Carlo! Monte Carlo was
somewhere that a completely different experience, I know I found it weird to
constantly
see Ferrari's everywhere I look!
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| The girls at Monte Carlo |
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| The girls outside the hotel in La Spezia |
The weirdest experience was getting
locked out of Gucci… After 5 girls walked in security decided that that was too
many of us to look after and shut the doors on the rest of us.
The next
destination was was probably my favorite place from the trip, this was Portovenere, Italy! This was an amazing coastal town in La Spezia! Our hotel
was right beside the ocean which meant we had a 5-Star view from our hotel!
Obviously the first thing we did was take a visit to the gelato shop! During this
time we took a trip to the Cinque Terre – an amazing walk through 7 different
Italian villages. This walk was no breeze, through the hundreds of stairs to
walk up I can honestly say that everyone struggled at some point. But it was
definitely worth it when you reached the destinations.
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| Cinque Terre |
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| Close call.. Phew! |
After our time there we took a trip to Pisa, where we took part in the typical
tourist duties! Looking around at Pisa was the most entertaining thing, its not
often that you see hundreds of tourists pulling the same pose at the same time!
We then arrived in Florence – via Pisa – which didn't greet us with the
greatest weather! But we didn't let the weather get us down. We all boarded a
mini bus, and when I say ‘mini’ I meant it! This bus was only supposed to seat
30 people, but as a team we managed to get 50+ people on this bus… This bus
took us to the ‘Gallery
of the Academy of Florence’ where we were able to see the famous David statue
by Michelangelo!
And last but not least we headed to Rome! I loved Rome because it was the home
to so many historical venues that I had seen in so many history books! So it
felt amazing to know I was seeing these things first hand! We visited the
Spanish steps and of course the Coliseum! The Coliseum actually blew me away.
It was an unforgettable experience!
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| Rome |
The only downfall of this trip was the journey home! The trip back to Auckland was fine and after that we split into 2 groups to
travel back to Marlborough! The first group got home without any hassles and
were back to their families in no time, but our group on the other hand… we
boarded our plane and began flying, but after 10 minutes it seemed that the
plane was not safe to continue the flight so we were back in Auckland with no
plan B. At this stage it was 7PM and everyone just wanted to be home, when we got the
news that we would get a plane to Nelson - a town near Marlborough – at 9:30,
and then catch a 2 hour bus back to our home town! So that delay was not
exactly what I’d call a good time.
Overall
this trip was A-M-A-zing! A highlight of my life! I couldn't think of anything
better to do with my time! Travelling to the other side of the world was so
incredible and I would recommend it to anyone that gets the chance! I began to
understand so many aspects of their cultures and I found the everyday differences
between us and them so interesting!
Amy Tempero
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| Avebury |
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| Pyramid in from of the Pyramid |
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| The whole group in the Coliseum! |
