Very British- A Journey to England

Back to reality  About a month ago I was still in England enjoying my time there and now I'm back home again. On the one hand it is nice to be back, to see all my friends again and to spend time with my family,boyfriend and my girls, but on the other hand it is also a little bit strange to continue life just as it was before I was away. It seems to me that time rushes even more and my time in England feels more like a dream in my mind than reality.  In three weeks time my university courses will start again and I am anxious to see if my english improved so much that my profs and colleagues hear a (hopefully big) difference. Yesterday I moved back to Coblence in my own room in a flat in the city centre and had a nice suprise: My flatmates decorated my room with flowers and balloons and they designed a big sign which said: "Welcome Back,Toni!". sky above Coblence    Just because my journey is over doesn't mean that I won't stay in contact with J., P

My last week in England- spending time in the South   Time went so quickly! I left East Leake after nearly four months on Sunday. It was very sad but all the people said I should come back soon and that I am always welcome. Pam and Paul gave me a card and J invited all friends for a leaving-do lunch. I was a little bit sad but I'm sure I want to come back to visit them and J wants to come around christmas to Germany so we'll meet them as well. I travelled by megabus to London. It took 2:40 hours but it was an easy and comfy journey. My parents waited paitently and it was so great to see them again! We enjoyed our evening and went for a meal and drinks in Maxwell's. That's a restaurant/bar in the middle of London. I showed my parents Covent Garden by night and we listend to a singer on the street. We went to bed late and it was all in all a stirring and very exiting day! Covent Garden market On the next day we went to the city centre to see Covent G

One day in Norwich  Yesterday was a fabulous day. After we have done some grocery shopping in the village we went to Norwich. Norwich was 50 minutes far away from our cottage and it was really worth driving for one hour to our destination. We drove to Norwich via Park and Ride and in my opinion the Park and Ride system is a very elaborate and useful sytsem. It makes life easier: you don't have to drive into the city, so you miss the busy traffic, you don't need to look for a parking space, and you get directly into the city centre. One our way to the Park and Ride we came across a dairy farm and had local ice-cream. That was really nice! They had all different kinds of sorts like for example: banana-toffee, wild strawberries or tiramisu. Dann's ice-cream-so tasty! Norwich  is so beautiful. The funny thing was: We wanted to go into the cathedral and look around and thought that dog's are not permitted there. But when we asked a lady if it is really the case she

Holiday time! We are at the moment in Snettisham which is a village in North Norfolk near the east coast. Our cottage is a typical gingerbread house. That kind of building is typical for the area. The houses are brownish red and look sometimes very tiny but nice. We are staying for one week here and half of the week is over now. The time is going so fast. Near to our village is Sandringham. That's the place were the royal family stays when they have holiday and want to spend their time together in a nice surrounding. William, Kate and Harry went to our village in the art gallery and in the pub. The pub here in our village is so posh and nice! We had a coffee outside and the garden is so lovely. When we visited Sandringham we had a guided tour around and saw all the places where the royal family spend their time. The rooms were really impressive and the pictures were just stunning! I really liked the pieces of art in the house. There was one very good and humerous painting

London- the best city in the world I arrived in London St. Pancras at 1 o'clock. I looked for the hostel and finally found it and when I arrived the three girls were asleep! They had been so tired after waking up in the middle of the night to catch their flight. So I woke them up and we talked for a time. It was great to chat after some months and I really missed them! They hadn't done the Sightseeing Tour so we decided that we want to do that together. We booked the tour in the hostel. It was a 48hour tour so we could use the bus for two days and it included one cruise. We looked for the next station and hopped on the bus. The weather was nice and so we drove through London. It took us nearly three hours to get around but we saw a lot. We went for dinner to "Nando's" which is a peruisan restaurant chain I tried in Scotland. Their cuisine is so tasty! We enjoyed our dinner and a cider afterwards and went to bed early because we had big plans for the next d

The summer in England is just fabulous! When I am on my way to the park I can pick blackberries and I often sit outside and read good books. Everything is so much better when you can spend your time outside! We are back home since friday evening. We had an unpleasant incident: One tyre of J.'s trailer tent was flat ! Somebody mentioned it when we stayed at the service station. So our journey back home was longer than expected. We started at half past 9 and where at home at half past 7 in the evening. But we were lucky that nothing happened! J. went to a wedding at Cambridge on Saturday morning so I had a relaxing day at home. It was so nice to sleep in a real bed again. It was 25 degrees so I enjoyed the sun, read my book and went to the supermarket where I met Pam and Paul. In the afternoon I visited Margret. She is a very nice lady, she sits in a wheelchair and manages very well. We sat in the garden and talked about travelling and studying. She travelled a lot when she wa

Learning how to camp   This was my first real camping holiday experience for a longer time and I must say it was not too bad. We were lucky because the weather was good. It was most of the time sunny and we only had a little bit of rain. Every day it was nearly 20 degrees. The only thing that was not too good was that we had no electricity at our camp site. They also charged for Wi-fi which I dislike. But I was lucky because I could stay in a campervan instead of staying in a little tent by myself. It is more like living in a small house. We had two beds with mattresses, pillows and some blankets so I was not freezing in the night (like I was when we camped in Scotland). The showers and washing-up facilities looked nice and we had nice neighbours as well. The saling club was only 10 miles from our campsite away and there we spent most of the time. I met Bethan (N's daugther) and she is 18 and I liked spending time with her. She is not really into sailing so it was nice to spea

Thursday: birthday-lunch invitation-Shakespeare The Thursday started with a birthday breakfast at the farm shop where we often meet for lunch. We had been invited for Mary's Birthday Brunch. She celebrated her birthday one day earlier because she had other plans for the next day. We arrived at 9:30 and met a lot of friends, for example Pam and Paul, Margret, Inet,Doris, etc. Everybody was chatting with each other and we hadn't seen them all for over a week so it was nice to hear all the news. We stayed there for 3 1/2 hours. After that I went home and J. went to the garage(because somebody had broken her rear-view mirror) and afterwards to the dentist. She had forgotten that we were invited for lunch at Bethan's so I got a call and she explained me the way to Bethan. She had invited her German friend Moni who is married to an English husband and she lives in England now. She was waiting for me with her daugther and we talked for a while and afterwards had lunch with Bet

A lonely island next to the city centre- Inchcolm   This Saturday we took the ferry and went to Inchcolm Abbey. It's a beautfiul island in the Firth of Forth in Scotland. From Edinburgh we drove only 15 minutes to get the ferry and it cost 16 pounds to get to the island and back. Your first thought is that "Wow. This is quit expensive", but it was really worth going on the island! The tour was guided so the speaker told us a lot about the history of the 2 finished bridges and the one which is still in progress at the moment. It was really interesting to hear all about the bridges the railway bridge is for example now Scotland's sixth world heritage site. Then we arrived at the island which is cared for by Historic Scotland. On the island there is an abbey from the 12th century which was built by King David the First. The abbey and it's grounds are fully open to the public and it was so nice to wander around. There are a lot of birds on the island. It&

Happy wedding day.... the setting (before everybody arrived) The last week (especially the weekend) was filled with lots of activities. We helped voluntary at a wedding in East Leake. It was Jamies and Lauras wedding and they celebrated it in the rectory garden. We started helping at 12 o'clock and finishes at 8.  It was a bring and share lunch so every guest brang something. Our task was to set up tables, prepare the drinks, serve the drinks, clear all the tables, do the washing up and so on and so forth.  It was a looooong day and very stressful but in the end it was very nice and you can be proud of yourself for giving them a good time. the wedding cake I am sitting at the moment in Ediburgh. We are staying in a very nice flat very close to the Botanic garden in Edinburgh and I must say it is really nice staying in a private flat in a huge city like this ! We enjoy our time. On Wednesday we went to Dalgety Bay and had a tour on the rescue boat. It was my first

  Let's go to the movies In the last month we often went to the pictures. I want to show you which films we've seen and which one I would really recommend you. The first film we watched was “Still Alice” in the Silver Screen in Loughborough. The Silver Screen shows movies for everybody but especially for elderly people which rather like to go to the cinema at 11 o’clock in the morning or two o’clock in the afternoon. They show movies which are a little bit “older” and it only costs 3 Pounds and you get a free tea or coffee. I’ve heard about “Still Alice” when I still was in Germany and a famous German film critique recommended it. It is a movie about which you cannot stop thinking about after you saw it. Julian Moore is (as you all might know) a brilliant actress. In the story of the movie she gets the Alzheimer disease and she, her husband and all her children are really shocked because she works as a linguistic professor at university and lives a busy life. The