The Fourth Week at School Has Passed

Dear Reader,

This post will be a bit complex. There was a social programme every afternoon. In the mornings I had the same classes. You will read a summary and evaluation of the week at the end.

On Monday we were in London. There is a separate post for that, which you can read here link.

On Tuesday we went over to Margate to see the buildings and culture of the town. We also listened to the history of the city. It was fascinating to see how famous painters and artists have influenced the history of the city (well, there is no hiding the history of centuries ago.) For me, the best part was the Walpole Bay Hotel and Museum. The building itself was built in 1914 for the discerning and upmarket. The building was extended in 1927. It was owned by the Bishop family until 1995. The Bishop family started the fairytale adventure of the hotel and preserved the spirit of a bygone era, which is visible from the moment of entry. The Walpole's magnificent 1927 Otis Trellis gated elevator serves all five floors and is the centrepiece of the museum. It was incredible to me that it is still in working order and usable today. The museum is located in the corridors of all five floors of the hotel. It's very interesting to browse through the memorabilia, documentation and handkerchief artwork on the walls of the floors. The best part was having tea after the exhibition, with original porcelain sets and original English tea drinking traditions.

Tuesday's pictures can be found here link.

On Wednesday we visited Viking ship, Wingship Harbour and Walmer Castle. Wingship Harbour was awesomely deserted. It was a bit like everything was left after a nuclear attack. One thing was for sure, nature was starting to take it back. I was told about its history, but found a video with pictures to give a better idea. Our next stop is Walmer Castle near the village of Deal. The castle itself was built by Henry VII between 1539 and 1540. This castle has also survived in a very nice condition. The interior has been restored to its original state. Several documents and relics that remain in the castle tell a part of its history. I think the most beautiful part of the castle was the garden. It is amazing how fastidiously and beautifully kept it is. The best part is that it has many of the flowers found in England, plus an original English kitchen garden.

Wednesday's pictures can be found here link.

On Thursday we visited the town of Sandwich and visited a courtroom and its museum. We were transferred to Ramsgate by school bus and from there we took the train. The museum tells the rich and varied history of Sandwich through the ages, from the early parts of the town to the present day. The museum was really very nice. We were given a special tour and presentation. It was interesting and also a lot. I can't really say I can say anything back, but I got the gist. For a long time the town had a special privilege and the tax revenue from that was what made the town prosper. Walking around the town, you could see that in the buildings, almost everything was made with the highest quality materials. There were few buildings that showed any signs of age, so it is fair to say that the local people are now keeping things in good order. After the museum we walked around the town. Our teacher and one of the students had fish and chips, I got a coffee and walked along the riverbank. After all this we went to the station. There we got some bad news. Our train was cancelled, so there was 1.5 hours of freezing and waiting. This week the weather has also been sad to return home, almost every day has been cold and bad, but at least I can say that the weather has been wonderful for the last three weeks. At least we have been able to have good conversations while waiting. It's interesting how English people can get annoyed about such a situation, I didn't even pick up after the Hungarian train (of course it wasn't pleasant, but it was bearable, at least it wasn't sub-zero temperatures). Here you can claim compensation for 25 minutes of delay. Strange, I think the Hungarian railways would have gone bankrupt by now. Of course, this is normal. In the end it was a pretty good afternoon.

Thursday's pictures can be found here link.

On Friday we were in Canterbury. Compared to the previous visit, we only visited the Roman Museum. It was very interesting. Inside the museum you could see the preserved condition of an original excavated street/building. Another interesting thing was that on one of the walls you could scale a replica of a man of the time. It was in this part of the exhibition that it became clear to me how much smaller people were. I really liked it, especially that we were given audio guides using a smartphone.

You can find Friday's pictures here link.

On Saturday we visited Whitstable. Due to a train strike we took a small bus as there were 5 of us in total including the teacher. When we arrived we went into a bakery which is also a breakfast place. It was great to eat a proper European pastry again, not to mention the coffee was delicious (I drank cortado wherever I could, here too) After a nice breakfast and a nice chat we headed for the beach. The interesting thing about the beach is that it is full of shells. There is no sand here, so it's a bit interesting to walk barefoot into the water. After the beach we walked around the town. The town is full of older buildings and shops that attract a lot of tourists. (I note that I was not very enthusiastic here. Specifically this part I really didn't like, as you know about me, I hate shopping. ) At the end of the programme we went to see the local castle. The garden of this one was also very nice. There were roses so big they were hanging over the palm of my hand. We couldn't see the inside of the castle because there was a wedding going on. The bride looked beautiful. On the way home we stopped to see the nearby airport. Unfortunately, it is currently closed. It was closed during COVID period because of budget problems. Since then they have been unable to reopen due to opposition from a few people ( damn democracy, so much for that). I hope it will be back in operation soon. We finally returned home. As a last resort I walked to the beach. It was a bit bad because I loved it, especially how much walking and running I did there, but maybe I'll go back one day.

You can find pictures from Saturday here Link

On Sunday we head to the airport and home. Unfortunately, I didn't dare risk public transport because of the rail strike, so I arranged a taxi on Tuesday. It wasn't cheap, but worth it ( especially with the train cancellations on Wednesday). A nice lady was the taxi driver. She is originally from Latvia and has been in England for 14 years. We had a super good chat and she told us some interesting facts. For example: what the numbers in the number plates mean and how they are formed ( the year the vehicle was registered ) She was very fair. He also came earlier, the downside of this was that we had to wait longer at the airport, but never mind, that should be the least of it. Unfortunately the baggage check in was not smooth as the automatic gadget couldn't interpret for some reason that I had two bags. Fortunately, I managed to get around that too.

Sunday's pictures can be found here link.

As promised at the beginning, I'll recap this week. Overall, school was very good. I learned a lot and it was fun. It was a bit much and I was tired of going somewhere every afternoon, but I chose this one. On Friday I got a certificate of my school results.

Dagoca