England by www.born2travel.it

Southampton July 1997

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02. 07. 1997 Southampton (ENGLAND)

This time the college adventure in England is shared with several of my classmates. I'm sure we'll see some sights with Antonio, Domenico, Carlo, Diego, Rossella, Chiara, Jessica, Maria Rosaria, Maria, Luigia, Mario, Agostino & company. The destination is Southampton. A town that was very important in the past and made even more famous because it was from here, back in 1620, that the Pilgrim Fathers of the Mayflower set off and later reached what is now the United States, or because the legendary Titanic sailed from here in 1912. The college that will host us during this period is very different from the one in Oxford. What a disappointment! A big building resembling a barracks, with no sports centre or wide green spaces, and on top of that all the students we've met so far are Italian... There are no foreigners... I want to go back to Oxford!!! 05. 07.

1997 Isle of Wight (ENGLAND) Wake-up at 5:45. The coaches were already waiting to take us to the port. Today, on a big ferry, we went to the Isle of Wight. As soon as we arrived they immediately took us to visit Osborne House, the Queen's summer residence. After a long panoramic bus tour of the whole island, during which we could admire the entire landscape and the beauties of the place, all those vast expanses of green gave you a sense of calm and serenity. We stopped to eat something on the bay overlooking the Channel, reaching it by a charming chairlift.

06. 07. 1997 Southampton (ENGLAND)

This afternoon we visited a big fair not far from our college, whose main attraction was the brightly coloured hot-air balloons from all over England. 09. 07. 1997 Bournemouth (ENGLAND) What a peculiar place! Bournemouth seems much more fun than Southampton: full of beaches, people, students wandering the very crowded streets, and the characteristic thing is that this place, in summer, turns into a British Scandinavia. We met so many Swedish, Finnish, Danish girls... 12. 07. 1997 London (ENGLAND) A year later, here I am again in the English capital! London is a wonderful city, it felt like retracing last year's steps. In the morning we watched the Queen's changing of the guard, then visited Westminster Abbey since I hadn't done so the year before.

Inside this majestic abbey are buried some of the most important people in England: Charles V, Catherine of Valois, Geoffrey Chaucer, Elizabeth I, etc. From there we went on to Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, St James's Park, Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square and on to the Rock Circus. It was at this last place that I had the most fun! It's a sort of wax museum but with singers only, and the characteristic thing is that at the entrance you're equipped with a kind of Walkman that lets you listen to the best songs of the various singers simply by moving closer to the statues! There were: Gary Barlow, Michael Jackson, the Beatles, Freddy Mercury, David Bowie, Tina Turner, Elton John, etc. 14. 07. 1997 Southampton (ENGLAND) Last night, with Antonio and Mario, we made a nighttime escape to another college a couple of km from ours to visit some Roman girls we'd met in the previous days.

Tonight they had "disco night" and we sneaked in pretending to be students of their college! What fun. We met girls from all over the world: Russian, Kazakh, Turkish, Polish, Spanish, etc. We stayed with them until late, but the problem was getting back, since to return to our college we'd have had to cross two big parks and at night it's rather dangerous. We pluck up courage and, cautiously, head for our college. Everything goes smoothly until we reach the first park, when in the distance we notice a group of boys much older than us making a racket in the street, clearly a bit tipsy; one of them notices us and yells something we can't make out; without even thinking, we look each other in the eye for a second, hats in hand (for me and Antonio), and like three hares chased by a wolf we fly towards our college...

Safe and sound but what a fright! With all the things you hear happen at night in those parks...

16. 07. 1997 Winchester (ENGLAND)

Last night too we stayed up very late and this morning in class I fell asleep in the true sense of the word while Gina was explaining... I actually lay down across three chairs... Suddenly I felt myself being shaken and when I opened my eyes again I saw the face of our teacher scolding me with a not-so-reassuring grin... I played the card that I wasn't feeling well (in reality here you sleep 3 or 4 hours a day and after two weeks I'm shattered!). She immediately gives me an aspirin and tells me to swallow it in front of her... "Teacher, can I take it in the bathroom?" - "OK". (...and the poor medicine ended up in a typical British toilet...!) In the afternoon we visited the city of Winchester. It's famous because it still preserves King Arthur's "Round Table".

19. 07. 1997 London (ENGLAND)

Last trip to London before departure. This time entirely focused on visiting the legendary Wax Museum, "Madame Tussauds", named after the woman who created the first masterpieces. It was amazing and the funniest thing was that so many figures were so real that you often mistook a statue for a real human being and vice versa! What laughs! 21. 07. 1997 Salisbury (ENGLAND) The trip is drawing to a close. Today we visited Salisbury with its Cathedral and then Stonehenge. It's always exciting but, alas, I must admit that the first time it stirred far stronger emotions in me...