5.30am came and this was time to get up back in England for the day ahead. Myself, my mam and dad then got ready and left the house for around 6.10am. we then went to pick up my friend kevin and his mam also. This was at 6.20am and we then drove up to Newcastle International Airport. When we arrived at the airport, we had a little wait before we were greeted with the sight of our teachers and the other students going with us. But unfortunately, having only waited about 5 minutes, we find out our flight is cancelled. Our teachers then went and booked another flight for us which was due to go to London instead of Amsterdam then over to Düsseldorf. We then said goodbye to our families and off we went fort he wait.
We then went through security where I happened to be stopped for some unknown reason. But after all of that, we were finally through and the wait for our flight wasn´t that long. So we thought! Due to the weather in London and Düsseldorf, flights were being delayed and cancelled and in the end, ours did to. So weh ad been waiting for about 4 hours up to this point then we had to book another flight through Eurowings that went Direct to Düsseldorf. It was about 13.00pm by this point and we had about a 3 hour wait for our flight which was due to takeoff at 16.05. but then just to add to mountain of problems, it was never going tob e as easy as that. It kept getting delayed by 30 minutes each time until at last, we got on the plane at about 19.00pm. Over 12 hours just for this flight. So we then set off for Düsseldorf and had a safe flight there.
We landed in Düsseldorf at about 22.00pm and this was too late to get the trains to Hövelhof. It also didn´t help that my luggage was lost in this process. We then tried to get a hotel close tot he airport to then get the trains in the morning, but just to add onto the monster that is stress. There were none available. So we had to act fast and decide to get the train at 2.30am so wes at around the airport for a few hours. That means us being the kids we are, it was exploring time. Düsseldorf aiprot was magnificent and wasn´t so bad waiting fort the train.
The taxi dropped us off outside of the train station and the waiting continued. Overall wh had to get on 3 trains which was very annoying, but were going to make it. I believe in total we must have waited at least 2 hours for the trains. At least! But none of the less, 24+ hours later. We arrived in the bitterly cold Hövelhof station. This is when we were warmly welcomed by the headteacher and another teacher high in the school ranks.
We met up with the other teachers from Denmark, Spain and Germany in the hotel next tot he train station. The other countries like Iceland came a couple of days after. We were very pleased to see everyone from different countries, almost falling asleep standing up, and they were all very polite and helpful to us.
We had some breafast at school and it was very nice. First taste of German food and if more of this was to come, we were in for a treat.
We then watched one performance and then went to our hosts house. Our host was Alex. Himself and his family made me and Kevin feel very welcome and are all very nice to us.
Liam Anderson
