Day 18…Ieper to Charles Gaulle Airport

Final impressions and thoughts…

From start to finish this trip has been a ride. It’s had ups, downs and amazing highlights and I think it has changed my perspective of how I see the world. I no longer just live in my small country town but am part of a much bigger picture. I’ve found out that I actually hate being a tourist, jumping from place to place and being part of a crowd of people who click with their cameras and don’t fully appreciate the statue or monument as a whole really makes me feel like I’m not giving anything back to the people. That’s why I think my favourite place was Ieper as I really loved getting to know a person from another country. The town had so much history behind it and I really felt connected to it much more than I had with any other place J

Throughout this trip I’ve learnt so much, from the art history of the European countries, to how much the Australian soldiers really did give up so we could have the life we do in Australia. Also how difficult it can be to live with the people you would usually only see for 6 hours a day for 3 weeks... All of these lessons have changed my opinion on my life in Tumut and how very lucky we are to live in such an amazing little town. I also love to be able to know where everything I need is and who are the people. Unlike in places such as Rome and Paris where we knew no one and it was a whole new experience to find places such as the Colosseum and Arc De Triumph. Europe Trip 2013 has changed me as a person, all for the good… it has given me the confidence to travel to a new country and also a  Non-English speaking country and taught me how tolerant I can really be. I think that is why so many people from the group enjoyed Ieper, especially getting to meet kids our age and to see how different their lives are from ours but how they are sort of similar at the same time. I would recommend this Europe Trip to anyone considering it in 2014! I would also like to thank the Blakeney Miller Foundation and also all the teachers who have made this trip possible for making it such a great time for all of the students! J

Shevaun.

I have loved the trip. There have many been things that I know I’ll have to come back and visit, such as Venice, Paris and Ieper. They were my favourite places! I’ve learnt a lot of things from coming on this trip, not only about myself but about everybody else too. It’s been an awesome opportunity to get to know the people I didn’t really know to begin with. I also love the fact that while we were in Ieper we got to meet students who were our age and we got to understand and learn their way of life. This trip has given me the confidence to travel when I’m older too. Thanks to everyone who helped this trip happen and thanks to all the teachers for being so great and supportive of us. J

Brooke

This trip as a whole has been awesome, seeing so many different places in such a short period of time. Meeting new people and forming friendships with them, as well as with people on the trip, is something I won’t forget. My favourite part of the trip would be Ieper and visiting the hill 62 museum, Tyne cot cemetery, the Menin gate ceremony and the dawn service in Polygon Wood. These all bring a realisation of how many people worked hard and gave up their lives to protect Australia and other countries. This was a really touching time for me, especially seeing all the unknown graves of soldiers. This trip has given me many great memories and the confidence to be independent and to travel in the future.

Aylsa

The Europe Trip has been an amazing experience and one I will never forget. I have built stronger relationships with people I don’t usually interact with which makes the trip better as I can have a chat to anyone, which is awesome! I enjoyed spending time just getting to know the students from Ieper on a more personal level and the relaxed atmosphere in Ieper makes me feel at home. I also really enjoyed the travelling aspects of the trip like bus and train rides as I just got to see all the country side through Italy, Switzerland, France and Belgium, it’s all very beautiful! From spending so much time with everyone I have learnt that everyone can be a little frustrating (even me) but we all get over it really quickly and can’t stay angry for long. I have also learnt that I could be able to travel independently as this trip has given me the confidence to meet new people and interact with people in other countries. Overall I loved the whole trip!

Amy

The Europe Trip gave me so many experiences. I loved Venice, from gondola rides to Vivaldi concerts to mask shopping. It was a beautiful, relaxing place. I can honestly say I wasn’t as excited for Paris as I should have been but the city won me over by being gorgeous and brilliant, Allonsy! Being away from my natural habitat and put with others 24 hours a day made me appreciate people, for all their good bits and their flaws. They change you and the way you see the world and there is no-one, who has or will ever exist, who will be exactly the same. At the start, I admit I wanted to go home but now I couldn’t imagine living a life without these amazing memories created here. Viva la Europe Trip 2013!

Sarah H

This trip has been an amazing adventure from start to finish. Italy, Switzerland, France and Belgium many of these places I would never have even thought about going to but now I’m so glad I have had the chance to. Italy is by far the highlight of my travels, Rome especially. Being next to and even climbing the world famous monuments sends shivers down your spine. It has been tremendous to see the Colosseum, the leaning tower of Pisa, Eiffel tower and the Notre Dame Bell tower with my own eyes. Trying each country’s unique food has been amusing and at times hilarious. I enjoyed watching the girl’s face when a plate full of snails arrived at dinner. Everyone at least tasted it; those who enjoyed escargot ate the rest of those. Gelato was a big hit with our school group; some had at least four in a day! We met some amazing people along the way including our funny tour guides, random individuals we didn’t know and of course the children from Ieper with whom we all now have a close bond. All in all, I’m glad and very thankful to have been part of such an amazing experience of culture, history and art!
Bridget!

This trip has been a life changing experience for me. I am so happy that I came on this amazing trip. I’ve been to so many places now and have so many stories to tell my family. Making new friends and having good times with them was also a highlight. The thing I learnt about myself was that I am not good with money. I only have 100 euro left in my bank account, but I got lots of gifts for my family so who cares. There is so much more I want to tell you but I am a guy and not so good at writing my thoughts and feelings down - so bye.

James

  

My highlight of the trip would have to be the historical value in the trip such as Pompeii, the Western Front and destruction of Ieper. Going to Ieper in Belgium and being able to meet the local students, who are the same age as us gave us a new perspective of the country. We were able to feel less like tourists. It was great to have their insight into the culture and tour around Ieper during a ‘murder’ game.

I have learnt that I need to worry less about others and that I need my own down time. One thing I miss about Australia is obviously my family. I also missed being able to walk around the street and know the rules, the laws and customs and also being able to know that if I am lost, I will be able to communicate with the people.

Al.

One of the highlights of my trip were the hawkers, for those of you who don’t know what they are, they are people who try and sell you things on the street like sunglasses, lasers etc. Coming from Tumut I had never seen or even heard of these kinds of people before. Another highlight of the trip was definitely our new Ieper friends, what could be a better way to spend our last few days in Europe then making new friends? It was fun, after the hustle and bustle.

From beginning to end this trip has definitely been something special that I’m always going to remember. Ieper would have to be the highlight of the trip, meeting the students from the Technisch Institut Immaculata was a great experience. It was awesome to share each other’s lifestyles and languages. I made some good friends that I will hopefully be able to keep in contact with for years to come. I want to come back to Belgium next year with my family so if I can make that happen I’ll visit the friends I’ve made. The Dawn Service in Polygon Wood was also something very special as I assisted Brooke and Josh with the laying of the wreath on behalf of NSW which I felt very honoured to do. Staying in Ieper for the last couple of days really gave the trip an amazing but also very emotional ending and I hope to be back soon.

Sarah N

Ieper - ANZAC Day

Day 17…Ieper…Dawn Service…Polygon Wood

It was an early start of 3am today, waking ourselves up with cold showers to get us going for the day. Bulking up with several layers and all wearing our much needed beanies, we headed to the Dawn Service at Polygon Wood and arrived at 4.30am. The ceremony did not actually start until 6am but we had to get a front row spot. The service started with the brass band coming through the hundreds of graves that surrounded us. Although an eerie feeling we very much felt touched by being there.

Josh Casey, James Markey, Sarah Nugent and myself had the honour of laying the wreath on behalf of all schools of NSW. Josh and I were asked on behalf of Darren Mitchell, head of Veterans Affairs, to lay this wreath at this brilliant service. I know Josh and I were both very honoured to be able to have this opportunity. Many wreaths were laid including one laid by Louise Halsey, from the Blakeney Millar Foundation, on behalf of the people of New South Wales. The service went for about 45 minutes, including welcomes by the New Zealand and Australian ambassadors, prayers from a local reverend, songs such as Amazing Grace sung by 3 female defence force personnel, the last post and of course the 1 minute silence. Once the service had concluded all guests were invited to take a cross joined to a poppy and place it on a grave of one of the soldiers. This was a touching moment as we placed them on the unknown soldiers of Australia. We were also provided with breakfast after the ceremony.

After the dawn service we took the bus back to our hostel as many of us needed some sleep, living off only 3 hours sleep the night before for some of us! So, from 8.30am till 11am we had time to catch up on some sleep or pack our bags as today was our last full day overseas!

At 11.15am we headed to the Technisch Immaculata Institut to meet up with our Ieper friends again. We started by having lunch in their school cafeteria, which was very nice. After that we headed up stairs and we shared slide shows about “Where We Come From”. This was very interesting and we found out many facts about Belgium!

When that finished, the teachers then explained our next task. This was a Murder Case and we had to solve it! We got into groups of 4; 2 being Australian and 2 being Belgium students. This helped us mingle a bit more with one another. In this task we had to walk around the whole town and we were given hints as to where our next clues were. We were giving 3 hours to complete it and it did in fact take this long to do! In the end we met up and gave in our final answers……. And…… not one group got the correct answer!! So instead of one group winning the prize we all shared a chocolate dog. Very Yummy.

Once that was over we headed back to the school’s gymnasium to have some more bonding time! The Ieper kids started by showing us their “traditional” dance which was lots of fun, and we shared many laughs and smiles. Then we had a bit of a sing along with Mr Rand, including songs such as ‘I Like To Eat’ and ‘Long Tall Texan’, this was funny as the songs are so silly! But we all loved it.

Then Andrew Wortes was asked to show the girls and boys his magical singing talent. He sang ‘The A Team’ and ‘Wonderwall’ which were both very good. This took us up to 5pm and this is the time the students finish school so we said our goodbyes and will be catching up with them again tomorrow morning.

We then strolled to our dinner at Ariane, a local restaurant. We also had tea here the night before. Tonight we were served a cucumber soup for entrée, and a creamy mushroom, veal and rice meal for the main. Dinner was very good. As we were all exhausted we decided to head back the hostel so we could pack our bags and have some rest time!

We are very sad that the trip has come to an end, but we are also very excited as we get to come home to little old Tumut or Adelong and see our much missed family and friends.

See you Sunday afternoon after our 22 hour flight and 5 hour bus trip to get home!

Brooke.

Our Ieper Experience

Day 16… 24 April 2013… Ieper

We woke up at 7:30am, showered, got dressed and went down to breakfast. For breakfast we had a choice of 3 different yummy cereals, juice or milk and some toast with butter, jam or Nutella.          After a great breakfast, we hung out in the games room. We had a lot of fun playing pool and talking about home. Before we left for the day, the hostel was nice enough to pack us a lovely lunch.

 Our first stop was Hill 62; a memorial to Canadian forces in Flanders. After this memorial we visited the Hill 62 museum. There were plenty of artefacts, rusted knifes, rifles, shell cases and photographs. Outside the museum there were preserved trenches from World War One. These zig-zagged through the woodland and due to recent rain the trenches resembled photographs of the mud seen in textbooks. Bunkers were also present and a few braved the confined spaces and dank, dark atmosphere to explore. Will and Sam explored a tunnel using the flash of their cameras to guide them to the other side.

Next stop was the Tyne Cot cemetery. Sarah Hall located her great, great uncle and placed a poppy next to his name. This cemetery was given this name due to German bunkers in this area which resembled Tyneside cottages on the river Tyne in northern England. There are 12000 graves in this cemetery with only 3587 identified. It is the largest commonwealth war cemetery in the world.

In some areas there were graves that were side by side. It was explained to us that the bodies were found together but individuals could not be distinguished from the other and were subsequently buried together. Something that stirred the emotions even more was the amount of graves that simply read “an Australian soldier of the great war”. Poppies were also placed on the graves of two Victoria Cross recipients (Captain Clarence Jefferies and Sargent Lewis McGee) for their bravery in attacking German bunkers during the battle.

The visit to this war cemetery evoked a feeling of sadness and pride.

Lunch which included a meat and salad baguette, chocolate, apple and water was eaten by a lovely pond.

Our education on Australia’s involvement in the Great War continued back in Ieper with a visit to the Flanders museum. Interactive displays, weaponry, uniforms and confronting footage gave us valuable insight into the conditions which all parties endured during the war.

After freshening up at the Salient school hostel, we met with studenst from Ieper. We were welcomed by the incoming principal and shared afternoon tea with the students. Shyness and nervousness gave way the more we talked and before long everyone was chatting excitedly. Dinner was at a four star hotel. Questions about Australia, particularly our animals were discussed. They were surprised we had not been bitten by snakes and spiders.

The highlight of the day was the last post ceremony held at the Menin Gate. This memorial has the names of 54000 soldiers who have no known grave from the battles around Ieper. The ceremony was very sombre and three members of the Australian Defence Force delighted us with fabulous voices.

After the service we found the names of local servicemen who are commemorated on the Menin Gate. We had researched the background on these soldiers before leaving Tumut, so to find the names of these men was a very enriching experience. The five Australians whom we placed a poppy next to were: John Elvidge Dunn, James Bartram Jones, Orlando Thomas Lockyer O’Brien, John Lawrence Bubb and John Henry Jagoe. We are looking forward to the dawn service tomorrow at Polygon Wood but not so much the 3am wake up.

James M.

Ieper, Belgium



Talking to Sounds of the Mountains





Arriving in Ieper







Ieper by Night



Paris from the Seine