International visitors have come to play!
Today our international friends arrived and we asked them about their journeys and first impressions of Essex.
In airports everyone thinks #willmybagmakeit? - but apparently not for some of us! Four of the Romanian Scouts have lost their bags at the airport! (Not their fault!) What a rough trip they had, they started at 6am in Romania for a three hour flight to London. When they walked in the gate all they could think was “wow, this is so well coordinated” and they also expressed their surprise at how different the landscape and environment is compared to their mountainous regions.
Marieberg Scouts from Sweden said their trip was “slow but overall okay”, as they travelled for two days on trains with an overnight stopover. They said that compared to where they are from, it is much warmer here and that at some of their Swedish camps/Jamborees they host around 11,000 people!
Some groups had less stressful trips, such as The 118th Cork Watergrasshill Scout Group from Ireland who arrived having had a “really easy trip”. Their first impressions of camp were that it is a “really big” and “very hot” place! These Scouts is incredibly excited as it is the very first Jamboree for all 29 of them!
Some of the young people from Assen, Netherlands, travelled 13 hours on a Bus, a Boat then another Bus to get to Essex! They said that it was “not too bad” of a trip, however some of them found that the voyage wasn’t their favourite. Just like our friends from Ireland this is some of their first Jamborees and they found the campsite “massive”.
The German contingent travelled from 3pm – 9:30pm - 6.5 hours! They said “it was a very long trip” requiring them to take a bus, ferry and then yet another bus to get here. Their first impressions of the campsite are also that it is “very big”.
Hinna Speidergruppe (Scout group) of Norway had two flights, a two hour and a three hour with an overnight stopover. They think Essex looks very pretty and so organised and they are all excited for shopping and the milkshakes from the Soft Rock Cafe. By the way Norway, you have the coolest scarfs!
Do you think these trips sound hard? Well, try a 24 hour flight our Aussies had to take to get here! With a stopover in Dubai they arrived a week early to get over the nine hour time difference, so cut them some slack if they are still jet lagged! However, coming early meant they got to visit Pax lodge and explore some of the Northern Hemisphere, which most of them have never stepped foot in. Their bus to Essex had no luggage space so they had to wait an hour and a half for a new one to fit them AND their bags, but that's the fun of travelling!
Clearly near or far, we have all had our bumps in the road!