On 9th November, we set off on an extraordinary four-day adventure, planned by our English teacher, Sónia Vaz. We left the school at midnight by bus for Francisco Sá Carneiro airport in Porto, where we had to go through a series of checkpoints and controls before boarding, just like on our trip to London. We boarded the bus at around 6.05am, arrived at Sansted airport and set off on our adventure.

On this first day we started by going to Oxford, where we had lunch while we waited for the guide. While visiting the city, I discovered that Oxford has around 34 universities with great rivalries, for example, when students want to refer to students from another university they don't say “those from university x”, they say “the others”. We visited the main library of one of the universities, passed a lot of historical sites, but we couldn't go in because it was the day of the students' graduations. We also passed by the church of Our Lady, strolled through gardens and saw deer, the smallest ones looked like Bambi, they were so cute!

We headed for Cardiff and on the way to Mermaid Quay where we had dinner, passed some places like Senedd Cymru (the Welsh parliament), Pierhead Building (the ‘Big Ben’ of Wales), had dinner and returned to the hotel.

On the second day, in the morning we saw the Giant Wheel and visited the National Museum of Cardiff, which was fantastic! Then, on our way to the Millennium Stadium, we had the opportunity to watch a parade in honor of those who died in wars. Professor Sónia gave us a fascinating entrance to the Millennium Stadium, where we had the excellent opportunity to watch the rugby match between the Figi Islands and Wales, we didn't understand anything about the game, but this was even more enjoyable and phenomenal! What I understood most was that Wales lost with the final score being 24-19. It was a unique experience!

Later, we strolled through some of Cardiff's streets, where we took the opportunity to buy souvenirs. Here our group met a lady who plays the saxophone, who has been to Portugal, and they asked her to play some songs like ‘A Cabritinha’, ‘Kuduro’, ‘Buraka’, among others, we danced, and some English people tried to join in, it was a great party!

We had fish and chips for dinner and returned to the hotel.

On the third day, we left the hotel at around 9am for a guided tour of Cardiff's castles. We entered and explored Caerphilly Castle, climbed almost to the top and enjoyed the incredible natural landscape, it was fascinating!

We then headed to Bannau Brycheiniog National Park, where we had lunch and enjoyed the view.

We returned to Cardiff to enter Cardiff Castle, then had dinner and returned to the hotel.

On the fourth and final day, we checked out of the hotel and headed to Stansted airport to catch our flight back to Portugal, bringing our study visit to Wales to an end.

During the trip we learnt some new words in the Cardiff language, such as: Caerdydd (Cardiff), among others. Wales is an immensely beautiful country characterized by its splendid natural landscapes and historic castles.

Without a question, a fantastic field trip. 

I loved it! I'd really like to repeat the experience. 

Special thanks to the organization of the visit.