We spent our first morning in Belgium touring battlefield sites, starting with Hill 60 and Hill 62. Before tour, Mr Hey had warned us that if it had rained at all in the past week, our shoes would get muddy so we should bring old shoes that we wouldn’t mind throwing out after visiting the battlefields. It hadn’t rained, however, so I could keep my shoes with me for the rest of the tour.
Anyway, the first hill we went to (I can’t remember whether it was Hill 60 or Hill 62) was absolutely beautiful. We went to a clearing with a man-made lake in the middle. Apparently, the lake was caused by a mine explosion during World War One. On the other side of the lake, we could see many trees shrouded by mist. It’s hard to capture its beauty using words only. In fact, not only a picture could give you the full sense of what it was like there- you’d have to go there to get the entire effect. It’s odd how such destruction could have caused such beauty.
The other hill had a fairly convoluted landscape, again due to the battles during WWI. Some of the bunkers still remain there. You could tell which bunker belonged to which army due to the directions they faced.
After visiting the two hills we visited several other war memorials. The situation was the same- beautiful scenery in a place that exists to remember those who lost their lives during the war. Who would have thought that the death of an Austrian aristocrat could spell the death of so many others?
We had a little bit of free time in Ypres. I got some Belgian chocolate from one chocolate shop but then found out that the chocolate shop we had visited before that had had a special deal where you could get quite a lot of chocolate for only 10 euros! I was a bit annoyed at myself for that.
After that, we had a concert in the market square. Wind Orchestra was performing, as well as the Saxophone and Jazz ensembles. After playing Fantasy on an Australian Folk Song or Waltzing Matilda (can’t remember which one it was that we played) one of the members of our audience yelled, “Aussie Aussie Aussie! Oi! Oi! Oi!” I was surprised at this- I didn’t know that so many Europeans knew the Aussie Aussie Aussie chant!
Wind Orchestra performed last. After we were finished, we all packed up and headed up the road towards a restaurant to have dinner in our group of 166. I think we practically took up the whole restaurant. I think we had steak or some other kind of meat served with chips, which is basically what we had the night before (vegetarians had had omelette that night, but I’m not sure about this particular night).
This restaurant was where we all had our most awkward toilet experience ever (well, those who needed to go had an awkward experience anyway). The toilet was a unisex toilet. Basically, the door opened to reveal the urinal and a sink, and there was another door which led to the toilet itself. Nobody used the urinal, and I don’t blame them. It was barely concealed by a screen- in fact, the people sitting across from me at my table could see the urinal clearly. In the queue for the toilet, the boy behind me asked the waiter if that was the only toilet in the restaurant, and he said yes. The boy then said, “Good, because I’d feel awkward if I was queuing up for a girls’ bathroom.” I didn’t say anything, but I thought, “How do you think I feel?! There’s a urinal here!”
After dinner, we went back down the road but instead of going all the way back to our hostels, we stopped at Menin Gate, an arch-shaped memorial. Wind Orchestra was playing its memorial repertoire again for the ceremony, while the choir, which was present this time, sang. Quite a lot of people were watching the ceremony. I didn’t understand what was going on a lot of the time, but at least I understood what I had to do, unlike at the Dawn Service where confusion abounded.
When the ceremony was over, there were some Australian army people there handing out badges, stickers and balloons. I considered getting a badge for Tyko but by the time they got to me they had run out so I took a few balloons instead. As we walked back to our hostels, I heard someone behind me say, “Wow, what time does it set in this place?!” I looked at my watch and understood what they were talking about- it was 8.50pm and it still looked like 5pm on a summer evening! (I’m not sure what time the sun actually did set because I wasn’t paying attention.)
Lights out was 10.30pm, half an hour after the hostel manager said we had to be quiet otherwise the neighbours would complain. At 10.32, Mrs F came to our room and asked us why the lights weren’t out. She must have been pretty exact considering that our room wouldn’t have even been the first one she would have visited! I must commend her for trying such tactics on a group of teenagers on tour.
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