Reading the words “over-night ferry” prompted strange feelings. I didn’t know what is to be expected during this way of travelling, but I was sure that it was going to be an experience. And definitely, it was a very entertaining experience.

I didn’t know many participants in the excursion, but with a few friends in the back of the bus I was feeling cheerful. After surviving the 6-hour coach trip to Zeebrügge, some of us felt just tired, but some were pretty excited about how this trip by ferry was going to be. Suffering from the unexpected temperatures outside the coach, we provided our luggage with little labels, checked them in, and entered the ferry. Some temporary confusion was caused by the distribution of the cabins. Unfortunately, we were not among the lucky ones who were assigned a cabin with a window. Instead of this there was a huge mirror, which was a poor substitute. “Turning the night into day was proposed,” and considering the modest cabin outfit, everybody agreed to this plan.

So we went on the sundeck and enjoyed a really beautiful sunset. After this amazing view over the sea, when it was getting colder and draughtier out there, we went in to have something to drink and eat. Sitting quietly comfortable in a group of nice people, we had a great deal of fun playing Bingo and having some drinks. Nina and Adrien, our experts in playing Bingo, weren’t so successful, although they yelled the loudest and caused big laughter from time to time. And of course they earned rounds of applause for that. This “meeting”, perhaps our first mini-internship called “playing Bingo and laughing at the same time,” was a good way to get to know each other.

After a while the band stopped playing well-known songs, but we didn’t care because they played them in a very miserable manner anyway. The DJ took up his job. Some of us became grittier and cut up a mean floor. The funny aspect about that were the wondering faces around us. All the people sitting around the dance floor seemed to be surprised that we were enjoying the music and were spinning around until the DJ called it a day. Even this didn’t mean the end for many of us. But by nearly 4 o’clock in the morning, even the last ones had sinking eyes. So we decided to have a little nap.

Only 2 hours later was breakfast time and as we were promised a beautiful sunrise around 5:30 a.m. in addition to that, we set our alarm clocks and were amply rewarded – with the first sunbeams of the day and a typical British breakfast!