METU students waiting at ÖSTEND port in Belgium on their way to Dover port in England

Date

Author

Metadata

Show full item record

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Item Usage Stats

74
views

0
downloads

After graduating from Prep School, we had to attend the Fridaybridge orientation camp in Wisbech, England, for practice. We sent the camp management a 2.5-pound postage stamp and received an "Acceptance." Back then, unlike today, there were no visa requirements. With the "Acceptance" mailed to our address, we traveled by bus to the port of Östend in Belgium and from there by ferry to the cities specified in Acceptance. Our first close friendship began with this trip, as a busload of prep school students. Because the journey was long and we couldn't afford a hotel, we slept on the bus, crossing Yugoslavia and Austria, and arriving in Munich, Germany. We were hungry for pickles, so we wanted to sleep. The driver took us to the Dormitory for the Powerless, where we would pay 1 DM per person because it was cheap... The administrators were surprised to see us, who weren't exactly Guşuz(!), but they gave us separate rooms with a shared bathroom... We took a bath, had a comfortable sleep, and prayed to the West German government... At that time, Germany was divided into East and West. Only Bulgaria charged 10 TL for a transit visa... After Bulgaria, we passed through Yugoslavia, Austria, Germany, and Belgium (without any problems, visa-free).... Our return was to Ankara by plane and/or train, also visa-free. (Notes by Hüseyin Kabahasanoğlu)

Subject Keywords

METU Civil Engineering, Students

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/115129
https://bellek.metu.edu.tr/handle/11511/115129

Collections

METU Bellek, Multimedia