Archive for October 2014
Anne’s Gap Year
Story from Anne Judd (Holcombe).
Most students these days take a gap year after finishing their HSC — our era didn’t, so this year is our gap year, 54 years later! Our big European trip was in the planning from last year, when we found out that our daughter would be playing trombone with girls from St Catherine’s Waverley, where she teaches, in Westminter Abbey for the Anzac Day centenary. Neither Bruce or I had never been in the Abbey before, and thought it a gig which was pretty special and we should not miss.
That led to an extended trip which took in Ireland, Vienna to Istanbul through the old eastern block countries cruise for 16 nights, a quick trip to Gallipoli, a stay in the old quarters of Dubrovnic and Split, with a seven day Dalmatian island-hopping cruise in between, four days admiring the old sites of Rome, and a couple of days stop-over in Bangkok on the way over and back – two months away!
Seeing the girls play in Australia House and then again in the Abbey the next day was pretty special, though it was a blow that we weren’t allowed to take photos at either venue, and the whole trip was a wonderful experience.
About a month before we took off we spotted one of those “Our Deal” voucher offers that come up each day on the computer, and impulsively we took it up – 10 days travelling in Beijing and Shanghai and surrounds for a price too good to be true, 4 star accommodation and all meals and escorted to boot, all for under $2000 each! It was so much better than we thought it would be for the price, and we had a wonderful time.
