Öckerö gymnasium

A long day on a bus

Today we’ve seen thousand of flowers and views as we climbed the beautiful mountains of El Hierro in a bus. Although many of us felt tired, we surely woke up as we entered the crystal-clear water of the natural pools. The day slowly went by outside the windows and suddenly ended with 8-6 to us against some “ninjos” on the football arena.

We woke up just as we fell asleep. That was what it felt like anyway. Everyone felt tired, especially those who were at the gangway two hours during the night. As I waited outside the bathrooms, I observed some of my classmates and realized that we all, including me, looked like we were from “the walking dead”. We discussed this weird phenomenon at the breakfast. Everyone, without exception, had this distant look in their eyes and bad posture. To capture this funny looking class, one of us came up with the brilliant idea that we should take a picture of each one of us during breakfast and collect these pictures in a photo album. But this idea dropped as that one person realized that she would be included among the other zombies. To get this straight; none of us looks good while eating breakfast.

A quarter before ten, everyone stood in formation on the quay. Of course with the mandatory face mask on. We were actually given a washable face mask with the school log on when we arrived last week. But we quickly discovered that they’re almost un-breathable. We’re not dramatic, but I promise you that it does feel like you’re about to swallow a jellyfish while having it on. The only upside with the washable (apart from taking it off) was that we discovered how good the ordinary blue-ones are. Because in those, you can actually breath!

When we got on the bus, our guide introduced herself and the bus driver; who she claimed to be the best driver in the world. A statement that we can do nothing but agree to, since we’re all still alive. We quickly climbed the mountains, as we got on the roads. The temperature seemed to drop for every hundreds of meters. The view of the island was stunning! We have never seen such of a landscape and height. It was incredible! But scary, especially since the roads lacked security rails along the cliffs. So you could not but imagine the straight drop downwards, while sitting close to the windows. Despite the constant thought of an instant death, it was a beautiful view of both the island and the sea. And as we climbed higher up the mountains, the more colorful it got.

The flowers could be seen everywhere as they covered the hills with their beauty. To our surprise, we did recognize many of them from Sweden. But apart from those, there were hundreds of flowers form our wildest imaginations. While going pass them in high speed, the landscape looked like an oil painting with dots and draws of every color from the tubes. And we could do nothing but look.

The colors seemed to shift with the height and temperature. But suddenly all flowers disappeared as we entered a mysterious forest. Moss hung from the branches and the trunks were old. Our guide began to talk about endemic plants on the island, and while informing us about a certain plant she droped a wonderful sentence that will be with us forever. “If you ever find a rabbit or a frog laying down under a tree. You should know that they’re not dead, they’re just drunk”

The bus stooped in the forest, and we began our search after rabbits and frogs. To our very disappointment we found neither of them but to our joy we found more stunning views. This stop turned out to be helpful for us who have an assignment in natural science; to observe two organisms and then discuss their evolutionary conditions.

Our third stop was in a town with a clock-tower and a cathedral. We were supposed to eat our lunch there at a restaurant. But our guide told us that it was closed due to the fact that “Jesus is still dead”. For me it was a relief to go into that church and to see the statues of Jesus. It was a friendly reminder of the prize that he paid when he choose to die on that cross for us. And although I know that God’s not limited by the building of the church, I felt happy to visit one during Easter. When we left the place, I listened to some music of worship. Among the songs were “Who you are to me” by Chris Tomlin and as I listened I thought of lyrics “Some people think you just live in cathedrals made of stones. But I know you live inside my heart. I know that it’s your home”

We later arrived at some natural pools. Everyone felt hungry and tired by this point but the thought of our luxurious sandwiches made us move out of the bus. With full stomachs, we looked at each-other as we realized that we were about to take a cold bath. The temperature had dropped and the sun was now covered by clods. So yes, we did hesitate. But after some consideration we concluded that we didn't want to miss this bath-stop, because it was truly beautiful! One after another, we went into the crystal-clear water, full of small fish. As I were about to step into another pool, I jumped into the air by surprise as I realized that I was inches from stepping on a poisonous jellyfish. But considering the fact that it must have flown into the pool with an ocean wave, I don’t know who of us was the most surprised.

The bus ride continued and the guide informed us about the island. Apparently, it only got about 10.000 inhabitants and there are no place for them were they can buy shoes, so if they need a pair they have to travel to Tenerif; an other canary island of which we stopped on our first journey with T/S Gunilla.

Our last stop with the bus were supposed to be at a quesadillas factory; a specialty on the island. But it was closed due to that fact that “Jesus is still dead”. This was a disappointment for many of us, since we were looking forward to taste a non-swede version of the dish. Instead, we went to the sea. But for some reason we were all exhausted, so we just sat there. I accidentally fell asleep on my bag, which was a bit embarrassing. But luckily I woke up as I heard someone mention ice cream. The town we were in was quiet but we actually found one café that were open, so we occupied the place during the time we enjoyed our ice creams

For the last time, we jumped into the bus and made our way home. The majority of the free-watches had signed that they were about to skip dinner so they had to go back to town to find an open restaurant. Me and my friend, on the other-hand choose to eat at home. And it was totally worth it.

We then decided to go back to the capital of the island. We hired a taxi and talked to some dog owners while we waited. The chauffeur was nice and dropped us outside of the supermarket. We went in and brought some nessesariers; apples, candy and more candy. I even found some local seeds of a round eggplant. That was very necessary indeed.

As we were abut to leave, we ran into our classmates. They had bought a football and made us join their team. To our surprise we found an arena across the road. As we waited for more classmates to join, some “ninjos” came to us and suggested a match. We happily agreed, not knowing a word of what they said. It was even and super fun! To our surprise, we won with 8-6.

Then, the eight of us went back to T/S Gunilla with a taxi. Back on the boat we fond the rest of the class with paint in their faces as they decorated Easter eggs. A weird tradition if you ask me, which I skipped and went to bed.

Emma

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Öckerö seglande gymnasieskola
Björnhuvudsvägen 45
475 31 Öckerö

Telefon: 031-97 62 00
e-post: kommun@ockero.se