Study Trip

After two years, the study trip finally took place again. Going to the beautiful countries of Slovakia and Slovenia, with a small stop in Austria.

Sunday May 1st at 2:00 in the morning, our sleepy heads came together to pack the busses with our bags, beer, soda, beer, water, beer, beer, and beer, and not forgetting our suits. The 16-hour drive started from Eindhoven, then went through Germany and Czech Republic, to arrive in Slovakia at 20:00. Bus 4 did have some problems going through the mountains because when they tried to a 100km/ hour, they dropped down to 40km/ hour and going as a snail across the mountains. Everyone was sleeping, singing, drinking, playing games or partying in the bus. Arriving at the hostel, the busses could not park in the city, so we had to get out and the drivers had to find new parking spots. Everyone rushed to a room to find a bed, when everyone was settled in, we went to a restaurant and had a delicious dinner. The bellies were full, singing “We are the engineer” we arrived back at the hostel and kept drinking in the common room or fell dead asleep in the bed.

6:30 the alarms went off, everyone suited up and got a great breakfast from Lidl, and after that we went to KOKS group, the first company visit. The group was split into two, one group got a tour of the company, and the second group went to a beautiful lake and tried to skip stones. Around lunch time, the groups switched. First, a presentation was given about the company KOKS group, after an interesting presentation, we got to see the machines they make and how they operate in this company. Giving them some wine and stroopwafel for their appreciation of hosting us. After the tour, we got back in the bus, opened a beer and travelled to a mall were everyone got some KFC. After having some amazing chicken, we drove back to the hostel. After parking the busses, we walked to the other side of the bridge and found a great place to have some nice refreshing cocktails. At 20:00 we went to a Slovakian restaurant and got to taste some traditional dishes. Afterwards, we went to the ‘Joep Jesus’ by going to bars and having a drink. Since there were still corona rules, the bars closed at midnight, so the party went on in the common room at the hostels.

The next morning the alarms went of at 6:30 again because the next company visit was planned. Everybody jumped back into their suits and we drove of to Heneken Group. Here we had a presentation of the company about how they turn aluminium into conductors. After the presentation, a tour was given through the factory where the group was split into two because of all the noise. A thorough vision was created on how the machines made the aluminium cords and how these cords were twisted together to make the conductors after seeing the whole factory, they recieved a nice bottle of wine and stroopwafels as a thank you for the tour. Everyone jumped back into the sauna busses and got a beer, in bus 9 a fun drinking game was played where one by one the suits were taken of. Back at the hostel the bag was being packed and most of us took a nap to be ready for the night. For dinner, we went to an Italian restaurant where we got pizza (but Laura found the crust of the pizza too soft) afterwards, some of us went on a search for ice cream. At 21:00 we met up again to get a spooky tour of the city where the scary stories of the town were told and Anouk got frightened by Boaz. After the spooky tour, the party went on in a ???? club.

Wednesday, after the bags were piled up in the busses, we drove off to Vienna to get a nice Wikipedia tour from Niek (where he lost his voice) and saw all the beautiful spots in the city. After the tour, the group got split and every group went to do their own thing in the city, either getting some lunch, shopping or site seeing. We all came together at 15:00 to get back into the busses to drive to Slovenia. Sanne Bosma though it was a great idea to buy twister and play in the bus while driving. Playing games, and drinking, we got held up after the boarder of Slovenia because they were cleaning the tunnels. Finally arrived we all rushed to the Mexican restaurant before closing and got a delicious meal. After dinner, we got new rooms in the hostel and went straight to bed.

On Thursday we all woke up because of the loud and annoying bells that went off for 5 minutes, every twenty minutes, but we had our last company tour at Renault auto factory. Here we got a presentation about how the company started up and their best

car brash is. Afterwards, we walked around the company where we saw a car being built from scratch and how all the machines work together to assemble the whole car. After the tour, we got some coffee and pastries and had some time to ask questions. Giving them some wine and stroopwafels (Niek and Rik nothing will be said), we got back into the busses and went off to the city. Getting changed in the busses, we got dropped in the city to have a nice picknick in the park or to a restaurant to have some lunch. When our bellies were full, we walked through the city and a few of us walked up a big hill to see a beautiful castle and the view of the whole city at the bottom. After a nice time in the city, we went back to the hostel where we got some dinner at another Italian place. Around 22:00 we were brought to a bar, the only bar close by that was open till 3 in the morning. Giving a great applause to the bartender that was alone making cocktails for the 27 of us. At 3, everyone was dead tired and sound asleep in their beds.

We got to sleep in for the first time this week but were still woken up by the stupid bells next to the hostel. Around 10:00 we finally heard the surprise that we were waiting on all week, we went rafting down the river. Because of the 15 degrees weather, we all got a wet suit, life jacket, water shoes, and helmet to protect us from the freezing cold water. As raft two was passing raft one, we all got soaked and went and combined our forces to get everyone wet in raft 3. At some stops we got to jump in the water, try to flip the raft over or try to walk on the side of the raft without falling, we had a blast going down the river. At the end, everyone was freezing and trying to be the first person in the showers to warm up. We got some lunch and went on to the next attraction where we walked down next to a waterfall and saw a beautiful river. Before getting to the waterfall, bus 4 would not start and we had to find the break wire to reanimate the bus. After the hike, we went to a lake where there was a castle in the middle of the lake. By that time, our feet were sore, so we took a small walk around the lake and left to have some dinner. At this restaurant, we got a nice soup and the best schnitzel from Slovenia, we also got a sort of apple pie for desert as a surprise and a Slovenian drink. Getting back to the hostel, we went on playing the drinking game but after a while half of us were falling asleep, so we went to bed. The other half went outside and partied on.

Saturday arrived, the day we travelled back to the Netherlands. The annoying bells went off again at a random time, but we were all awake and ready to travel back home. By 8:00 all the bags were pack and loaded in the busses. The first few hours traveling through Austria, everyone was sleeping. After a while, we were awake and ready to sing along for the next few hours. Being held up at the boarder of Germany (a small setback) we were racing through Germany hoping that one of the busses will not stop on the middle of the hill when going up. Around lunch time, we stopped and had some bread. After the short break we were back on the road. Screaming our lungs out with “Pizza met Ananas” or “Olaf” we got safe and sound at McDonald’s where they got overwhelmed with an order for 27 people. For the last part of the bus ride everyone was watching formula one (because apparently that is important to watch). After a long drive we finally arrived back in Eindhoven around midnight, everyone got their bag, the group did one last ‘blikje blaffen’ (not in the bus this time) and we went off to our nice warm and cosy beds.

The week was filled with singing, drinking, playing games, drinking, laughing, company visits, drinking, city tours, drinking, drinking, and sleeping. In the end I would sign myself up right now to join the study trip for next year already because it is an experience you will never forget.