College News

EURO TOUR REFLECTION BY RONIN YEO

In April, more than forty excited students and four incredibly brave teachers embarked on an unforgettable journey that took us through Italy and Croatia.

Eurotour 2026 was truly a once in a lifetime opportunity. What truly made the trip unforgettable was the people I shared it with. A cliché, I know, but hear me out.

When else do you get the chance to have a two-hour conversation with Father Jerome about Holy Water in an airport in Istanbul at 2am, get lost in Florence twice in as many days, watch a teacher laugh unapologetically at ancient inappropriate graffiti, or see two of your closest friends jump off a cliff — all within ten days?

From the highs of staring into the steaming crater of Mount Vesuvius, to the lows of scraped knees, torn luggage, and one very underwhelming “Roman” McDonald’s burger, the camaraderie throughout the tour never faltered.

My favourite part of the Eurotour was how much time I got to spend interacting with my friends and teachers outside of a classroom environment.

I can distinctly remember having a conversation with Mrs Greenslade about my future and it really helped me to figure out what I want to do as a career. After that interaction I started looking at universities that would let me study teaching. Mrs Raath spent about 30 minutes with a small group of students in the Gallery and discussed the art with each of us, while also
making sure that I didn’t accidentally step on a local artist’s painting.

Fr Jerome and I often spent the evenings having brief reflections or conversations about the day’s events and it made each day far more memorable.

I got to wander around beautiful cities and make friends with people I have never really spoken to and spent time with them in the strangest of places.

To cover everything we got up to in Europe would take at least 20 pages but hopefully a highlight reel of the best moments will give you a taste of the incredible opportunity the school gave us.

The second day in Venice was utterly incredible. We all spilled out into the streets of the “Floating City”. It was immediate chaos – we were sandwiched between tourists and being bombarded by seagulls and pigeons from all directions. But through this cacophony cut the sound of a bell tower. Many of us turned our gazes towards the stunning structure that is St Mark’s clock, it felt like utter magic. The moment became even more incredible when we realised that the massive statues at the top of the tower moved in order to ring the bell. Through such a simple mechanism we were all introduced to the feeling of awe that we would be feeling on a near daily basis while on tour.

Florence was perhaps the most beautiful place that I have ever seen and while I could spend hours gushing about its majesty I feel it would be a crime not to mention the (ironically goliath) statue of David. As we entered the Gallery of the Slaves we were met with the haunting images of the sculptures that Michelangelo never finished. We were so captivated by the figures clawing their way out of stone that we didn’t realise that the most famous piece of marble in the world was only 20m away from us. One by one we turned our heads to meet the eyes of the Colossus and immediately understood why it was so venerated. After frolicking about Florence the teachers accompanied a group of willing students to a cathedral at the edge of the city. On the trip back to the hotel my friends and I got to sample “The 4th best pizza in the world” and to save you all the trip, it was honestly just okay, Tonino’s is far better.

Vatican City served as a quiet meditation when compared to the hustle and bustle of Rome and especially its metro system which was honestly a bit cramped for my liking. The Sistine Chapel is always cited as the Vatican’s main attraction, but St Peter’s Basilica was – for lack of a more fitting word – heavenly. At the end of the gargantuan church there is a beautifully crafted stained glass window that bathes the entire interior in a radiant golden light. While all the students adored the Vatican, I’m sure Fr Jerome had enough fun for the lot of us combined.

For a Volcano that has a name that roughly translates to “the unquenchable burn”, Mount Vesuvius was absolutely freezing. As we scaled the cause of so much destruction we all marveled at the beautiful views while we tried to brace the wind. One of my favourite moments from the entire trip was watching Trent desperately try to keep warm in the 4°C weather as he had made the decision to wear shorts. After we all made it down with most of the feeling in our fingers still intact we immediately shipped off to Pompeii. Our guide through the city frozen in time was incredibly knowledgeable and entertaining. I cannot capture the sheer amazement I felt in Pompeii but what I can say is that their architecture would be a worthy tribute to the Goddess of Beauty that so many of the citizens worshipped.

Dubrovnik was our last stop on the tour and felt like the perfect conclusion. I was not fully able to grasp how important it was that Game of Thrones was filmed across Dubrovnik but I was informed by many of my peers that this was by far the most culturally significant site in all of Europe. Croatia’s water was the perfect antidote to the day of travel that it took to get there. You would not be able to find a sapphire that could match the beautiful beaches, cliffs and bays that we got to visit together. A small group of my friends and I decided to go cliff jumping, and while I got cold feet, I was granted the pleasure of watching Trent hurl himself off of a 14m tall cliff into the freezing Croatian sea.

Not a soul that was granted the absolute gift that was this tour will ever forget it. Some of us were enamoured by the architectural marvels across Italy, others (such as myself) wept at the dedication to the arts that each city displayed and the rest all found some captivating corner of Europe to amaze them.

But by the end of it we all really understood the true feeling of awe.

Ronin Yeo