My Wonderful Trip to the London Aquarium

By Verity Lloyd

I was absolutely stunned when I heard I had won a poetry competition I entered. This is a short text to fill you in on my amazing adventure. First of all we went to the London Aquarium and we put on special T – shirts saying we were trainees at the Aquarium. I was allowed to take three friends, my sister and my parents.

Then we went to prepare shark food. We had to stuff vitamins into slits in the fish and squid. That way, the shark will not notice he is eating the vitamins. We then went to look at the fish and Cass was our guide. She was very friendly to us and we were shown so many wonderful fish. I loved the Starfish, the Angelfish and the Clownfish. We also went to feeding time.

We went to the Piranhas tank and peering through the glass, we saw vicious looking fish. We watched them chew angrily on pieces of meat and then we went to some more Piranhas who were vegetarians. They ate mostly carrots and Brussels sprouts. We got to feed lots of little fish with dry food and then we went to have lunch. After lunch we went back to the Aquarium and made badges to pin on our special T-shirts and then went to see shark feeding.

Afterwards, we went to the Park Plaza County Hall Hotel, situated only a few minutes away from the Aquarium. The hotel looked really posh and we were all so excited. When we arrived there, our room was not quite ready so we sat down in the bar. The waiters brought us drinks and cake and also us children were brought a goodie bag each. They had a few toys in them and five pounds monopoly money to spend on sweets or hot chocolate.

We went to our rooms and they were fabulous! There were two bathrooms, four bedrooms and a television in every room. There were also two kitchen areas with coffee and sweets. We all played games on the televisions and they were really fun. This is the best hotel I have ever stayed in by far! We then went down onto the Embankment. We saw Christmas lights, looked round a German market and went on the merry go round. We then went back to the hotel to change for dinner.

The dinner was marvellous! There was everything! Pasta, meat, vegetables, Yorkshire puddings and a selection of sauces. For pudding there was Strawberry cheesecake, fruit salad and mini doughnuts dipped in chocolate sauce. Also, because it was nearly Christmas, we had crackers and party hats as well! With full stomachs, we went to our rooms.

We turned on the television and watched Asterix at the Olympic Games. We drank hot chocolate and ate sweets and we finally got to bed at 10:30! We all slept quite well except for me. I am a really bad sleeper!

In the morning we got up, had a delicious breakfast and went home on the train. I had such a wonderful time and I wish I could do it all over again.

Also, thank you to everyone including the staff at the Aquarium, the hotel staff and NG KIDS Magazine, for making my two special days so exciting for me and my friends. I will treasure these memories always. A special thank you to Debbie of World Animal Day for organizing this wonderful trip for me. She has spent so much time on it.