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The ForeignStudents.com Editor, Andy, describes his very British tarditional day out at Cheltenham horse racing festival.  

"On Friday I ventured out to Cheltenham in the west of England to spend my very first day at a horse racing festival. What followed was a day of crowds, Guinness, betting (largely unsuccessfully), and most of all, good old-fashioned fun.

Horse racing is one of the great British traditions, with everyone getting dressed up in suits and hats to go and put a few pounds on their horse of choice. Cheltenham Festival is one of the biggest and most prestigious meetings in the horse racing calendar in Britain. Up to 70,000 fans turn up to each of the four days, and over the course of the festival, hundreds of millions of pounds are bet on the races. On Friday, I was one of those 70,000, contributing my own little bit to those hundreds of millions of pounds.

My Winners and Losers

I arrived at the grounds with a group of about twenty friends all dressed up in suits, hats and dresses, and we looked pretty stunning if I do say so myself. Whilst we had to make do with a coach to the Festival, there was a constant stream of helicopters dropping off the slightly wealthier festival-goers. Indeed, on the day, Princess Anne, Zara Phillips, Sir Alex Ferguson and Joe Hart (England goalkeeper) were among the celebrities there.

The Home of Football. It's a big name to live up to, especially with the England football team's woeful recent history. But, whilst the team may be struggling along without a permanent manager or captain, Wembley Stadium certainly does not disappoint.

With Euro 2012 now just three months away and the England team dominating the football news in the last month, there was a sense of confusion, but also anticipation in the run up to the game with Holland last night. It was with this backdrop that I caught the tube out to West London.

One of the best things about living in the UK is how quick, easy and cheap it is to get around Britain and to mainland Europe. For short weekend breaks there are so many options it can be hard to decide where to go. To help you out we are creating a series of guides to places throughout Britain and Europe that are perfect for short holidays. If you have been anywhere exciting in Europe and want to write a short guide, then please get in contact with us.

Here, ForeignStudents.com Editor Andy, describes his weekend spent on the Isle of Wight.

The Isle of Wight, England

The Isle of Wight is an English county with a difference. It is an island (surprise, surprise) a couple of miles off the south coast of England in the English Channel. As well as mile upon mile of beach and unspoilt scenery, it has a number of traditional towns and villages.

If you were in central London this weekend then you may have stumbled upon the unusual sight of a thousand Santas gathered together. For you see, Saturday marked the annual SantaCon event in London, and ForeignStudents.com Editor Andy was there to see it.

This was my first experience of SantaCon and I had no idea what to expect. I knew the basic idea behind it: as many people as possible all meet up dressed as Santa Claus and then proceed to spread Christmas cheer throughout the streets (whilst getting a little ‘merry' in pubs throughout the day). Each year the event takes place in hundreds of cities around the world, in dozens of different countries. This year similar events were held in New York, Munich, San Francisco, Glasgow and Sydney to name just a few.

However, for the London one we were to meet in Trafalgar Square (there was an early start at Victoria but it was a little too early for me on a Saturday morning). Before I arrived there was the slight doubt that it was all an elaborate hoax and I would be the only one dressed up. However, there was certainly no need to worry about that.

One of the Foreign Students team describes his experiences of a traditional English village show that took place at the weekend, with everything from giant leeks, to sheep dog displays.                                                                                                                                                _____________________________________

On Saturday I hopped on a train out of London and within an hour I was in a country village called Chalfont St. Giles. It was where I grew up and I had come back for one of the great British traditions- the annual Village Show.

Every year, a field in the centre of the village is taken over by stalls, tents and fairground rides as thousands of people from miles around come to enjoy a day out. This happens in villages up and down the UK every summer, each competing to be the biggest and best in the local area.