Everything that went wrong when UoN Dodgeball and Swimming tried to return from tour in Croatia

UoN Dodgeball and Swimming societies had a nightmare trying to return from their tour in Croatia when just about everything went wrong.

After a tiring week, the already 28 hour coach journey seemed daunting, but having experienced it on the way out there, students thought they knew what to expect.

They were wrong.

The nightmare journey began when the coach left Fazana in Croatia at about 10am on Thursday morning.

Two students started chundering on the back of the coach with the drivers doing nothing but spraying a bit of air freshener in the back rows. One student on the trip told The Nottingham Tab: "We seemed to stop loads and go a really weird route."

Things started to look up when they were told there was a McDonald's about a three hour's drive away, but about seven hours in, with no McDonald's, the coach stopped.

The driver announced it was a problem with the gearbox and they needed to arrange a mechanic, so the coach drove in first gear at about 10mph down the motorway to get to a car park near Milan, in Italy.

Here, they spent the next eight hours.

They weren't allowed to leave the area to avoid losing people until the mechanic finally arrived at about 10pm, so a few students ventured off to try and find some food and water for the group. A student said: "We'd been out the night before, so some people were disorganised and had no food or water with them on the coach.

"In the car park we spent eight hours getting on and off the BAKING coach to play frisbee, or to take the opportunity to be horizontal on the pavement."

"At one point the coach driver sat in a random car next to the coach and didn't get food or water for the 40 stranded people", they said.

But eventually, four students came back with some snacks and water for the group.

Things were becoming so desperate that "people were looking up flights in the car park that cost about £250."

Still sitting in the random Italian car park, a new coach didn't arrive until about 2am.

They were once again promised McDonald's, only to discover it closed 10 minutes before they arrived.

After re-organising onto a later ferry, they eventually even missed this, and had to wait until about 5pm for the next one in Calais, in France, which added on another few hours to their journey.

Eventually making it to Dover (with the coach driver struggling to find them at the port) they finally got their promised McDonald's and the drive up to Nottingham began.

"We took bets on what time we'd actually arrive. They ranged from the optimistic 10pm to the depressive 11am the next day", a student added.

They eventually arrived back to Nottingham just before midnight on Friday (38 hours 41 minutes after they left Croatia) and we can only assume they slept for the rest of the bank holiday weekend!