While I was in my faculty led study abroad program, we had some free days where we could plan trips or stay in the home base cities. Some of the other participants had booked a flight for a day trip in London before the trip had started. I am usually a planner and not very spontaneous, however the whole trip was pushing me out of my comfort zone, so I thought why not add another adventure? I bought the cheap flight and added another country on my list.

I fell in love with the city. We were able to go on a special day where the Queen’s Guard was practicing for the Trooping of the Colour that would be performed on the Queen’s actual Jubilee Celebration. I had the best, most melt in your mouth fish and chips and was in awe inside the Westminster Abbey. It was a bit of a shock to the system to go from hearing German in Berlin everywhere to hearing English again, but I could still see even with the same language how different London really was from back home. I loved walking around in the city and came to realize I felt like I would be comfortable actually living and working in London. It seemed to have a charm that I don’t think would ever grow old.

This spontaneous trip taught me that some of the best things are not planned and in order to get the most out of an experience sometimes you need to take risks and just take whatever is thrown at you.