Outside of London and the study abroad program, I have done two trips so far. The first one was a short day trip to Stratford-upon-Avon where my friends and I saw Shakespeare’s birthplace and then attended a performance of one of his plays: King John. It was a lot of fun to walk around the town and see how different it is from London. It was amazing that his birthplace was as well preserved as it was, and the performance was a wonderful modern re-telling of the play.
My second trip was a solo one for the weekend to Barcelona, Spain. This trip required a lot more planning than my day trip, but it was well worth it because it was so much fun! I prepared for it by booking everything in advance because it is so much cheaper if you book ahead. Many different activities, like La Sagrada Familia (pictured), that I did were cheaper if you purchased your ticket in advance. It is also convenient to pre-plan everything you want to do because then you don’t have to wait in more queues than necessary.
The biggest obstacle I faced was coming home at the end of the weekend. There was a very big wind/rain storm in the United Kingdom so all flights in and out of London were being cancelled. This was my first experience with a flight being cancelled and it was hard because I was alone, so I wasn’t sure what to do and was quite frustrated. Also, it was harder than anticipated because the airline was telling everyone that all flights until Wednesday were sold out, so I had to book my own replacement travel. It was a huge headache, but I had an amazing weekend in Barcelona otherwise and had a great time exploring. In terms of obstacles traveling around the city, I really didn’t have any. I speak no Spanish, but their metro system is especially easy to figure out and utilize. Even after taking the metro, I often only had to walk a short distance to get to my destination, so it was nice that everything was so close together. I would say that I took the metro a lot and somehow I still ended up walking almost 30 miles over two days.
One piece of advice I would give to someone looking to take a trip while abroad is to just to book everything as far in advance as you can and pre-plan as much as you can. Certain things, like flights and hotels, often get much more expensive the closer you get to your travel dates so, in order to save money, book as far out as possible. Secondly, I would also say to not be afraid to travel alone! It seems like a really scary prospect at first but it is actually really amazing and made me feel grown-up! While I love traveling with friends, traveling alone means you can do whatever activities you want and go to bed/wake up whenever. As long as you use common sense (of course) and don’t put yourself in a potentially dangerous situation, you can turn a solo trip into an amazing trip. Overall, you are going to want to travel while abroad and whether you go with friends or alone is up to you and no matter the obstacles you face, you are still going to have a great time! In fact, learn to embrace the obstacles you might face because it is another experience and great story to tell everyone about when you get back!