For this past Christmas holiday and my 21st birthday, my family and I decided to take a big trip to celebrate instead of doing presents. Although everyone thought that this was a trip for us to go and see my boyfriend's family, it was planned before he and I started dating. In reality, I am a big friends fan, so I was watching the episode where Ross and the gang fly to London for Ross's wedding and decided I wanted to take a trip to London for my birthday. My parents made it happen for us.
We packed up our bags the week of Christmas and flew on Christmas Day to start our trip. I for some reason could not sleep at all on this overnight plane ride and then proceeded to cut my foot on the flight...never ending list of unfortunate events...when we landed in the London Heathrow Airport we decided to take the tube to get to the station nearest to our hotel. In the midst of changing lines, I got separated from my parents. Never in my life was I so scared. I was alone in another country with no cell service and running on no sleep.
After we got back together and rested up, we went to find a pub within walking distance of our hotel...little did we know this would become our "local" pub we frequented throughout the week. We did all the tourists things like Buckingham Palace, Tower Bridge, London Bridge, London Eye, etc., but we also went to Cambridge and Wimbledon for little day trips.
Taking this trip was a beautiful way to experience new things and a different way of life. Though the rooms were small so it forced the 3 of us to be close all the time and I missed food from home, it was the trip of a lifetime and a birthday I will never forget much less want to.