Not many young adults can say they went on the trip of a lifetime by the time they are 20 years old.

For Wayne State College resident assistant, junior Kade Stanley, his trip to Europe happened the summer between his junior and senior years of high school.

Traveling with the Nebraska Ambassadors of Music, Kade and a group of students set out on a journey that would take them to France, Austria, Switzerland, England, Germany, Greece and Italy.

The choir group spent three days in Fremont rehearsing for the concerts in Europe. Before they left, the group had a farewell concert for family and friends.

While Kade loved the entire trip, France, Greece and England stick out in his mind.

France wasn’t Kade’s favorite destination. However, the impression the country left will always be memorable.

“The people were rude in France and there was graffiti everywhere,” Kade said.

Even though Kade didn’t enjoy France as much as the next person, he still had some favorite moments like getting to go up the Eiffel Tower and eating crepes and bread.

In Greece, the group stayed in Athens and went on a day cruise to three islands that were near the mainland. But in 2011, Greece wasn’t the peaceful city that Kade had thought it was.

Riots plagued one area of Greece due to anger towards the massive debt that caused Greece to require a bailout by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. The students never went into the area where the riots were concentrated, but the entire country was facing turmoil.

Despite the hostility, the people of Greece were very friendly towards the American students.

“At one of the souvenir shops, this lady was talking to me for like 30 minutes and I could only understand about every third word because of the accent,” Kade said, laughing.

Kade’s favorite place by far was London, England. When they were in London, the city was having its annual parade to celebrate Queen Elizabeth’s birthday.

The students got to see all of the different branches of the military walk in the parade.

Kade and the group were in the front of the crowd, right against the barrier, so when the Queen’s chariot went by, they got a firsthand look at the royal family, including the newly married couple, Prince William and Kate Middleton.

As for the accents, Kade caught on rather quickly.

“The accents are really contagious and we started to talk with one and it ended up sticking for a while,” Kade said.

One of the interesting things Kade noticed in London were the streets. As many may know, the cars drive on the left side of the road, but cars also have the right of way instead of pedestrians. Drivers would be driving very fast in the city and rather than speed bumps, the city created zigzag patterns to slow down drivers.

Even though this trip was incredible, Kade would someday like to experience it again, but this time with a group of friends to accompany him.