Red telephone boxes, Big Ben, London Eye, London fog tea, cobblestone streets and a bagpipe or two.

Junior Erin Riley experienced England and Scotland for a week this past July.

“My mom and I found out about a trip through the school that was a health science in the UK tour,” Riley said. “She’s a nurse, and I was in medical classes. Neither of us had never been to Europe, so we got to see a part of the world we hadn’t seen before. We wanted to learn how their health care system was different than ours.”

Riley and her mom were the only people from Canyon to attend the trip. They traveled with two other high school groups from Houston.

“We didn’t go to many different places,” Riley said. “We mainly stayed in London, England and Edinburgh, Scotland. In Scotland, it was really fun to see the Edinburgh Castle. It was on the top of a hill, so it had a great view of the ocean and the city.”

Riley spent four days in London and two days in Scotland, and visited the Tower of London on their last day in England.

“Getting to see things in person like the the crown jewels in the Tower of London, things that were so trademark of England, was great,” Riley said.

Along with the Tower of London, Riley visited The London Eye, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Convent Gardens and The Shard.

“London was better, but we spent a lot more time there than Edinburgh,” Riley said. “So we didn’t really get a chance to see more of Scotland.”

Riley said the biggest difference which separates America and Europe is the diversity.

“There were so many different cultures, different religions, different races all living together,” Riley said. “Even taking the subway, you had a punk rock person sitting next to a devout Muslim sitting next to an average person that looked like they could be from here. It was all sorts of people living together peacefully instead of a bunch of people that look the same living together.”

Riley said she recommends everyone travel while they can.

“It’s eye opening,” Riley said. “Everyone should travel out of the country or across the ocean if they can. It’s an amazing thing to see and teaches a lot about people from other countries. You realize they’re just people living their lives and not what they’re made out to be a lot of the time.”