Back in April, I took the plunge and booked a 3-day City Break with the Dutch travel company srprs.me. The premise is simple: you make a number of choices (length of trip, type of accommodation, departure airport, dates), and wait… the only real control you have is excluding up to 3 cities. I chose to exclude Prague, Krakow and Bratislava as I had visited them in the past and seen all I wanted to see.

The company take care of booking your flights and accommodation, and you are given a countdown timer on your own personal webpage. A month prior to departure, you are sent an email telling you when to arrive at the airport, shortly after you receive your scratchcard and boarding passes (in a sealed envelope), and 6 days before you leave, they send a weather forecast to guide your packing.

Using these clues, I remained entirely oblivious to my destination until it was revealed to me. I gave the envelope containing the boarding passes to my Mum to ensure I wasn’t tempted to ruin the surprise. All I knew was that I was going to somewhere in Europe, where the weather was 26-28°C.

Booking the trip was a big risk- I’m not a confident person, and usually when I travel I spend weeks building an itinerary that covers every waking moment. To relinquish all control was quite liberating. I knew that the important parts were all taken care of, so all I had to do was turn up on time and embrace the adventure presented to me.

As weeks turned to days, my anxiety grew: what if I didn’t like my destination? What would I do? Would I be able to enjoy myself? What about FOMO?!

Finally, the countdown hit zero. It was time to find out where I was going…