When life gives you grounded flights, you turn it into a DIY-adventure at a backpacker’s lodge in East London. Between wrestling with feisty toilet brushes and sipping seaside wines, we built lasting connections, grasping breadmaking, fresh seafood-cooking, and coding between sunshine bathings. Lessons in volunteering? Personal growth and lifelong friendships beat posh vacations. Travel smart, stay safe, and when in doubt, plant a vineyard!