“Don’t be scared to walk alone, don’t be scared to like it. There’s no time you must be home so sleep where your darkness falls.”
Anyone else ever use songs to describe experiences? For me, John Mayer’s Age of Worry was perfect for my first SOLO international trip.Yup, you read that right. Solo. From Seville Spain to Ferrara Italy. For 5 days. With almost no agenda. Those of you who know me well may be able to understand why this was both something you could and could not see me doing. On the one hand, I love people…but not traveling to once in a lifetime destinations with them. On the other hand, traveling without plans (really travel…and life…in general) is a guaranteed meltdown. I promise there will be a post with more pictures and travel info, but I wanted to talk a little about solo travel.
My biggest fears of course did not occur, and actually as far as travel goes the trip was very smooth. Somehow I got everywhere I needed to be, met wonderful people, bonded with Italians while being locked outside our apartment, toured medieval towns, and only ate pasta and gelato. Sounds perfect, right? Wrong. The downside of traveling by yourself is that you are your only company. Great for reflection and figuring your life out if that’s what you want, not so great for relaxing and making the most of the moment. There were definitely times when in the middle of a gorgeous day, I can honestly say I was completely miserable. Not sick, not stressed, just on the verge of tears because there was no one and nothing that my mind could redirect to. On that happy note, here are my tips (please note that I’ve only done this once, I am NOT an expert!) for travelling alone:
-Upload every document, travel itinerary, online boarding pass, accommodation number/address, contact numbers/addresses, and credit card info into a Dropbox or OneDrive folder that is synced across all your devices AND that is shared with at least 1 emergency contact. My mind was much more at ease knowing that I, or my emergency contact, could access all those files easily.
-Plan at least 1 thing a day. Those plans may change, but with 1 thing planned you are not going to be sitting around wondering what to do, but you also have room to be spontaneous!
-Know that you are by no means guaranteed to meet the love of your life, make super cool friends, or be able to buy a Tuscan villa on your solo trip. If you are not ok with the possibility of the mundane, you may end up sorely disappointed.
-You do NOT have to take everyone’s advice, whether you asked for it or not. That restaurant that a local recommended doesn’t sound good? Don’t go, simple as that. In a way, this is your time to be selfish and do what you want, enjoy it!
-However, you are the only one responsible for your decisions on your solo trip. For me that was both liberating and terrifying. It is a great opportunity to figure out how you make decisions and to test out the results, which may or may not go well, and you won’t know until you make and act on that decision.
-I gotta throw this in here for liability, please don’t purposefully put yourself in unsafe situations. Common sense and a bit of awareness go a long way.
For myself, I know that I tend to try to have life figured out, make the best decisions, not make mistakes, and in general not enjoy being a 21 year old living in Europe. So if you’re anything like me, I have no advice better than that of John Mayer (weird I know…), “Rage in the age of worry, act your age in the age of worry, and say worry get out of here!”
Stay Royal,
Maryanne
kyprincessabroad.wordpress.com 