When I told my friends and my family about my travels around Europe alone, I had a mixture of responses. Responses from.... "weren't you lonely?", "I don't think I could do that." and "Weren't you scared?". I never ever thought I could be the person to travel to any where by myself. I don't even want to see a movie by my self. But to be honest it was hands down the best thing I have ever ever done. In the next few weeks I will blog about my travel experiences and how I over came loneliness eating alone, travelling alone to doing activities alone. But to know the full story I'm going to tell you about why I did it alone.
I had always wanted to do Europe ever since I was young. I always thought that one day that I would have a partner and we would travel and see the world. Early last year I had my mind set that I was going to find someone to go with me. I asked everyone I could. There answer were always I wish I could but I cant, its too expensive or I cant get the time off. I begun to get frustrated with these responses and I tried harder. I came to a win when I asked my brother and he said that he would go with me. So being the organiser that I am, I began to collect quotes for travel agents and research. It came time to book and when I asked my brother my brother said he didn't want to any more. I was absolutely shattered. I was so close to my dreams but another road block was put up. Late July I was speaking to my boss about it and she said this one thing that completely changed my view. "Would you rather go alone or not have that experience at all?" My answer of course was I would go alone. And the more I thought about it the more the idea stuck in my head. What was stopping me? The fear of being alone? The fear that I would be millions of miles away from my family and friends? The fear that I wouldn't be able to share the memories with anyone?
Then it was like I got struck with a bolt of lightening or a switch had flipped in my head and I was convinced that I could do it. The next day I grabbed my quotation and I headed to the shopping centre to book it. My mother tried to talk me out it, but I was a women on a mission. I walked in an put a deposit on it and my dream became a reality.
I was so excited and so nervous. I was actually going to do it. I brought maps, phrase books and researched everything.
As I was going alone I wanted to make sure I was safe. I booked everything from my accommodation flights, transfers and activities. I wanted to make sure that everything I was going to do was planned so I got to see everything that I wanted to do. If you are going alone, I would suggest that you do plan on what you want to see before you go over there. Write down a list of places you would like to see, activities you would like to to do and how you can get there. It can be daunting for some people to get to a new place and not know where they are going and where they are. When you are looking for accommodation look for places near a train or bus station. I was very safety conscious so instead of catching trains I got the hop on hop off bus around. These buses are great they are about 20-30 euros for a 2 day trip and they take you around to all the major tourist attractions. As the day approached I got more nervous and excited. I made an plan with phone numbers and addresses to all the accommodation I will be staying at, flight times and the activities I would be doing. I also made copies of my passport.
Hope you guys are having a good night. Next time I blog I will tell you about how I went over there by my self.
Im going to leave you with what my boss told me. Would you rather not have the experience or have the experience and go alone?
