“ Why solo? ”
today, 18:21
There was a recent post asking ”
So I thought I would ask the question” why solo?
I. Was directed here by someone on the krakow forum who suggested I should post my recent solo trip report.
But I have found a very interesting forum instead.
However I was beginning to wonder if all of the contributors were either young backpackers, or looking for tour groups for people on their own. Personally going solo is all about being on own and the challenge of using my rescourses to find my way around. But I appreciate other people have different needs
I am 61, part time worker, wife, grandma, friend. But in the past three years I have discovered the joys of travling alone.
In my youth as a working class girl, I didn’t get the opportunity to travel In those days you had to earn a living, even if you were a student as well. It just wasn’t done. Plus there was not the cheap transport options there is today. Thank goodness for easyjet! They have opened up the world for me.
Then marriage and children. Oh we had family holidays but they were child centred. Then single parent holidays and money was too tight.
Later I traveled with my husband and with my friends. All this time chronic homesickness got in the way of more than a week away.
It wasn’t until I got friendly with people on tripadvisor that I started getting the bug to go alone. Raising my daughters anxiety level by meeting “people off the Internet!” LOL!
My understanding husband is content with one or two holidays a year and is happy for me to go off by myself about every six weeks
My 35 year old daughter worries like SHE is the mother and needs me to check in every day.
My friends, who would come with me, think I am strange to want to go alone. ” don’t you get lonely?” they ask. What they don’t understand is that loneliness is part of the challenge. You can learn to live with loneliness and you then are not afraid to be alone.
Truth is,that when I am alone I can truly BE myself. and I am not afraid to see myself. The irony is that for most of my last trip I had forgotten that I am alone .
No rules to follow or expectations to meet. I do not have to be polite to people ( although I am !! ) make small talk if I want, or not however I feel.
I Can indulge my desire to be introspective and reclusive or be extrovert if I want to.
Of course I am lucky that I have a full life and a family, also that I have the social skills to seek out human company if I want to.
I travel alone by choice, not because I have nobody to come with me.
Sorry I’ve rambled on. But I have just come back renewed.
Of course the Internet makes it very easy to travel alone because your friends are always at the other end of Facebook . I can share my trips with people on tripadvisor as I go along. That is the one thing I miss, being able to share good experiences as they happen.
So for anyone contemplating a solo trip , I would say. “go for it”
The worst that can happen is that will not enjoy it and you will decide it is not for you. That’s OK. you have found that out about yourself.
But if you are anything like me you can’t wait to go again.
Denise
Love from England
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denisefrombolton 