Travel by yourself

“One of the things I often leave out when telling the story of the empowering, soul-binding experience of solo travel is that I spent an hour at the airport wandering around looking for a train station to the city, not realising that the Melbourne airport did not have one. In hindsight, it seemed foolish to not just ask for help, but prior to this, I was someone who avoided speaking to strangers or service staff at all cost. After walking past the SkyBus booth for the twelfth time in a row, I sheepishly mustered up the courage to approach them, only to realise how easy it was to get help. Throughout the week I was in the city, I had to do that dozens of times more, and each time it got easier.”

“To be honest, being in complete solitude for days would have driven me out of my mind. The fleeting moments with strangers kept me grounded and fuelled my next few hours alone. One of my fonder memories of that trip happened on my third night in the city. I had just finished a round of drinks and felt pretty invincible as I walked back to the apartment when a group of teenagers came up to me and started following me. As I groveled at the fact that my mother was right, a passerby walked up to me with a big smile and said “Hey! I didn’t expect to run into you here!” before leading me away and walking me back to the apartment. On the way, we talked about how I was in Melbourne on the ultimate Eat, Pray, Love and she gave me a list of underground bars, restaurants and stores to visit.”

“I traveled to London as first internacional experience in 2018, absolutely loved the city BUT i traveled with a few people together and i didn't get to all the places i wanted and had to pretty much stick with the tours or go to places everyone decided to go, last year i decided to go back to UK and give solo trip a shot, well it was basically the best trip of my life and FAR better than the first time when i wasn't alone, you know, i never really got this feeling of "this should be enjoyable with other people", i love my family and friends but i also love and enjoy my own company, that's part of the thing that made me fall in love with solo trip”