Solo travelling is one of my favourite things to do and I think everyone should try solo travelling even if it's just once, it's a great opportunity to get to know ourselves better.
I was one of those people that was intimidate by the idea of travelling alone and never thought that I would do it since it was out of my comfort zone, until I was out in a situation where I had to do it. I met amazing people while travelling solo and had the best experiences and the memories are great.
This is a great opportunity to see the world and have a good time and meet new people from different countries, you can do what you want whenever you want, you have full freedom which in my opinion is one of the best things.
I wrote a blog post sharing the story about my 1 year solo travelling around Europe which you can check it here, and yes it was great an I enjoyed it, but there was still a lot of lows. Again, solo travelling is a great experience, but it just happened that I did it first during the worst time possible, so there was a lot of lows.
Also, I am not trying to discourage anyone from travelling solo, this was my experience and what I went through, and I keep saying it but I will saying it again, I still enjoyed every second of it and it the best experience of my life, so if you have never travelled solo, you should at least try it once in your life.
The Lows Of My Solo Travels👇🏻
Lockdown on my own: So I travelled to Spain in January 2020 to study, and it was great at first, until I had to stay in an apartment by myself for months because of COVID and lockdown, and the situation in Spain was one of the worst. The whole country was in full lockdown for a whole month before anyone was allowed to move with some kind of freedom or even restriction. It also didn't help that it was during my 3 weeks spring break where I had absolutely nothing to do other that overthink everything. I was struggling mentally and my depression reached an all time low, and I didn't have anyone to be with me, I was only able to call my family and that's it.
Thinking on my feet: Being alone means that I need to make decisions by myself, but also there were situations where I had to make a decision right at that second. I couldn't help but to overthink and question whether I took the right decision or not, and I am not going to lie, there were some decisions that I regretted and I wish that there was someone else with me so I can ask for their opinion.
Feeling lonely: Now I love being by myself, I cherish this time and I always make sure that I get some alone time. But here's the thing, when you don't have a choice but to be alone, it bothers you. Yes I love being alone, but being forced to be alone took a toll on me. There were times where I wished that I wasn't alone, especially during lockdown.
I got my own back: When you travel solo, you have to be watching your own back and having faith in the stranger that steps up to help you. I had to watch my own back all time, and I had to trust people around me but be smart and careful at the same time, which let me tell you; it was not easy at all. Luckily, I have never faced any issues with that, because I was always extra cautious, even though I was put in situations that freaked me out.
Being sick: When I am sick, I am fine going places and doing things, but it was always nice having my mum around to cook or help me. Now, I was left alone in a different country, and when I got sick, which luckily was only two times, I had to do everything by myself and had to take care of myself.
Travel burnout: I reached a point of just being tired and sick of it, yes of course I love travelling and it's great, but all the planning, the organising, and booking; just becomes exhausting after a while.
My point of all this, is that travelling isn't going to be all sunshine and rainbows, but you will be faced with a lot of unpleasant situations. Don't let it bring you down, and look at the experience as a whole, and try to enjoy it to the fullest.
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