The case to travel alone | Wit & Delight

I knew that I had made the right decision to travel alone when an elderly man in Alabama offered me at Philadelphia airport. After a series of mesventures from airlines (looking at you, American Airlines!), Our flight to Amsterdam had been canceled and Larry and I resigned to stay at the airport for the night. If I had traveled with someone, he would never have struck me. The gentle man and Santa Claus with a southern accent would never have asked if he could “hold me overnight” if someone was already by my side.

But I'm glad he did it. Because in the midst of a boring situation aggravated by an even more boring situation, it is at this point that my humor and my patience started and I knew – even before touching international lands – that traveling alone was going to teach me lessons that I did not know that I had to learn.

There is power in number. You are more likely to avoid part of the disorder of life
Situations, the lonely Larrys who ask inappropriate questions.

I suppose that traveling solo and saying yes to a dinner at 2:00 am with a stranger to start sleeping on the airport soil for another hour is not for everyone. There is power in number. You are more likely to avoid certain more disorderly situations of life, the solitary Larry who ask inappropriate questions. There are, at least, two of you to read a card, shake an aggressive cat call or divide a cheap Rioja bottle that will probably give you a headache. A travel boyfriend is a second brain, a security guard and an integrated resonance box.

Being a stubborn bull, however, I prefer to do things by myself. Including saying to Larry, no, I don't want you to keep me, I don't want you to touch me at all, and thank you for sharing your bag of corn pits and the story of life with me, but I go now. Chin upwards. I felt independent. I felt hard. I felt this rush that you get when you do something, say something, decide something else in your life yet knows.

By traveling alone – for a few weeks, in Europe, for no other reason that the flight was cheap and the timing felt good – I learned more about myself than in the last decade + to be adult -ish. I am now aware, perhaps too conscious, of my weaknesses (learning languages), my strengths (an innate sense of orientation), of what annoys me others (indecision) and what annoys others at home (I can be stingy).

By saying yes, by relying only on your two eyes, two ears and this beautiful brain sandwiched between them, by putting you on the other side of the globe, you realize that, although we can have different alphabets and accents and ocular and gods, we are all human. The trip teaches you this. Traveling alone especially teaches you this.

Here is my point of view on the reason why you should travel alone. Next month, next year, whenever you can. Cork these days of vacation and ship your children to my house; They can stay with me for a while.

Some people will not understand. Some people will not think it's sure. Some people will make dark comments on the way it is selfish. Some people – “I would like to be able to do that!” – will be inspired. Opt to inspire.

(And if you meet Larry at the airport, tell him that I say hello. It is always a non-go for all the cuddly thing.)

Why should you travel alone
You will become a problem solver.
What a way to the station, which word of the menu means pork, that the coming of the man to ignore. Once you have sailed in a foreign city with a foreign language without wifi, you will feel as if you can do anything. There is nobody to tell you on the left versus on the right, unless you ask someone, which you should sometimes. Other times, let your direction of management and memory pass through.

You will face your weaknesses.
If you are interior compass towers in circles, you remember soon, again and again. If you constantly need a bathroom, you will be aware of it when you distribute a euro here and a euro there to use public toilets. If you are lax with money, the credit card statement next month will put you in front, but as well as. By traveling alone, you will end up going back to personality problems, only because there is no one to judge you or annoy you that, well, you.

You will be on your own schedule.
Do you want to wake up at sunrise? Do it. Do you want to skip the dance club scene? By all means, me too. Your mornings are your mornings when you don't wait for someone to dry your hair. Your nights are your nights where nobody is sitting, arms crossed, next to you while you sip a last glass of Sancerre to flirt with the bartender. There is no “I don't know, what do you want to do?” Or “Are you hungry?” Eat, sleep and do what you want, when you want.

A funny thing happens when there is no one
To complain: you don't complain.

You will learn patience.
Traveling is not views by the sea and Parisian patios. Sometimes your school-matte schoolingists. Or you miss your train. Or you wear the same pair of pants five days in a row. A funny thing happens when there is no one to complain about: you are not complaining. Breathe deeply and practice your patience. All this is part of the process, right? In addition, bad experiences (Lonely Larry) ultimately make good stories (see above).

You will go at your own pace.
If you want to snap around the breakfast from breakfast at dinner, do it. (And you should. Because it is the size of a small country and you have probably waited for a few hours to enter.) When you travel alone, you can look at a Picasso room for the way you want. You can sit in a park for an hour for the newspaper. You can worry about worrying if someone else is hungry, tired or having fun. All that matters is you, you; Kiss a certain selfishness.

You will meet friends forever.
It is human nature. Finally, you will want a conversation and company, and – unless you were doing your back in the desert – you will find it. You will chat with the bartender or someone interesting sit in the empty bar stool next to you. Or, without saying that I did this or anything, you will exchange figures with a Lebanese that your mother would not approve. I now have a collection of friends (hi Alexa! Hi Juan!) Who grew up on different continents than me and who speaks different languages ​​than me, but who I now consider friends for life – you are stuck with me, guys! – Because we met and fell into a friend in a great moment. I would let them crash on my sofa every day, whether tomorrow or two decades. It's invaluable.

You will become a better traveler.
The more you travel, the better you go on a trip – especially when you have no one to count on, except yourself. You will learn to rationalize your wardrobe, make a set of backup contacts and get the airport road. And the best yet: you will understand how the world just works as much more.

You will spend as much (or as little) of money as you wish.
If you want to eat exclusively in Michelin star restaurants, who should stop you? If you prefer to graze the snacks of your bag, go ahead. We all know that money is a delicate subject. So, without anyone to monitor your expenses, you can spend as much as you want on everything that matters to you. Me? I buy art. I jump meals. I could drop the euros well-being of a lot of well-being on a set of lingerie, but refuse to spend a few euros for a taxi walk, deciding to walk instead. While, with travel partners, I play cool, I divide the check evenly even if I did not order cocktails of $ 17. I will take any mode of transport they prefer.

Bonus: When you travel solo, you open up to SO (!) Many (!) More flight options. When a flight agreement appears – I hung the Minneapolis flight to Amsterdam for $ 380! – You can jump on it, without the need to wait for a friend to be approved by the leave time or your husband to get along on a place.

Ready? Together?

Go.

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But if you travel with someone, make a photographer.