I'm on my third day of travelling alone for the first time and I'll be honest, it hasn't been the least bit easy. I'm ridiculously talkative. I read signboards out loud, I show my friends all the weird instagram posts I find, my friends are the ones who deal with the navigating and I know they always have my back no matter what (like against pickpockets and ninjas and whatnot). However, being along meant that I had to get myself to places, which really meant giving myself twice the amount of time Google maps says it takes to get to a certain place. Like how on my first day, I tried to walk to the outer bits of Bruges to see the windmills and ended up in the city center. And later at night, I tried to walk back to the hostel and ended up almost walking out of Bruges.
The worst part though, has got to be what to do with all the crap I have when I need to take a shower that's out in the hallway. I pretty much take everything valuable with me in my backpack, along with my towel, underwear and sleep clothes. Which, if you understand the definition of 'being a girl' ..... Is a lot. And to deal with all that frustrating transferring of stuff in and out of backpacks and then struggling to take stuff out in the shower after a long day really takes a toll on you.
The sleeping part too, isn't easy. I'm a pretty heavy sleeper but I've been woken up in the morning to the sound of people going in and out of the door, brushing their teeth, walking around doing human things. And while I was cursing my way through another 5 minutes of sleep today trying to block out the sound of someone brushing their teeth, there really isn't anything that you can do about it.
But besides all that, I've actually grown to enjoy it. Not to say that I'll be spending the next few years vacationing alone or anything, but I see the appeal. I met a bunch of Singaporeans on the Sandemans tour in Brussels yesterday and we talked forever, having dinner and then drinks at a jazz bar together. Afterwards, we made plans to have lunch together today and then just spent the day walking around the Christmas market together. It doesn't sound that soloyolo anymore but that's the whole point of travelling alone, isn't it? To meet and get to know new people, spontaneously do things together and at the same time be independent. It's actually pretty damned enriching.
I tell everyone who asks that I'm travelling alone because everyone else has already been here - and while that's a huge part of it, I think I did it to prove to myself that I'm capable of being independent. That perhaps however needy and dependent I may be on others, I actually am ready to take care of myself regardless of the circumstances.
I'm pretty proud of myself though. And I think anyone who's travelling alone for their very first time should be. I started out incredibly terrified of being alone and regretting not having hired other humans to navigate and carry around all my shit for me. But now that I've done it, I only feel more confident of my choices and capabilities.
Now, I'm on this 13.5h overnight bus from Brussels to Prague and I'm actually missing my new friends. Tomorrow I'll be meeting Nicole for breakfast and Edwina for dinner which pretty much marks the end of my soloyoloing. I'm glad I'll be back with my humans again but really, even more glad that I went solo.
(also very very glad I have parents who care enough about me to tell me to get the roaming 3g thing that Orange offers so I can actually get around and make it back to sg eventually so their 20 year old investment doesn't completely fail them)
No comments:
Post a Comment