Some Quick Thoughts

Hi all- its me. Sorry for the wait, but you’ll have to wait a little longer for a post about my hectic travel week (that post is currently half-done in my drafts, it needs a bit more time.) Instead I’m going to write about some of the pros and cons of solo travel (according to an introvert). This year I’ve spent a good amount of time alone, traveling abroad during both these semesters. For most of my life I have always had Elizabeth (my twin) with me when I travel

Pros

1. Deciding what to do and where to go. I mean this one is a kind of given, but whenever I travel alone I get to decide what I want to do, when I want to do it. If I want to go to four museums or spend an afternoon in a cafe its up to me and me alone. Also, deciding on what/where to eat is a lot easier. For me this is a perk of solo traveling as I can have as much of a concrete plan, or not, as I want and can change my mind whenever.
2. No one to witness your mistakes. If you mess up the time of your ferry for instance or take the train in the wrong direction, it only affects you. However, there is no one to make sure you don’t make those mistakes in the first place.
3. Time alone. You can use this time to listen to music, to catch up on your podcasts, write (perhaps a blog post?), read (currently I’m reading The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern and its very good), or people watch. There are no awkward silences or trying to keep a conversation going. It is also a good time to do some thinking, about really anything, since you will be in your head a lot.
4. Learning how you travel. How do you interact with strangers when alone? What interactions are you forced to have when there is no one else (like a twin sister) to do them? What kind of places to do you like to visit? How do you want to experience a place (this is good to know so that when you do travel with other people you can have a conversation about how you each want to experience the place you are visiting).

Cons

1. No one to talk with/share the experience. I mean, this is obvious, but it is a con. Even introverts need people to talk to. Plus a lot of traveling is the experiences had along the way and it is more fun to share this with other.
2. Eating alone. I think its a good thing to be comfortable walking into a restaurant and asking for a table for one, but it can get pretty boring.
3. No one to watch your stuff, save a table, or take your picture.

I think everyone has their own ideas of what the pros and cons of traveling alone are. For the most part I love it. Some people might take solo travel as an opportunity to make new friends and while thats not so much the case for me, I use solo travel to get to know myself. Solo travel doesn’t have to just be a big abroad trip, it could be going somewhere local that you have never been alone. This idea will probably come up in my future blog post about this past week, but I just wanted to write down some of my current thoughts about solo traveling. There are more, but this will have to do for now. Look out sometime in the near-ish future for a long post about this week, complete with photos and maybe ever a video? Until then, try some solo travel. Learn a bit about yourself. Have fun! (Or maybe you learn you absolutely hate it, you’ll never know unless you try).