Traveling is wonderful and a great part of the fun is in your companies. Friends, lover, family, being with who you love makes this experience even more remarkable. But what about traveling alone? It can sound a bit sad and lonely, but I can ensure that traveling alone can surprise you.
I love to travel with my friends. They are great. The best moments in my trips were not about the beautiful landmarks, or the delicious local food. All these things are great, but when you are talk to your friends about those trips, you normally don't say: "Remember that fabulous Cathedral in Milan? that was one the most beautiful cathedral I've ever seen". You can talk about that too, but the most memorable moments will be those funny, or when everything went wrong. Like "Hey, remember that time we took a bus in Croatia late night and the driver left us in the wrong stop in the middle of nowhere, in the dark, 10 km from our hostel, in a road without coasting and with signs of 'careful with the bears'?".
The night with the bears
My friends are the biggest responsible for making my trips unforgettable. BUUUT, to be honest, there were moments in which I wish to be alone. The fact you are traveling in group forces you to giving up somethings you would like to do and also makes you do somethings you don't wanna do. After all, you all came as a group and should remain as a group. In this aspect, traveling alone gives you much more freedom. You define your schedule, what to do, what not to do. You don't need to go to a soccer game just because that city is famous in football. Or you can decide to do something the most people don't care, but it's interesting to you.
The Uprising Museum, Warsaw
Yes, sometimes you feel lonely and you wish your friends were there, but a great thing about traveling alone is to encourage you to meet new people, make new friends. Especially for me, this is a very tough task. I'm a quiet and introspective person, it's not easy to me go there and socialise with people. Traveling alone is your chance to cut loose a bit more, take the first step. Sometimes the first step comes from the others, what makes the things easier. The fact is it doesn't matter if you are alone or not, traveling is always a great opportunity to meet new people. When you travel you are like a blank book ready to be fill out. Fill it the way you want.
Being with your friends is great, meeting new people is also great, but sometimes all you want is being alone. Just you and yourself. It's good to be with other people, but I need these moments of solitude. A moment to think, put my thoughts in order, with no one to interrupt. Sometimes I don't want to talk and I don't want to listen, I just wanna be quiet, in silence. Traveling alone is perfect for these moments. You can enjoy everything around you, the street, the people, the landscapes, while you are having this moment of peace and reflection.
Well, all those good aspects aside, there is a part that completely sucks. Your photos. There is no one to take your pictures, which gives you 3 options. Number 1, no pictures at all. Which is not good, because you probably want some pictures to record the moment. Number 2, asking for someone to take the picture for you. That is probably the best option, but I particularly hate. I feel uncomfortable to ask others people to take my pictures. I think they don't do it very willingly. The pictures just confirm this. It doesn't matter if you explain how you want your photos, most of them will ignore what you said and take it the way they want. Sometimes they do the exactly opposite of what you ask. A misunderstanding, maybe. Of course, some people are very kind and try to make the best, but I was not very lucky with that. What brings to the last option, taking selfies. You can take wherever and how many photos you want, but if your camera doesn't have a wide field of view, it can difficult to capture you and scenery together, also the angle can let your face a bit distorted. The fact is selfies doesn't give the best photos, but after a few days failing in ask people to take my pictures, that was the option I chose for the rest of the trip. This is a point you have to live with.
Alone or in company, there is no a best way of traveling. All depends of your mood, or what you are looking for in your trip. I would say I prefer traveling with friends, but I always felt I should have that experience and it totally worth it. I think everyone should try this at least once in life. You can get to know sides of you that you didn't know before. You wanna travel but don't have company? don't let this stops you. Go ahead and come back as book full of stories.
