God I love that quote! I recently read a book called the Solo Traveler by Lea Lane and this quote was in the book. And, yes it is a travel/guide book of sorts and definitely geared toward women.
I say it's a travel/guide book of sorts because I found it in the travel section of the bookstore near all the guidebooks. I had read about it in one of my travel magazines (do you see a reading theme here!). It gives some helpful tips about traveling alone, or as I like to say "traveling solo". So, it's a guidebook for traveling in general and not of one specific place or region. And I really enjoyed Ms. Lane's writing style along with her personal stories of her travel experiences while "hitting the road solo". Some of her information is pretty much common sense, especially if you have traveled before, solo or not. Some of the tips in the book I already use and others I may try in my future travels.
But back to this entry's title quote. Have you ever been in a situation, traveling or otherwise, where you just wished the person or people you were with would go away and leave you on your own? Like a time when you felt like going to one restaurant, but to "keep the peace" you went where the other person or persons wanted to go? Or maybe you were the only one in a group that wanted to go to a certain attraction or museum and because you were "outnumbered" you ditched what you wanted to see to go along with the crowd?
Believe me, I'm a pretty flexible gal when it comes to making plans, but I also do a lot of research when planning a trip. And, I usually have a very good idea of the places I want to visit when I am traveling. This includes attractions/sites and restaurants. Don't get me wrong, I can "roll with the punches" and adjust to a back-up plan when I need to, that's what all the pre-trip research is for! But I also don't like being dragged to something I have no interest in at all. I also don't like to "impose" my likes or dislikes on others. I totally understand that someone I may be traveling with might not want to see some church/temple/museum I may be "obsessed" with seeing! :) I think this philosophy makes perfect sense...at least to me.
So, why is it that when I tell people I am heading to "wherever it may be" and they ask who I am going with and I say no one, just me, they look at me like I have 7 heads. Maybe it's because I traveled solo at a young age, that this does not bother me. When I was in collage and did a study abroad in Switzerland I was fortunate to travel every weekend, thanks to a Eurail Pass and classes ending for the week on Thursdays at noon. Many weekends there would be a group of us that would head off to a new destination, but on a couple of occasions where I wanted to go and where the others wanted to go just didn't jive. I really wanted to see Vienna, no matter what I said to the other students in my program about my desire to visit Vienna, no one was up for the long train ride from Montreaux, Switzerland to Vienna. My thought was that since I am this close, how could you not go??? So, I wasn't going to let a little thing like no travel partner stop me! So I jumped on the train one Thursday afternoon and headed to Vienna for the weekend.
It was one of the best trips during my 3 months living in Switzerland. I caught the night train, so that I would sleep on the way to Vienna, but on the train I met this Australian girl who was traveling solo too. She was a bit older then me, she was a nurse working in the UK and taking some time to travel Europe before heading back to the "Land Down Under". We had a nice conversation on the train and when we got off in Vienna, neither one of us with a hotel reservation, we decided to share a room and romp around Vienna together, checking out the sites and parting ways when we wanted to do something on our own. It was great and lots of fun and I met an interesting person! If I had gone with one or 2 of the other students from school I probably would have never met Sue. Even though we parted ways after Vienna, and we never stayed in contact, I will also never forget those 2 days in Vienna with Sue the Aussie nurse! :)
So, traveling solo isn't so bad. My trip last summer to Ireland was with a group tour that I met up with in Ireland, but I booked the trip as a single...not so bad, I got matched up with a roommate and the other people were a joy to spend 2 weeks "tooling around" Ireland with. I had plenty of different people to do things with, or if I wanted to do something on my own, that was always an option.
As you can see, traveling solo isn't such a bad thing, sometimes, yes, it can be lonely, but if you're friendly and chat with the locals even dining in a restaurant alone turns out to be fun when you've met interesting local characters or other solo travelers...there's more of us out there then you may think! :)
Next installment....compatible travel companions...stay tuned...AND
Happy Trails!
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