Why I Plan to Travel Alone

At first the idea of traveling in Europe by myself freaked me out. I didn’t want to do it. It seemed like I was asking for trouble to find me, but the more research I have done, the more I have realized that traveling alone would be a once in a lifetime opportunity to discover myself.

The biggest reason I have made the decision to tackle at least one or two trips on my own is because then I wont have to make any compromises. I think about how many times a week I say yes to something that I’m really not gung-ho for. “Sure, we can watch that movie instead of this one.” “Yeah, going to dinner at 5:30 instead of 6:00 is cool.” “Yeah, I’ll go to this activity instead of that one.” For day-to-day activities, these compromises aren’t that big of a deal. But when I get to Europe, I don’t want to be saying “Yeah, we can leave the Louvre an hour early” because, that will not be okay for this Art History nerd. If I’m alone, I can spend as little, or as much time at each location as I want. If I feel like getting started early, I can. If I want to stay an extra day, or if I’ve seen everything and want to leave a day early, I can. I don’t have to accommodate anybody’s schedule but mine. I can eat at whatever restaurant I want. I will be more aware of my surroundings. I will get to talk to more of the locals. I will get a very individual experience and it will be some of the best memories of my life. I’ll be able to discover what I am truly capable of.

There were two things that really made me start to consider traveling on my own for part of my time in Europe. This blog post and this YouTube video.

If you are going traveling soon, I would recommend checking these sites out and see what you think afterwards.

That being said, by best friend Erin will be in Ireland while I am in England, so I definitely want to travel some with her and make some memories for us to look back on. We want to go to Auschwitz together. We know it will be very emotional, and experiencing that will be so eye opening. The Holocaust was one of the topics I was most interested in when it was taught in school; so getting to see that will be a once in a lifetime experience.

If you have any travel tips for me, please let me know in the comments!

“The one who reigns forever

He is a friend of mine

The God of angel armies

Is always by my side”

Whom Shall I Fear by Chris Tomlin