Reflections on Traveling Alone

Most of my travels that I have embarked upon over the last 3 1/2 years have been solo ones. (Wow, has it really been just that long?!) When thinking about what's next for Karen, the world traveler, I think that I am about ready to put an end to my solo travels. It's fun, but it's intense. It's just so much more fun to have people to share it with! But, while I'm thinking about it, here's some reflections on traveling alone & what it takes. I've learned a ton!

• You have to be gutsy, adventurous, smart, resourceful, confident, fiercely independent, and ambitious.
• I’m working on it.
• There is a definite mindset that I get myself into when I’m traveling solo. You are only as lonely as you make up your mind to be.
• I do a mix of both staying alone and trying to find new people to spend time with. Too much of either would wear me out.
  
• I do more talking on trains (bus, metro, plane, etc…) and in hostals than while I’m walking around. You can jump in with a harmless question about the destination, route, travel tip or story, or something like that. There’s no daunting commitment this way. It might end when I get off at the next stop, when we finish our glass of wine, catch the next flight, or when you can’t answer because of the language barrier.
  
• However, I also have some friendships that started this way, and have lasted for years!

Some stories from past travels:

• Overheard three groups of people from various parts of Australia that were talking at the train station. I joined their conversation with a travel tip. Then sat by one of the women on the train afterwards. Eavesdropping is definitely a part of picking up random conversation.
• Met a mom and 19 year old daughter from Montana who were traveling together before summer study abroad program in Valencia, Spain. I gave some advice and stories from my time in Spain. They said that I was the 5^th person from MN that they had talked to! Many said it had been a hard winter. Either that, or we’re just especially outgoing towards strangers in foreign countries. (I think this one started by talking about our Rick Steve’s travel books.)
• I sat near family with three kids from Colorado on the train. The dad is originally from England and the mom is from Sweden. (sweet!) Talked to the kids about what they could see for a while.
• I stayed in the same hostal as a pair of friends / sisters from Canada. One is from Manitoba and the other from Alberta. Amy Rice was my connection with this one!
• A guy asked me a question about the bus we were riding in English. We were in Portugal, he was a Peruvian student at the University of Delaware traveling around. We toured a monastery, took pictures, and talked about art together. Kept in touch over e-mail and chat.
• Met a guy in line for a sandwich in the Milano train station from Montana. He goes to the St. Thomas School of Law in downtown Minneapolis and was doing a summer abroad program in Roma.
• Ate dinner with a mom, her son, and a seminarian at my hostal. Walked around the city with them that evening and met a local priest who gave us an in-depth tour & history lesson of the restored piazza. Awesome!
• Asked people to take a picture of me in front of various landmarks (the trust-worthy looking ones) and struck up conversation with them afterwards while hiking or over a glass of wine.
• Asked to borrow a travel book from the people next to me on the bus to learn about our destination. (Way to go to Portugal without any info on it, Karen... not the best move.)
  
• Heard someone speaking English in Chinese grocery store and followed her to pick up some conversation. She was happy to talk as well since she had just arrived for an exchange program there.
• Toured around Rome with two Austrian guys from my hostal for 3 days. Kept in touch by exchanging pictures through e-mail. Visited one of them over three years later in their home town when I was back in Europe!
• Best story from this summer in Italy though is about Joyce & her husband Kelly:
• They are a couple from CO who I sat next to on the plane from Sea-Tac to Amsterdam. They were traveling to Europe for business with a bit of pleasure mixed in. I ended up switching seats with Kelly for leg room because he’s about 6’3”. We talked for a while about traveling, and they were a really cool Christian couple.
• Then, as we were getting ready to disembark, he misplaced his passport! The three of us started looking for it (and I prayed to St. Anthony, inspired by stories told by family members at the wedding I was coming from). He ended up finding it in the bathroom trash, between the bag and the container.
• They helped me get through security quickly, we said good-bye in Amsterdam, and wished each other luck.
• I was walking through the tunnel into my home base at Cinque Terre and the couple in front of me looked somewhat familiar. It looked like them!
• I tapped the woman on the shoulder, and it took a second but then they recognized me too! We had said good-bye in Holland and now here we were in a national park in the Italian Riviera!I guess the knack for remembering people’s faces, names, and then running into them later on is genetic. Right, Papa?
• The Lord was clearly doing something here, so we exchanged contact information and we’ll see if anything comes of it. Glory!

It's fun to travel alone and you learn a lot about yourself. But it's kind of scary. The Lord has been really gracious to me throughout the years on all of my various trips. I have learned how to trust people in a whole new way and also how to make quick, as informed as possible decisions. I can navigate an train station, airport, bus depot, and look up train schedules in a whole bunch of languages that I don't speak.

All Glory goes to the Father on those ones, because He's the one who brought me through it and taught me along the way! Who knows what we'll do together next!