Last week was our First Travel Week at DIS! That means about half of the DIS Core Courses traveled around Europe together, exploring different countries through their own academic lenses. My friends visited Vienna, Barcelona, and everywhere in between — they’re all raving about those trips. I’m in the other half of students though, meaning my Core Course’s trip to the Ruhr Valley is in November instead of last week.
With all the freedom of a week-long break last week, I defied decades of procrastination precedent — I planned a trip that I would always remember. I was going to visit my best friend in France, where he’s studying abroad. I was going to spend five days in Istanbul, a city I’ve wanted to visit for years. Most importantly, I was going to my trip to Istanbul solo.
What did I learn?
I had never traveled solo before.
And it was a daunting thought, for sure. Touching down in Turkey, I had no idea what I was in for. I was delighted, as I went about the week, to discover that traveling solo isn’t impossible. Most of the time, it was actually really easy. There were some particularly trying moments, and there were definitely times that I felt a bit lonely. By and large though, solo travel was one of the most fun, spontaneous, and rewarding experiences of my life.
Depending on your comfort level, I absolutely recommend solo travel. But I understand! Almost everyone comes at the idea with a certain hesitance (it took two friends and roughly 30 minutes of convincing for me to believe I was ready). Here are a few things I learned from my first solo trip that will make my next one easier.
Bring Two Cards
Picture this: you get to your hostel, night one, and find out you need cash to pay for your stay. You walk to the nearest ATM and insert your card. Then disaster strikes: “card denied.” You try the next machine: “card denied.” So on down the line.
Now stop picturing it. If you’re like me, you’d have a complete meltdown. My thought process went something like: “my card can’t do cash withdrawals (why???) so I can’t pay for my hostel so I can’t sleep in Istanbul so I have to stay awake for 5 days straight.” Not exactly rational, I know. Proud to say I eventually recovered, and I ended up reimbursing a kind man who withdrew the cash for me.
Maybe this is common sense, but next time I do a solo trip, I’m going to make sure I can get cash where I’m traveling. And now that I know I can’t, I’m going to bring a second card that can.
Don’t Get Too* Detailed
*Too = not leaving room for spontaneity.
I had no idea, when I took off for this solo trip, the number of new friends and make. I definitely didn’t think that most of my solo trip wouldn’t be spent alone, but would instead by spent with the people I met along the way.
On this trip, I had way too many destinations, and I had put together a really tight itinerary for myself, one that I felt kind of bound to. That made it more difficult to embrace some of the spontaneous adventures with these new friends — but when I did, they were some of the best moments I had the whole trip. Next time, I’m going to loosen up my schedule a bit to let myself get swept up in the experience!
Remember My Needs
When you’re traveling with other people, there’s usually a lot of downtime. You enjoy long meals together, walks are a communal activity, and you constantly have to adjust to others’ needs for rest.
Traveling alone removes all that, so it was easy for me take on a totally unsustainable pace. There was no obvious reason to hang out at a cafe after finishing my meal, so I quickly moved on to the next activity. Many walks just seemed like a convenient way to get where I was going.
I was happy that about halfway through, I was able to recognize this. I started to slow down. I spent longer at meals as if I was in a big group, but I’d read my book or listen to a podcast. I’d slow down on my walks and take out my earbuds, soaking in the city around me. I also just let myself take a nap or watch an episode of TV here are there — vacation is supposed to be relaxing after all!
