When I decided to go travelling I also decided to take the leap and go on my own. It wasn't as scary as I thought it would be, but that was mainly because for the first month or so I would be meeting up with different people: Natalie in Hong Kong and Vicky and the girls in New Zealand. The real test would come when I arrived in Australia. Even then it didn't seem that scary as I spent a week with Ben, but now that I have left Sydney and am working my way up the coast, I have been completely on my own, apart from a couple of days with uni friends, Iain and Lauren, and will be for the next five weeks. AAaahhh! Scary!
Travelling on your own can be a bit lonely, especially when you see something amazing that you want share with someone else. For example, the other day when I was in Surfer's Paradise, I watched the sunset on the beach which was beautiful. As there was no one to say this to (apart from a strange, slightly overweight man doing star jumps, who quite frankly I didn't want to engage in conversation) I just had to take a photo, which is never really the same as seeing the real thing. It can also be quite tiring, especially if you're moving around quite regularly, as in order to make friends you have to make an effort all the time. Not just to be friendly, but to be normal as well!! Its definitely been an effort trying to hide all my quirks that hopefully my friends at home find endearing, but strangers definitely wouldn't. Such as my nack of telling very pointless stories. That certainly does not help on the making new friends front.
Despite this though, there are positives to travelling alone. You get to call the shots and decide where and when you want to go places. There have definitely been some places that I have been glad to move on from, sometimes a bit earlier than intended, where other people might have loved. Its also great because sometimes you just want some alone time, and you can do that without worrying about leaving another person on their own. The main positive though is that being on your own makes you more approachable to other travellers. Even though people told me that loads of people travel alone, I was still surprised at just how many do. I was also surprised that it's usually girls that travel alone, whereas boys tend to travel in pairs (and actually, the ones that travel alone are often a bit strange! Not always though, I must hastily add). As everyone is doing more or less the same route, you keep bumping into the same people in various hostels or on different buses along the way. I seemed to keep bumping into this one couple loads bewteen Byron Bay and Brisbane, and its nice to see a couple of familiar faces, even if you don't even know their names! I have met a couple of really nice people who I know will be in the same place as me at around the same time further up the coast, so its definitely a comfort to know that I'll have someone to hang out with later on.
Its amazing the sorts of friendships you make while your travelling. Most of the time, when you meet people you only ever see them for about two days, but in that time, you can build friendships almost as strong as ones back home (albeit, not as long lasting) mainly because you have to. I have been on a couple of nights out with people I have literally met a couple of hours before, yet once we've all got a couple of drinks down us, it feels as if we've known each other forever. And as quickly as you met them, you move on, with the high possiblilty that you'll never see each other again. It does make a night out a lot more exciting.
I have to say that travelling alone has had its highs and lows. I'm finally getting into the swing of meeting people, and as a result I definitely feel a lot more confident in social situations. I think I'm going to enjoy my next few weeks travelling, but I am most certainly looking forward to getting home and having a more familiar night out with friends I've known longer than an hour!
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