While solo travel isn’t for everyone, it is certainly something that I walked away from with my head held high and a number of life lessons under my belt. But the solo travel blues do kick in now and then, and that is particularly true when you reserve a ‘table for one’ and stand there firmly as the waiter surveys your request. I can’t be sure, but I’m guessing he’s thinking “why would a young girl be eating at a nice restaurant on her own”… or perhaps more accurately “why did this girl just order three desserts, in a row, and eat all of them without a hint of guilt”.
Waking up in the morning, I was always eager to go out and seek adventure, see more sites in a day than one would normally fit into a 3 day itinerary, and come back at the end of the day to have a rest, maybe check my emails, and head out for dinner. Ahh, there it is….dinner. You can forget about the world outside of your adventure while you are racing around soaking up a city like a sponge, but as soon as you sit down at that dreaded ‘table for one’ that is set for two, the emotions creep their way through, and can hit you like a Mack truck. At first I struggled to put my finger on it and wasn’t able to accurately ascertain why I would miss home or contact at the end of each day. But then it came to me one night over a three course meal and a couple of extra desserts in Scotland. When you are travelling to a foreign place, everything is new, exciting, fascinating, and sometimes feels surreal. The end of the day is usually a point of reflection, to consider everything that happened during the day – what you loved, what you didn’t love, and “what on earth was that woman wearing on Streets?”
Solo travelling revokes your opportunity to reflect with another, whinge about a few things and laugh about much of what you encountered. So I would have to say that this is (one of the few) low points of travelling solo, which could be somewhat mitigated by venturing to a bar and meeting people (which I did, a few times). But the important thing to remember is that when you wake up and realise where you are, then open the curtains to confirm and race the clock to head out the door, the sadness is gone – you don’t miss home, but home still misses you.
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