Saturday 12 March 2011

Solo travel need not be solitary and if it is, so what?

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I am an extraverted loner. I didn’t travel much because I had no one to travel with. In fact the loneliness you fear when you are travelling is the loneliness in your life at home. In 1990 on two occasions friends let me down and I took long train journeys alone in Eastern Europe in 1990 and made friends everywhere. Now when I go away I arrange for people to meet – say friends of friends -  or you just fall into conversation with people. Preferably locals. There are lots and lots of single travelers everywhere. The older ones have more interesting things to say, the younger ones are nicer to look at and have better hearts.

The other solution is to go in a group which does not appeal - I did it once in Egypt and it felt as if I were watching Egypt through glass or on television. You have to stand in the wrong queue for your tickets and then get sent to another wrong place by someone trying to be helpful. This too is life. 

A lonely friend to whom I gave this advice asked me to post this and not to identify him

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