If You’re in Your 20s, Travel Alone

It was May of 2018.

I had virtual cash stacked up to the ceiling in my bank account. And I was really itching to spend it.

I’m kind of weird that way. I’m very frugal with my money until I’ve got a lot of it. Then, I’ll blow it in a weekend.

In this case, I blew it before 11 AM on a Thursday.

Because that morning, I woke up with the bright idea to travel. And not just travel, but travel alone. And not just travel alone, but travel alone without buying a new sim card. This meant I was traveling to new countries, where I didn’t know a soul, without a GPS.

So, there I was, on SkyScanner, trying to find the cheapest arrangement of 3 European countries. Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, England, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Spain, and France were all in the hat.

I settled on Denmark, Spain, and Ireland in that order.

Best part was, I got my plane tickets for under $1000 bucks.

And looking back, the $1000 dollar decision I made on this Thursday morning in May was one of my best decisions I ever made.

Here’s why:

I had just arrived in Manchester, England. I had a 10 hour layover before my flight from Manchester to Denmark, so I figured I’d head to Liverpool, tour Anfield (as I’m a Liverpool) fan, then make it back in time for my flight.

I head to the train platform at the airport after storing my bags, and I meet a girl named Tonya (who I still chat with from time to time). I ask her how to get to Liverpool from the airport.

She tells me to take a train to the city center, hop off, then get on another to get to Liverpool.

Dope.

I’m riding the trains, looking out the window thinking I’m in Black Mirror, and I get to Liverpool.

I explore, I go tour Anfield, I eat, have a few drinks, buy some Jaffa Cakes, and finally it’s time to head back.

So, I head to the train platform and catch the first leg of my train ride to the city center.

I get off the first leg and head to the platform for the second leg when a train-guy informs me that the 5:00 PM to Manchester airport is cancelled, and the next isn’t coming for another hour and thirty.

Big dilemma.

Because if I wait for that one, there’s a massive chance that I miss my flight.

And that can’t happen because I’m in a foreign country, know nobody, yada yada.

But, God shined a light on me that day, because on the same platform is a 5 foot tall lady, big boobs, looks to be in her 40s, who’s also trying to get to Manchester.

I approach her and say Excuse me Miss, I overheard you’re trying to get to Manchester too, would you like to get a cab together.

She agrees.

We head up from the platform and she gets on a payphone to call a cab (I don’t know why she used a payphone). The cab took about 30 minutes to get there, so we were shooting the shit for a while

Her name was Claudia. She was a stripper from Liverpool who was heading to Manchester for a night out with her girls.

We’re introducing ourselves for 30 minutes, sharing stories, until the cab finally comes.

We hop in the cab, and she’s sitting comfortably close to me. We continue talking, kind of flirting, kind of not, when she starts complaining that she’s going to be the most sober one of her girlfriends because they’re getting a head start on drinking.

Immediately after sharing this concern, she orders the cab driver to stop at a liquor store. I follow her inside and she asks me to pick out a six pack.

Now, this is like a liquor store you’d find in the hood.

It’s a little run-down, has low-end beers, cheap bottles of wine, no liquor in sight.

So I grab a six-pack of Carlsberg beer and we’re back on our way.

In the car, I open my bag to grab some of my Jaffa Cakes. If you don’t know, Jaffa Cakes are little pastries with a chip of chocolate on top. Underneath the chocolate is some kind of orange jelly.

Sounds kind of gross as I write it here, but they’re really addicting.

Anyway, Claudia notices that I have Jaffa Cakes and she looks at me and says:

I’d do anyyything for a Jaffa Cake.

I look up from my snack, look her in the eye, and I know what time it is.

Anything?

She nods.

And, I’m not going to share the details here because this isn’t a site for erotic novels, but just know I had a good time in the cab the rest of the way, I made my flight, and enjoyed the dopest 2-week vacation of my life.

And this was just a small sliver of the exciting stories I have from that two week trip. My point in sharing it is that if I wasn’t alone for this journey, I wouldn’t have had this experience.

I wouldn’t have been forced to talk to new people.

I wouldn’t have all the new friends from different countries that I have now.

I wouldn’t have been tossed out of my comfort zone.

I wouldn’t have been forced to grow as a man.

I truly believe that on this 2-week trip, I embodied the best version of myself. I was the most charismatic, confident, and charming person I’d ever been.

If I would’ve avoided this trip, or let the fear creep in and brought a friend along, I wouldn’t have experienced this person.

I wouldn’t have grown at all.

Plus, when you travel alone, you have your own agenda. You do things on your own time. And you’re free from the weight of other peoples’ needs.

It’s a dope thing.

It’s liberating, freeing, and again, you’ll grow insanely from it.