Traveling Solo

I just want to take a minute to comment on solo traveling, since I've been asked a lot about whether I get lonely or feel uncomfortable. I do love going on adventures with my friends, but honestly I have really enjoyed traveling by myself for the past two months. In the first place, there's the fairly obvious factor, which is that I get to do what I want to and don't have anyone else to take into consideration. But the real reason I've had so much fun is that it's helped me to meet people I never would have if I'd already had a travel companion.

Of course, staying in hostels is really helpful when it comes to this-- I've met about half of my new friends because we were roommates. But I was surprised to find that even when visiting the beach, or walking through the rainforest, or sitting on a boat, there was always someone who I could talk to and hang out with.

In Sydney, there were Elise, Elena, and Summer. In Cairns: Yaya, Dave, Charlie, and Florian. On the boat: Christopher, Thomas, Fabienne, Matt, Emiliano. In Daintree: Yana, the Manchester family, and that Scottish couple whose names I can't remember. Don't even get me started on how many people I've met at Stromlo (although that's a slightly different situation). And these are just the people with whom I've actually spent some time (dinner, swimming, or some other activity) and/or exchanged contact details-- I've had casual conversation with at least twice this number!

The point is, no matter where I was or what I was doing, I always had someone to share a meal and a story with. I've made friends with people from England, Taiwan, Belgium, Scotland, Argentina, the US, France, Germany, India, China, Switzerland, and of course Australia. I've learned about world politics, zoology, the best places to travel, and people's life stories-- which is really the most interesting part!

So, in answer to the question, traveling alone really is awesome and I have never once felt lonely!