BootsnAll Travel Community

I'm 43 and about to leave for my first trip out of the U.S. -- Switzerland and then Italy. I'm nervous and excited and half of the time think I've lost my mind, but I'm determined to do this. I will be working and "exploring", but I'm waiting until I actually get to Italy to find a spot to settle down in. Anyone ever do that? I've "met" so many great people on this site and a couple others, so helpful. It's amazing.

Have a fantastic time!! (I'm sure you will )

Chrissie,
I'll be 34 in a few weeks and this will be my frist trip alone too! Like yourself I'm both excited and nervous. I bought my ticket today and my stomach just won't settle down.

I'm so scared!

Libby,
Congrats on buying the ticket! I'll be doing a trip similar to yours, probably starting in early april, starting out in London and making my way thru G.B. and Ireland. Then off to the rest of western europe is i still have the stamina. I plan to buy my tickets at the end of this month. I'm excited and nervous too and just hoping that when all is said and done that i actually do buy the tickets! I may need to pick your brain in the near future b/c based on some of your other posts i know you've planned a lot more than i have

Chrissie, best of luck on your trip. Have fun and be safe!

Sue

Thanks Sue! Feel free to pick my brains

How long are you planning on being in the UK?

Well, seeing as how i've done minimal planning i don't really know yet but i'm anticipating at least a month. perhaps our paths will cross-i'll keep you posted!

Cool! It's possible. I'm going to be there for the month of May

Libby (which by the way is my sister's name -- love it!) -- I'm scared too. I alternate between excitement and feeling totally sick. I feel like I'm leaving so much to chance -- like where to stay, etc. But everything else seems to fall in place so it must be meant to be. I worry about little things, like accessing my money through the ATMs, having internet connection for my work, sounding like an idiot when I try to speak my very limited Italian, etc.

Good luck - I'm sure you will have a fantastic time.

It is a privilege to travel alone. I have extensively travelled alone or as a couple, and I infinitely prefer the former. If you travel with another person or as a group you make the impenetrable homemade bubble that discourages adventurousness and inquistiveness...surely the antitheseis of travel? Travelling alone does me you more vulnerable and is more expensive, but with common sense is more rewarding. Also, you will undoubtedly find that you will meet people in the hostels from all walks of life and cultures who are going on approximately the same route as yourself, then you can travel with them for a while. I have over the years made brilliant friends like that over the years and have visited them when I went to their country. Travelling alone also enables one to experience the country more openly, with someone else from back home there too, we still hang onto our domestic, pre-conceived notion...yeah? It's scarey but worthwhile.

....I moved to Italy alone just over 9 months ago & overall has been a very rewarding experience. Unless youre in Rome I'd say the most important thing is getting competent in Italian...I have weekly lessons & it is still fairly basic but my whole life is far easier now than when I arrived knowing nothing.

Korky is right about being alone making it more rewarding...on the odd occasions I have english friends around on a weekend it is easy to slip back into our impenetrable bubble
of englishness, but the weekends I spend alone or with new italian friends I find far more interesting....

Have a great time!! Travelling alone does have its advantages and disadvantages. I made my first trip alone when I was 23 and I got a one way ticket to Athens, Greece from the UK. I was only going to be away till I got near my money mark of the bus back to UK. I was on the south coast of Turkey when I dipped into my return bus money, recovering from four really bad mosquito bites!! When I could walk, I got the train to Istanbul, hitched to Belgrade, couldn't get any further without paying money for visas so hitched back to Greece and started working on the olive plantations, orange groves, demolition, construction. Anything to extend my stay. If I had gone out without someone, I am sure that I would not have experienced all that. Spending Christmas night in a hen house on a strange olive plantation that I just got a job on was weird especially as I had to share it with a French couple and my sleeping bag was soaking wet from the sea!!

You'll have a great time. Enjoy!!

Don't worry so much and don't make the misteak of planing yourself out of fun.

E.

Chrissie, Sue & Libby


Good luck, have fun, enjoy the experience of traveliilng alone.

I did my first trip alone last year (I'll be 31 in two weeks), I went to Europe for the first time in my life and met great people, I could experience what living in a hostel is, I hope you can have a wonderful experience.

Have fun!!


Gabriela

Thanks Sor Raimunda!

I leave for my trip 12 weeks from today and I'm really starting to get scared. I swing back and forth from being impressed with my bravery to shaking my head at my stupidity to attempt such a trip.

Well, guess I won't know until I try!

What did you think of hostel life? Did meeting new people make it worth while?

quote:

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Originally posted by Libby:
What did you think of hostel life? Did meeting new people make it worth while?

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Sure! I found great people, other travelers in their 30's, I made new friends, the hostel experience was wonderful (at the hostels I've viseited were not full of teenagers) and I think about coming back to a hostel next time

You wont regret of this experience, if you need extra info or want to ask me something else you can do it, send me a private message or an email

Gabriela

Chrissie, congratulations! That's very commendable and I'm sure all the Bootsnallers have succeeded in reassuring you that you will have the time of your life and most likely find a place outside of your homeland that feels more "you." Keep us informed of all your travel adventures!

My dear mother is 55 and though she talks the big talk of travelling around the world alone "after dad is gone" (she's funny, actually says it that way!), she can't even think of it now. She's seen a great deal of the world with following around her career military husband, but I was sorely disappointed in her recently. I was living in Australia last year, planned for another year, and she'd intended, for the first time in her life, to go on a trip WITHOUT Dad and head to Australia and New Zealand with one of her girlfriends, on the excuse of visiting me of course. Just as I feared, as soon as she heard that I was coming back early, she cancelled the trip with her friend and saw no reason to spend the mere two weeks seeing a new part of the world and being away from her family. Geeze!

I think I'm going to have to take her by the hand in the future and drag her out of the country without the spouse myself.... Every travel situation provides different insights about yourself; I want her to gain what I have by travelling in a different dynamic. I'm afraid her learning will be a long time coming.

Ladies, don't worry about it, you'll be grand. Just take sensible precautions about things and go with the flow.

Bella Italia is great for the first timer I think. You get the best and the worst of one the most traveled place's on Earth. The best because it is chock full of sights and tastes to be seen and felt and the worst because it is tourista hell in parts.

I did it alone last November and I was just as excited/scared/happy as you. *DO* use your 12 weeks to research and PLAN. Try to learn back and forth a few good phrases and RESPONSES to those phrases.

I think you would do well in that time of the year to reserve at least a few places before you go e.g. your 1st hotel/hostel and your last. You may find yourself stuck on the street at the worst or just paying through the nose at best for a place to stay if you wind up someplace busy.

I don't know... Maybe someone else here with Italia alla Primavera experience can school the both of us in the finer arts of scoring a place to stay in the height of Spring.

Enjoy the esspresso, vino e Calcio!

Rock on Chrissie & Libby - safe travels!