My first Solo

The first cut is the deepest… which can also be true while traveling. My first solotrip is now many years ago and to be honest, I don’t remember it as a good one. But I learnt a lot about what can go wrong and where some of my priorities are, so after that I planned differently and now I am much happier with traveling alone. So today I tell you about the mistakes I made and how I learnt from them. Please keep in mind, whenever you do something: mistakes are okay and help you to make it better next time. Don’t let them take away your spirit.

My first solotrip was to Barcelona. I actually wanted to meet a friend who was living in Spain during that time, but she had to get back to Germany spontaneously and I had the options going alone or staying at home. And I really needed to get out of my surroundings for some days, because I worked so much and had some days off. So I decided to go on my own. I took the cheapest flight I could find and a Hotel and off I was on my way to: Barcelona!

Ok, so here are basically my first two mistakes: The flight and hotel were in my budget, but not as easy to reach like I thought. The flight didn’t took off from Frankfurt International Airport, how I thought, when I was booking, but from Frankfurt (Hahn). I really don’t know why they have the same name, you need a busride of one and a half or two hours to get from Frankfurt Main to the other airport. And the bus didn’t drove that often in that time, so I needed to get up very early (I didn’t lived in Frankfurt so to get to that bus I already needed an hour).

The next problem was actually in Barcelona. I needed to get to the Hotel and maps on phones and EU-Roaming weren’t a thing yet, so I needed to buy a ticket or find a Taxi who brings me there. Unfortunately I didn’t spoke Spanisch or Catalan, and I thought with three languages I should be fine, right? Right? Nope. Nobody understood me, especially because of me used to speak french my pronunciation was a mess. But I made it somehow to the Hotel. Which was apart from that I didn’t understand the receptionists (they could speak french and english, but had very strong accents) actually quite nice. Only problem: It was in the middle of Nowhere. Or actually in a industrial area and nearby a racing track. To get to the Centre of Barcelona I had to take a train, which is fine for me. Not so fine was the one hour walk to the train. Because I never found out how the bus schedule is. There was no sign and in the Hotel they didn’t know. So I already walked for an hour every morning to the train and always had to remember that I’ll have to walk back for an hour, when I was planning my day in the City.

Barcelona itself is a really beautiful and nice city. It has interesting architecture and places and a beach. On my first day I came by the beach. It was not really planned as a beach day or something like that, so I wasn’t prepared for going swimming or stuff. So I sat there, read something and felt a bit asleep after a while. Eventually I woke up and looked like Ms Lobster. Actually a little sunburn every now and then is not so bad with me, normally I get a nice tan after that. But this one was not little but really bad. So I stayed Ms Lobster for the rest of my trip. And because this wasn’t hurting enough I managed to get a big black bruise while I wanted to go to the Metro, but took the wrong turnstile…

To be honest, I was quite unhappy with that trip, so in the end I payed a lot of money to get an earlier flight back to home.

But what did I learnt on that trip?

First of all, check where are the airports, where is the accommodation, how do I get from one to the other and how do I get from my accommodation to the City Centre. Now it is easier with Smartphones but still, you should check at least once at home, how to get to your bed. Keep in mind, that for using your Smartphone you need enough power and data volume. Of course you can download and use offline cards as well (I normally do that when I am outside of Europe) but still think about your battery. Second of all, don’t fall asleep on the beach in the full afternoon sun without protection. Even if you’re not worry about skin cancer, sun in a different region effects you differently and having a sunburn can hurt a lot. A LOT. Believe me. Also you always look like a stupid tourist when you do and is this really what you want?

Oh and perhaps another tipp: That my hotel was so far outside was because I only looked for hotels (I couldn’t imagine myself in a dorm) and decided for the cheapest I could find. But not only was it far outside I also was quite lonely in between. Now I am preferring hostels and doing couch surfing. It is cheaper and I meet new people who like traveling as much as myself. But it’s not for everyone and when you really like to be alone, perhaps a hotel is the better option. But I recommend you to try out a little bit, you’ll be surprised.