A year I will never forget and a year that has influenced my life so much since! There is absolutely no way it all went to plan. There's no way it all went right and it definitely wasn't without infinite problems but there's very little I would change, though I would do it very differently if I were to go back.
Now I'm going to address something that's come up often since, Travelling Alone. I do have more to say on the subject now, a year and a half, and multiple trips later, but for now I'll stick to my thoughts and feelings after returning home from my first big trip; Australia!
I still can't work out if travelling alone is refreshing or depressing. Both maybe, and neither and so much more.
Having the money to pack your days with activities, go to enjoy the bar and atmosphere of the evening, that's great. That was New Zealand, though I had Rich for company with me there, I had the travel alone freedom, the fun. But that isn't really the reality.
Travelling on a budget is different, harder. That freedom is lost slightly. You constantly check yourself; at each activity, limiting your drinks in the bar. It takes meeting those special people to really create the experience.
I guess the big difference is the way you travel. New Zealand would have had that freedom of experience with or without a friend there. Why? Because it was a tour; a bus, taking a group of people from one place to the next. You're thrown into a social environment, with little choice but to mix, and that's okay.
But that's not really travelling alone. That's travelling individually, with a group of people. Travelling alone you plan your transport, your stops, your activities, your destinations. It includes tours, but that's only part of it. It's individual parts put together by you. The people you meet aren't doing the same thing. They have their own agenda, but that's okay because you're free to do what you want. You meet a person or people and maybe stay a bit longer to enjoy the company or you change a plan for a little while, you're not constrained. Then you move on. You follow your plan, they follow theirs, then maybe you meet more people, or you spend time enjoying your own company. And it's not always easy. You don't have a safe package that tells you where, how or when you'll get somewhere. You don't always have company when you want it. Sometimes it is scary, you feel lost, have no clue what you're doing, but the experience is completely yours!
