Whenever I chose to go adventuring in my early years, I have always ended up going solo. Mostly due to the careful planning involved, lack of people interested in going the same route I chose, or simply because people were unwilling to compromise to the crazy schedule I created out of research and the desire to see as much as possible in a very short time.
My initial trips involved backpacking, couchsurfing, living the vida loka of sleeping anywhere everywhere as long as you ticked as many places as possible.
It lead to blisters in my feet, aching knees and a really healthy respect for travel agents all over the world.
However, now that I am firmly settled in Germany, I had the pleasure of having people willing to share at least a part of their itinerary with me and it had been an edifying experience.
My first trip to Berlin I met a lovely lady, Miss O., who was going through the same touristic points that I was doing as we both bought the same guidebook. We met right at the beginning and as her sense of direction was a little bit lacking to follow the instructions on the map, I smiled and offered to guide her to the next stop. And then the next. And as the tour went by we realized we had very similar life experiences and the same eagerness to learn about a place, and the unwillingness to wait for a tour guide to take us somewhere.
We ended up forging a friendship and she invited me over to Mallorca where she resides. I will definitely visit her there.
Next person to travel with me was my cousin, D. O., who was eager to explore the life and opportunities in Germany but was having a serious problem to grasp the German way as she kept comparing the places to what she had previously seen in England in her previous trip. She needed time to process the information dumped on her young mind and easily got frustrated and overwhelmed when facing hundreds and hundred of years of history one after the other.
Next I had the pleasure of travelling with some colleagues from work. They were as excited as I was, as this was their first time in London. But after the first night when we walked around late at night to enjoy the summer heat, they went their own way, I went mine and I haven’t heard from them again.
But for my surprise, an old friend sent me a note that she was coming to London on the same weekend. As she is as much as a book nerd as I am, we went around the city commenting and mentioning of references of this or that movie.
I can honestly say that I haven’t laughed so hard in months.
So, even though I love travelling alone, doing my own thing, I have to honestly say that having a companion who gets your jokes, knows the same books, movies and crazy references that you do will simply increase your enjoyment of your trip.
And if she likes to play Adult Pokemon Go, it’s even better. But that’s something for another post.
