I've got to crank this post out to be up to date with my trips since I'll be heading on another one at the end of this week. Now most European cities are starting to look the same, and I'm having a more difficult time recalling the details than a few months ago.
After I'd taken a few trips with my friends I knew that I would eventually want to take a trip by myself. I'd gotten the basics of weekend trips down - booking flight and hostel, navigating from the airport to hostel, finding a free walking tour, pub crawl, local food and shopping. One day, on a whim, I planned two trips - one to Madrid and one to the UK, because I knew my days in Europe were numbered and it's sometimes difficult to plan trips collaboratively with multiple people. I didn't originally desire to visit Madrid, but it ended up being the cheapest flight I could find at the time I was able to go. I asked if anyone would be able to come with me, and as it worked out, no one was - so this unintentionally became my "solo trip."
If you're wondering about my UK trip - Annie will be joining me - we're going to Edinburgh, Scottland together, and then I'm continuing on alone to outside of London to visit my friend Lynn who I met while teaching in Taiwan.
I was looking forward to travelling alone - to be able to make all of the decisions by myself, eat, sleep, tour, shop when I wanted. I do enjoy some good "me time," but I like to be social and around friends often as well. I pictured myself doing everything by myself, but before I even left Geneva, I realized that wasn't my fate for this trip...
While waiting in line at the Easyjet gate, there were two [somewhat obnoxious] girls in front of me. First of all, they kept going back and fourth between speaking English and Russian, so I could only catch bits of their conversation. Secondly, one of them had bought 2 cups of beer and 2 cups of wine from the little snack bar near the gate....so they were getting even rowdier. Swiss people do not, generally, like rowdiness so these girls stuck out like a sore thumb.
If you've travelled Easyjet you know that there are no assigned seat numbers, you just board the plane and choose your seat. This is why you must queue (yes, I'm picking up British mannerisms) for a long time before boarding the plane. Guess who decided to sit beside me? Yep, twiddle dee and twiddle dum.
They acutally turned out to be interesting girls. One was born in Moscow and moved to Montreal at 10. The other was raised in Moscow and went to university in Canada. They were both working/studying in Geneva now. Though they were a bit outspoken, we enjoyed bashing the Swiss together, saying how everyone on the flight seemed so serious even though we decided that there couldn't possibly be anyone on the plane who wasn't going to 80 degree Madrid to have a good time - and I'm sure everyone could understand us....us ignorant foreigners :S I also talked to the girl on the other side of me - Huong. She was originally from Paris, living in Neuchatel (Swiss city near Geneva) as an engineer. Her family is from Vietnam though, so we talked about Asian society versus European society (specifically French and Swiss) and shared similar views.
I arrived in Madrid on Friday night around 9pm and made my way to my hostel. It was just 15 minutes walk from the main tourist area, and no need to take a subway anywhere. The owner spoke barely any English...and no French, but he was still quite helpful showing me where to go on my map. I walked through Puerto del Sol and noticed that everyone was out - just enjoying the night. Then I was on to Plaza Mayor to meet up with Huong and her friend from Paris who she was meeting. The streets were so small and restaurant filled that I couldn't find the restaurant they were at, even after stopping to ask at a bar in the area. It was 11:30pm and I was starving...and the streets were still bustling - Spain is on a completely different clock. I ended up dining alone (which I was used to from Taiwan). I chose a restaurant in the corner of Plaza Mayor and sat outside. Coincidentally, Huang and her friends ended up passing by me on their way back to their apartment, so I still got to see them afterall. During dinner, I did a lot of people watching - there were quite a variety of tourists in Madrid - families, elderly, Asians (the most of any city I've visited), and homosexuals. At one point while I was eating a woman came up to me and asked where I was from (she must have overheard me ordering in English). She and her husband were from Fort Wayne, Indiana, [Grammy]!
I was staying in a 3 bed women's room at my hostel, and when I got back I met one of my roommates - Dora, a woman from Hong Kong on a month long Europe trip. She was also traveling alone, and was spending 4 days in Madrid. She was so cute! She followed her Lonely Planet like it was the bible....she already had an excursion to Toledo planned for Saturday (recommended by Lonely Planet). This was when I wanted to explore Madrid, so we planned to do something together on Sunday.
Saturday at 11am I went to the Plaza Mayor, the meeting spot for the Sanderman's free walking tour. Awkwardly standing alone, I took pictures of the surrounding ancient walls to occupy myself. While passing around a clip board which asked for our email addresses, I heard a group of girls speaking "American" about 10 meters away.....so I went over and struck up conversation. It turned out that they were on their spring break trip from a study abroad program in Nottingham, England (just north of London)...but their "home university" is Bucknell, near Lewisburg - just about an 1.5 hours from Mechanicsburg! None of them were from PA though - all NJ or NY. Our tour guide lead us around the city on a beautiful sunny day, entertaining us with some stories, jokes, and a little too much history in my opinion. I tagged along with the Americans, Canadian, and Australian in the girls' study abroad group. Two of them are coming to Geneva in May, so I just might be their personal tour guide then.
After the tour I did some shopping - I wish I'd brought a carry on bag rather than my backpack. The shopping was so good and, as always, cheaper than Switz or France. After revisiting some of the places our tour guide pointed out, I got some ice cream and sat at a fountain in Puerto del Sol (probably my favorite place in the city). Around 7pm I went back to my hostel to rest a little, wash my feet (I'd forgotten how dirty feet can become when wearing sandals in the city) and wait for Dora to return from her day trip so we could head out for dinner.
Dora had yet to try Paella or tapas, so we were adamant on finding a restaurant which had one or both of those dishes. We ended up at a place off of the Plaza Mayor which had a 10euro - paella and sangria deal.
During dinner, again at around 11:30, I got a hilarious text from my friend Chelsie who was camping that weekend in Interlaken with some of our other friends. Let's just say the marshmallows weren't the only things that were "toasted" that night....I later found out that they skinny dipped in leech infested waters...and that was only the beginning of their hoopla.
My tour guide had recommended a churro cafe which served a cup of melted chocolate and fresh churros until 2am...so Dora and I decide that was a must-have dessert....And that was the extent of our nightlife! Back to our hostel to consult Lonely Planet for Sunday's activities.
After breakfast we ventured out to take the subway to a Sunday flea market. It was very easy to catch yourself spending money here - with scarves and jewelry as cheap as 3 euros. Madrid had the most street performers of all the cities I've seen in Europe. The painted people seemed to be most popular. At the market we walked by several groups of Americans - it's so easy to pick them out as they pass talking. Then we went to the Prado museum, the famed art gallery which has been compared to the Louvre and London's National Gallery. Well, we actually weren't where we thought we were. There were many museums in the area, and we were taking pictures in front of a palace, not a museum....but we went inside anyways. The Prado ended up costing more than we wanted to spend - and we both admitted to not entirely loving museums in the first place. We did walk down Rio del Prado which is a nice tree lined promenade ith fountains and benches. I got some ice cream to tie me over, as we walked back towards Puerto del Sol. We found a cafe near there and sat outside. Our meal was not exactly tapas, but it was pretty close. We went back to Puerto del Sol for a final hour of people watching and sun.
And so, there are two types of "sole travelers" - those who precisely keep to themselves, and appriciate the time to discover new cities without others' companionship - and those who can't help talking to people they encounter and connecting to experience new sights and activities together. Though I envisioned myself in the first category, during this trip, I most certainly fell into the second. If you are thinking about going to a new place for a night or two, try going alone and see what happens. You never know what interesting new things you might learn about yourself.
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