Why every post-grad should take a trip alone. (Part 1)

     "No can do - I have to get a job RIGHT away. THAT is why I went to college.

     I'm moving back home to save money. I have SO many student loans to pay off. 

     Where the Hell would I even go?

     I hate traveling, and people and well, everything."

I am here to tell you why each and every one of these excuses is invalid.
Now I know what you're thinking... "Yeah, OK - maybe crazy people like you can take a solo trip!" Am I more adventurous than the average person? Possibly. But I know I'm right in saying that EVERYONE should take a trip alone.

My original excuse was the first one. I figured I had done my traveling - it was time for me to suck it up and face the real world. Well, it turns out it wasn't quite time for that. I started looking for internship opportunities abroad. And that, Ladies and Gentlemen, is the beginning of the answer to excuses one, two and three. See, I wanted to go on one more big trip before I got suckered into an entry-level job position with no vacation days.

I also wanted to go on a trip where I could do humanitarian work of some sort - instead of just focusing on myself and what I wanted. And that is how I decided to do a mission's internship. So, I was able to go abroad, but I raised support to be able to go - which completely answers the money issue of excuse number two. Student loans will not show up until six months after you graduate - and I am most definitely not suggesting that you go on a six month trip. You WILL have plenty of time to begin making money.

So what would I say to the people that don't even see the point of taking a trip? I have a very extensive answer to that very simple question. I learned so much - about myself, what I want to do with my life, and about all the very intriguing people of this world that we live in.

In my experience, college graduates often don't know what they want to do with their lives. The other side of that is that some people graduate convinced of what they want to do and limit themselves. I am somewhere in between there. I finished school with a degree that I knew I wanted to use, but I only wanted to go somewhere where I knew other people. My viewpoint changed after going on this trip.

This solo trip made me realize that I can go to a random city alone and leave a couple of days later with friends. How much more comfortable will I feel if I move to a city and have that much more time to get to know people?! Taking a trip alone is a good way to figure out if venturing off on your own is something that you can handle. I really think that most people will walk away from such a trip feeling that it absolutely is.

I mentioned that I met so many people while traveling alone. Let me expound on how helpful this was for me. I met people all over the world that hold a plethora of vocations. Traveling is a perfect way to hear firsthand how people got to where they are today. These same people also love to give career advice to confused college graduates. Not everyone is going to have helpful advice, but I think that it is so important to hear what everyone has to say and learn how to differentiate between the helpful and the humorous - of course the best advice will be both.

Advice doesn't have to be taken just from those whom you perceive to be successful. I feel that bartenders and taxi drivers tend to be the most helpful. What haven't they seen? They talk to people from all walks of life throughout the day. Also, they're funny. You have absolutely nothing to lose from listening to cab drivers.

On my four flights home.

Four flights to get home? YEP. You read that right. I had to fly back to Brussels so that I could fly from Brussels to the States. Sunday morning I got through security at the Manchester airport with three hours to spare. I grabbed a cappuccino from the bar and settled in to catch up on some reading and writing. It was fantastic and so, so relaxing. At around 10:30am, I started noticing groups of people getting beers from the bar. And then I remembered. The airport is a no-judgment zone. Nobody cares. Do what you want. So I went for it.

Why not?

The flight I was waiting for was the one to Norway - which I was actually super excited about - it's another country I can add to my list! Some people may debate that it doesn't count, that I was "only in the airport." BUT I did also walk outside to get from the plane to the airport so that argument would be invalid. Since I wasn't flying on a budget airline for this flight, I got to check my backpack! When I was checking in for the flight, the guy asked me, "Do you want to check you bag?" I was like, "Um, is it free?" He looked at me like I was crazy. "Of course!" A half a second later my backpack was on the scale ready to be checked. It was great to walk around the airport and pretend like I was a normal person.

I was a bit nervous about my 30 minute layover in Oslo. Granted, probably not as nervous as I should have been, but I still wondered a little if I would definitely make it. But thanks to Norwegian efficiency, I was off my plane and in the next one in under 15 minutes! And THAT is with going through passport control! 

Got my passport stamped and everything! No one can tell me I wasn't in Norway.

On my flight from Oslo to Brussels, I sat next to a super nice pilot that got all these extra treats from the flight attendants - which he in turn shared with me!

At the airport in Brussels, it took me FOREVER to figure out those stupid pay phones again... but I finally did and the people from the Zav center came and picked me up. I had this whole plan to shower and get dressed up and go to a bar in Brussels one last time... 

But this is what I did instead. 

Walked to my favorite kebab place and grabbed my favorite beer. Last night in Europe well spent.

The next morning I got a ride to the airport. I had gotten out cash to pay them for the ride and for letting me stay there for the other night - but they said it was all free! I then had all these extra euros that I didn't know what to do with, so I went to a chocolate shop in the airport and bought my family A LOT of chocolate! 

On my flight to Frankfurt, I was chilling and reading my book. The guy next to me would not stop commenting every two minutes on what he was reading from my book over my shoulder. I was so annoyed. Also, he had a really thick accent, so I couldn't have even had a great conversation with him if I tried... nor did I want too. Get your own book dude.

My flight from Frankfurt to Philadelphia was everything I hoped it would be. There was no weird guy reading over my shoulder and I had my own TV to myself and I had free alcohol. Those are the flights that I wouldn't even mind if they were longer. It was a great 9 hours.

I watched some great movies, met some interesting people and was home before I knew it!

On Manchester

Saturday consisted of a lot of wandering around and catching up - who's dating whom and studying what and so on and so forth. Oh and ya know, the unavoidable talk of politics. Norway is way up there on the far left and Socialism scale... and I, as I'm sure you know, am not. To put it in perspective: compared to the Norwegian government - Obama is right wing. So yeah - politics - we do not agree on. BUT we did have a fabulous time and saw some super cool things, like a library with manuscripts of the Bible from like 200 AD. We also went to some other museum that I didn't understand at all, so I have nothing to say about it.

Wandering through Manchester!

We had forgotten that since it was Valentine's Day, EVERYTHING was booked - but after failing at one place, this delicious Asian restaurant in Chinatown made room for us!

Note Johannes and Harold in the mirror!

Our next adventure was the escape room! Now, what is an escape room? Well, basically you pay to be handcuffed and locked in a small jail cell with your friends and you have an hour to find clues and decipher codes to break out of prison - it was SO much FUN!

...We didn't make it out.

I think that we made a valiant effort to escape. I mean we did make it out of the cell, we just had a whole other room that we also had to escape from. So we paid to be locked up basically. But it was SO worth it. We then had some drinks at the dorm...

So normal to them... but so weird to me! At Liberty not only could we not drink in the rooms, but we couldn't even have BOYS in our room. 

We then headed to a bar and then bed since we all had an early morning ahead of us! The boys had a hike at 8:30am, which meant that I had to head to the airport then too. We scrambled all of our things together and headed our separate ways - after we took a two second ride in a taxi because Christopher thought it was necessary OF COURSE.

Johannes: "Wait, so how are we gonna get from the grocery store to the University?"

Christopher: "Uh.... Taxi!"

He takes taxis so much that they say, "Hello, Christopher" when he calls the taxi company. He actually has a problem.

On leaving Dublin.

I woke up to my last day in Dublin with a mix of sadness, apprehension and excitement. Sadness that I was about to leave this city that I was just starting to understand and get to know. Apprehension that I was still in bed, hadn't packed and didn't know what time check out was. And EXCITEMENT - that I still had a full morning of doing whatever I wanted - granted they would let me leave my backpack behind after I checked out.

I raced downstairs to make sure that I had not missed check out - I still had 30 minutes. I then packed up all of my belongings once more (in the dark since all of my roommates were still asleep at 10 am) and headed out with a skip in my step because I was not weighed down by my enormous backpack. 

It was a beautiful, sunny morning - perfect to stroll around and take pictures - so that is just what I did, as I sipped my coffee from the little shop right next to my hostel.

It was the perfect way to say goodbye to this city full of character. I took some great videos of myself reminiscing about my time in Dublin - those can be seen in my video journal of this trip - the release date for that is still TBA. I didn't have to use my map once because the city is so easy to navigate. As long as you stay near the river, you can figure out where you are based on which bridge you are near. Each bridge has a specific name and a story.

This bridge is a walking only bridge and people used to have to pay 2 pence (or something like that) to cross it. Now, of course, it is free! Many friendly homeless folks seem to have taken up residence on this bridge.

They decorated the bridge for Valentine's Day!

So beautiful, right?!

I lost track of time a bit - well not so much lost track of it as disregarded it. Right when I decided that I should probably head back to the hostel to get my bag, it started raining - a clear sign that it really was time to leave Ireland. I snagged a bus to the airport just in time, and I was off! Thankfully, I had just enough time to drink one more Guinness at the Dublin airport.

Beautiful - aye?

And then the most magical thing happened as I was looking out the window, sipping on my Guinness. The rain stopped...

And BOOM. Definitely a sign that I'll be back. Also, I bet I could sell this to Ryanair. Could make a great ad out of this picture!

Ryanair is very strict about luggage. If your bag is over a certain size, then you have to check it, and it costs an extra $15. If you try to bring a bag that's too big onto the plane, they can charge you $50 at the gate. So, I had gotten away with it once, so I figured I'd go for it. There were two people that were checking boarding passes - a man and a woman. Guess who I steered clear of? The woman. And good thing, she was yelling at the people next to me about the size of their bag as the nice gentleman flashed me a smile and let me right on the plane. Moral of the story? Women can just be plain mean sometimes - something to remember in such situations. 

I sat next to a nice couple that had just been in Ireland for their honeymoon - they rented a car and drove all around Ireland - sucha great idea. But they did have to fly home early because of all of the snow that was bombarding the states - so annoying!

The flight to Manchester went smoothly, without a single glitch. The real trouble came when I tried to get to the University of Manchester to meet up with my friends. The bus was thirty minutes late and took about twice as long as it was supposed to. When I asked Christopher where I should get off - all he said was "the end of curry mile." As if I'm supposed to know what that is! I asked the bus driver to tell me where that was and he told me right where to get off - so I did! 

Turns out he and Christopher of different perceptions of where "the end of curry mile" is. "What is this curry mile?" you may be wondering... well, let me tell you. It is a mile of Turkish restaurants, bars, hookah lounges - things like that. It was sooo sketchy. Well, the difference in opinion of where this "curry mile" ended resulted in me wandering up and down the street with my huge backpack - lost and forlorn, with no way of contacting Christopher. I went into a few places to ask if they had wifi - they did not. 

Thankfully, I eventually walked by a barber shop that Christopher had stepped into while he was looking for me because his friends were getting haircuts. Who knows what would have happened to me if he hadn't found me then - my mace had been previously confiscated!

After freaking out for a little bit about how horrible he is with directions - we headed to a comedy show - which was AMAZING! There were six different comedians for two hours. I, being the only native English speaker among us, definitely understood the most. I love English accents, so not also did I understand more, I just thought that everything they said was 5X as funny because they were saying it in an English accent - so I may have been laughing a bit obnoxiously.

Harold, Christopher and I

After the show, we met up with Johannes (my other Norwegian friend - he goes to Durham, so he took a train to Manchester) and got some kebabs on curry mile! The evening started out a bit stressful, but ended up being absolutely wonderful!!