Even though I didn’t intend to do it at the beginning and didn’t even think I could do it myself, I travelled alone.

In August 2019 I got on the plane alone in Germany. To make everything worse, this was the first flight in my life. After arriving at the airport in Sydney, I was picked up by my host family, with whom I had been already in contact for two months via Skype and e-mail. Arriving at the family’s home, I directly met the current au pair of the family with whom I had also been in contact in the past weeks. I didn’t feel strange at all and because I was welcomed so warmly, it didn’t feel like I was all alone on the other side of the world, after all, I was surrounded by people who always supported me.

Already in the weeks before I flew to Australia, I got to know a lot of other au pairs through Facebook. We exchanged information about our forthcoming stay abroad and got to know each other a little bit.

Already in my first week I met the first girls. We had all just arrived, knew no one and were still completely strangers in such a big city as Sydney. Since we all had to struggle with the same problems and fears, we became friends very quickly. We talked a lot and I got along with some people better than with those I have known from home for years.

I spent four whole months in Sydney, meeting new people and saying goodbye to friends who were already flying back to Germany. I’ve never felt like I was on my own. I always had people to turn to when I needed someone. My host family in the first two months or my new friends.

Together with two girls I had met in Sydney, I set off after four months, out of Sydney. Even though we didn’t really know each other yet and could count on one hand how often we saw each other, I now count the two girls among my friends.

It was not until the fifth month of my trip that I could claim that I was travelling alone. All alone I sat in the plane from Cairns on the way to Perth. The first time I was alone in a foreign city without knowing anyone there or having anyone to turn to.

For one and a half months I made my way through the country all by myself, making my way through and gaining experiences that I would never have had if I had been with someone else.

Now I have written down a few experiences and benefits that I have collected alone during my journey:

Your life, your decision

For me, this is one of the best advantages. While I was travelling alone, I was able to arrange my trip as I wanted. I did not have to compromise and I could make decisions without having to justify myself. Besides, I could also simply put in a “chillday“ if I just didn’t feel like doing anything. I could make my day any way I wanted. If I felt like lying in bed until ten o’clock in the morning, then I just did it.

It’ll force you to be a problem solver

When you’re travel alone, there’s no one to turn to when there’s a problem. You have to face problems on your own and solve them, whether you like it or not. And you have to learn to make decisions yourself without getting someone else’s opinion.

You can learn a foreign language

During the first five months in Australia I didn’t spoke much English, except in my host family, as I was mostly with Germans. During the time I travelled with my friends we took turns talking to people, for example asking for directions. While I was alone, I had no choice but to talk to the people. Moreover, other backpackers will talk to you more often when you are alone and so you will talk to people of different nationalities.

You’ll find you’re never truly alone

Even if you don’t always want to, you’re never alone. If you haven’t spent the day with people you happen to meet in your room, someone will sit next to you at dinner and talk to you. You always have company and people around you talking to you. Always!

You can go at your own pace

You might want to spend a week in a city, although two to three days would be enough to explore it all? No one’s stopping you from staying there for seven days. You want to explore the whole country of New Zealand, although everyone advises you against it in three weeks? Why not? Go for it, your decision!

You’ll learn to love being alone

In the beginning it can be a bit strange and unfamiliar to be alone but you get so used to it that the presence of someone else can annoy you and you just want to have your rest even though you have been alone for such a long time.

It’ll give you strength to deal with life’s messes

If there’s one thing I learned during my trip, it’s that absolutely nothing goes as planned. Really, nothing! For a while my plan was to spend six months as an Au Pair in Sydney and then to travel for another three to four months through Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and possibly Asia. Well, at the latest two months after my arrival, the plan was also thoroughly revised.

In the end, I worked as an Au Pair in Sydney for two months, spent another two months in Sydney at the hostel, then managed to push through the plan of my trip for two and a half months before Corona spread all over the word and spoiled my Asian plans. Did I expect this to happen at the beginning of my trip? Definitely not! In addition, you have to deal with the strangest people; after all, you share a room with them. What can you do if the guy in your room keeps you awake at night because he snores?

It’ll makes you brave

You have managed to plan a trip on your own, make decisions on your own, fight your way through, crossed seas or oceans, endured the annoying guy in your hostel room for a week, got on this plane on your own even though you would have loved to open the emergency exit and jump out. You found your way alone in completely foreign countries and solved problems you didn’t even know were possible to have. If you could do that, what wouldn’t you do?

Goodbye comfort zone!

That’s the biggest farewell you will have. Isn’t everyone’s comfort zone their own four walls, the people they love and the people they have known for years? You have to say goodbye to all that if you dare to go on such a journey alone. But doesn’t life begin at the end of your comfort zone? After seven months away from home I can only confirm it.

You’ll see the world isn’t as scary as you think

I promise, every hostel is just another hostel, every airport is just another airport, every city is just another city and every person is just another person. It doesn’t matter what country or continent you are in. Even if the media and your friends try to tell you otherwise, there are so many beautiful places and people in these “dangerous places”.

All in all I can only say that everyone should have travelled alone at least once in their life, because it changes your life, it changes you; it changes your view on some things. You have to face your weaknesses. You have to push yourself in every situation. You meet new people; you try things you never thought you’d do. You learn what you really like without being influenced by others. And all this makes you independent!