Travelling immaculately.

“Here we were thinking you are from France; your style is very European”, said the receptionist at the Kaisariani monastery after I revealed that I’m African, Tanzanian specifically. “Uhm, Thanks?”, not sure whether it was supposed to be a compliment.

“See, we don’t get many visitors in this monastery, you are the first African we have seen in months. Are you travelling alone?”

“Yes”

“We weren’t exactly expecting a young African girl to visit us, alone. [Laughs] Anyways, enjoy your hike”

“Thank you!”

And that my friend was how I realized that I’ve become that girl. What girl?  You ask. Let’s rewind a few steps back.

I dreamt this moment

At the beginning of the year, I had planned to do the traditional grand tour after completing my degree. No specifics, just places I hadn’t been to before. I researched at night, and reflected on my morning run. I decided to follow my fascination with Europe and perhaps Asia. I read blog after blog on how to travel cheap and bookmarked all travel sites I could find. It was time consuming but it kept me going through the tests and assignments. Having travelled before, I didn’t want to miss this opportunity so I did more planning and booking. What could possibly go wrong, right?  Unfortunately, though expected, protests happened, the semester was prolonged into my anticipated travel period, sickness happened, a breakup amongst other life happenings; not exactly the foreplay for a grand tour. Thanks to my proactive self I had solid reasons to be travelling, my papers were accepted to three conferences, which not only gave me approval from the University but also funds.

To the monastery receptionist, I may have appeared to be an eccentric African girl defying the odds but deep down I was just a messed up girl either escaping or dealing with life. Travel therapy might be cheap for actual Europeans but for the rest of us, some creative effort is required and it goes a long way. Some of these efforts include the following:

1. First things first, get money. For me, that meant working internships during holidays and part-time in the semester. Putting so much effort meant I gave lots of thought before swiping my card for anything, whether that is groceries, transport, clothing etc. It worked out really well because most of my time studying and perhaps tweeting #WinWin.

2. Give it another name. I come from a culture that doesn’t put enough importance to extra-curricular interests, especially if they are challenging or appear expensive at face value. ‘I’m going to conferences and travelling in between’ seems more like an appropriate response when asked why I was travelling. Thankfully both my conferences were in Europe, a fact that appeased the visa gods. Thanks to friends at Web Summit (won an open source scholarship) and paper reviewers at NEUREL in Belgrade and WIML in Barcelona (won a travel grant), my passport was stamped with a very long Schengen visa.

Friends I made at conferences

3. Travel cheap: Will you stay at the Hilton’s or in a backpacker’s hostel? Does the hostel have kitchen facilities to prepare quick meals? Will you take a shared or private room? Will you take the plane or the bus? The metro or Uber? These are the questions that define how much damage you will incur. I managed to get away with a very friendly budget because I lived cheap. since I would be out most of the time, I didn’t a little discomfort at the hostels. I continued my habit of preparing my own meals, which also made it incredibly cheaper. Little equipment is needed to make a sandwich, Europe is a very small continent to be moving by plane, Did I mention my student card gave me discounts and sometimes free entrance to museums and galleries?

When on top of Athens

4. Plan ahead, almost to the minute. Complimentary to the point above. When you are away and alone, and a problem hits you, it’s easier to throw money at it. A little bit of planning goes a long way. How often does the bus stop here? Are trains available at this hour of the night? Does the hotel offer complimentary Wi-Fi? You are in a new place, excited about almost everything. You will want to buy all the souvenirs and touristy things. It’s easy to fall into the trap of spontaneous splashing. I cured this craving with fridge magnets. Be responsibly spontaneous, if at all such a term exists.

5. It’s a learning experience not a vacation. A lot of people think travel is expensive because they equate travel with luxury, hence the need for expensive hotels, flights, restaurants, shopping, excursions and commercial luxuries, most of which are attainable without traveling. I believe the most important aspect of traveling is learning. Being perhaps the only time I would spend in the cities, I indulged in the history, art, geography, politics and culture of the cities through museums, galleries, walking tours, cultural events and hostel conversations with strangers.  Turns out most of these activities are cheap and fun, not to mention guarantee that you’ll be in good company.

Was it worth the effort?

Friends

I would like to say ‘I started the year ZAR 20,000 poorer’ but the more accurate description would be ‘completely broke’. And the insane part is that I actually planned for that, like I actually worked my ass to land back to square one. Yeah, it gets worse, I may have mentioned it before but I lost my phone, missed my flight, lost a couple of miscellaneous items, mostly because of the overhead that comes with planning every minute. 

One of few spontaneous moments in Berlin

Honestly speaking, as fancy as it sounds, travelling is in reality very uncomfortable. It takes a while to acclimatize to new place, that is if it’s even safe, an even longer while to have meaningful interactions with the locals and forever to have a stable routine, a luxury I couldn’t afford since I wanted to fit everything in. There were days when the need for stability and acceptance made me question all my life choices.

All things considered, I’m glad I did it. Without the goal I wouldn’t have worked ruthlessly or planned exhaustively or saved aggressively and generally grown as a person. The downside of solo travelling is that it can get stressful and lonely but the upside is you find yourself making friends who would normally be out of your reach.  It might not seem like it but most people are nice people, or at least they are not out to eat you.

These strangers didn't bite

I may or may not have enjoyed the trip but one thing for sure is that I learnt. My practical self would never find herself reading about the Athens Acropolis or the Holocaust or the Monastery of Montserrat unless they were right in front of me.  The tours might have been introductory but they are the reason my shelf is currently filled with history books and why I can engage in such conversations.

 

This marks the end of my posts of my 2 months’ solo adventure in Europe and Asia. Some might label it as unnecessary and a waste of time and money, and to a degree it was.  Travel isn’t cheap and it definitely doesn’t make you better than others, but with the right reasons, it’s a good way to spend your time and hard-earned money. It challenges you mentally, physically, financially, emotionally and socially, but in the end it redefines your limits and leaves you craving for more. Stay tuned for my next adventure.