The Strange Comfort in Discomfort
Disclaimer: This piece is a little bit different to the style and topics to which I normally write, all the other articles can be found on my profile.
Before I try and convert my array of thoughts into logical sentences, I’d like to start off with what this article isn’t. It’s not an article about me “finding inner peace travelling Europe”, nor is it about me solving all the problems in my life. If you are looking for that I’m sorry to disappoint you but you should probably stop reading here.
Over the past 5 weeks I’ve been travelling around Europe, the last 2.5 have been alone and it is those that have been the most pivotal.
Let me paint the picture for you.
A heavily extroverted 19 year old university student, little to no cooking skills, unable to operate a washing machine, hates being alone for more than a few hours and the kind of guy that stuffs all his clothes into a bag.
Now imagine that same 19 year old who now has a bad chest infection after partying for three weeks. His friends have all gone back to Australia and he is alone in Croatia with absolutely no plan for the next few weeks.
Travelling by myself yielded the highest highs and the lowest lows.
Honestly the first day of travelling alone couldn’t be any worse. I distinctively remember staring at the Krka waterfalls and thinking about how in theory they were really beautiful but I couldn’t fully immerse myself in them. The day was a fiercely fought wrestling match with my anxious thoughts and self doubt. It didn’t help either that I managed to book onto a Spanish seniors tour so it wasn’t that straight forward to make friends.
That night I decided to do something a bit left of centre. I published a poll on my instagram story regarding where my next destination would be the following morning (inspired from Yes theory). After Slovenia won the most votes I googled what the capital was and booked the next bus there. I distinctively remember sitting on the bus, I was half laughing, thinking “what the fuck did I just do, I’m heading to an unknown country based on an instagram poll”.
I think there’s a big misconception of travelling alone. Some say it’s derived from the cliche American school yard scene where only the weird kid is sitting by himself at lunchtime. This crazy flawed perception that only people with no friends travel by themselves.
This couldn’t be further from the truth, solo travellers are by far the coolest people I’ve ever met. You are forced to have superior social skills because if you don’t make an effort to relate to people, even if you’re Brad Pitt, you’re fucked. The best way I can describe it is being thrown onto the start line of a marathon, some people have more training than others but no-one is truely ready, however once you get to the end you’re a lot fitter and a better runner.
On my second day in Slovenia I had just cycled around and meditated on the beautiful Lake Bled, when I decided to go for a swim. When I got out of the water a French guy with broken English asked me if the water was cold, he had no hostel for the night because his phone didn’t work. Fast forward 6h and me the French guy, two German Engineers and a Finish F1 driver were cooking dinner and having a few beers before heading out- these are the raw moments you only get when travelling alone.
Don’t get me wrong it’s not all Beers and Beautiful Lakes. There was also times where at 2am I walked 6km with a broken bag because the tube ticket station only accepted coins to then realise I had walked to ‘hotel downtown’ not ‘hostel downtown’. With no SIM card, no cabs around and in the sketchy area of Prague this kinda sucks. It wasn’t the first time I thought, ‘fuck this I want to go home, I want comfort’.
Stepping out of your comfort zone fucking sucks but if you can take anything from my experience it can also be the most beautiful thing in the world. At the start of this journey I sought something new, something different, something that would get me out of the comfortable repetitive Sydney bubble.
Now that I have the benefit of hindsight it feels refreshing. Refreshing to be out of my comfort zone doing something different. Away from what felt like a repetitive cycle of university, work, the occasional start up break and going out. Theoretically I was moving forward, progressing in uni, societies, winning a Hackathon but it didn’t feel like it.
In 2 weeks I’ll move into an apartment in the Netherlands in a city called Utretch. I’m ready for my comfort zone to be well and truely shattered many more times and I’m looking forward to it. I’ll be slowing down on the written blogs with me and my housemate starting a vlog. It will document our experience on exchange, self development experimentation and all the bits and bobs that go along with it.
