Solo travel.  First of all, Happy Easter to all and especially to my Christian friends out there who are celebrating this special day!  Today, I’m writing about solo travel. Perhaps a minister could fashion a sermon based on the words “solo travel” but I’m gonna write about the more pragmatic and worldly aspects of those two words.  I traveled alone to Germany last year.  And I traveled “all by myself” with my wife’s blessing.  I am of the more pragmatic though some would say pessimistic ilk and I learn lessons from observing others.  My parents were going to travel when my dad retired.  My mom died when she was forty-six years old.  My dad died with dementia years later and could not/would not fully enjoy the benefits of such an adventure.  They never got to travel.  So much for putting off something you want to do believing you will be able to do it later.  I have been guilty of the same mindset all these years.  Given my current health, age, and the world situation, I believe the time to travel is NOW.  There may not be another chance.  Tomorrow is not a given.  I have traveled alone in the past but was always working at the travel destination.  Or, during 2011, I traveled for two weeks in Germany in search of work.  Never purely for vacation.  The stated purpose for my 2012 travel to Germany was to travel simply for pleasure and scouting potential venues for the honeymoon my wife and I never had--well, maybe some research as well and I made daily entries in a journal about it.   It’s hard for workaholics to quit cold turkey but I’m trying. 

Traveling solo was a novel experience for me.  I am the eldest child—those who are the eldest child know what the position entails for the entirety of your life--sacrifice.  I have, especially in the past thirty years, held positions of great responsibility requiring the utmost ethical behavior.   I recently read on the solo travel blog this life-changing quote regarding reasons for seniors to travel solo:  “Revert to your personality rather than your role in family or community.”    What a fantastic, freeing, personal-world-changing concept!  To interact and be accepted (or rejected) by others based solely on my personality rather than my role—that changes my sorrow about not sharing the trip with my wife and my heavy guilt about spending funds solely on me from negative to a positive separate paradigm of open-ended discovery which hopefully could lead to a better me and ultimately benefitting my family.  Does this travelling solo mean I will radically change my behavior while away from home such as getting drunk, risky behavior not befitting my physical or mental capabilities, getting into altercations, etc.?  Of course not.  But, I will be able to uninhibitedly get into conversations with folks I don’t know, learn a lot about all kinds of things from others’ perspectives, make mistakes to include the inevitable cultural faux pas which will be hilarious in hindsight, and do things on my own schedule according to my own wishes instead of a lifelong practice of adhering to schedules, constant compromise, and placing the desires of others above mine. It’s a great adventure that should be done at least once and I highly recommend it.  Have any of ya’ll gone the solo travel route?  Give us you insights in the Comments section please!