This weekend I will be visiting Zagreb, Croatia, alone. When I decided to take this trip a few weeks ago I was very excited. I looked forward to getting out of Vienna, to experiencing a new language and culture, and doing so on my own. As the weekend creeped closer, and I realized I need to buy my bus ticket and book my hostel, I became very nervous. All of the excitement disappeared and I started to worry. Why am I worried?
Lets go back up a little bit. I began traveling alone when I was in middle school. My dad moved to Sacramento, so I would catch the train to see him whenever I was out of school. This prepared me for all of my solo trips to and from college during holiday breaks. By my junior year of college I was pretty comfortable being in airports, so when I decided to visit my friends who, were studying abroad in Mexico, I was fairly confident that I could handle making the trip on my own. I was wrong. When it came time to return home I didn't have my exit visa so I couldn't board the plane.
The only time I traveled outside of the country before this was with my class to Nicaragua my junior year of high school. I was unaware that I'd even received an exit visa when I arrived in Mexico. When planning for this trip I didn't know I needed an exit visa in order to leave. I was just very ignorant about the whole situation. Luckily, getting another exit visa was simple. If I had known earlier I wouldn't have missed my flight but unfortunately I was stuck in Mexico City for the night.
That experience has caused a bit of worry about my upcoming trip. I don't speak any Croatian, I don't know anything about the culture so to be doing this alone is kind of scary. But this is the moment I've been waiting for. All I want in life is to travel, to see and experience new things.
I'm going to take what I learned in Mexico and apply that new knowledge to all of my future travels. In the future things may not go as planed but I will take the set backs in stride and learn from them. I am very excited to be doing this on my own and I will be very proud to say that I did it on my own. I think being nervous about things like this is normal but I can't let that stop me from creating new experiences for myself.
I've realized that sometimes you're going to be ignorant about things, until you know. Until you're in a situation that teaches you otherwise, you aren't going to know everything. I can't wait to share my time in Zagreb with you all! If you have any tips for me please leave them in a comment. Wish me luck!
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