"A nomad I will remain for life, in love with distant and uncharted places." -Isabelle Eberhardt
"A nomad I will remain for life, in love with distant and uncharted places." -Isabelle Eberhardt
Going Solo
Aimee Geurts • May 27, 2019

I moved to Colorado when I was eighteen. I was scared to go anywhere alone, even the grocery store. I was afraid I might have to say to a stranger, “Where’s the flour?” I just knew the stranger was going to think me an idiot. How could she not know where the flour is? I don’t know why but me and my siblings were all this way. I suppose it had to do with growing up in a tiny town in North Dakota, where we went to the same grocery store for our whole lives and from a very young age, we knew where the flour was stocked. Luckily, they didn’t move the store to a new location and layout until after I’d moved away. Who knows what I would’ve done.

Thank god I’ve out grown this extreme shyness. I go to the grocery store alone (although I hate it now for different reasons and mostly order my groceries to be delivered!) I go to movies alone. I go to lunch alone. I am mostly ok going places alone. Where I’ve never gone alone before is to another city, state or country. I have never traveled alone.

Things in my life have changed and I no longer have my main travel partner. I realized I may not always be able to find someone to go with me when I find a good flight deal, Just yesterday, I came thisclose to buying a ticket Munich for March of 2020. Luckily, I wised up before I hit purchase. Also lucky for me, my mom is retired and has an adventurous spirit. She committed to two trips with me so far, our first being Mexico City last year and our next being France at the end of this year.

I picked Canada for my first solo trip. It seems like they are nice to women, they speak my language and the flight is quick and cheap. My first destination choice was Vancouver but Calgary is the winner with a shorter, direct flight. The first thing I did in my pre-planning was made a reservation for Betty Lou’s Library , a library themed speakeasy. With cocktails named after authors, I know I am going to enjoy this place. I also decided to book a three hour walking food tour through Alberta Food Tours. The rest of the time I plan to spend wandering. I want to go to the new library (free!) and I found a bookstore (free!) and even a bird sanctuary (also free!). I rented a car for $27 so I can go to  Banff National Park  so that will take up most of a day. Not to mention I need to squeeze in a museum or two.

I figured it would be a good idea to look up some solo travel tips so I picked up Lonely Planet’s The Solo Travel Handbook. It has a lot of info for people who are going to be traveling solo for longer than a weekend and still has lots of good tips. It has a few paged dedicated to women’s solo travel specifically. And while I’m not staying in a hostel…I learned to bring a headlamp! Anyway, I especially like the tips on how to eat street food without getting sick – that’s great info. In the back it has recommended locations for solo travel. It’s a good little book and a quick read. I recommend it.

This whole trip is out of my comfort zone and especially renting a car and driving in a new place. I have a hard time following directions even with GPS telling me where to go. I always make a wrong turn! And, this is why I am glad I am doing all of it. Now lets just hope I actually leave my hotel and do all these things I have planned.

The post Going Solo appeared first on The Book Nomad.

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In Great Circle Jaime says, “The compromise is that I’m living day to day without making any sweeping decisions.” I realize I have fallen into this way of thinking. Whispering to myself, everything is fine today. Although I do still enjoy imagining other lives, get caught up in the swell of possibility, for the first time in a long time I feel settled.  Jamie’s sister Marian says, “Is that compromise? It sounds a bit like procrastination. You don’t think you’ll go back to being how you were before, do you?” I know I won’t go back to being how I was before. I know that today. I’m not sure what I’ll know tomorrow. Reading articles about women realizing they are tired of working the corporate ladder and feel vindicated in my low-paying jobs with no benefits. When the farmer in Spain doesn’t reply to my emails about a room and board work agreement, when the Airbnb host in Greece offers me his camper van instead of his home, I decide it’s all too much and I give up. I’m not upset about it. I’m relieved. Instead, I make easy plans to see the Redwood Forest, right here in the good ol’ U. S. of A. I plan to stop in Medicine Bow, WY on my way from Denver to Bismarck next time I’m there. My next adventure is right around the corner instead of a nine-hour flight away. I make plans to make less plans. I stop looking for more jobs. The low-paying jobs I have now are quite fulfilling and they pay me enough to cover my health insurance and put a little aside. What they give me is time. Time to have lunch with my sister-in-law on her birthday. Time to take a 4-day weekend to see my new niece. Time to take a walk downtown on a Wednesday and bring Roxy a sandwich while she slings books at the low-paying bookstore where I no longer work. Time to read all the books in my house. Time to volunteer in the middle of the day. Call it compromise. Call it procrastination. I call it feeling settled.
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