Those Who Do Jagerbombs on Greek Islands Together End Up Sipping Hot Chocolate in Rainy London in a Cozy Living Room Watching the New Harry Styles Movie

A summary of my biggest lesson after 3 months of travel, and how what started as my biggest concern ended up being my favorite part about travel.

And now for the obligatory sentimental, cheesy post about how this trip was life changing and how I have learned so much and have changed and grown so much since leaving in August… but it is all true. This was my first ever solo trip, and it had such an incredible impact on me. I didn’t really think too much about it before I went and the fact that it was “solo travel,” I kinda just went. I actually had tried to coordinate this trip to work with several friends before I left, but it just consistently wasn’t working out (to be fair, asking broke recent college grads to commit to leaving the country for 3 months isn’t exactly a simple ask). When it came down to it, I wasn’t going to miss out on this dream and seeing bucket list destinations just because I didn’t have someone to go with me. I basically just told myself “you’ll figure it out” and decided I was going and that was that. I realize that solo traveling can be a really scary idea for a lot of people, but I really did just go into it with the mentality that I will figure it out. At the end of the day I knew that it was really having the confidence for it that mattered. I think that being scared to travel alone and letting those negative concerns circulate your mind too much is what really will cause you to have a negative experience, so I just didn’t think about it. It left no room for me to overthink and become nervous over something that I really just didn’t need to be nervous about. So I booked the one way to Crete, Greece where my first work exchange was doing some social media for a hostel in Chania. I had vague plans that I wanted to visit Greece, Croatia, and Italy for about a month each. I had my first month in Greece fully planned out with destinations and hostels that I was working in, and that was really the extent of my plans for a 3 month trip. I hadn’t yet purchased a ticket back because I had no idea where I planned to be at the end of the 3 months. According to the plans, I would have flown home from Italy, but instead I ended up in England and also visited Spain in the week in between Italy and England. Some may say I should have had a little more concern for solo travel I guess, but I just threw together some confidence, minimal expectations, and a small carryon worth of 3 months of traveling, and headed off on my 5 am flight to Greece. To be honest, my biggest concern was not the transportation, lack of plans beyond Greece, or pretty minimal budget, it was the thought of making friends and staying in hostels. As someone who is pretty shy at first and who has never stayed in hostels before this experience, I was honestly really nervous about this. Ironically, this ended up being my favorite part of the trip, and led me to realize one of my bigger realizations about myself during the trip which was that I am actually a lot more extroverted than I think I have led myself to believe for the last 22 years. Or maybe this experience was such a positive experience that it just brought out this more extroverted and outgoing best side of me, but either way I think it is super cool that what was one of my bigger concerns in the beginning turned out to be my favorite part about the trip. I met so many people, learned about other countries and other perspectives, and shared amazing memories with people from all over the world. If I was scared of traveling alone I never would have met a girl from the Netherlands to hike the most amazing national park in Croatia with (let alone even see the national park). I wouldn’t have met two Slovenians who would invite me on a hike in Croatia pointing out all of the different fruits and plants that we could snack on along the way (who I would also later meet up with when I spontaneously ended up visiting Slovenia). I wouldn’t have made my English friends on a party island in Greece who would later welcome me into their homes in England to watch movies and drink hot chocolate at end of my trip. As they say, those who do Jagerbombs on Greek Islands together end up sipping hot chocolate in rainy London in a cozy living room watching the new Harry Styles movie, you all have heard that one too right? There are so many amazing places I would have missed out on seeing and amazing people I wouldn’t have met and shared memories with had I been scared to take the leap. People have such a large impact on the place you are visiting. The Acropolis will always be amazing, the Almafi Coast will always be beautiful, and the Greek islands are always going to be magical, so it’s really the people you are with and you encounter that make the experience super memorable. The Almafi Coast was beautiful, it always will be, but there is so much more about the experience that I am going to remember when I look back at the pictures than just the views. It’s the friendly local graphic designer shop owner that Shelby and I went back to several times, and who gave us a free gift because of our support in going back 3 times lol. It’s our Airbnb owner who sat and talked with us in the backyard of his family home of 500 years on the Italian coast, who gave us his homemade Limoncello and drove us to and from the train station. It’s my ‘Greek Mom’ who gave me the earliest room available so I could take a nap because I showed up sleep deprived and delirious from pulling an all nighter at the party island the night before, without me even asking. She made me coffee and sat with me the morning before I left the island, gave me her number should anything happen to me in Athens, and sent me a picture of the sunset a couple of days after I had left. My photo album will forever remember these beautiful places, but my heart will forever remember these beautiful people and how they shaped my journey.

Cheers to jagerbombs (for the first time in Greece I might add), silent discos, hot chocolate, solo travel, and of course, our universal worldwide shared boyfriend Harry Styles.

—Lauren