World Travel Guide Online

ust Go!
London, England

The decision to travel alone was not easy. All my life, I knew that I would eventually travel, not just around my corner of the Southeastern US, but across the sea. At 31 years going on 32, it still was a future dream when British Airways offered some incredible deals in honor of the 100^th anniversary of flight. This just happened to coincide with my parents sending me money in advance of Christmas so that I could buy what I wanted to find under the tree on Christmas day. Looking back, the timing is a trifle eerie – maybe it was fate, kismet, or what have you.

It was not an easy decision to go it alone. I mentioned the idea of going to a few closer friends, secretly wishing that one would say, “wow, that sounds great, I’d love to go.” No one took the cheese. From each, I received positive feedback. In a way, their encouragement just made it worse!

There was a deadline to this decision, as there is with anything involving a sale. As the deadline loomed, I likely drove one friend in particular to distraction. We exchanged e-mails almost daily, always including conversation about my inner turmoil. Finally, trying to be helpful, she replied that maybe it wasn’t time yet. She had been one of the first to say that I should go if that was what I wanted. Intentional or not, her words suddenly placed everything in perspective. For days I had not been seeking reasons to go, I had been building a case for why I should not. I would travel “one day” but not this day. Somewhere in my subconscious, the fear of the unknown had already made up my mind. That was the night that at midnight, I found myself online booking my flight to London for the following April. Merry Christmas, Mark, you’ve found what you want under the tree this year.

I was still hedging my bets a little. I decided this first solo trip would be a short one. That way if I discovered it was too rough or too lonely or just beyond what I could imagine as a bad time, it would be short. I would only be in London four nights, but with the knowledge that I could always go back. Even though I had made the choice to live in the now and not some hazy future, the cautious side of me kept pointing out that although I had traveled to places alone, it was always to meet up with family or friends at the other end.

As the trip approached, I continued to make my preparations. And I became less and less apprehensive. I do, somewhat, regret choosing to stay in a budget hotel over a hostel, but it was again that cautious side of me that won that coin toss. It’s not that the hotel was a bad experience, just that it didn’t add much to the trip, as I suspect a hostel would have.

The whole time that I was planning, I knew that I wanted lots of options of what to do, but I didn’t want to necessarily be locked into a tight schedule. Outside of the one bus trip I paid for to Stonehenge and the environs nearby, I didn’t make any plans that couldn’t take place on the day and time of my choice. I pre-paid for a lot of things, like the Stonehenge tour and the open-top, double-decker bus tour (which I could use on the day of my choice). Having so much prepaid was a load off of this budget-minded traveler’s brain!

The British Airways flight from Atlanta to London Gatwick was harrowing. I had very little sleep the week I left. I was convinced that if I tired myself out, I would sleep on the plane and arrive refreshed in the early London morning. I could not have been more wrong. I was never able to sleep. It was some combination of discomfort with my seat and a mind that was probably both a little wired by the excitement and still a bit worried at the outcome. If I gathered together the times that I drifted off for a bit, I might have accumulated half an hour of sleep.

Having watched Big Fish twice on the in-flight video offerings and having stared at the altitude, location of the plane and time to destination far too many times, I arrived in London, sleepy and I’m sure looking slightly better than death warmed over. After the plane arrived, I stood in line for passport control for what seemed an eternity, but it was shorter than the time it took to get out of my own country. Still, the excitement among my fellow passengers waiting in line was positively electric. I heard people ranging from twenty-something’s to obviously retired folks, discussing their plans. Suddenly, I felt ready to tackle the city, and after I finally succeeded in getting my pre-purchased Gatwick Express tickets from the machine that took temporary possession of my credit card, I was ready for my big adventure.

The adventure was totally worth any adversity. Even the first day, while I was functioning on a major sleep deficit, I had a ball. I kept moving all day, each day. If I had traveled with someone else, chances are at some point they would have told me to get lost. I was amazed that I didn’t have blister-impaired feet by the time my four days had zoomed by. I saw things I had heard about my whole life and things that I had never heard about but instantly fell in love with. From staples like Big Ben, Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, and the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, to lunch in Trafalgar Square while sitting on the fountains, wandering around Piccadilly Circus at night, playing dodge-em’s at the Trocadero, and more, I saw London. While my first trip became more about seeing the sights than anything else, I fell in love with the city, its charming alleyways, the chapels and pubs that littered the streets, the teeming crowds of locals and tourists, and the awesome Underground that made the city so accessible (even though half of it was down for maintenance while I was there).

Would I go again? In a heartbeat! The last night I was there, I remember standing in Piccadilly Circus and a street performer was playing something that seemed slow and sad on his horn, and I felt an overwhelming sadness that my trip was already over. Within a month of being back, I’ve already planned my next overseas trip, eight days in the UK, most of which will be spent ringing in the New Year in Edinburgh!

So, if you’re like me, and you keep deferring the experience, don’t wait! You can come up with a million reasons not to go, but how many good reasons are there not to experience another place and culture? How many reasons are there to appreciate the history that’s shaped the landscape of a people and a place other than your own? And if you’re going alone like I did? Be prepared for the people who ask the moment they find out you’re going, “Who are you going with?” And then there’s the perennial, “Aren’t you afraid to go alone?” I won’t swear that everyone will enjoy the experience of being solo, but it shouldn’t be an excuse not to try! As my grandmother used to say when she was trying to get me to try food I was convinced I wouldn’t like, “How do you know unless you try?” Sometimes the tritest expressions bear the most truth. While it took me a long time to apply it to food, it took me even longer to apply it to life.