Advice From Around The World
You can become best friends with someone at a hostel within a night. The beauty of solo travel is getting to experience the openness and inherent goodness of humanity because you’re surrounded by people who have the same hunger for life and connection. So many people made lasting impressions on me while solo traveling— whether through fleeting moments found in a common tongue while offering to take someone’s photo or lasting hostel friendships that survive the journey home.
My most prized possession on my travels was a little blue book from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, printed with his Almond Blossoms. It came with me everywhere because I wanted to meet and talk to as many new people as I could.
The book has been passed through hands in bars, on wet boat rides, cozy hostel rooftops, and grimy cobblestone sidewalk gatherings. Originally an idea from @kylegoesoff on Instagram, here are a few of my favorite words of wisdom:
Fernando, my sweet older waiter at Postiguillo Cervezas Vinos Y Tapas in Sevilla, said, “Vive con intensidad y ama con todo el corazón. La vida es muy bella.”
Translation: Live with intensity and love with all your heart. Life is beautiful.
He left the note on my table as he sauntered outside, blowing me kisses.
Noelia, my host mom from Palma, Mallorca, said, “Mis consejos en la vida para ser feliz y estar bien contigo misma es: se generoso, abraza a las personas con verdadero cariño y ama. La ley del Universo te ofrecerá lo mismo y mucho más. Sonríe siempre incluso al que está serio porque él más que nadie agradecerá esa sonrisa.”
Translation: My advice to be happy and content with yourself is: be generous, hug people with true affection and love. The law of the Universe will offer you the same (energy you put out) and much more. Always smile, even at those who are serious and don’t smile back, because sometimes they are the ones who need that smile.
We reunited after five years at a restaurant by Plaza España, and I try to put her advice into practice everyday and it brought me some moments of pure elation.
Outside the Royal Palace of Madrid, Flamur, a Swiss-German man from my hostel in Madrid, wrote “limitations are perceptions.”
He talked about how everything is about perception. Limitations are created by our minds and if you think you can’t, then you limit yourself.
Facundo from Buenos Aires, Argentina advised, “En un mundo tan vasto y diverso el destino nos convoca a compartir parte de nuestro tiempo que es lo más importante que tenemos para dar. Viaja más allá del tiempo y disfruta el camino.”
Translation: In a world so large and diverse, destiny calls us to share part of our time, which is the most important thing we can give. Travel beyond time and enjoy the path.
Facundo told our little table in the hostel lobby about his favorite tree in the woods somewhere in Germany. He approached life with kindness and spirituality.
Gavin, an American I met in both Madrid and Barcelona, said, “Follow your heart! I once met a monk who fell in love and left the monastery and all the things he knew. I asked him how he knew that’s what his heart wanted, and he said it wasn’t that hard. You just already know.”
He was a quiet Harvard man who opened up when we got tapas and a jug of sangria with a mutual friend, Matt.
Matt, an Australian friend who taught us Aussie slang like derro, wrote, “Do what future you will be glad you did as opposed to what current you is too tired to do.”
Matt and I met in Madrid and then again in Barcelona a few days later. We became pen pals and our postcards slowly circle the earth to each other every few months.
During a guitar concert at our hostel in Sevilla, a Brit named Connie imparted the wisdom: “Be the person you wish would walk into the room. Chances are everyone else wants them to walk in too.”
She also recommended Wendy Cope’s “The Orange.”
Just like the orange, solo traveling is sharing and joy. Sure there are hardships, but it brings people together. My parents wondered why I would ever want to “isolate” myself in a foreign country, but I made some incredible friends and felt like part of a collective of young, eager, and adventurous people.
My little almond blossom book still comes with me to many places, offering wisdom and comfort from people who were just as touched by me as I was by them.
