How 49 Days of Solo Backpacking in Europe Changed My Perspective

"I don't fit the look"

"I'm not adventurous enough"

"I can't speak the language"

"I'm too young/old"

Have any of these thoughts ever crossed your mind? If they have, you're definitely not alone. I had these thoughts too – until I travelled solo. After all, what's the point of travelling without company to share memories with and look fondly back upon?

49 days, 9 countries, and 16 cities later, I can tell you that the journey was worth it. Travelling solo gave me the freedom to be my own boss while feeding my thirst for adventure.

Beyond the rejuvenation and recalibration provided, solo travel offered fresh perspectives and connections that reoriented my life goals. Not only did I forge memories of a lifetime but I also had a shift in outlook on life. Having grown up and lived in a society that celebrates and rewards successful partakers of the hustle culture, leaving the ecosystem – albeit temporarily – felt like a breath of fresh air. Being out of such a culture felt so foreign, counterintuitive, yet life-giving. 

Travelling solo does come with its fair share of struggles: the occasional loneliness that creeps in after extended periods alone, having fewer food options due to portion sizes and cost, or having to be more alert at all times. However, I feel that the downsides are outweighed by the experiences of a lifetime that reshaped my outlook and goals in life.

I chose to travel in a season where I'm at a huge crossroad in life. As a fresh graduate from university, I knew that the world is my oyster. With my education journey done and dusted, I felt a sense of freedom to explore with finally nothing to hold me back. With finding myself being a running theme in this season, travelling alone provided that avenue for self-discovery, one where I got to learn about my likes and dislikes, what excites me, and what makes me tick. I even re-learned how to trust my intuition.

There were several times where I decided to leave a place or seek company after sensing that something was off. Whether leaving a shady district in Berlin (Neukölln I'm looking at you), banding together with stranded passengers at Hannover airport past midnight after Ryanair didn’t land in the intended airport due to an airport curfew, or coming up with an escape plan at lake Königssee in Bavaria where I warded off a guy who was being overly friendly, each situation helped me learn to trust myself a little more.

A unique thing about travelling solo was that my radar for other solo travellers was at its prime. During my journey, I met a physics teacher from Libya in Heidelberg, a prison warden from Brazil in Krakow, and a middle school teacher from Germany with her students in Salzburg. I encountered Americans on a mission trip in Berlin and met with student ministry staff in Vienna, Salzburg, and Prague. I crossed paths with two fellow Linguistic students pursuing their masters in Innsbruck and Stockholm, a Singaporean who moved to Stockholm for work, and even some Singaporeans on exchange in Innsbruck – two of whom I met on a mountain and the other in the hostel. I met an Australian who travelled to Europe for a music festival, a Vietnamese woman pursuing her masters in the UK in Heidelberg, a Finnish lady who had also just graduated from university, and several students from France, Taiwan, Canada, Australia, and China taking a gap year.

From a Congolese woman escaping from Ukraine to Krakow, to a Dutchman living in hostels in Rotterdam after renting his house as he travelled often for work, to a lady from Hong Kong on an extended working holiday all over Europe, to an Australian who moved to Amsterdam in search for a better life and was temporarily working in a cheese shop, to even long-term stayers in a hostel, each person’s story opened my eyes to the diverse paths people take. It also got me wondering about how the glorification of the hustle culture in Singapore might be a byproduct of pursuing a fixed idea of success.

The biggest struggle when I returned home was in having to grapple with the fact that as much as I had changed, life back at home remained unchanged and had continued on while I was gone. People are still hustling, and the sense of competition in the air remains ever so strong. It felt like life was a train that had moved on, and I was a tad late in catching it. Truth be told, I'm still hungering for that life which I briefly tasted. Although I am aware that travelling solo is different from living in a country and that I might be recalling memories with rosy retrospection, it remains true that life in Europe is so different from that of back home. I do miss living in a society that holds less of a cookie-cutter mindset towards how life should be lived.

Who knew that being away from home for 49 days could spark such a change? Now, with a hunger for something more, a healthy level of discontent, and the world as my oyster, I'm ready to keep searching until I find that pearl.