I like to travel but won't travel abroad alone

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chris1989
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14 Feb 2023, 9:52 am

As a kid I went to places in Australia, Spain, France and Turkey and then as an adult have been to Krakow in Poland, Berlin and Rome, but I went to most of those places with members of my family. I don't have a close net of friends to go abroad and enjoy it with. The few I have are not the ''going-out type''. Its ridiculous because it is as though I am making myself feel bad just because most of my trips abroad were with my mum, dad, stepmum etc. It does envy me seeing all the photos of people who have more ''going out type'' friends than me and are taking selfies at nice places. I remember seeing someone's photos and videos of going on roller coasters at theme parks and places abroad and they presumably were younger than me and it left me feeling like ''Why wasn't I going out and doing all those things ?'' and it just leaves me feeling like I'm wasting my life because it seems like you have to always go out whether you have friends or not and go on lots of fast-speeding rides, do parachute gliding and stuff like that. My stepbrother and his girlfriend in their late teens have been in the past year to New York, Rome and recently to Iceland. It seems as though it makes me feel bad because in my late teens or early 20s, I wasn't doing any travelling. I didn't start doing it more until my mid to late 20s.

I won't go abroad unless someone else will come with me and I seem to think that if I was on my own I'd have some difficulty trying to interact and language barriers with people especially with those don't speak english and may have difficulty understanding each other and that would probably stress me out. I bet you would say to me ''Well just learn to the speak the language of country you are going to'' but I seem to think is it really that simple ? Do I HAVE to be very fluent in different languages before I go to these places ?

I seem to feel bad because I don't feel like one of these people that jumps into things straight away and does them and says ''Yes'' to everything. I find myself always hesitating and taking a while to think about something and then it comes across that I am ''not living'' because I am hesitating and I feel the only one while everyone else is saying Yes and doing something whether they really want to or don't really want to.



Last edited by chris1989 on 14 Feb 2023, 10:04 am, edited 2 times in total.

kraftiekortie
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14 Feb 2023, 9:55 am

In most cases, no.

I've been to places where the "official language" is not English. Many people in these countries speak at least a little English.

All you need to know, usually, is basic phrases in any language, plus the language of street and road signs. To make friends with people, it would be better if you have some conversational knowledge of the language; you certainly don't have to be "fluent" in the language. Even "conversational knowledge" is not necessary in order to make friends----but it does make it easier.



Last edited by kraftiekortie on 14 Feb 2023, 10:12 am, edited 1 time in total.

Joe90
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14 Feb 2023, 10:05 am

Didn't you write a thread on this a few times before?

Loads of people don't want to travel alone or feel they can't. But I understand you wanting to go traveling but I also understand that you don't want to travel alone. I wouldn't want to either. I'm terrible at airports! If I had been alone when going to Poland last year I probably would have somehow ended up on the moon or something.


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14 Feb 2023, 11:49 am

I find airports pretty simple to deal with but getting off the plane at the other end is a problem. I've never been abroad truly on my own yet. I might meet up with friends in another country at the foreign airport and so on but that's the extent of it. I'm not much of a traveler anyway.



amykitten
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15 Feb 2023, 11:03 am

chris1989 wrote:
As a kid I went to places in Australia, Spain, France and Turkey and then as an adult have been to Krakow in Poland, Berlin and Rome, but I went to most of those places with members of my family. I don't have a close net of friends to go abroad and enjoy it with. The few I have are not the ''going-out type''. Its ridiculous because it is as though I am making myself feel bad just because most of my trips abroad were with my mum, dad, stepmum etc. It does envy me seeing all the photos of people who have more ''going out type'' friends than me and are taking selfies at nice places. I remember seeing someone's photos and videos of going on roller coasters at theme parks and places abroad and they presumably were younger than me and it left me feeling like ''Why wasn't I going out and doing all those things ?'' and it just leaves me feeling like I'm wasting my life because it seems like you have to always go out whether you have friends or not and go on lots of fast-speeding rides, do parachute gliding and stuff like that. My stepbrother and his girlfriend in their late teens have been in the past year to New York, Rome and recently to Iceland. It seems as though it makes me feel bad because in my late teens or early 20s, I wasn't doing any travelling. I didn't start doing it more until my mid to late 20s.

I won't go abroad unless someone else will come with me and I seem to think that if I was on my own I'd have some difficulty trying to interact and language barriers with people especially with those don't speak english and may have difficulty understanding each other and that would probably stress me out. I bet you would say to me ''Well just learn to the speak the language of country you are going to'' but I seem to think is it really that simple ? Do I HAVE to be very fluent in different languages before I go to these places ?

I seem to feel bad because I don't feel like one of these people that jumps into things straight away and does them and says ''Yes'' to everything. I find myself always hesitating and taking a while to think about something and then it comes across that I am ''not living'' because I am hesitating and I feel the only one while everyone else is saying Yes and doing something whether they really want to or don't really want to.


You sound perfect! Honestly, I'm looking for a travel buddy myself as I love travelling. I know the strangest thing to come out of an autistic mouth :lol:

But I don't fret the small stuff things normally work out.

The only issue I had when travelling aboard was when my daughter was 4 and locked my in the hotel room. Gave the key to the staff and walked across the road and jumped in the pool. Luckily someone stopped her drowning and looked after her. Whilst I was stuck in the room I found some Italian gardeners and shouted help. They couldn't understand and I forgot how to say aiuto at the time. Eventually someone helped me after 10 minutes but very scary 10 minutes!



Silence23
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15 Feb 2023, 3:08 pm

Check out the videos of Harald Baldr. He's a solo travel vlogger, and he doesn't learn any language at all. He's also quite ignorant of other cultures sometimes. But the people like him anyway, and he always finds a way to communicate without understanding a single word. And he actually likes it that way.

https://youtu.be/gHRln7yVvMc?t=24