It was February 2018 and I was already one month in Denmark for my bachelor. I felt free and no one could judge me about what I wanted to do or spent my money on. I never traveled or had a flight alone before, so I decided to go on a city trip somewhere in Europe, for a weekend. I googled around for some cheap flight tickets and found a flight to Gdansk in Poland for 16€?! I couldn't believe the flight tickets were so cheap. I booked them immediately and a few weeks later I was going.
On the 8th of March I flew to Gdansk, a small city in the North of Poland. I arrived in the evening so it was quite dark already. That was the only moment I felt a bit unsafe and scared. Alone, in a city that isn't so touristic.
I booked a hostel for two nights, and it was one of the best hostels I had seen. It was clean, big beds and close to the city. It was also my first experience visiting alone a hostel, so maybe that's why I booked a good one. In the evening I walked around and skyped with my boyfriend to show him the city. I felt alone, so I wanted to share my experience. Feeling alone is not a bad thing of course, but sometimes you can feel the need to share some experience with someone else.
The next day I participated to a free walking tour. I never did one before, so I didn't know what to expect. It was an one hour tour with quite a big group, we walked around and got some facts about the history of the city. It was really nice to know the story behind some sightseeing stuff, buildings and statues.
The rest of the day I walked around and around 4pm I decided to travel in the evening to Warsaw, because I already saw enough of this small city. So I packed my bags and got on the train for 7€ (!) and in 3 hours I was in the center of Warsaw.
Wauw! Was my first reaction, it was so big and with so many buildings. I already got lost in the train station because no one spoke English in Poland.
I walked to my hostel that was in the old town. It was a long walk, so I was happy to get rid of my bag and have dinner. I never heard about the Polish food, dumplings. So I decided to try them in the restaurant next to my hostel. I walked in to the entrance of the restaurant and I saw there was a long waiting line. A manager shouted above the stairs "I have a table for one! Who wants it?" I looked around and raised my hand. The whole crowd at the entrance looked at me and went to the side. It felt like I won a lottery or something, everybody looked at me and made a path for me. It felt funny and weird at the same time. They must think “Why is she having diner alone?”. I didn’t care, I ordered my food and the dumplings were amazing! Really nice food. The girls that served the food were wearing short typical Polish dresses, it was funny to see that.
The next day I did a free walking tour again with more than 50 people I guess. Even if it was March, there were a lot of people in Warsaw. After the tour I walked around on my own through the old town. Such a nice town! Really beautiful and cosy.
I also went to the palace and rented a bike to cycle around the city. I really felt in love with the city. The mixture of old and modern was really nice to see. I didn’t expect that this city was that big. It had beautiful architecture, nice parks to walk through and good food.
After seeing Warsaw I traveled back to Gdansk, were I slept one more night in a hostel, because my flight was going early. Everything went well and I had an amazing trip, alone!
After this experience I also went alone to Mallorca (Spain), Helsinki (Finland) and Tallin (Estonia). I would definitely travel again alone. It makes me feel happy, free and confident. And you can also decide everything YOU want to do!
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