800 kilometers to destination self young adults, solo travel and self-discovery.
WRITTEN AND PHOTOGRAPHED BY LEONA CAANEN
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aking up on May 16, 2018, I was surprised that had I managed to get any sleep at all. I usually can’t if I am excited for a big event the next day. Going on my first solo trip was definitely a big event. That morning I would be starting off on the Camino de Santiago, an 800-kilometer trek through Northern Spain. The pilgrimage used to be a religious one, leading to the shrine of St. James in the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. Today, it is done both for religious purposes and personal discovery. I hoped that my trek would give me insight to who I was and who I want to become. According to a survey by the Adventure Travel Trade Association, solo travel among millennials has increased, with 80 percent of their research participants having moved from travelling in a group to solo. When hiking the Camino, there were plenty of young people that were taking the trip to figure out their life. Beatrice Spencer, an AUP junior, claims that being young is the best time to figure these things out because “you have no commitments, except to yourself, and to who you are going to become…that is one of the biggest things about being 18.” For AUP freshman Stefan Levchenko, the realization about solo travel came during his trip to Brazil, a place far from his home in Odessa, Ukraine. For him, solo travel allows you to “experience things better. You’re not distracted by anyone else, it is just you and the country. You can think more, analyze
more.” There are numerous reasons to solo travel. For AUP sophomore Sarah Farr, who traveled to locations such as Indonesia, Italy and Ireland, an important aspect of the decision to solo travel was that, being responsible only for herself, she felt, “You can do whatever you want.” Solo travelers have complete freedom regarding many aspects of their journey. Spencer went solo backpacking for seven weeks in Costa Rica, which led her to a new state of emotional well-being. Her trip made her realize that “it’s your own mental happiness that is most important.” The urge to solo travel also comes from a desire to meet strangers who can become life-long friends. A lot of the realizations made on solo journeys can be heavily influenced by them. Claire Ingham, a 38-year-old tall, dark-haired Australian woman with whom I formed an unexpected friendship described our connection: “We had an instant ease with each other, like we’d known each other for years, not days.” After day one I didn’t know if we would see each other again, so I chose to be myself unapologetically. Farr attested to the open-mindedness of people who travel the world. Plenty of people I met on the Camino were traveling alone to figure out the next stage of their lives and were open to the input of people they barely knew, Ingham and myself included. Spencer’s travels brought her many special connections due to the experiences shared during her travels.
“Along the camino, i overheard that the first 10 days are about the body, the second 10 for the mind, and the third for the emotions.”
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