How traveling solo with a one-way ticket changed my life?
I never thought of buying a one-way ticket and traveling solo until it happened and became one of the pivotal points in my thirty-year-old life. And it all started a week before St. Valentine’s Day in 2013.
My phone buzzed, notifying me of a new message. It was 10 AM, a perfect time to wake up on a day off. In a slow-mo mode, but in a good mood and smiling, I got out of bed, went to the kitchen, made a coffee, and returned to the room to let some daylight in.
As I opened the soft-yellow curtains, my smile vanished instantly at the sight of heavy snowfall outside. “I hate this weather!” I said. But no matter my strong negative emotions, it was my reality and that of millions of other people who lived in this historically artistic city.
I kept staring outside the window, wrapped in a puffy white bathrobe, holding a cup of coffee. I wanted to spend this day outside, but what I could do when walking or driving seemed impossible.
The view from my window made it obvious—roads, trees, and cars parked nearby the house were covered with snow.
One good thing about this weather is that it makes everything look bright. So I left the curtains open, sat down at the table, and opened my old-fashioned, grey Sony laptop.
Do you know that feeling when you have nothing to do, and almost automatically, you think about checking your social media? Well, that’s what I did. I had an account on the Badoo dating application, and I checked my incoming messages. After going on several dates, I felt skeptical about meeting someone nice there, but I decided to try it again.
There was one message from a young man. According to his profile, he lived in Spain and was a year older than me. His name was Gabriel. We started chatting, and to my surprise, most of our conversation was about traveling.
He told me stories about places he had been, fun moments of being a traveler, and the most peculiar traditions he had ever encountered. It became the most engaging conversation I ever had on that dating app.
As an adult, I had never traveled abroad, so chatting with someone who had done that many times was very inspiring. “What a coincidence!” I mumbled, remembering I felt a distinctive desire to travel a month before our conversation.
An online conversation with my Spanish friend made me wonder if traveling solo would become the next chapter of my life. I love to think of little coincidences as signs from the Universe, that is, energy, invisible and incomprehensible by a human mind. That powerful energy doesn’t speak English, Spanish, or any other human language, but it has its own way of communication. And I believe that one of them is creating a situation where you meet a person that has something to tell you, some private message that only you will understand.
And that day, I got my message – traveling solo.
I started chatting with Gabriel regularly. I knew that he was born in Leon, Spain, and went to a University in Madrid, where he studied business administration. In 2010 he moved to Mexico City, where he worked for a financial corporation. So, the day we met online, he was in Mexico and planning to visit his home in the summer.
I have a theory called “White Rabbitt” inspired by the famous book “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” by Lewis Caroll. The main idea is that at certain moments of life, we meet people who show us a land of opportunities that already exist within and around us. And we just need a guide who can lead us there. I call those people – “White Rabbits.” I will discuss this in detail in one of the next articles, so subscribe to get updates.
Traveling solo for the first time
In 2013, I experienced a profound shift in my perspective on life, particularly regarding solo travel. This newfound comfort with the idea was entirely novel to me. Before that, I had never entertained the thought of traveling alone, considering it a pursuit reserved for those possessing unique talents, unwavering determination, and a daring spirit, not to mention the logistical requirements of visas and finances. However, my motivation was strong, and I felt compelled to embark on this journey.
The desire to travel solo didn’t materialize suddenly; instead, it was a seed planted in my mind by past experiences and the influence of specific individuals.
Like a flower requiring soil, water, and sunlight to thrive, humans, too, need the nurturing of others and exposure to new ideas to foster personal growth and development.
Nothing exists in isolation; we are shaped by the connections we forge and the experiences we encounter.
In 2012, one of my close friends, Alex, made a bold move by selling all her possessions, relocating to Thailand, and then six months later to Spain, where she still resides. Similarly, two years prior, Juli, a former colleague from my time at the Holiday Inn hotel, also embarked on a journey to Thailand, where she lived and worked in the travel industry for several years. These experiences influenced my conversations with Gabriel, which frequently centered around travel.
As he shared his adventures, I found myself captivated, already feeling a deep connection to traveling abroad physically, mentally, and spiritually.
No longer seeking inspiration, I felt a compelling need to take action.
It took me two weeks to secure my first EU visa, and by the end of February, I embarked on my first solo trip to Helsinki. Residing in Saint Petersburg then, Finland stood as the closest European country. After a six-hour bus journey, I found myself in the heart of a snowy, cold, modern city.
While the weather mirrored what I was accustomed to, everything else felt refreshingly novel. The language, social interactions in stores and coffee shops, the courteous driving habits, and the overall atmosphere felt notably smoother and more relaxed than my usual experiences.
It was just a quick day trip, giving me around seven hours to explore the city. Despite the cold and snowy weather, which was pretty much like back home, I decided to go for it. Surprisingly, I didn’t feel as annoyed by it as a few weeks ago.
Instead of dwelling on the weather, I was into the experience of being in Helsinki, soaking up every moment of exploring a new place. Complaints? No, they didn’t even cross my mind. I was all about embracing the excitement and curiosity of discovering this unfamiliar city.
I wanted to check out every corner, peek inside every cafe, and just chill on a bench, watching the locals go about their day. I felt like I was on a mission to figure out how to live a life beyond all the usual frustrations and fears.
Traveling solo for the first time is a memorable and transformative experience. In the 21st century, that automatically means taking hundreds of photos, but that was different for me. You might wonder, “As a photographer, shouldn’t you have your camera with you when you travel?” Typically, yes, but during that trip, I decided to take a break from my artistic relationship with my camera, leaving it behind at home.
Instead, I relied on my old Samsung phone to capture some snapshots. Surprisingly, those simple photos now serve as vivid reminders of my open-minded and enriching journey in Helsinki.
Did you know…?
Finnish, which belongs to the Uralic language family, is considered one of the most difficult languages to learn because of its verb conjugation, case system, and consonant gradation.
Traveling solo to Helsinki, Finland, changed the trajectory of my life. I came back home the same person but with a different type of dream – a big one. And I was ready to be more proactive.
Waving a magic wand and making a dream come true is in fairy tales and “Harry Potter.” In real life, you have to act, which sometimes means going through the same process multiple times. In May and June, I revisited Finland, once again opting for the bus as my mode of travel.
Change your thoughts change your life
At the beginning of 2013, I felt like I had lost myself. Even the fact that I wasn’t enjoying photography seemed disturbing to me. Somewhere along the way, I lost my enthusiasm for life. It could have been a result of my divorce, but I felt there was more to that.
I needed a change; to do that, I needed to change my thought patterns about certain aspects of my life.
My “Before” statements felt like roadblocks, seemingly marking the end of the journey. However, these questions prompted me to seek answers that would lead to effective changes, removing these obstacles and paving the way forward.
In every situation, there are always at least two choices.
I realized that complaining requires more time and energy than taking action and effect change.
In February, I didn’t have money to travel for an extended time, but I had enough to make a one-day trip to the closest European country. It was essential to start the change and thus let new thoughts and energy into my life.
I focused on the positive aspect of traveling and disregarded the negative feelings associated with fear and limitations often expressed through the words “What if…”.
Change can be effortless and enjoyable; it involves unlearning old habits and behaviors while embracing new ones.
Change means doing things differently.
What can help to change thoughts:
- learn a new language
- try new experiences
- talk to people from a different culture
- read about something new
- extend your circle of friends by joining a new community ( f.e. riding a bike, painting, reading club)
- going to work, choose a new route
- if you work from home, rearrange the schedule, wear different clothes every day
- add more colors to your interior design
Everything is constantly changing, as are our lives.
When you change your life, you will feel in the flow because that decision will come naturally, like a gentle kiss from the Universe.
One-way ticket: a jump into the unknown
Throughout 2012, I desperately tried to solve a puzzle about how to change my life. To my surprise, the final piece that completed the picture was the first international solo trip to Helsinki, Finland.
After that one-day trip, I returned home inspired and enthusiastic about traveling more. It felt like that short trip removed all my limiting thoughts, and I became fearless in envisioning myself traveling far away to different continents. Maybe even to some Spanish-speaking countries. And to make that trip more exciting, I needed to speak that language.
Learning a third language has always been one of my dreams. However, I couldn’t decide whether it would be Italian or Spanish. Both sounded musical and romantic, so it was challenging to choose. Until I met Gabriel, whose native language was Spanish, the choice became obvious. So, in March 2013, I started learning a new language, using online resources that offered free information.
Soon enough, I realized that I needed some professional guidance, and I found an excellent teacher of Spanish and started taking private classes once per week.
Meanwhile, I returned to the hotel, where I worked as a concierge, and combining it with my photography business helped me start saving money for my big dreams of traveling solo to Spain and maybe even further. I calculated that with one job, I would not be able to travel solo because my rent was taking a significant percentage of my income.
So, having two jobs was a reasonable temporary solution.
The Universe is abundant, and there are millions of ways to make your dream come true.
Sometimes, all you have to do is stop complaining, start dreaming, and look for ways to make it come true.
Flying with Finnair to Madrid was a memorable experience for me. At 30 years old, it was my first time aboard a plane. I remember standing in a boarding line and looking at the plane when I thought: “It’s so big; how can it stay in the air!? It’s truly one of the most amazing examples of human evolution.”
After just several hours of flying, I am in a new world that I am eager to explore.
Up in the air, there are no borders, no limits; you are free to imagine your life in a new reality.
Since that trip, I started associating a plane with the freedom granted by change.
A week in July that I spent in Madrid became a romantic chapter of my life-changing 2013 year. I met with Gabriel, who was spending his summer vacation in Spain and visiting his family. He showed me around Madrid, introduced me to Mediterranean cuisine, and shared facts and myths about Spanish culture.
In Madrid, I stayed in two hotels—Holiday Inn and Intercontinental—that are part of the IHG brand.
My first trip to Madrid, Spain, showed me the beautiful side of life, something new for me. Before that, I didn’t know it was possible; I doubted it could be real. I was born in a country where the cultural belief was centered on attaining “happiness” through enduring pain and suffering. You start believing it is the only reality when you hear something regularly.
The breakthrough in my perception of reality started happening while working at one of the IHG hotels.
I was exposed to international tourism, met people from all over the globe, and understood that something nice and different was happening on the other side of the border.
It took me some time to start dreaming about traveling. I went through a divorce, tried to make money just with my photography business, and finally made my first international solo trip.
On my way home, I felt sad that my vacation was over but thrilled about new ideas and thoughts that started emerging. That’s the result of the enriching new experience I had in the past several months—dreaming about traveling, turning it into a goal, planning, and doing it.
I believe in the idea behind the phrase, “Change your thoughts, change your life.” First, you must change your mindset, then stay in the flow created by your new vibrations that expand around your life.
A day that changed my life
October 4, 2013, 3 AM. It was still dark outside, but I was already in a taxi driving through downtown. It looked so lonely in the early morning hours. Only spots of lights illuminating the monumental buildings were uncovering the existence of life in the city.
I tried to embrace all the details my eyes were able to notice: puddles of different sizes – a reminder of heavy night rain, a bridge next to a famous cathedral where I took many wedding photos of my clients, one of my favorite coffee shop next to a subway station, a narrow street I used to walk when I was a student.
So many memories kept me connected to this three-hundred-year-old city, but I was ready to leave it all behind. It was my last ride in this city as a resident, but I didn’t realize that. I only knew the number of one-way tickets in my red folder stored in my red suitcase.
My collection of one-way tickets included flights:
- Saint-Petersburg – Barcelona
- Barcelona-Valencia
- Valencia-Sevilla
- Seville-Madrid
- Madrid- Cancun
I purchased the tickets separately. The first one to Barcelona was purchased in May, marking the beginning of my planning process. Then, I purchased the transatlantic ticket to Cancun in August. Having established both the starting point and destination, planning the intermediate stops for September became easy.
Buying one-way tickets were less of a hustle and more fun, which I can’t say about booking accommodations. When planning my life-changing journey, I knew I would stay in hostels, an important aspect of being a backpacker in Europe, and I wanted to experience that. What made hostels appealing was that they were a perfect fit for my limited budget. It took me several weeks to book hostels in every city I planned to visit. And I was happy with every one of them.
A one-way ticket is the unknown
A one-way ticket is the unknown—at least, that’s how it was in my story. The future is unknown. However, millions of people try to predict it every day. Mathematics has to be predictable; otherwise, it will lose its “Queen of all science” status. How about life? Can it be 100% predictable?
As a teenager and a student, I thought the future seemed so predictable. I just had to focus on getting good grades and, after graduating from a University, find a good job with a stable paycheck. It wasn’t on my bucket list to change my life by traveling solo abroad.
In fact, why should I change anything if life works the certain-known way: birth-kindergarden-school-college-work-family-kids-invest-save for retirement-retire-grandkids and the end.
We plan life, a vacation, a business week, and a weekend, the age at which we want to get married and have kids, and we plan to schedule social media postings.
It’s curious how we often don’t plan for new enriching experiences that can change the course of our lives.
In fact, those ideas are perceived as a desperate measure to get out of an emotional crisis. And I also thought that way. But traveling solo with a collection of one-way tickets became the most liberating experience of my life and resulted in immense personal growth.
Now, I know a one-way ticket is a chance for rebirth and to start a new chapter of your life.
And to do that, it’s necessary to walk through the unknown and enjoy it.
Upon arriving in Cancun, I was uncertain about what would happen. Over the next few months, I faced uncertainties such as finding a place to live, starting a photography business in a foreign country, and wrestling with the language barrier. It was a realm of complete unknowns.
But for some reason, when I look at my photos taken by my friend at the end of the first two weeks, I see a person shining with happiness and joy. I arrived in Cancun with only one suitcase, laptop, and camera and looked extremely happy.
That’s when I thought: “Maybe happiness is not about the number of possessions and more about the quality of the experience or the right balance of it all?”
When I had all my one-way tickets printed, I knew there was no way back. I took a risk with the idea of changing my life and avoiding rolling down the old path. In the seven months leading up to my big solo trip, I almost felt like the stars aligned for me; that was the right time to do it. And I wanted to make that happen! That’s the power of “I want” strengthened by action!
"Que bella eres, España!" or How to be impressed by Spain?
There are several reasons why I will always remember my female solo trip to Spain. It was my first extended time abroad in a country where I barely understood the language and knew little about the culture. I had no concrete plans for my future.
Yet I was feeling happier than ever.
The day when I landed in Barcelona, it was cloudy and drizzling, but all the rest of the trip, I was bathing in the sunshine. I wore summer clothes in every city I visited on that trip, which was a new experience for me. Living in a town with north winds, grey sky, and an overabundance of rainy days, I was used to wearing warm clothes in autumn. So, when I checked in at the first hostel, I immediately changed my warm coat and boots to a denim jacket and casual summer shoes. That felt like an improvement and set the right mood for the rest of the trip.
How do you fall in love with Spain?
It happens naturally when you inhale the fresh scent of the oranges growing along the streets in Sevilla, observe the rich architectural patterns created by Gaudi in Barcelona, taste “paella con mariscos” and gazpacho, and engage in a visual labyrinth of “City of Arts and Sciences” created by Santiago Calatrava in Valencia.
Spanish history, art, and culture create a consistently warm and welcoming vibe that is easily felt in every corner of the country. The more days you spend there, the faster your emotional response to its calling, which deepens your sense of belonging to a place where sunshine is a way of life. It captivates you, and you will want to come back years later. I plan on doing this.
Sharing with you my postcards from Spain.
On October 21, 2013, I used my final one-way ticket to a place that seemed so exotic that it made me doubt it was real.
One morning, I woke up in Cancun
I moved from one continent to another on the opposite side of the globe, where I didn’t know anyone. On October 22, 2013, I woke up in a different timezone and climate, where people spoke a language I barely understood and in a culture I didn’t know anything about. My life went upside down; I had only three thousand USD in my account, no job, no more tickets, and only one way to go – forward.
And that is an abundant life cycle – moving forward, growing one inch in a day, one step at a time.
Remember a famous quote: Happiness is not a destination; it’s a way of life.
It took me seven months to get ready for my big female solo trip. I started thinking, “I don’t know how to travel solo,” then shifted to “I want,” “I will,” and finally, “I am traveling solo.” It didn’t happen in two hours, like in most movies. Planning my big solo trip with one-way tickets was a journey when I learned so much about life that I couldn’t t possibly do it sitting in front of the computer or scrolling through social media.
Now I know the only way to be happy is to live this life the way you want.
And the only person that can change my life is me!
Two weeks before my trip, I sold most of my belongings. I left the ones I didn’t sell on the balcony of my best friend’s apartment. Looking back, it’s easy to see what I could have done differently. However, that’s where life wisdom comes in—instead of regretting, I accept that I did all I could with the knowledge and resources available to me at that moment.
We are here on this planet to learn, experiment, and explore. It begins with one step at a time, one action at a time, one ticket at a time, and one deposit in your bank account at a time. Here’s what can help:
- Hard work in trip preparation
- Planning
- Saving money
- Adopting a positively adventurous mindset
- Envisioning that everything will work out best for you
- Unlearning habits that no longer serve you
- Embracing new ways of thinking with open-mindedness
Do you want to start traveling solo but don’t know anything about it? You can learn, just as you learned to walk in the early years of life.
Just think of it as a creative adventure and feel yourself an explorer.
There are one hundred ninety-five countries in the world, millions of ways to live life, thousands of routes to explore, twenty-four hours every day, and only one life to explore it all.
Don’t you think it’s better to stop using “tomorrow” as an excuse and start now? We all have only one extraordinary life, and it’s happening now.
Have a life filled with growth, abundance, and unforgettable experiences!
Sincerely yours,
Elena
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Get ready to be inspired as I discuss how staying curious, being creative, and saying “YES!” to adventures that involve exploring what’s behind the comfort zone helps develop courage, embrace one’s true self, and navigate life’s challenges. Join me in uncovering the power of these transformative experiences and discover how they can ignite your own journey toward confidence and fulfillment.
