On Traveling Alone

20.04.09: Bus from Dubrovnik to Gradac
Alongside me stretches a sea that fades from green to blue and back to green again. Orange-tiled rooftops and gardens speckle the hilly landscape. If I weren't on a moving bus, I would get out my camera. Instead, I take a mental picture to remember.

Some would say it's a pity that I don't have a companion to share this moment with. Some would say traveling alone is the only way to go. I've only been a solo travler for a few days, so I'm not able to say. I can say that at this very moment, as the bus rounds another curve to reveal a landscape that is more photogenic than the last, I don't mind absorbing it in my lonesome. It's pretty, and I don't need someone sitting next to me to tell me so.

But I have a lot going for me right now. The sun is shining. I've just met a couple of nice Canadian girls this morning and am on my way to meet a couchsurfing host. So I have a good level of human interaction for the day. I'm not lost or tired or bored.

The weather could change, my host could never show to pick me up from the bus station, or I could get off at the wrong stop. Any number of these things could do a 180 on my attitude. And that is when I will wish that I had never come to this country alone and think I would have been better off spending my vacation twiddling my thumbs in Paris.

I do not think that right now, so I will not dwell on the thought. I am content to be alone right now. I will revel in the goodness of the moment because I know in a few hours or a few days, I may have the opposite sentiment. Traveling alone has taught me that nothing very good or nothing very bad can last for very long.