After I left my last job, I wanted to go on some sort of voyage but I didn’t know where. Europe seemed like less of a daunting place to visit solo and I, luckily, had some friends there that I can visit!

Why solo? Well, timeline was the biggest reason. For one, I left my job late June and I really only started planning that month and based on flight prices, late August seemed like the best bet. Also, I just wanted to be in control of something in my life for once! 🤪 So that left me with barely 2 months until I was going to go on my first international trip alone.

Side note, but very important note: I want to acknowledge my identity and how it plays a factor into my solo travel experience. Unfortunately, being an asian woman that solo travels comes with a big risk, especially with the number of asian women traveling abroad that have been killed or died under mysterious circumstances that were covered in the news this year. Thankfully, besides a few unwanted men approaching me, I didn’t feel like I was in any real danger. I don’t think that we should let fear stop us from traveling but it’s definitely a very real concern. Stay vigilant y’all and look out for each other.

Since I felt a little stagnant in life, this was a great way to ~feel~ something. To face my fears of all the things that could go wrong with travel: getting lost, getting sick, dying, among many other things. Fortunately I haven’t experienced the dying one yet, but after facing many challenges abroad, I really felt like I could deal with most anything life threw my way.

(Skip to any section!)

1. Dublin, Ireland
2. Utrecht, Netherlands
3. Paris, France
4. Colmar, France
5. Basel, Switzerland
6. Lisbon, Portugal
7. Reflection

Dublin, Ireland

Including couple of day trips to Howth and Bray! I had my friend and guide for this trip. A note that while Ireland does have tour groups and trains to different places, you have a lot more flexibility if you rent a car and just drive around to see the sights. So much beautiful nature to see — I would definitely come back to just explore more of Ireland.

Itinerary

• Howth
  • So pretty! I’m scared of heights so didn’t get too far on the trail but I really enjoyed making it out here.
• Bray
  • Very nice small town vibes! I like how it seemed like a lot of local businesses thrived there instead of being overtaken by commercial chains.
• Downtown Dublin
  • Very walkable, but also pretty typical for Europe. I liked walking down Graffton Street, lots of shopping that you can do there and the buildings are cute.

Notes:

• I didn’t know Dublin was famous for having a lot of Americans LOL Apparently a popular place for Americans to go and retire?
• Also famous for Guinness but I try not to drink anymore so…wasn’t for me!
• Howth was extremely windy and I think I caught a cold from that (and subsequently made vulnerable to covid…) but Dublin in general was windy so I recommend layering up anywhere you go.
• I liked Bray a lot! One of the unexpected highlights was that there was a town hall building space that was converted into a fancy McDonald’s.

• In the summer, the temperature during the day seesawed back-and-forth between hot and cold. Again…layers.
• My favorite museum was the Chester Beatty museum. I also went to the National Gallery of Ireland but being from DC and spoiled with all the great museums…I think that the Smithsonian National Gallery of Art is better.
• There aren’t a lot of places with bathrooms but my friend introduced me to the ~fancy~ bathroom located in Brown Thomas.
• Overall the scenery and nature in Ireland is so breathtaking!
• This was an easy first stop in Europe because it didn’t feel too different from being in the U.S. LOL

Utrecht, Netherlands

Also did day trips to Hague and Amsterdam! Visited many fun and interesting places with the help of my friend and excellent guide LOL!

Itinerary

• Gouda festival
  • Probably the first cheese festival I’ve ever been to! I loved the vibes! Who wouldn’t want to celebrate cheese??

• Castle de Haar
  • Beautiful castle surrounded by a beautiful garden with beautiful flowers!! BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!!!!!

• Hague
  • Attended an Indonesian festival which was very fun! There was a performance of some story and the acting was really on point. Was very intrigued to compare and contrast Hague to Washington, D.C., which I heard were kind of similar (many government buildings).
• Amsterdam
  • I literally spent a day at the Vincent Van Gogh museum. As an artist myself, it was interesting to see his whole life and his overall art progress laid out. Definitely made me reflect a lot on my personal journey as an artist. All of the museums I visited during this trip made me have another level of appreciation for art and reconfirmed for me that my investment in the arts is not a waste of time — unlike what I was told growing up.

Notes:

• The canals are so beautiful. Utrecht is objectively prettier than Amsterdam…sorry not sorry. Though I did spend longer in Utrecht to be fair.
• I’m terrified of bikes a little haha jk…no but actually. I didn’t feel like anyone was going to hit me but I definitely was always conscious of whether I was walking in a bike lane or not.
• The bilingualism was pretty cool to see! Some people choose to speak entirely in Dutch, some people use a mix, etc.
• Cheese. So much cheese. So good.
• Cowssss. So many cows. Makes sense because of the above ^
• I like how environmentally conscious people are in the Netherlands (but also makes sense because European countries are a lot smaller than big ol’ ‘murica).
• I went to a lot of museums in Europe but the Vincent Van Gogh one was probably my favorite. It’s so easy to spend a lot of time there since it has multiple floors. The gift shop is cute. They have a little cafe area downstairs where I chilled and sipped on some tea for a bit.

Paris, France

This was the first stop where I was truly on my own!

Itinerary

• Walking tour of Montmartre
  • The one I took — to note that a tip is expected by the end: https://freetoursbyfoot.com/free-walking-tours-paris/
  • The tour guide was nice and helpful! He showed me where to refill my water bottle — there was a fountain at this park. I think it was near Sacré Coeur.
  • We got to see some of these artist houses where they have these special windows on the ceiling to let more natural light in for their paintings. Montmartre is a well-known neighborhood for artists as it’s been the subject in so many paintings and many artists throughout time like Van Gogh or Renoir have lived here. We also learned a tidbit on how certain areas are designated as low-cost and specifically for artists to live in — preserving this culture of artists living and working in Montmartre.

• Parc Monceau
• Arc du Triomphe
• Eiffel Tower
• Musee de l’Orangerie – Monet Water Lilies wall murals
• Musee de la vie Romatinque

Miscellaneous food stops: Chez Sofia, Matcha Ochaya

Notes:

• Really shouldn’t have walked and dragged my luggage from the train station to my hotel. The sidewalks are mostly cobblestone and just uneven in general!
• I stayed at a reallyyy budget hotel — they had a policy that didn’t allow you to carry the key on you if you left the hotel. That was the first time I had ever experienced this type of policy. Ultimately, the stay was fine — this part was just a minor inconvenience.
• Montmarte is so picturesque! I really did have a starstruck moment walking around and pretending I was in a movie.
• Parc Monceau was absolutely beautiful. I just sat on a park bench and sketched. Tons of people were jogging — alone or in groups in the early afternoon.

• Eiffel Tower was a bit disappointing. It’s full of couples and people trying to sell overpriced trinkets. It’s an impressive structure to see but a bit dull to be honest. I heard at night it’s prettier with all the lights.
• Musee de l’Orangerie was nice to visit — definitely the highlight was the Monet murals. Unfortunately the vibe was killed a little with how many people were trying to do a whole photoshoot there. It was kind of hard to view the mural by itself LOL but after the drove of photographers passed, it was really nice!
• Musee de la vie Romantique was a hidden gem for me. It was very close to the hotel that I stayed at in Montmarte so I thought, why not visit? I’m not going to lie, if not for the visiting artist exhibition (which featured Françoise Pétrovitch), I probably wouldn’t go out of my way to visit. But at least the main part of the museum is all free (special exhibitions are not).

• One thing I noticed was in France, when you make a purchase anywhere, they will ask you if you want the “ticket”, which means the receipt. And then the ticket that you would purchase to ride on buses and the subway is labeled as ‘billet’. It’s a little confusing at first but a good thing to know before you go so you don’t make the same puzzled face I did when it happened to me.
• Other words that helped me out:
  • eau – water
  • oui/non – yes/no
  • bonjour madame/monsieur – hello m’am/sir; greet people first when entering a place
  • vous parlez anglais? – do you speak english?
  • merci/merci beaucoup – thanks/thank you very much
  • s’il vous plait – please
  • excusez-moi/perdon – excuse me/pardon; useful when you’re trying to get through a crowd
• I also want to acknowledge that this trip was not all pretty, it was not all fun. 🥲 The low light of my time in Paris was that I tested positive for covid. I first had symptoms which made me think to test (so definitely recommend bringing a test kit!) It was really hard not to blame myself at first, especially since the same day I got covid, I received news of some family struggles. It didn’t feel right to be having fun on my own. But I had a week left in my trip, so I focused on trying to complete it and return home safe and sound.

Colmar, France

Itinerary

• Unterlinden Museum
• Tourist Trolley Tour
• Bartholdi Museum
• Toy Museum
• Hansi Museum
• Chocolate Museum
• Boat Tour
• lastly, just walk around and admire the sights!

Miscellanous food stops: Patisserie Gilg (amazing eclairs), L’Atelier Des Saveurs (tried the pizza, but the other food seem good too!)

The hotel I stayed at: https://all.accor.com/hotel/1377/index.en.shtml

Colmar City Pass (which you get at the Tourism office): https://citypass.tourisme-colmar.com/lang/en

Notes:

• I really felt like I was in a movie — specifically Howl’s Moving Castle lol. (Was inspired to visit after seeing Linh Truong’s vlog on it). Like how do you not romanticize living here?!

• The history of Colmar is actually rather interesting. Colmar is located in the Alsace region of France (known for the wine route) and quite close to the German border. In a couple of the museums, they reference past wars and how it was taken over by Germany a few times before.
• I got the Colmar city pass (approximately 30 euros) and that’s how I was able to go on the tours and visit as many museums as I liked — though museum admission fees were not very expensive (some were even 5 euros), though they add up when you go to a lot of them, which is what I did. I think that I ended up doing everything that was included in the pass, exception for maybe visiting the Dominican library.
• Favorite museums was the Unterlinden archaeological exhibit and the Hansi museum. It was really interesting to see all the tools and artifacts that were excavated and how we assume they were used in the archaeological exhibit. I liked the Hansi museum a lot because of the cute gift shop and just the whimsical illustrations made by the illustrator Hansi. I really liked his art style — it made everything softer and cozy-looking.

• My hotel was really nice although in retrospect, I may have overspent on it. I also noticed that I was the youngest and the only solo traveler staying there LOL. BUT considering I did get covid, I was glad that I invested in having a comfortable space to my own. The breakfast was good and they had free non-alcoholic beverages / snacks (usually croissants, sweets) available at all times. The staff there was very friendly and helped me when they could.
• Random, but this was the point in my trip where I had to do my laundry and if possible, I would have done it in an English-speaking country or somewhere with a lot of English speakers. It wasn’t impossible to get my laundry done but language barrier was definitely an issue because all the signs were in French and none of the residents I encountered here spoke any English. People working in customer service definitely had a working proficiency in English but outside that you really couldn’t find anyone who spoke English. I met some nice, older French ladies who helped me out though!

Basel, Switzerland

Itinerary

• Cartoon museum

This was a very short stop before I went to take a plane to Lisbon!

Notes

• Arrived at Basel station and was impressed with train station luggage storage lockers — though I know that they have this at other stations/airports, this is an invention I truly appreciate as a solo and budget traveler LOL
• I hit up a grocery store — I’m very impressed with the bakery section. A little bewildered by aisles dedicated to mayo and how salad dressing is put into plastic bottles like a beverage but you know what, a different country, different rules. I laughed when I spotted American-themed products because for some reason I never imagined there would be a demand for American things LOL.
• Visiting the Cartoon Museum was one of the nice, impromptu parts of my trip! I walked by and saw the words “cartoon museum” and I was like, “sh*t I gotta go check that out”. It featured an American cartoonist to my surprise and it was fascinating! The museum had different rooms with different layouts and styling. Just overall pretty awesome to see cartoons be honored in this way.
• I stepped into the land of Roger Federer!! They had a little sign at the Basel airport that mentioned a few other players too.

• Basel airport is fascinating. It’s technically the Basel / Mulhouse / Freiberg airport since it serves 3 different cities in 3 different countries. That means many people working at the airport likely have working proficiency in 3 languages + English! It was very cool to see workers basically switch languages depending on the person they interacted with. Maybe this is just a European thing idk. Am I being one of those stereotypical Americans that are oddly fascinated with normal European things? Maybe. Yes.

Lisbon, Portugal

Itinerary

• Belem Tower
• Street art tour
  • Highly recommend. There was also an option to spray paint your own bag too after for a cost: https://www.lisbonstreetarttours.com/
• Miradouro da Senhora do Monte
• Gulbenkian collection

The hostel I stayed at: https://goodmorninghostel.com/

Notes:

• This is where my energy started to dip a bit. Ironically this is the only part of the trip where I stayed at a hostel but this was where I felt the least sociable. I’m pretty sure I looked kinda weird and anti-social sitting and eating breakfast/dinner by myself but I just could not do it at certain points LOL.
• Speaking of, I did enjoy my stay at the hostel! People generally were very respectful if you wanted to be left alone or would politely strike up some small talk. One of my most memorable moments here was how I played chess in the common area against this one guy from the Netherlands and I won! Definitely hostels are good places to go if you get lonely on a solo trip and want people to hang out with.
• The hostel I stayed at had the options of mixed gender rooms and female-only rooms (with 6-8 beds). I chose the 6 bed female-only option, since this was the first time I had ever stayed in a hostel. It was not bad! At your bed, you have power outlets and a lamp. For me, I would have liked a little bit more privacy but it is a good cost saver.

• All meals are cooked by the staff there, whom looked pretty young (20s – 30s). I liked how the meals had a communal vibe — you would wash your dishes after you finished your meal.
• Stairs! Good god, the stairs. I had to walk up like 4 flights of stairs every time to get back to my room. And if you wanted to get to any miradouro to get those gorgeous photos of the city, you really had to be prepared to hike. I didn’t bother with the Tram 28 that goes up the hill but I did take the subway when I need to travel a bit farther. Or Bolt — which is the locally used rideshare app as opposed to uber/lyft (though they are still used too). Prices are so shockingly low, I always end up giving more tip. I paid 8 euros from the airport to my hostel late at night and it was a 30 minute drive.
• Street art tour! I wanted to do a free walking tour but didn’t get the opportunity too — so I booked a last minute spot for a street art tour. I’m so glad I did though because I found it really enjoyable and seeing a wall dedicated to women artists was great. I learned a lot about Lisbon’s vibrant street art and I can’t wait to go back to see more.

• Ended my trip with a visit to the Gulbenkian museum — yes, I obviously had to go to yet another museum lol. But this was a really rich collection and had fascinating exhibits. “Floating Worlds” was the exhibit at the time and featured art in the style of ukiyo-e. I saw a video that demonstrated the whole process and I was shocked that it wasn’t just ink on paper but woodblocking carving and applying ink on it, which would then be printed on paper.

Reflection

Near the end of trip, my energy depleted and I felt so ready to go home.

Despite all the fun and joy that I experienced, it definitely wasn’t easy and I did realize that there was still a lot of things that I needed to improve on before I could really have a more enjoyable solo travel. Solo travel doesn’t necessarily mean you’re on you’re own, but you’re more open to discovering things at your own pace and forming new connections wherever you are. And it’s very healing to be able to soak in and really appreciate the beauty of your surroundings alone.

But overall, I’m really proud of what I accomplished! After the trip, I was able to utilize the time difference and the momentum I gained from packing so much in my schedule every day to wake up early and be more productive (though I have long lost that now oops). I also had this idea that if I accomplished everything I set out to accomplish that I would be a different person. That maybe life would be drastically different. I don’t think that’s quite right — while I learned a lot from this trip and grew as a person, I adjusted back to my everyday life and my mind inevitably moved on pretty quick to other things. Going on this trip was life-changing for me in terms of changing my worldviews and mindset, but I realized only consistent effort can really change your life in the long-run.

Another thing I would recommend on trips is exploring different mediums of recording experiences. In addition to taking photos, I kept a little diary and did a few sketches while I was there. This was a fun activity for me and it made me reflect and in turn made the experience more memorable than just snapping a picture or video.

Thank you for reading if you made it this far. I encourage everyone to travel more, whether for a staycation or longer trip abroad — it’s good for your mental health! Bon voyage! 🙂