So... i'll be going to Gran Canaria this weekend and i always thought it was kind of a short flight, because we Germans use to tend to fly to Canary Islands, since it's the warmest spot in Europe you can reach, with a moderate flight time.

But now since i moved to Sweden, flight time has actually increased a lot, never thought it would take 6h !! to go to Gran Canaria.

So if you travel alone, flying can be super boring and already depressing you at the start of your journey. Believe me, if you are stuck for a long time only on your seat, no one to talk to and the only active moment you have is walking to the toilet, you feel pretty bad alone.

So i need to definitly come up with a lot of things, that i can do to make time go faster on the plane.

Of course there are some general tips when traveling by plane. Always take warm cloth, always wear super comfy cloth, i would love to wear a pyjama on a plane to be honest. The air conditioners on planes just spread a cold super easily, so i always have some throat candy with me, that keeps my airways save (tip from my grannie). Might sound uncool, but the older one gets, the more small the seats seam to appear. Especially the cheaper class tickets at back. So my legs get always stiff and my feet are swollen (i sound like an old women), but on this flight i will for first time try some compression socks, we'll see if that makes me feel better!

PS: I am actually never sitting at the window if possible, because i don't want to ask people getting up for me when going to toilet, or if you want to access your luggage. Also one can always stretch your legs in the aisle. 

I am known to travel alone, and thats true, for most of the time. It's not always like that. I already had some vacations with friends, some went good, others not.

Most important is really to find the right travel buddy for you. If you are an active person, of course it is good to have an active buddy as well, but it's not the main point.

I can be running 10k and my friend can be lying on the beach, if she wants, as long as we are both comfy with not hanging onto each other for all the time. How independent each of you is willing to be, is essential for your travel and peace during your time together.

Of course making compromises is a big issue during those travels as well. Some things you both may want to do, others not. Still vacation is not endless so you may not be able to do everything both of you want until it's over. So then it is super nice to have your independent buddy who wants to go to the beach one day, while you might be shopping somewhere else and afterwards you can meet up and you actually have something to tell each other.

Personally, i feel very uncomfortable traveling with a lazy pool-person. It can be nice to relax for a while of course, but as soon as one person gets bored, the tension is rising between you and it's just a matter of time until you fight. I mean, there is a reason why a lot of friends don't talk to each other anymore after vacation or why couples break up. Spending so much time with each other, sharing a room and privacy is getting super hard, except if you are so super similiar or one person is willing to adapt and give in.

Sotavento Beach Cub-Fuerteventura

Once i have been with a friend in Paris and she has had a crush on this guy back in Germany. So she was so super in love, that she booked a super expensive internet flatrate, in order to answer and text him every single minute. So when it was our last day and i suggested to walk around a bit in the quartiere notre-dame, all she wanted to do was sit by the river and chill, typing into her phone instead of talking to me. This was getting really boring for me, hellooo, its PARIS

Anyway i suggested that she could stay and sit there, while i would go around and explore a bit, promising to fetch her in one hour. She got so super mad at me, saying i don't understand her and we have been walking all the time and now she is tired and she didn't want to stay alone (it was her first stay in paris and she felt unsecure). Well, but why do I have to sit next to her and watch her chill and right, i did not really understand her problem, because she was anyway absent on her phone. So we got into fight and i left, being pissed, but soon relaxed because i could explore lovely Paris without a mourning lover for a short time. I fetched grumpy her, later on. We still talk to each other, but we both know that this was a once-and-never-again-thing.

What i learned from that is the very thing i just wrote before.

Know the independence of your buddy! Is she/he able to do stuff and enjoy activities alone? And are you? The more people join, the more tricky it gets, especially if everyone has different wishes and no one wants to do their things alone.

I went with another friend last year to Fuerteventura and we are quite similiar, both very into our things and some kind of dickheads. So i was actually fearing the worst, but it turned out so much better, since we where both really individual and happy to be on our own as well. She read her book, i went to an aqua class, some stuff we did together and sometimes we just didn't talk to each other for a few hours, but we were both super fine with it. None of us felt any pressure towards the other one, to be responsible for the others happiness or boreness.

This year i will go with a friend to NY. That trip was originally planned to be on my own, but she thought about joining me and i said happily yes. So, let's find out how travel-compatible we are.

It's not that i don't want to go with other people, it's just hard to find someone, if all your friends only travel exclusively with BAE. And i am so tired of waiting and not being able to do what i want, just because society keeps telling you: traveling is not a one-women-thing. I am going to proof them wrong.

What is actually the worst thing, that can happen to you, while traveling alone? You get robbed, loose your passport and all your money, may get hurt or lost.

Of course these things can happen to you as well, when you are with friends, but then it does not feel as bad, since there is someone supporting you.

Be aware of these scenarios and already think about, what you would do in case these things happen. If you get robbed, loose all your money, you will definitly find some other traveler that borrows you a phone.

Also you can minimize the risk of course in not putting yourself in dangerous situations. Don't go out late on your own, unless you know it's a safe area and you are in a public place.

So i don't go partying or getting drunk in my vacation, because even if you met people, you never know what they are really up to. Nevertheless i am anyway not a party person -haha.

I was totally fine during my trip on Bali, until some really shitty things happened to me. And i promise in those 2 weeks more accidents happened to me, than in a whole year back at home.

Be aware that traveling does indeed mean a specific higher risk, than staying at home. Don't pretend that these are not existing.

When these things happened to me, my first intention was actually to ring my mother and cry, but obviously that would not really help me. Since she was so far away and if i would have told her, she would freak out even more than me. She was so strictly against me traveling alone, so i did not want to give her the satisfaction, that i am not capable on my own. Also my phone did not work on Bali, i don't know why, but i never had connection and the only thing possible was emergency calls, at least one thing working. Anyway you have wifi in most spots, so contacting your beloved ones home via whatsapp is possible.

First thing happening to me was that i burned my leg on the very hot exhaust pipe of my rented scooter in Ubud. Not just a tiny bit, but a few layers of skin just shrinkled away. Back home, that's not a super big deal. It hurts as hell, but at least one has proper medication and treatment.

When i go on vacation i always pack essential medication, for diarrhea, a cold and some plasters, as well as my emergency allergy medication.

That burn, that i got, was bigger than any plasters i had with me, and the wound was sipping all time. Most dangerous in tropic spaces is, that they can get infected very easily, because they don't close in the humid air. You might have heard of meat eating bacteria, that comes from flies that sit on your open wound, pretty scary. Luckily, it happened to me in Ubud and there was actually some kind of pharmacy, selling bigger plasters and some iodine cream. Normally you would always let a wound heal in fresh air, not in this place! I bought all plasters in big size in stock of that pharmacy, since you always need to change them as well and some alcohol pats, since this was the only bacteria killing thing available. So cleaning the wound with an alcohol pat needed some will.

Fine, i got through this and got more positive! When i went to Gili Air after Ubud, there came some new challenges for me. My wound was not healed, the plasters all got lost while swimming in the amazing sea and the sun burned my wound even worse. I had some plasters from home with me, that were water resistent, so i cut those and put 3 next to each other to cover my wound and they stayed for a while. Not enough pain yet.

During my first swim on Gili Air i stepped into a black sea urchin, with the left foot. I did not realise until i came out of the water and felt a more than horrible pain. So i turned and looked at my foot, that was all sparkled with black spots of poison. First thought was: now i really will die! Maybe a bit overreacting, but on this island there is no proper medical care!

So i went to the first person i saw, a bartender of a small hut nearby the beach and showed him my foot, covered in tears. He laughed at me and told me to sit down and said he will help me.

When he took a stone, i was a bit concerned what he might do now, but then he started slapping my footsole with it and explained, that he needs to crash the end of the spikes under the skin, otherwise it will get infected. After half an hour of knocking, my pain was finally gone and the black spots with them. Lucky me!

When i went home that evening, i felt super strong and more capable then ever. Next morning i woke up with a pain in the other foot. I had actually also cut myself in the sea, but did not realise, since the other foot was more in pain. So while walking home and over night, some sand did came in the wound and it got infected. So first thing in the morning i had to do was a little operation, with a nail scissor and pincette, to get the sand out my skin. By then, i did take it more casually, since i got used to treating wounds every day.

On top of all this, i got an allergy attack  2 days later, because of some peanut butter in a smoothie. I ordered it without and the waitress repeated my words "yes, no peanuts". After the first sip of it i directly realised that there was something wrong. My mouth and throat had swollen, i could not proper breathe any longer. I started panicking like crazy, since my epipen was in the bamboo hut to stay cold, and even if you take those, you need to go to hospital immediatly after. And you never really know if these hospitals are really good. So the owner of the cafe came to me and they started massaging me and calming me down, bringing cold towels and everything. I took 2 cortison pills by that time and used a spray to widen my air passages, but that did not really help since it had gotten too warm. In that moment, i wished more than ever to have company. I had wifi and texted my mum desperateley, because that was finally too much for me on my own. This was at least some little comfort, because she said it's going to be alright.

So i tried to breath slowly and calm down a bit, not able to move at all, since i was so weak. A few minutes later i felt that all my food would come up again. After throwing up for half an hour, my whole body got sprinkled with nettle rash and swelling up like a baloon. I am not exaggerating. I was supposed to go diving on that day, in half an hour from that moment and did not have any way to contact the diving school. So the owner Suki brought me with a scooter to the diving school, so i could tell them to go without me that day. Luckily they had some proper tropical allergic medication there, so the cortison spray of them finally worked and i could breathe again. Anyway my whole body was itching and swollen, so after lying for 2hours i thought a bath in the sea would calm my skin. But when i took off my dress and saw the real extent of my rash, i just ran into the water, stayed in for 30min and went home super quick afterwards. The rest of the day i spent lying naked on my bed with the fan on highest level to cool my skin. It wore off after 5h in total and then i was more than grateful of me and my body.

I survived!

All those things happening to me did make me angry and sad of course and in those times i really wished to not be alone. But looking at it afterwards, it feels even more brave and i am proud of handling these things on my own. Do believe in yourself and also in the good of the people. As you can see i got a lot of help and support from totally strangers.

This vacation has been so amazing and i paid the price for that as well, with blood, sweat and tears! I tend to always remember the bad things, because this is how our mind works, but this really challenged me, to see only the good in it as well.

Those scars do not remind me, of the bad things happening to me, but of how strong i actually am!

As many others i get to see those amazing pictures of travel bloggers on instagram and wherever, where they stay in the fanciest places, nicest 5* hotels, infinity pools.. whatever!

It can be so inspiring, i have to admit, but also very frustrating if you are a semi normal person, with a regular job and a limited income... traveling is actually not your job! 

So as i love planning to plan, i just came up with a strategy, that helps me to achieve my goals and travel a lot, lot this year.

1) Start saving early - it is very good to save some money every month, so in case you see a cheap offer, you can just book it.

2) Set a travel Budget - it is really good to set yourself a maximum amount you are willing to spent around the year for vacation, my budget is 5000€ this year, which is also a lot of money for me, but the point is to get as much out of this bunch as possible

3) Set your destinations and times- it is good to have a travel bucket list, so you can decide more flexible what places you will go to.

While doing your travel list, consider always the weather and high season periods, so you can spread your vacations evenly, i'll share mine with you below.

Gran Canaria -  6 Days February (it's actually high season during that period, but i wanted as much sun as possible, while taking short flight times)

New York - 5 Days May (it is always better to do City Trips in Spring/Autumn and May is just precisly before High Season)

Italy-Amalfi Coast - 2 weeks August/September (semi-high season, still manageable super cheap if you book in time and do quite a lot of research)

Carribean over Christmas and New Year? (This one is planned, but not booked yet)

4) Split your budget - also consider what price is really reasonable, compare what you can get for your money!

6 Nights New York City - 600 Euros (flights and AirBnB)

14 Nights Italy Amalfi Coast - 580 Euros (flights, AirBnB, Hostels and Hotel)

5) Know your needs - Of course you want to spend as less money as possible, but there are some standards that you might consider neccessary for your comfortness. I really prefer having a seperate sleeping room, but i can share kitchen and bath, because i take privacy as the privilige i treat myself with. So comparing air bnb and hostels with same price, i would always chose the private accomodation.

6)Try to spread your booking periods, you don't need to book all at the same time (only if you are quite late), as you also might not have all the money saved already (sometimes i book just flights on offer and take care for a hotel a month or two later)

It is always up to you, what you are willing to pay and what you expect to get for a certain price. My goal is to inspire you with different trips, that are worth their money and with different budgets for everyone. So i will be super honest and straight, when it comes to prices, since this seems so often not mentioned.

Going on your own to a new place can be really frightening, but means also freedom and endless possibilities. In those 25 days off work in a year, i want to do things i like and really make the most of it. That doesn't mean that you can't have an amazing time with friends, but it is always very hard to find the right travel buddy.
So if you decide to go on your own, it's nice to have some perspective and it's quite fun to not care, what somebody else would like to do (that sounds selfish, but this vacation is about you and your dreams!)
In order to feel safe and comfy by your own there are some basic things you can do.

Collect as much information as possible about the place you are going to. Whether it is about culture, politics, religion and also distances. I did not know Bali was as big, as it was until i finally went there. So some stuff i planned to do, was literally impossible because i did not look at the map scale properly.
Also consider different living standards and health care in other countries. I was especially scared of tropical diseases, like Malaria, and more likely Dengue Fever and Stomach flues. For mosquitos i can really recommend Repel100 spray. In two weeks i got bitten only once!
In addition to avoid having a bad time from the totally different food bacteria, one can take a cholera vaccination as well. I might have been a bit overreacting, but i wanted to be as safe as possible!
So after taking care of these more general things, the real fun part can begin: to plan your activities!
After choosing Ubud and Gili Air as my main spots to stay, i borrowed some travel guides from the library,which seems quite oldschool, "lonelyplanet" is my favourite, but the biggest sights to see, will never change. One can also find really nice advises on Tripadvisor.com.
So i made a list (again) with all the places, that i was really interested in and that were absolute obligatory to see.
Take in consideration how long it takes to get there, and which places might be close to each other, so you can do them the same day. The best way to find some routes and daytrips is actually with google maps. You just type in your destination and your place to start, very often there are spots just shortly away from the route, that might be super interesting as well, but are not mentioned on big travel sides.
So if you have picked your main destinations and enriched them with some little nice spots around, you can decide what to do on which day. Also important for museums or temples: look up opening times as well, so you don't plan stuff on the wrong day. Sometimes you can just change one planned day to another, but if you rely on a scooter or driver, booked for a specific day, it is not that easy to change spontaniously.
If you have your days planned and full with activities, you can't get bored and start thinking about being lonely. To not get stressed out too much, plan some extra time every day, because you might want to look a bit longer at some place. Also it is very nice to just plan some spare times for literally doing nothing and just explore or wander around, you might be suprised what you can hit. I always plan in a free afternoons every third day, so in case something goes wrong or takes longer, you still are able to fill stuff in that empty time.
Planning and preparing is really good, but don't panick, if things don't turn out as you thought. As mentioned before, i planned to drive to almost every temple by myself with a scooter (because it looked all so easy on the map), but when i was on Bali, i decided to book a driver instead, which saved a lot of time for me, so i could do other things that were not planned.
How much you plan and in which way is up to you, but i consider being over(prepared) as a really good sign. You always have some backup possibilities and that is a great security.