Solo in San Francisco

Solo in san franscisco

I decided to take my first true solo trip ever. No one there to meet, no one meeting me later, not going for any particular reason. Just literally going to see the city. I travelled to San Francisco and was there for 4 absolutely crazy days,. I saw the city, worked out wayyyy more than I thought I was going to (I naively underestimated the San Francisco hills), but the most important thing I learned was how great it is to travel alone. To do the exact things I want to do at the exact time I want to do them. It was really a perspective shifting trip for me and I recommend everyone take a solo trip with no plans and bring your camera. Just walk the city. Wake up when YOU want to wake up. Go get exactly the meal you want to eat. And just sit in the loneliness. Let is be painful. Then call and talk to a friend or a loved one for a little bit, and then go back to doing exactly what you want to do and remember how good that feels. Having the freedom to not be worried about if the person with you is enjoying everything as much as you, for me at least, was so great. And yet it is almost heart wrenching to be experiencing so beautiful and not have someone beside you to feel that beauty with you. It makes it so much more apparent you are alone in that moment, and that the memory of what you are experiencing only exists within you.I had a hard time on this trip because I typically don’t like to be alone. And it is real hard to not feel alone when you are solo traveling in San Francisco during a pandemic. But sitting in that uncomfortable space and having time to process my own thoughts and emotions, to really really think. I also had a few hiccups occur where I instead of crying and having a breakdown like I probably would have if someone could help me, I had to be my own dad-on-vacation-in-my-asics and figure out how to solve my problems myself. So you could say it was rewarding for my body and mind. I did a 3 mile hike straight up a cliff. I ate pizza by the slice. i rode a lyft bike up the mounatin by the golden gate bridge and had to get off and walk… then get back on when the construction workers starting cheering me on. I woke up at 4am to get coffee and see the Golden Gate Bridge, only to arrive and the whole thing be covered by fog. I feel like in a lot of these situations, people either would not have wanted to accompany me or they would have not been happy when things were going wrong— and trust me, things were going wrong. But it didn’t matter to me because there was only me to worry about! And if it didn’t ruin my day, it didn’t ruin anyones day and that was just so freeing. I learned from the things that went wrong, and the things that came after would make up for it. I had some of the best dim-sum of my life. I walked a mile to the beach and the fog on the beach and in the mountains, it was unreal It actually brought me to tears. I was sobbing like a little baby on the beach listening to M83 and wishing I could describe it to someone, that someone could witness this moment with me. That was when I felt the most happy, and also the most alone. I sat on the beach for 2 hours, cried for a bit, but just tried to be are present as possible in that moment. So yes, you should book a last minute trip to a city you have always wanted to visit and stay in a hostel and do whatever you want. Solo traveling was something that really confused and scared me, but now it’s my preferred way to travel, and I would recommend it to anyone a thousand times over.