I was recently invited to speak at an event in June. It’s one of those things where you get a short amount of time (in this case, six minutes), to talk about absolutely anything.
Wow.
What freedom and what pressure!
That I would talk about travel – in particular, solo travel – was a no-brainer. But what to say? What about my 13 months traveling around the former USSR could I condense into just 360 seconds?
The more I thought about it, the more it was clear. As I reflected upon what I learned, what I remembered and what I tended to tell people about my trip, two related themes kept appearing:
People are good.
The world’s not scary.
More than anything else, people ask me about my safety while I was traveling. My response? I felt safer traveling in 20 different countries all around the world than I sometimes do in my adopted hometown of Chicago. I was never worried about having my iPhone swiped out of my hand on the subway or having a gun pulled on me as I walked home at night. I can only think of two instances when I was remotely nervous for my physical well-being: one, when my roommate on the Black Sea Ferry got ridiculously drunk and started chanting weird things (although I was more worried that he might fall overboard) and two, when I was hiking in Uzbekistan and my knee started hurting so badly that I thought it might give out on me.
That’s it. Perhaps it’s because I have lived in a large metropolitan area for the last decade that things didn’t seem so intimidating. Perhaps it’s because I live in Chicago that I have developed some streets smarts and good intuition and am cautious enough not to get myself into tricky situations. Perhaps I just got lucky that the worst crime I experienced was someone stealing my watch while I was showering in a hostel in Helsinki.
Perhaps, but I don’t think so.
More than anything, my 13 months of solo travel overseas showed me that the world really isn’t as scary as people (read: many Americans) would have us believe. Crime can happen anywhere and if you come from a large, urban city like I do, you are likely as susceptible to crime at home as you are abroad – perhaps even more so. And in the overall scheme of things, your chances of being a victim of a crime anywhere are pretty low – because the vast majority of people out there are good. And I was fortunate to experience that goodness over and over again as I traveled.
I arrived in Vladivostok after an overnight flight and once the bus deposited me in the center of town, I could not figure out for the life of me where to catch the bus to my hostel. Exhausted and close to tears, two elderly women approached me and didn’t just point me in the right direction, they took my arms and walked with me to the right bus stop.
When I was waiting on the side of the road outside of Irkutsk looking for a bus back to the city as a snowstorm was coming on, a middle-aged man gave me a ride back to town, expecting nothing in return.
As I arrived by train in Kazan, a man in my compartment not only gave me directions, he rode the bus with me until I got off at the right stop. And then when I still ended up lost, two women pulled out their cell phones and called friends to ask for directions for me when they realized they didn’t know the way.
As I wandered around the streets of Baku trying to find the embassies of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, I encountered two acts of kindness: first, a woman called the Tajik embassy for me to figure out where it was and then sent her eight-year-old son to escort me there, just a few blocks away. Then, when I couldn’t find the Uzbek embassy, a group of men tried to give me directions and advised I take a taxi. I resisted, thinking it was within walking distance. They insisted to the point of flagging down a taxi, telling him where to take me and paying the full fare for me! And when the taxi driver pulled up in front of the embassy (definitely not walking distance), although he easily could’ve tried to insist that I pay him again, he didn’t and just wished me well as I exited the taxi.
In my hostel in Vilnius, I met a woman from Minsk, Belarus and spoke with her for less than five minutes. She gave me her card and offered to show me around Minsk when I arrived there. Not only did she meet me at the bus station, she helped me check in to my hotel, took me to lunch, walked around the city with me and spent the next three days taking me sightseeing around the city. And then she even gave me a parting gift when I left!
On my overnight train from Batumi, Georgia to Tbilisi, one of the men in my compartment invited me to stay with his mother-in-law in Telavi and even called her right then to tell her to expect to hear from me (I didn’t end up in Telavi until two months later so never called her). He also gave me his number and insisted I stay with his family in Batumi if I came through again. And before I arrived in Batumi, a woman on the ferry from Ukraine invited me to stay with her in Tbilisi.
I could go on and on, but you get the point. Time after time, when I needed help the most, someone came through. Even when I didn’t think I needed help, there it was. The warmth and hospitality shown to me almost everywhere I went was incredible, but I think it really is the rule – not an exception.
Because people really are good.
And the world isn’t scary.
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Great post! I’ve met a lot of very friendly people in my travels too. As a urbanite too, my tendency is to be suspicious of others. But have left cities abroad thinking, “What was I worried about?” More than learning that other people are not scary, travel has taught me about my own per-conceived notions and how I approach the unknown. An important lesson that I don’t think I would have realized at home!
Yep! I have to agree. Practise good safety tips and you should be good. When I travel, I don’t have any troubles and I feel pretty safe. One time when I was in Paris I could not find some church and a man I randomly asked told me where it was and then decided to walk me over. I was flabbergasted and so happy. In Germany, I only had 1 slightly annoying moment in Munich but those guys were drunk and I was surrounded by other people so it was fine. I used to walk home all of the time Saturday mornings (after a night of partying) not so sober and not 1 time did a soul bother me. Germany = safe for single girls especially.
Travelling solo has renewed my faith in people. 🙂
Yep, definitely still need to be cautious but no need to be afraid! I love your last line – “traveling solo has renewed my faith in people.”
I agree completely! The world isn’t as scary as it’s made out to be. Whenever I have traveled alone, I have found people concerned about me. They help, encourage and brush off warm vibes. 🙂
Yes – I think more people look out for solo travelers than try to take advantage of them!
I love this, Katie! As a fellow solo female traveler, I get the same questions from others. You have articulated the perfect answer.
Thanks Megan!
The amount of good people I have met when travelling has far, far outnumbered those rare few bad ones. In fact, travel really does restore your faith in humanity at times!
AMEN. I totally agree, and could tell similar stories of my own about people helping me on the road. I’m convinced that sometimes I’m actually better looked after because I’m traveling solo.
I just wish more people would give it a go and learn this for themselves!
I totally agree! So many places I went, people were so concerned for me because I was traveling solo that they looked out for me more!
Nicely put. The majority of the things we get scared of on the road are the things we forget to leave behind, not the ones we encounter.
People are good. Mostly.
Oh, Katie! I so love reading stories like this one. I too have experienced the kindness of strangers while traveling and cringe when people ask me, “is it safe?” I always take it as a teaching moment and tell my stories or stories like yours. I am sharing this on my social media because I think we Americans have to keep hearing these positive stories of travel (especially solo female travel) in order to truly believe. Thanks for sharing this!!
Thanks Lynne!
This is so great! Everyone needs to hear this message a million times — and then experience it for themselves!
I love this post, Katie! It’s so true, the overwhelming majority of people in this world are friendly and helpful, and not out to harm us. Most of the world is safe, much of it even safer than the US.
Yes – a lot of it is more safe than parts of the US! I should know, living in Chicago. 🙂