Loneliness and boredom on your travels

Mon, 05/31/2010 - 14:47 | Sarah Palmer

A few suggestions from friends recently on combating loneliness and boredom on your travels:

Talk to people. Ask for directions, comment on the weather, or compliment their outfit—anything that starts a conversation. Or just do like I do and get a tattoo in French on your arm. Just, you know, be prepared for people to grab it before they ask about it.

Couchsurf, stay in a hostel, or send out some messages over Twitter or Facebook to see if any like-minded people in the area want to hang out while you’re traveling. Remember to keep the travel dates to private messages though, unlike this guy.

Keep busy. For short-term trips, see about building a schedule for each day. Actually you know, take that or leave it. I would never build a schedule for my travels. I just go to a place and wander around wherever looks pretty neat. But the point is, stay busy and get distracted by the totally cool stuff all around you. For long-term trips, take a language class.

If you can't get online, keep a journal and take pictures to share with people at home once you return from your trip. If you have Internet access, keep a blog, update Facebook, or tweet about your travels.

Aaaand that’s it for today. Sorry again I’ve been away for a bit. We'll be back to normal here soon.