Dip the toe in the unknown

About the first time I travelled alone in a country without speaking the language and how it lead me to love travelling.

View from the Strahov hill over Prague

Since I'm young I've been travelling multiple times with my parents, who are also into discovering new cultures and landscapes. Born from a french mother and a german, partly finnish, father, that separated when I was young, I was juggling between two different countries for a big part of my life (I'm still 20 yo). Being used at a young age to travel back and forth, I was comfortable to sit during long hours in a car, bus, plane to go places. I had the chance to participate in various exchanges with my high-school, which I will talk further in a coming blogpost. I loved being in a new environment and having to learn new ways of doing certain things. And that's how it lead me to my first travel on my own.

European Solo-trip

For my 18th birthday, I was gifted with the best present I could imagine. It was an Interrail ticket, which I would recommend 100%, that allowed me to travel by train all around Europe without (almost) any limit.

My first stop was in Strasbourg, France, and later Köln, Germany. Since I spoke both french and german I wasn't out of my comfort zone at all. I also met up with friends in the second stop, so I felt at ease.

But when I traveled to my next point in Prague, Czech Republic, I felt really alone. It was the first time that I was surrounded by people not speaking any language I was familiar with. I traveled before to England, Spain, Australia, Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria and all these countries used languages that were similar to either french, german, english or spanish. So naturally hungarian sounded as foreign as it could be.

Stepping out of my comfort zone was the best thing I could have done.

Imagine it or not, but I traveled without reserving a bed in advance in either hostel or Airbnb. At this time, I had no data and a very old phone that only allowed me to call or text. So I had to figure out ways to find a place to sleep each time. This time, I was sitting in the train facing an old man, who look typically like a hungarian grandfather with his round belly and his shoulder straps. He was drinking beer. I was looking at him, trying to figure out how I could engage the conversation to ask for tips. He did the work for me by proposing me a beer. We shared this drink with a smile. That's when I tried to talk to him. Tried, because neither of us spoke a common language. So I took out my notebook and drew a bed. That's how we understood each other. He recommended me a student area where there was a youth hostel in summer. It was located on top of the main hill of Prague (I found out later on). This old man asked me if I had any Forints to pay the bus or anything. Naturally I didn't and I guess I looked so lost that he gave me 50 Ft to be able to buy a ticket. To me he was truly representing this image of "papy-gâteau" (very kind and helpful grandpa). A few stops later, he told me to go down at this station, it wasn't the main one. We wove our goodbyes and I left the train searching for this hostel which was known to me by the only word "Strahov". Now I know it was referring to the student area in its whole.

So, I was there, at this secondary train station, with few to none english indications. It was raining. Everybody was rushing towards a dry place. No one had time for my questions. Luckily, I found one young man who was waiting for the tram and thank god he spoke english. He indicated me where the bus was, and in which direction I should take it. With the help of these clear informations I could reach the final point of the hostel. I will probably do a blogpost also on that matter, since it was also kind of special atmosphere.

Finally, I enjoyed discovering this city very much. I saw the old jew churches and monuments, the wild graffiti and modern art, the crazy nightlife, I met so many nice and welcoming people. And more importantly, I bought a scarf that I still wear almost daily till this day.