Solo Travel: London
April 5th through April 8th, 2024
First, I’ll start with my first 4-days, which was April 5th - April 8th. Before arriving after my overnight flight from Atlanta, I want to say that although I’m choosing this solo trip, it still is HARD to separate from Chris. I cried at the Knoxville airport, knowing I would see him a week later, haha. And, I spent some time on the flight existentially questioning why I’m doing any of this to begin with. Just want to be real that it is most certainly not all rainbow and butterflies as I do things that scare but thrill me and are outside my comfort zone! Now, in retrospect, I’m so glad I let myself feel those emotions and questions, and then moved forward. London was the perfect place to land for the beginning of this adventure; the city is full of life, art, global food, people, and history.
Speaking the same language was such a comfort, as I’m used to travelling to places that don’t speak English as their first language. I stayed in Notting Hill (any movie fans out there?) at a hostel where I shared a room with 7 other people. To some, that might sound crazy, but it really is such a joy for me to live communally. The everyday interactions you get to have just by sharing space is truly beautiful to me. Regardless, I wouldn’t want to do dorm life forever, but it’s a fun part of what I’m doing right now! The hostel was in an old, refurbished town home, so it had a lot of character. I stayed on the 5th floor (no elevator), so you can guess how much stamina I built up after 4 days and tons of stairs! There were many times I would accidentally leave something in my room only to realize it after I got to the 1st floor. RIP to my legs.
The hostel organized walking tours during the day and happy hour snacks in the evenings, as well as a pub crawl every evening - all optional of course. I landed in London at 8am after an overnight flight from Atlanta, and I jumped right in after arriving at the hostel to do the walking tour! I met SO many people that ended up making my stay in London absolutely wonderful, interesting, and fun. On that walking tour, I met Vansh (India native living in Belgium), Ti (New Zealand), Robert (NY), and Cansu (Turkey). See photo above and below. While I clicked with others as well, this crew stood the test of time, and we hung out the entire 4 days I was there. Because of that, I actually got to go to a local pub concert put on by a friend of a friend of Robert’s! It’s a treat getting to experience a city through local experiences vs. always seeing tourist attractions. Our little crew of 5 experienced London together, and for that, I’m forever grateful! Another person I feel I need to mention is my new friend, Ervin (Netherlands). He and I bonded one day in the hostel kitchen and common room about EDM (electronic dance music) and became fast friends! We had some great conversations about music, life, relationships, travel, commitment, and neurodivergence, haha. Learning people’s stories and sharing bits of my own is so incredibly soul-nourishing for me, and I’m thankful to have had such good conversations with Ervin!
Additionally, I met some amazing Brazilians named Lucas and Gabriel, who upon arrival into my dorm room delved into a life-giving conversation with me and Vansh about purpose, work, life, creativity, and more. Without talking about it openly, I was 99% sure they were believers in Jesus; His presence was thick in the room when I was speaking with Lucas and Gabriel, although we weren’t talking about anything specific to Jesus and God. It was such a cool experience to meet them this way; God loves connecting his children and blessing them with deep fellowship! I had more extremely life-giving conversations with them about what God is doing in their lives and mine, and Chris and I ended up actually meeting up with them a week later and going to their friend’s church in Greenwich. I’m beyond thankful for this connection because Lucas’ story specifically encouraged me a lot with some things the Lord is whispering to me about purpose! I was absolutely jazzed telling Chris about Lucas and Gabriel over FaceTime because it just felt like such a divine appointment. Praise God!
Besides that, London itself was actually quite warm and sunny the days I was there, which I know is an anomaly, haha. As you can tell from the above paragraphs, solo travelling is only as solo as you want it to be! When staying in hostels, I have to be intentional to take space away from the people I’m meeting, actually, when I want alone time. On that week’s sabbath (Saturday), I spent some time following my whims and rented a bike in Hyde Park and rode around with no plans and lots of open time. I had the BEST time allowing myself to choose whatever I wanted with no pressure of time constraints. This ended up including a pesto sandwich, banana bread, watching a skateboarding & rollerblading class and people paddle boating on the lake as well as sitting in the grass, staring at the sky. See photo above. Part of the motivation to solo travel for me is learning to listen to myself and identifying what I actually want in any given moment. I have a history of struggling to choose my own needs over others’ needs, sometimes not even recognizing I’m cutting myself off and ignoring the still, small voice inside me, only to become resentful or aggravated later that I didn’t choose what I actually wanted to do. It’s an ongoing work for me to really be honest about what I want and saying no to everything else, even if that upsets someone. So, doing things like solo bike riding in the park when my friends are off doing something else interesting and fun is an intentional act of self-care and self-growth for me! I have countless stories after traveling for a month of when I’ve been at a crossroads of good options to spend my time, and I’m slowly getting better at identifying what I want. This trip is certainly stretching me because all the day-to-day decision-making falls on me without Chris here!
As for tourist attractions, I actually didn’t do a lot, haha. I am finding I’m not that motivated by tourism right now as much as I am motivated to meet new people, learn about their stories, spend time alone, and grow as a person from all the challenges of travelling solo. That said, I did walk by Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, Parliament, & Tower Bridge. The first day I did 40,000 steps!! Hyde Park counts as tourism, I suppose, as it’s where Kensington Palace is located. I visited the Serpentine Art Museum in the park with my friend, Cansu, to see a Turkish artist’s exhibit on AI and nature. It was beautiful! I also walked around SOHO with my friends as well as explored the nightlife by going out dancing a couple nights. Last but not least, Cansu and I explored Portobello Market in Notting Hill; this is a well-known, famous area in Notting Hill that has a lot of thrift shops, cafés, book stores, and boutiques. The famous blue door from the movie, Notting Hill, is located in Portobello market. That day we also visited Notting Hill Catholic Church for a portion of mass, where Cansu and I both were anointed and blessed at the end, which was special as Cansu had never been to a Christian service before. This sparked interesting conversation that I’m incredibly thankful for and felt honored to share with her.
Talk soon <3
Xoxo,
Corinne
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