“Alone, there’s no need for an itinerary. Walk, and the day arranges itself.”
In Alone Time, New York Times travel writer Stephanie Rosenbloom travels solo to Paris, Istanbul, Florence, and New York. She shares details about the small, quiet moments that make up the most memorable parts of her trips:
Alone, with no one at my side, I was also able to see le merveilleux quotidien, “the marvelous in everyday life”: a golden retriever gazing at a café chalkboard in Montmartre, as if reading the daily specials; boxes of pâtes de fruits arranged in grids like Gerhard Richter’s color charts. The city had my full attention; I was attuned to the faint whir of bicycle wheels and the scent of peaches at the street market.
Mixed in with her observations is research on how and why to travel alone, and how to get the most enjoyment out of your trip. There are great tips on savoring the moment, getting out of your comfort zone, creating your own serendipity, and recognizing anticipation as “happiness already in the bank” that you get to keep even if the trip goes “wrong”. Her chapter on New York is about rediscovering and appreciating the city you live in by treating it with the same close attention you would a city you’ve spent a ton of money to travel to. I also appreciated the reminder that walking itself improves creative thinking, even if you’re not in a beautiful foreign city.
I’ve been thinking obsessively about leaving my job to solo travel, so this book felt like an appropriate way to start my new year. Worthwhile read for the writing itself, but even more for the sense of possibility you feel while reading it.
Quotes:
- “Some buildings looked as if a creature had come in the night and nibbled their corners.”
- “I thought about how we are lucky to catch whatever we can, for however long we have, in peace, under a blue sky, in late summer.”
- “In my ignorance, I had a wonderful time. If only life were always like that. If only we didn’t know what we were supposed to be embarrassed by.”
- “The more I surrendered to myself, to the self that would not be limited and narrowly defined, the more glorious a time I had with me and with life. I stayed open, ready, breathless even, for adventure. —Eartha Kitt, Rejuvenate!”
Fun discoveries from this book:
- Liza Minnelli passionately singing “New York, New York” at Giants Stadium in 1986 (fabulous, listened on repeat while writing this)
- BookCrossing: people hide books around cities for others to stumble on
- Commonplace books: journals with quotes and notes from things you’ve read; been around for a couple of millennia
- the French phrase for window-shopping (faire du lèche-vitrines) translates to “window-licking”
Other books on solo travel and travel mindset:
- Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert
- I had a weird allergy to reading this for the longest time, but read it a couple months ago and really enjoyed it
- Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel by Rolf Potts
- also his Deviate travel podcast, where I first heard about Alone Time
