Comprehensive cheat-book for Challenge 3* - Making friends off strangers

This post is work in progress. I shall be adding more cheats as I discover or invent them.

Great things come to those who are willing to risk rejection and put themselves out there.

1. Be proactive and socialize. Go, hello everyone. This is a must.
2. Segue into a conversation (Read this first) - the small talk.
3. Have a few stories ready. Learn to entertain.
4. Make it about them. Talk about their interests, opinions, and ideas. Then respond to what they share.
5. If its a party hostel, befriend the hostel guys first and hang out with them. This makes you well informed about whats happening and makes you look cooler.
6. Create situations that allow bonding to happen - take interviews for a documentary, organise games or events. Take initiative and make things happen.

Travelling solo

When I decided to do a solo Eurotrip, did I know what I was signing up for?

I thought I knew. But on hindsight, I don't think so. Let me run you through how it feels like.

Challenge 1: Reach your hostel.
You arrive at a new city, not knowing anyone and anyplace. You fiddle with google maps, get directions from strangers in languages you barely understand, walk with 20 kilos on your back steadily slowing you down or get on a train, tram or bus, if you are lucky enough to exchange your currency already and manage to find the tickets counter.

Aids or Bonuses - Free WiFi. A mail with crystal clear instructions from the hostel. A country that uses Euro as its currency.

Dampeners - A dead phone battery. The heavy backpack cutting through your shoulders. Taking one wrong turn or tram(this can catastrophic, especially when coupled with a dead phone)

Cheats - Use the trams / buses without purchasing tickets (and be prepared to shell out 10 times the ticket cost if get caught).

Challenge 2: Figure how stuff works at the new place. 
Every hostel have a unique way of working. It takes a while and loads of enquiries to figure out the logistical stuff. Stuff like where the nearest departmental store is located, lockers for your valuables, laundry facilities, food places and transportation to and from the city downtown, wifi passwords, charging points and so forth.

Bonus: A very nice ( and, for a double bonus add pretty too) receptionist. Clear labels. 

Dampeners: Lethargic Roommates

Cheats: Befriend the receptionist. Hang around longer in the lounges or the common areas.

Challenge 3: Make friends and join a gang.
This is the critical step. How well you deal this challenge determines whether you like the city or not at the end. And this is not easy always. You get super lucky sometimes or simply not.

Bonus: Find someone with a lot in common - Indians, or been to India, engineers, math enthusiasts, business consultants, adventure junkies etc (this is my list - figure out your own). A bonding activity or experience right on the first day.

Dampeners: The wrong state of mind(feeling low or lonely or out of place). And of course lack of above mentioned bonuses. 

Cheats: Be proactive and socialize aggressively starting from the minute you land. Every time you turn heads because of your skin colour, blindly assume its because they think you awesome and exotic.

These are three of the four challenges the road throws at you. When you arrive at a city, you typically solve Challenge 1 on Day 1, Challenge 2 by Day 2 and Challenge 3 hopefully by Day 3 or 4. Just when you think you can relax, having made friends and figured places to have a good time, your time is up. Day 5 - Pack up and move to the next city. And the challenges are refreshed for you to go at again. This is the final and fourth challenge - learning to move on.

Although it sounds harsh, does this not resemble life? We know all our best times will end some time or the other. All the people we love will be lost to us one day or the other. Despite knowing this, the trick is - to enjoy it to the fullest while it lasts.

So,
Q. How is it to travel the world solo?
A. At times lonely and difficult, more often joyful but always adventurous.

Dusseldorf, Germany

Dusseldorf, the capital of the Rhineland, by the banks of Rhine is to Germany what Vijayawada is to Andhra(pat on my back for the anology). High on working class and industries, the city comes to life early in the morning as people drive to offices as early as 7 am. A little low on tourist attractions, it is as most Germany cities are - high on Turkish and Japanese population.

Seepy lives here and we headed out to the old town for dinner one evening. It was a charming square with restaurants spilling out everywhere on the square. The WW2 had destroyed most of the old town and all the buildings are rebuilt later but for one piece of land - this old town square. Instead of a building, they put about 150 charming restaurants in this place. We picked a restaurant with high tripadvisor rating and a hot waitress. We ordered Schweinshaxe, called pig knuckles in English, which is almost like a staple dish for Germans. It looked like the pork version of the American Ribs to me. With the amount of meat served, I could not finish my plate.

An another evening Seepy exhibited his culinary prowess. He made me chicken pasta for the two of us. Only that it could feed another two and two more. Whats with the volumes of food with people in Dusseldorf! That day we also went to a car park or a parkplatz as the German billboards say it. And it is the coolest parkplatz I ever saw. They allow only vintage and cars with a oomph in there. Those babies are indeed beautiful.

Legendary Seepy Arrives!

You got to wait for my next down time for this story.

Noordwijk, I'm charmed.

I turned up in Noordwijk town of Netherlands to check into the Flying Pig Beach Hostel by the Vuurtorenplein, the light house. And boy, charmed I was all the way from Schipol Airport to here. This small town is 100 min bus ride from Amsterdam City and is by the beach. Judging my the large hotels here, the beautiful beach town enjoys a good number of tourists.

The gingerbread houses with beautiful art pieces at their huge display windows, lavishly adorned by lovely tulips is a sight that can warm any heart. I absolutely fell in love with these houses! 

At the hostel, I met Bond, Niketh and Rishi, students at Paris. And all of us decided to check out the beach.

Rishi, Me, Niketh and the Bond.

The Flying Pig Beach Hostel - An uber cool hostel

The water is freezing and I was very comfortable to just enjoy the view. But that did not make Bond happy at all. We ended from this...

to this...

You have no idea how frozen my privates are!

And we had a jolly time. 

This town has some very cool bikes and cars.

Flying Turkish

To quickly make my point, here are the things I cant any less appreciate

It is something to be sent off by some of the studdest bankers. Thanks Rakesh and Jumba for the gift ;)

The Mumbai Airport is something now! Marvellous peacock designs 

Schipol Airport. There is nothing you cant like here.

The Flying Pig Beach Hostel.

I had some interesting time at the Istanbul airport, where I had a layover of 4 hours. But thats a story you got to ask me in person for.

The Hazy Beginning

In the middle of a busy work day, Bikki's phone rang. As he pulled out his phone to leave a 'call you later' message, he notice it is Jumba, a dear friend of his from Auckland. An hour long conversation ensues and the seed is planted.

The idea is to backpack parts of Europe this summer on a budget. The following weekend saw Bikki google for hours, make spreedsheets, write mails, read blogs. He finally decided to do it. Not do it just as a tourist. but more. And for less.

And I sit on my rack and wait for the store to open.