Yes, it can be lonely on the road, especially for those who travel by themselves for a long time. However, as a solo traveler, I do know about loneliness. I was fine in Belgium and Denmark, and in the first few cities I visited in Germany, since I had a lot of friends there.
It was only when I reached Berlin, however, that it struck me how totally alone I was. All the people I had seen there were either in groups, or with their partners or families, and seeing them only emphasized my solitary status. It dampened my desire to go around; everything for me had begun to look the same—there were the same people, the same buildings, the same cobbled streets.
This is Europe, yes, and I had seen it all before. Berlin was very beautiful, but all I could think of then was how warm it was in the Philippines and how I would like to be home, to see and kiss my cats and talk to my family again. I had also considered flying back to Belgium to see my friends, for me to recharge my batteries before I push through with the rest of my Eurotrip. And lo and behold, while I was leaving a restaurant near Checkpoint Charlie, I overheard a family talking in the next table—they were speaking Filipino!
I looked at them and they indeed looked Pinoy. I wanted to rush to them, say hi, and thanks for breaking my low mood, but I restrained myself. Yes, loneliness sucks. Thankfully, that was the only time I had felt it. By the time I arrived in Prague, the mood had gone and I was fully in the moment of appreciating everything around me. And it was about time too! Czech Republic had always been very special to me. I was 10 when I had my first foreign penpal, a girl called Natalia Sintalova who was living in what was then Czechoslovakia.
I got her name and address from a family friend in Vienna, and we kept writing each other until we lost contact ten years later.
