{"id":19201,"date":"2017-02-21T13:00:34","date_gmt":"2017-02-21T13:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/?p=19201"},"modified":"2017-02-22T23:31:28","modified_gmt":"2017-02-22T23:31:28","slug":"travelling-alone-over-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/index.php\/travelling-alone-over-christmas\/","title":{"rendered":"Travelling Alone Over Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

By Yash Sanghvi<\/h5>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Winter was a different experience altogether this year, instead of heading back home to visit the family I was given the chance to roam Europe.<\/p>\n

I decided to go a step further and that after my flight to Europe, I would use trains for the rest of the trip.<\/p>\n

I left for this new adventure with just a bag on my back. <\/p>\n

8,412 kilometers of Europe covered in 20 days including the over 5,800 kilometers travelled by train.<\/p>\n

My itinerary was Italy, Poland, Czech Republic, Switzerland, and Germany. <\/p>\n

The Italy-Poland route was the longest and most tedious of all my train rides and it is definitely something I will cherish forever.<\/p>\n

The most scenic route had to be the one from Switzerland to Germany. <\/p>\n

As I left the station all I could see was the Alps covered in a thick blanket of white snow.<\/p>\n

Those twenty days were crazy right from the first day of landing in Rome. <\/p>\n

It was an adventure of another kind filled with memories at each step along the way. <\/p>\n

From getting scammed out of \u20ac20 in Italy, to sleeping on the train and missing my stop by over an hour.<\/p>\n

I got lost in quite a few places and just trusted my instincts on reaching my final destination. <\/p>\n

More than anything else, what I can say is that I did meet countless people and quite a few new friends. <\/p>\n

I might add that I also experienced getting interrogated by the police aboard a train probably because of the beard I had fashioned.<\/p>\n

I experienced it all.<\/p>\n

Also, it is true what they say, beer is cheaper than water.<\/p>\n

A pub in Prague sold 11% alcoholic beer for 60 cents while a glass of water was \u20ac2.50.<\/p>\n

Let’s just say I don\u2019t remember drinking water.<\/p>\n

It’s been quite an adventure that ended way too quickly.<\/p>\n

This journey for me was to travel around to see new places and discover myself.<\/p>\n

Somewhere along the way, I did get to know myself a little bit better. <\/p>\n

I do still wonder if this trip will bring about that discovery eventually although I have changed in ways.<\/p>\n

I have developed the confidence to get over my fears; fear is present in all of us and it\u2019s the fear to live, love, feel or even travel alone. <\/p>\n

This life is too short to let it be controlled by fear and way too long to let it be filled with regret. <\/p>\n

I believe everyone at some point in their lives needs to travel alone to anywhere, even for a few days.<\/p>\n

It makes you appreciate life a little more and you don\u2019t come back the same as you left.<\/p>\n

This has been a whole new experience for me and although this journey is over, the adventure continues, the hunger to go out and see more is just growing. <\/p>\n

The adventure truly never ends till we let it, and I’m just getting started.<\/p>\n

One of the other major things I realised is happiness can only be brought from within and Dumbledore puts it best; “Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times if only one remembers to turn on the light.”<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/path><\/svg><\/i> \"Loading\"<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"reddit\"<\/a>\"pinterest\"<\/a>\"linkedin\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Yash Sanghvi Winter was a different experience altogether this year, instead of heading back home to visit the family I was given the chance to roam Europe. I decided to go a step further and that after my flight to Europe, I would use trains for the rest of the trip. I left for […]<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/path><\/svg><\/i> \"Loading\"<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19226,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-ents-fuinneamh","category-travel"],"a3_pvc":{"activated":true,"total_views":17,"today_views":0},"views":2369,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Prague.jpg","wps_subtitle":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19201"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19201\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19227,"href":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19201\/revisions\/19227"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}