My Initial Thoughts

Growing up, I was always surrounded by close family members and friends. I never had any problems finding people to hang out with or fun things to do. However, going abroad was a different story. Everyone came to Florence with their best friends, and I literally came here knowing nobody. This made traveling pretty difficult because I wanted to see as much of Europe as possible during my time here, but was too afraid to go alone. After a month of studying abroad, I was tired of staying in Florence the whole time, so this past weekend I decided to book a trip to Budapest, Vienna, and Salzburg.

The Trip

Walking over to the train station, I started to have doubts. I started to worry about being alone the whole time and people thinking that I was weird or something because I did not know anyone beforehand. I was nervous that I would spend the whole trip by myself in some corner, not making the most out of the experience. While I was waiting to check in, I happened to recognize this girl from my class standing behind me. We never really talked before, but I always thought that she seemed friendly and at this point, "friends" were definitely needed. I decided to start up a conversation with her, despite the initial awkwardness I was feeling. She introduced me to her friend that she came with. Now, I had a group, at least someone to make this trip slightly more enjoyable.

The bus ride to Budapest was extremely long and tiring. Adding to this, I was too worried about not really knowing anyone to get much sleep. When we finally arrived, these worries started to go away. I checked in the hostel and actually saw some familiar faces. Sure, these people were not my best friends or anything, but I had talked to them before. For me, I find that it is the hardest to speak those first few words to someone, fearing rejection. However, once you finally break out of your comfort zone and just go for it, the rest is really simple. You find yourself wondering why you were even nervous in the first place. Keeping this in mind, I went up to these people and started talking to them. I asked them about what they wanted to see during this trip and our interests actually aligned pretty well. Never before was I the type of person to invite themselves along, but being that this is abroad, I went for it. This was the best decision that I could have possibly made and made the difference between having a mediocre trip and a great one.

Going into the walking tour with a group of people was a lot more comforting. I felt a lot more relaxed now that I had people to enjoy this with. I was able to make small talk about our surroundings instead of just silently taking it all in myself. Being a very social person by nature, this was exactly what I needed. These casual conversations turned into being photography buddies, making plans for dinner together, and even going out later that night. I had found friends to explore with during those unscheduled times of our trips for the next two destinations and I could not be happier.

My Advice for You

Although it may be challenging at first, sometimes you really just have to put yourself out there. As cliche as it may sound, people truly are more open to meeting new friends than you may think. At first, I thought that people just want to hang out with their friends from home while studying abroad. This trip made me realize that I could not be more wrong. Everyone gets tired of sticking with just the same, small group of people for four months. They are looking to expand their network of friends and meet people from all over. In the future, I have some trips coming up that I booked alone. Meeting so many people on this trip alone has proven to me that there really is nothing to worry about. As long as I am myself and initiate that first awkward conversation, I can hopefully find people to hang with wherever I go.