My Independent Journeys

Bye, bye Ireland :) (Finally!) The views were amazing and surprisingly the weather was gorgeous! Here's the best photo I could take :)

 So hey everyone!!! I’m so excited for this post because could there be anything better than sitting in McDonalds at the Dublin Airport and writing down how truthfully I love this place ^_^

It might seem a bit weird but I treat airports like my second homes. Even though I’m not like some people who have to fly practically every day, I still think I spend so much of my life here and I already know it so well that I can call it my sacred place.

And there comes one of the funny stories from my school life- recently in my religion class we were studying scared and holy places. The teacher asked us to write down a place that was important to us and in which we felt happy ect… So my creative classmates all went with the same: my bedroom or the beach (which were actually two examples the teacher suggested herself, how original), and we were supposed to explain why they were important to us.

So without giving it much thought, I wrote Dublin Airport because I spend a lot of my time there and it feels like my second home- honestly I wrote it so my friend and I could have a laugh because if not our inside jokes we wouldn’t be able to survive the 40 minute religion class. You can accuse me of anything but before you do I have to tell you that my friend was even more disrespectful to the topic than I was! She decided that writing down the name of a Polish supermarket (Biedronka- translated as ‘’Ladybird’’) in which her mother worked when she was a child would be hilarious! And to be honest it was, I was crying when I read her copy xD. So there we were, sitting in front of the class preventing ourselves from bursting out with laughter. But of course, the teacher noticed and before I could even think about it she asked me to read out what I have wrote. That moment, my heart stopped. My friend was still on the verge of laughing out loud and her red face and wide grin made me even more nervous and I just couldn’t hold back my laugh anymore. I cracked and with it came the tears and I obviously couldn’t catch my breath. Then the whole class started laughing and the teacher was just getting more and more frustrated. But there was still the question to answer and my dilemma; should I answer honestly or make something up? I knew that if I’m going to read out my proper answer and make even more people laugh she would probably kill me so I just went with the same story as everybody else: My Bedroom :D After these words my friend laughed even louder and me along with her causing a huge confusion to take over the room. It doesn’t sound as funny when you read it as it actually was but up to this day we still laugh about it so I thought I should just put it in somewhere in this post.

But anyways back to the topic (by now I’m already in the plane). Since I passed the age of 12, I honestly cannot think of much situations where I wasn’t flying on my own. Because my family doesn’t often visit Poland and I’m practically the only one who wants to go there for holidays, it leaves me as an independent traveler. From the 4 hour journey by bus to the airport, through all the procedures to follow on the airport, to finally sit and fly on the plane to my destination, I’m all by myself.

 Do I mind it? I thought I did. I hated that I had no one to talk to and the fact that I was the only teenager under 16 to travel on her own, until it came to a situation that I had to fly with my mom and two of my siblings. THAT was a nightmare. My baby sister unable to sit calmly for five minutes (during a 2 and a half hr flight!) my younger brother doing nothing but standing  like he didn’t know what was happening around him and not listening to me when I told him to help out and my mom, freaking out about absolutely everything! Since that time I said Thank You Very Much! I much rather  travel completely on my own and be able to spend the massive amount of free time I have to write or read and peacefully listen to music during the flight. 

Sometimes I wonder why is it that both my parents trust me so much they allow me to travel the whole day with no guardian, but I never question it. I feel lucky because of this. None of my friends had ever said that they are going to be flying on their own and not even that they’re going to go on the bus by themselves! I guess this is something I can brag about and I feel that this is building up my confidence and independence.

Do the journeys scare me? Not as much as they used to. The first time my dad announced I’m going to fly on my own I was like; ‘’WHAT??? But I’m only twelve! I’m not going to manage!’’ Of course it wasn’t as bad as I have suspected. And by now I’m so used to it that it’s no big deal. Yes, I do get a bit nervous a few days before the flight and all that pops into my mind when I’m already laying in bed are those annoying questions; will they question my age? Will my flight not be cancelled? Will I manage with my 15kg baggage? I know I shouldn’t be worrying about any of this because by now already know the answers to them and going insane because of the curiosity won’t help. Sure it won’t change anything so why should I worry about it? I try my best not to but sometimes it’s just stronger than me :D

Being a person that has to have everything organised (some say I’m a perfectionist but definitely not when it comes to cleaning my bedroom) is a huge advantage. Basically before doing anything, and I do mean anything at all, I have to plan my steps of actions few days before in my head. E.g : what time am I going to wake up at, where am I going to go once I’m on the airport and how long can I spend sitting down in a café with my laptop ect. Without these skills I think I would just get lost in the world. So if you have problems with getting organised I advise that at some point during the day you sit down and plan everything out in your head, or to even make it easier write it down on piece of paper or in your phone just to get used to your plan of action in your head.

I usually fly 2-6 times during the year. My first flight was when I was 7 years old, and so I think I’m allowed to say I have experienced most of what can be experienced. Late or cancelled flights (one time my flight was cancelled the day before my birthday, the plane got hit by a lightning, and I had to go the next day  which was my birthday so yay it was an awesome party :P ), rushing to the plane on the last moment, spending night on the airport, sitting endless hours in MacDonald’s (I know I'm getting overly excited about this place, just like a child, but I fell in love with their coffee and unfortunately in my desolated society, people have not yet developed a modern thinking and couldn't bother to open one up -_- ), the plane literally falling downwards for a split of second (I’m serious. The plane suddenly dropped down like on a vertical roller-coaster, fortunately the pilot managed to get it back under control), flying on planes that are so small I actually wanted to refuse to get on, not being given the permission for landing which left us circulating around the airport for another 10 minutes and right now I’m experiencing my first ever change. I’m going to have 50 minutes in Munich to get from one plane to another so that’s exciting.

It’s my personal record I think: three countries in 14 hrs. Fascinating isn’t it? xD We always laugh about how my unpredictable, a half-year-older cousin is not capable of getting on a train or a bus and drive directly from one station to the other compared me who basically travels the Europe on her own!

Okay so I went extreme on the length of this article (again) and personally I hate when they are so long but can’t really write shorter.

Alright, so just to explain what the main point of this article was about- I’m looking for teenagers out there who also fly on their own from one country to another because I feel so lonely in this situation. Not once have I met anybody so young travelling on their own and I would just like to reach out to you guys J Also if you happened to be taking an independent journey for the first time and maybe you’re a bit worried or stressed out, you can ask for any advise in the comments below and I’m so happy to help and of course have a discussion or something :D

Thank you for any support and make sure to keep an eye out for further updates :) 

Love Loads,

-K.

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