Travelling with a Stranger for a Month
Taiwan, 2020 // Circe
When I was in London, England I was staying at a Wombats hostel. Wombat’s hostel is a big chain of hostels in Europe, very similar to Selina’s in Central America or Mad Monkey’s in South East Asia. They are huge and normally young travelers flock to them because you know what you are going to get. Anyway the first week of staying in London I had met an amazing group of people. Every day we would explore and every night we would cook dinners together. I had a very sweet and innocent fling with a singer-song writer from Switzerland. I have fond memories of going to Tower Bridge around midnight to talk about our dreams and we would end the night by kissing under the stars. Slowly our group was separating, everyone was going to the different cities that they had on their itinerary.
On my last night, I met this girl named Circe, from British Columbia, Canada. We were the same age and like-minded because we both grew up in small towns but had a much bigger imagination then our towns did. We decided to go to the Sky Garden in the Fenchurch Building (it’s a garden 34 floors up and people go for a drink or to take photos). This is normal when solo travelling, to meet people and within an hour be going to the beach or dinner. When we were there we had a nice time, laughing, talking about Canada, what we want for our future, etc. We got each other’s Instagrams and by the next day parted our ways. I went to Milan, Italy and she went to Spain to be a nanny.
Two or three months had elapsed before I received a direct message from Circe on Instagram. It was something along the lines of “hey do you want to go to Asia together.”
I rapidly replied “yes of course, when do you want to go” and that is how it started.
With a few FaceTimes back and forth we decided we would leave in January of 2020. We had planned to visit 4 countries together, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia and, Indonesia then part ways, Circe would continue to Australia and I would go to Vietnam. Just like that the time flew and we met in the Vancouver airport. When we landed in Taipei we had a rude awakening and our first adventure. We landed at 2 am on January 11th so we booked a hostel for the 11th however we didn’t take into account that check-in on the 11th was 3 pm. We should have booked the hostel for the 10th. That day in particular everyone had to go to Taipei for a government vote so there were no rooms available and we had to find another place to stay. Being troopers we ended up walking with our heavy bags at 3 am to a new place with availability.
Throughout the 4 countries, we had some insane adventures from fleeing Jakarta to a crazy all-you-can-drink in Bali. We got along most of the time. When we would disagree on something we had mature sit-down talks about it and why it made us feel that way. For us both being 18 our relationship was better than most adults I had known at the time. I liked to party however travelling with someone who enjoyed a more cultural experience brought something new to my exploration. Every day we would get our steps in wandering around unique and unimaginable cities.
My life would be entirely different if I had not gone to the Sky Garden that night with Circe. I was in such a toxic headspace (because of a 36-year-old man and my coworkers, which is my next story) in November when she contacted me and the trip was the only thing I had to keep me going. Circe helped me regain my confidence and we always bonded on how much men suck.
To this day we remain friends. Asking each other for travel advice, boy advice and, reconnecting over those memories. Circe just spent a couple of months in Thailand with her boyfriend, and well for me? Well I am currently writing this in El Salvador. I guess we both keep that nomad lifestyle a little bit. I will always be thankful that she chose a continent I was to afraid to go by myself. Cheers to you!
Staying safe