I'm not sure if my determined nature is a curse or a blessing when travelling. If I find a place that I want to go, I'm going to get there one way or another. If I'm determined to get there, I'll do it; even if it means going on my own. I realised very early on that there is no point in waiting around for someone to go with you because that time may never come. Why miss out? So I do a little research, I save maps on my phone, I book tickets, I be brave and I go. 

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While in London in 2017, unsure of my next travel move, I decided to put into a Skyscanner search, From: London, To: Anywhere and ordered the search results from lowest price to highest. I had decided before I even clicked search that the top result would be my next destination. My next adventure.

 

I was reminded of being back to ten years old and having an inflatable beach ball that was a globe. Dad and I would sit in the good lounge and throw it to one another. I either had to find the city Dad called out as the ball flew across the lounge room or name the country where my fingers were when I caught it. It was such a fun game, learning all the names of cities and capitals, discovering what countries are where. I think learning that there were other people living in all these different places over the globe made it even more interesting. I dreamed of the day that I would get to go and see them.

 

Twenty years later I found that putting 'To: Anywhere' into a search engine would be the adult equivalent of playing my childhood beach ball game. Which city would come up first upon the click of my finger...?

 

Of all the places on the globe that my little fingers pointed to as a kid, Warsaw in Poland struck a chord with me. Perhaps because the spelling was similar to walrus or maybe because this city seemed to be in the middle of such a vast land mass and just so far from my hometown, Beaudesert, that I found it to be intriguing. There was just something about it. So when the search results returned a nine pound flight from London to Poznan, Poland, my eyes lit up. It was finally time to go and see it. 

 

What was in Poland I wondered? Despite its location in Eastern Europe I knew nothing about it. It didn't matter though, it was a nine pound flight and I would leave in twelve hours. I guess I would find out soon enough.

 

I arrived in Poznan with just my backpack and without a plan but this was nothing unusual. I didn't even know what currency they used or how to say hello in Polish or if it was even safe to travel on public transport alone but it didn't matter I was in Poland and I was up for the challenge.

 

With money sorted at the airport, turns out they use the Polish Zloty, my next challenge was navigating the bus system in a language I didn't understand. It was early December, bitterly cold, dull, dreary and grey. I hopped on the local bus and was faced with a bus full of serious faced strangers all rugged up in thick dark coats and scarves. As I stared out the window at a scenery of bare trees and grey houses in amongst open farmland, I found myself smiling. I chuckled to myself, impressed that I was on my own navigating a new country I knew nothing about. I had no expectations and everything to discover and learn.

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For the next two weeks I travelled around Poland by bus, walking my feet off in the freezing cold often snowy days. Exploring these brightly coloured city squares and architecturally fascinating buildings i never expected to find in a country steeped in such dark history.

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The cold didn't seem to bother me nor did the short days with the sun going down around 4:00pm because being early December it meant that there were Christmas markets in every square. As I wandered the markets I ate my weight every night in delicious pierogi's (polish dumplings) and drank copious amounts of mulled wine or another type of warm alcoholic drink that no one could really explain in English what it was but they were always more than willing to give me a free shot. It helped warm the soul.

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I arrived in Warsaw one evening and instead of taking a taxi, just wandered the dark streets to this cute eclectic old hostel where I paid seven dollars a night to stay. I woke early the next morning and hit the streets to explore the sights of Warsaw. I made my way into the main square to climb the Old Town Observation tower and look out across Warsaw city. The icy wind still not stopping my smile as the ten year old girls dream of getting to Warsaw was fulfilled. A feeling of accomplishment with a hint of pride of just how far I had come by myself. 

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A great thing that helps me travel by myself is my ability to make friends or find friends wherever I go. Some of my closest friends believe that rather than having six degrees of separation. I have three degrees of separation with everyone in the world. I always brush this off but I actually think it to be somewhat true. I love that I'm a stranger away from a friend where ever I go and so in my eyes, the world isn't this big scary place but rather small, friendly and accessible.

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In true form of three degrees of separation, Julia, an Australian girl I met in rural Kenya in 2011, on seeing on Facebook that I was in Poland contacted me and told me that I should meet up with her Polish childhood friend, Kaasia, who lives in Krakow. I'd  be silly not to, I thought. This is when travelling with no plans pays off. Spontaneously, I made my way to Krakow the following day and met up with Kaasia.

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Kaasia gave me a tour of her city and we had a great night exploring some hidden local bars and drinking mulled beer for the first time in my life. It was like spending a day catching up with an old friend.

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She told me of this beautiful lake that her family hike to in summer called Morski Oko high up in the Tatra Mountains on the Slovakian border. "Can you hike there in winter?" I asked. "It would be difficult but not impossible." That not impossible answer was enough for my brain to give it the green light to go and do it. 

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At negative ten degrees, I rugged up in my thermals and op-shop acquired ski jacket and wearing inadequate hiking boots for deep snow, I set off on the eight kilometer trek uphill to Morski Oko the following day. 

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It was a winter wonderland. I felt like I was walking through the winter scene in The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, made even more surreal by colourful horse drawn carts with bells jingling as they transported people up the snowy path to the lake. A much easier option but despite my freezing fingers and toes, I refused to pay the ten Euro for the horse ride, knowing that the first glimpse of the lake would be so much more rewarding having hiked there on foot. 

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Was I scared hiking on my own? Not at all. I seem to just get to and do things without thinking just what could happen. I mean I'm not blind to the potential things that could go wrong but more so they are overshadowed by the thought of imagining just what could be if everything goes right.

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Shivering cold I made it to Morski Oko and the view before me was breathtaking. Towering rocky mountains coming in and out of view through the clouds, the lake fully frozen over or so I hoped as I nervously made my way out onto it, with only three other people also crazy enough to be out in the snowy weather. I spun around as the snow fell, in awe of where I was. Up in the snowy Tatra Mountains in Poland and I had hiked here all by myself. 

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With the wind coming in fast over the mountains and across the lake, it was time to head back down into the warmth or face losing a few toes to frostbite. This time treating myself to the horse drawn carriage ride, appreciating being rugged up under a warm heated blanket. The Italians I shared the carriage with telling me I was crazy for hiking all the way up. Was I crazy? Probably. But I had done it and nothing beats that feeling of utter exhaustion and contentment when you've achieved something you set out to do in such a beautiful place in the world.