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Ignite the Crazy in You

As a kid, I remember always asking a friend to accompany me to the toilet in school. Didn’t we all? Even for something fairly inconsequential, we were afraid to go alone—scared to go solo.

I travelled solo for the first time when I was 43. What do I mean by solo travel? It’s taking a flight to a country where you don’t know anyone. Before this trip, I had travelled abroad on my own a number of times. But there was always someone to reach out to in the country I was going to, or someone to travel with.

It was 2008, and I was running JJA Architects. I had to attend an international office furniture fair, Orgatec, in Köln, Germany. I figured that since I was travelling to Köln, I could use this opportunity to visit a couple of other places, too. So I modified my itinerary to include two days in Copenhagen and two days in Rüdesheim before Orgatec. I initially tried to coax a few friends to join me, but in the end I had only myself for company.

Feeling extremely excited and brave, I left for Copenhagen from Bangalore, transiting through Amsterdam. On my way, it suddenly dawned on me that if something bizarre were to happen, and I just dropped dead during my trip, no one would know for days…I didn’t know anyone in Denmark. But of course, it was too late for cold feet.

In those days Airbnb and Booking.com didn’t exist. Before I left Bangalore, I had telephoned and booked a room in a boutique hotel close to Tivoli Gardens, one of the few places I had heard of. When I got to Copenhagen, I checked in to the hotel and decided to walk around with a map in hand to get the lay of the land. In one hour, I reached the northern tip of tiny Copenhagen, and the statue of the Little Mermaid. Feeling much braver than when I first started out, I took a slightly different route back to my hotel. When I got back, it was 6:30 pm; back in India, women never really stepped out alone after dark. But I was wide awake, and the city was still buzzing. At that point, I thought about visiting Tivoli Gardens. But I wasn’t sure if it was safe for a woman to wander around an unknown, crowded place at night. Would someone take advantage of me? Countless scenarios played out in my head. But Tivoli Gardens was just across from my hotel—how could I miss out? Braving the odds, I bought an entrance ticket. It was Halloween weekend, and Tivoli Gardens was packed. Gingerly I walked in, constantly on the lookout for lurking danger. To my pleasant surprise, nobody bothered me. I was just another person among the thousands of visitors who thronged Tivoli Gardens. Day one was a success.

On day two, I felt safer and more confident. I spent the day on walking tours of Copenhagen and I really fell in love with the city.

That evening, it was time to move on to Rüdesheim, a small German town on the banks of the River Rhine. Unlike bustling German cities like Köln and Frankfurt, which I had been to, this little town was a completely different world. Why did I pick Rüdesheim? There is a lovely wine festival every year around the time I was visiting, so I thought it would be a good idea. But was it really? Especially for a teetotaller like me? Anyway, there I was.

I checked in to my hotel and walked down to the wine festival area. It was like a huge, open food court, with every kiosk selling wine. There was nothing else to drink, so I got myself a snack and some water and picked a seat close to the band. As the tables started filling up, the band began to play lively German songs. One of the men sitting opposite me commented that I was the only person in the entire festival without a glass of wine. I told him that’s because I didn’t drink wine. “Then what are you doing here?”, he asked. I told him that I was there to enjoy the music and to visit Rüdesheim. He was intrigued. That’s when I noticed that I was the only non-German around. The band noticed too and started singing English songs for me. I hummed along with them for some time and later returned to my hotel. It was an evening well spent.

The next day it was sightseeing time. The only mode of transport in Rüdesheim is ship. You have to move from one shore to another on ships which come and go every 40 minutes. So I bought a day pass and visited all the little towns, running back every so often, in time to catch the next ship. I had a lovely day marvelling at all the turrets and castles.

That evening was the last one of my solo travel. The next morning, I would be in Köln for the Orgatec fair, where I would meet hordes of associates and designers from India. That night, as I lay in bed ruminating on my solo trip, I realised that something in me had shifted. I was no longer the person who had left India the week before. Something had changed in me. The umbilical cord to my safety net had been permanently cut.

This trip had ignited the crazy in me. It was the start of my life of running, trekking, and travelling of the next 10 years.

Every woman needs to do this before the age of 45: