Iain Banks, on travelling alone.

[randomness]

"You travel fastest by yourself for a start. And you're more exposed to what you're doing....You are more open to the actual place, much more involved in the place around you: you haven't got someone else to talk to in your own language. Obviously you might meet people in youth hostels, but it does expose you more to the country: it's a comprehensive experience of the foreignness of a place, if you're by yourself. And also I decided where I wanted to go, and wasn't trailing around with someone who wanted to go and see yet another bloody cathedral."

From an interview with Isobel Murray, in Scottish Writers Talking 2.

Comments

[roozle.livejournal.com]

Yes! That's exactly how I felt off by myself for a couple of days.

(granted, Burlington VT isn't that foreign, but all the rest of it...)