The first time I ventured abroad solo, I was 20, had a panic attack in a tent within 24 hours, and called my family crying. (Eleven years later, and I’m still genuinely embarrassed about this.)

I was volunteering at a yoga studio in Greece and felt deeply out of place. A fairly sheltered kid surrounded by well traveled adults, I felt out of my depth and didn’t know how to tread water. I have no earthly idea what compelled me to stay when I felt so uncomfortable, but luckily I did. Because a couple days later, that sense of discomfort faded and I found myself joyfully immersed in the unfamiliar. And through that, I fell in love with the unknown. The seemingly unusual. The foreign. 

Since then, I’ve been to a couple dozen countries and while I haven’t had another panic attack in a tent, I have definitely managed to find myself in many more ridiculous scenarios.  

That same summer, a friend and I ventured to another island and forgot to book a hostel or hotel to stay in ahead of time. We figured we could just hop off a ferry and it would be fine…in the middle of tourist season. We ended up sleeping in a tent on the beach and eating fruit we picked off trees for breakfast.

A couple months later, while studying in Florence, Italy, some friends and I took a weekend trip to Sorrento, and something went awry with our train back to Florence. I still have no idea what actually happened but we ended up sleeping on the train platform because there was nowhere else to go.

And while you might chalk this up to being young and careless (not entirely untrue), I still make glaring mistakes that I fortunately eventually learn from. So here is Trial and Error Travel. For amusement, lessons learned the hard way and hopefully some good stories to inspire new adventures.

I don’t know how I forgot a hair tie climbing a mountain, took a picture with a brick on the Great Wall of China or WHY I thought gin long drink in Estonia was a good idea, but all of those were clearly mistakes.

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