独自旅行的5个理由

作者：萨莎·卡根 / 2011-3-9

During 2010, as I traveled alone through France, Brazil, Colombia, and Argentina, I regularly encountered people who find it courageous to travel alone. I remember a hairstylist in Bogota. As she blow-dryed my hair, she told me she couldn’t picture it. I asked her why. She couldn’t really say. So it goes. For most people, traveling alone is unimaginable.

2010年，当我独自在法国、巴西、哥伦比亚和阿根廷旅行时，经常遇到一些人，他们都认为独自旅行是很勇敢的事。我记得有一个发型师，当她正给我吹干头发时，告诉我说她不敢想像一个人旅行。我问她为什么，她也说不出为什么。就是这样，对大多数人们来说，独自旅行是难以想像的。

Traveling alone still gives me a thrill, but it’s not scary anymore, I’ve done it so much. Traveling alone can be occasionally lonely, yes. I have felt pangs of loneliness at times. Scary, in South America or Europe, rarely. It’s easy to meet people when you travel alone if you stay at hostels and hook up with couchsurfing, a global network of travelers who support each other through hosting and advice. People think that couchsurfing is only for finding a place to stay, but it’s also for making friends. Go to the “groups” section and find the city you’re visiting, find out what people in the couchsurfing community are planning. Post a message saying that you are coming to town, does anyone have advice or want to have coffee? Couchsurfing members are astonishingly friendly and helpful. 

独自旅行仍然让我感到很兴奋，但不再害怕，因为我已经独自旅行过很多次了。独自旅行偶尔会孤独，没错。有时我会感到孤独的痛苦。害怕吗，在南美和欧洲，很少会。独自旅行过程中很容易碰到其他人们，只要你住旅店时访问“沙发漫游”（Couchsurfing）网站，那是一个全球性的旅行者们的网络，他们相互帮助提供招待和建议。人们认为“沙发漫游”只是为了找落脚的地方，但通过它也可以交到朋友。访问网站上的“组群”区，找到你所在的城市，看看“沙发漫游”社区里的人们都在计划些什么。在网上发条消息说我现在在城里，你们可有什么建议或都跟我喝杯咖啡去？“沙发漫游”的人们都是非常友好、有帮助的。

Here are five reasons to travel alone, some classic, some idiosyncratic. There are also reasons to travel with a romantic partner or with friends. Each experience is unique, but traveling alone is undoubtedly rich. Add yours in the comments.

这里是5条独自旅行的理由，有些是经典的，有些是特别的。与一个浪漫的旅伴或是朋友们一起出游固然也有其理由，因为每一次经历都是独特的，但独自旅行却无疑具有更丰富的内涵。如果你有什么不同的理由，就加在评论里面吧。

1. Learn how to make decisions. For me, traveling alone was one crash course in making decisions–just keep on rolling the dice and see what comes up. Stop the research. Stop the analysis paralysis. Just keep choosing and living. In travel, everything is as it is, and there’s always another day to change course and choose again. A lot more happens in life when you stop worrying about what to do and just go. That problem dogged me in the year before I made the decision to travel. I was so freaked out by the idea of putting my life in storage and jumping off the known career path that I pondered the decision to death. I planned to travel only four months and wound up going for over a year. Once I got started I didn’t want to stop. 

1、学习怎样做决定。对于我，独自旅行是学习怎样做决定的速成班——就是不停地滚动骰子看看有什么出现。不再调查研究，不再优柔寡断，只是不断地做出选择和生活。人在旅途，事事顺其自然，而且总是有一天要改变路线从新选择。如果你停下来发愁该做什么时，会有更多的事发生，在我决定旅行之前的那年里就被这样的麻烦困扰着。把现有的生活暂时抛开，跳出目前的职业轨道，我当时对这样的想法感到崩溃，该如何决定我考虑得死去活来。最后我计划只旅行四个月，但实际旅行了一年多。而且一旦开始了旅行，我就再也不想停下来。

2. Openness to the world. The sense of risk and heightened reward is what draws me to traveling alone. Traveling with a friend can be an adventure too, but the adventure quotient is usually higher when you are alone. You’re more vulnerable in the sense that you have to seek out company and help. There is a lucky charm in traveling alone. My friend Mark lived in Rio for three years right by the beach in Ipanema. On a solo trip to Rio I stayed with him and he jokingly told me he could always spot the solo travelers by the red streaks on their backs: the spot they couldn’t reach themselves with sunscreen. Apt observation and probably true for some solo travelers but not all. But hey, just because I’m traveling alone doesn’t mean I can’t ask a hunky Carioca volleyball player to put sunscreen on the hard-to-reach places. That’s the advantage of traveling alone, isn’t it? Openness to adventure.  

2、对世界敞开怀抱。冒险的感觉和增加的回报吸引着我独自旅行。和朋友一起旅行也可以是冒险，但只有你一个人时冒险的份量通常会更高。如果你想要获得旅伴和帮助，感觉上你更脆弱些。独自旅行也有交好运的吸引力。我的朋友马克就在（巴西）伊帕内马海滨的里奥住了三年。有一次我独自在里奥旅行时到他家里做客，他开玩笑说，他能肯定地认出单飞的旅行者，因为他们背上有红色的条纹：就在背上自己够不着摸防晒油的位置。观察真够仔细的，对于一些单飞的旅行者也许这是真的，但并非所有单飞的人都是这样。嗨，独自旅行并不意谓着我不能请里约热内卢一位打排球的美男子帮我在自己难以够到的背上涂防晒油。这也独自旅行的好处，不是吗？对冒险敞开怀抱吧。

3. The grace of trusting in strangers. Traveling alone also teaches you to trust your fellow men and women. They are the ones who help you out when you are in need. I will never forget the man who stopped a long-distance bus for me in Colombia so he could go buy me Coke and toilet paper (I confessed to him that I had “digestive” issues right before we got on the bus). Then he invited me to his family’s home for lunch, and I still get emails from the family saying they will never forget me. I have had similar experiences all over Brazil and Colombia. The kindness and welcoming spirit is unbelievable.

3、有风度地信任陌生人。独自旅行也教会你信任和你同道的男男女女。他们就是那些在你有需要时会帮忙的人。我永远不会忘记在哥伦比亚有一个男人，为了我，他停下长途汽车，去给我买可乐和卫生纸（我对他坦白，我就在上车前患有“消化不良”）。后来他还邀请我到他家里午餐。我现在还收到他们家的邮件说不会忘记我。在巴西和哥伦比亚各地我都有类似的经历。人们的善良和热情好的让你难以置信。

4. Star in your own movie. When you travel alone, the trip is completely yours. You are the star of your own movie. All the mistakes are yours to make, the serendipitous discoveries to enjoy, and the insights to savor. The recollection of the trip is entirely personal and private. Even though I have blogged extensively about my travels, there is no one who was along the whole journey with me who can say what it was all about. Some people prefer to share memories and make meaning from the trip together. That is beautiful as well, but there is also a soul-searching power in doing an odyssey on your own. 

4、做自己电影里的明星。独自旅行时，旅程完全是你一个人的。你是自己电影里的明星。犯自己的错误，欣赏偶然的发现，品味自己的领悟。对旅程的回忆完全是个人的和隐私的。尽管我把自己的许多旅行展示在博客里，没有一个人能说整个旅程是怎样的因为没有一个人和我一起走过整个旅程。一些人们喜欢分享记忆，探讨旅行的意义，这同样是很美好的。但是，在你孤身一人的长期冒险旅行中也有一种力量让你真挚地自我反省。

When we set out on an extended travel by ourselves, we may not know why we are going when we begin, and it may only be clear when we come back. When you finally understand the narrative of your solo trip, it’s your secret. 

当我们动身做长期旅行时，开始我们也许不并知道为什么这样做，但我们回来时答案变得透彻明了。最后你理解了自己独自旅行的故事，那就是你自己的秘密。

Me and my Belgian BFF

（我和我比利时的终生好友）

5. A new best friend (or love) 4-eva. In a whole year of travel, I made a new best friend who I know will be a friend for life. We will be at each other’s weddings if we get married, we coach each other through our post-(or newly)-travel lives, and we hope to meet up for other adventures in Africa, Asia, and to dance tango in Buenos Aires. We spent close to two months together in Cali, and we met up again in Buenos Aires for two more months. Our friendship is pure gold and we have both helped each other grow in innumerable ways. That openness to a new friend might not have been there if I had already been traveling with someone else. And who knows? You might meet the love of your life. Thataforementioned friend did actually . . . .

5、交到新的至友（甚至至爱）。在一次整年的旅行中，我交到一个要好终生的新朋友。我们承诺会出现在对方的婚礼上，我们会相互指导旅行后（或是新旅行）的生活，我们期望着在非洲、亚洲的旅行中再次相遇并在布宜诺斯艾利斯一起跳探戈舞。我们曾在（哥伦比亚西部城市）卡利一起度过近两个月，又在布宜诺期艾利斯相遇相聚了两个月。我们的友情纯洁珍贵，有无数个时候我们相互帮助成长。如果当时我和另外一个人一起旅行，我可能不会对新朋友如此真挚直率。谁知道呢？你也许会在旅行中遇上自己一生的至爱，事实上我提到的这个朋友就真的遇到了……