On your own
Nobody is coming
to find you,
and that is fine.
What we tell people who have not done this before.
The three hard days are the same three days
Day three. The novelty has gone and the routine has not arrived. It is the day people book a flight home and do not take it. Do nothing structural on day three; walk somewhere and eat a large lunch.
Day nine or ten. You are competent now, and being competent alone is quieter than being lost alone. This is the day the spotkanie earns its place, and why day 12 on the Adriatycki is deliberately loose.
The last day. Nobody warns you that it is sad. It is sad. Book the last bed for two nights rather than one, so that the end is a morning rather than a station.
One conversation is the whole target
Not a friend, not a group, not a story. One conversation a day, with anybody, about anything. Two weeks of that and you will come home saying you met people, and you will be right.
The practical part
Arrive before 20:00 on your first night in any country. Keep one card in the pack and one on you, and the hostel's address on paper. Share your location with one person at home, or send one message a day saying which city you are in — not because anything will happen, but because it costs nothing, and by about day five their worry becomes yours. Drink where you can see your glass. If a place or a person feels wrong, leave: you owe nobody an explanation.
112 reaches the emergency services in every country on these routes.
What we will not tell you
We will not tell you to trust your instincts, or that everything happens for a reason, or that you will find yourself. You will find a laundry, a train and about forty people, which is considerably more useful.
