So today I put on my big girls’ pants. I am a solo traveller…. yay me! Well, that’s not true I have solo travelled plenty of times before, for work or courses and a very long time ago, on a Nile cruise, but in my head, they don’t count as solo travel, as they’re not holidays, well apart from the Nile one.  A few months ago, I decided… ‘stuff this…. I’m single, over 50 and fed up with waiting to meet someone to share nice holidays with’, so I started planning some short city getaways to embark on. Italy, Spain, Greece, France….I was so excited, onto booking.com I went. I downloaded apps, started plans. Mapped out my leave, I moved overseas 12 yrs ago, and have lived the life of an expat, so most of my leave was spent travelling back to see my family in the UK. I selected to reduce a 2-week trip to the UK to 1 week and planned to use those days to create a few long weekends…. Europe here I come! I was proud of how brave I was starting to get.  As always, the ‘Universes other shoe dropped’, My mum passed away, I had dashed back to the UK as she’d been sick for a while, and I’m so grateful I got there in just in time to see her the night before she died. The next month was a haze of funeral arrangements and other people’s grief. So, on the back burner my plans had gone, forgotten in the haze, my life was on hold whilst I prioritised my family, there is always an excuse right. I mean don’t get me wrong this is a good one and very valid.

At some point in all of this, my boss asked me if I’d be ok to attend a work conference in a few months’ time. “of course I said, where is it?”  Athens. “Sign me up” I said….”and can I have a couple of leave days after?” the universe had heard my tears and had given me a friendly nudge. I could deal with this later I thought.

We were lucky I was still in the UK, when my dad had a heart attack, with a few added complications for good measure. He was transferred by ambulance, moving between the different specialist wards in the 3 local hospitals all in one day.   His takeaway from this day was, “Do you realise I managed to have a meal in each hospital!”  now that’s an optimist if ever I heard one.  He stayed in hospital for 9 days, and we filled his visiting hours each day with family and friends.  Whilst he filled his tummy with the nice hospital meals…. he was very happy all things considered, some days more than most as on some days he managed to squeeze in two puddings, “double pudding days” were his favourite! 

After a 9 day “double pudding holiday” my dad left hospital, and after getting him sorted and back on his feet I returned to my home overseas, and then straight off to Athens for that long-awaited work conference with some of my colleagues from work.  It in itself was hard work, but a very much welcomed distraction from the past few months. The universe is finally working in my favour I thought.

 So, they all left yesterday….and I left all my undies in my previous hotel drawers as I moved to my new ‘vacay’ hotel…. Upon realising this, I marched to the nearest Marks & Spencer and bought new ones, there’s always an M&S nearby to save the day. So, ‘new me, new pants’. Smiling to myself, swinging my M&S bag as I went wandering through the different streets back towards my hotel.  I found a picturesque little restaurant hiding in the shade of Olive trees.  “Table for one?”, “Yes please” with a partly faked confident smile plastered on my face, and a Rose in my hand, I ordered Salad, and another Rose, and settled in for some relaxing people watching. I loved it. One of my fears previously had been eating alone, I’m not really sure why, I guess I was more concerned about how other people would be feeling about it, feeling sorry for the lady sat all on her own. I aced it, I was brilliant at sitting on my own, not giving a shit what they thought.  No longer sure why I was ever bothered, I guess it’s a 50+ thing, things that bothered you before, well, they just don’t anymore. Now I was feeling a little more confident, and a lot less faking it.

Now I was all about the benefits of eating alone, so at breakfast today, I realised, at my ‘table for one’, I could swap over halfway to see the view from the other side of the table. My choice of hotel in Athens did not disappoint with regard to views, for it provided an outdoor rooftop restaurant with 360° views to die for. I was giving myself high 5s every morning for my choice.

 Armed with my 3 day ‘Big bus’ ticket…I went exploring, smiling at my bravery being in a city I didn’t know, learning things about the people who’d lived centuries before me…. then, laughing as I passed my old hotel…I jumped off at the next stop intent on fetching my knickers back.  I marched up to the hotel front desk and confidently informed them that I had checked out yesterday, but it appeared I had left all my underwear in one of the drawers. 10mins later a flustered lady from housekeeping surreptitiously opened a bag revealing my knickers to me, and could I confirm that these were the items I’d left.  Trying to keep a straight face at her, over the top discreet behaviour, I whispered “yes, thank you very much” and trotted off to catch the next ‘Big bus’. The rest of the day I wandered around the older parts of Athens, took a tour, had lunch and people watched. Jumped back on a bus, jumped off, I smiled at the couples arguing, and the groups trying to compromise where to eat.  All the time thinking, “If someone steals this rucksack, they’re gonna get a load of knickers”! 😂 I have no plans for tomorrow as I don’t know what time I’m going to wake up yet! This is awesome I am finally a ‘proper’ solo traveller. 

I wrote this post some time back, albeit a slightly shorter version, and posted it on a ‘Women’s 50+ group of solo travellers’. I was amazed by the feedback I received. Over 2.1k likes and 280+ comments, all of them not just good comments, they were great comments, awesome in fact. So many mentioned, you should write a blog, a book, more posts, please write more. I thought…. why not.! One comment was “a glorious celebration of independence and undies” – and so a tag line was born. I was showing a friend at work my post and she was reading the comments agreeing, “you should do a blog, I’d love to read something by Susie!” and bang just like that my blog now had a name – welcome to – ‘Something by Susie’

So, I’ll end this post the same way I ended the original FB one….

“Ps… my Dad is 87 and back to doing his 12,000 steps and our angel, is my Mum 😇”

Peace, Love & light,

always 

October 2024