Crossing The Ocean. Solo.
The InterIslander was an interesting journey.
It all started with me sitting in my car awaiting instructions to drive onto the ferry. People waving their hands about, checking details and vaccine passports. Lots of people to help you find your way. I drove on board, parked my car, followed the other passengers to the floor with all the seats, picked one and sat down.
I was joined by a lovely lady whom I enjoyed chatting with about why a particular number plate kept coming up on the intercom; a crash, scratch, lost car, dog in the car and no windows down? We never found out.
I grabbed some sushi from the food court, and sat back down to stare out the window. Conversation had stopped at this point. My table buddy was on the phone and I tried really hard (not really) not to eavesdrop. The intercom turned on again and announced the movie playing was Encanto. I slowly rose, stretched and walked over to the ticket booth pretending I wasn’t super keen to watch a children’s movie. To help make the time pass fast and all that. I spent $10 on a movie ticket thinking Netflix was a million times cheaper and strolled on in to find a seat. The theatre was cold so out came my cozy warm blanket and I snuggled into my seat to relax…..
Then two lovely, yet noisey children started asking me when the movie would start, what it was about, who my favourite character was, and then went on to tell all about their favourite characters, their favourite parts, and asking when the movie would start. All good practice for my teaching days. It did get to the point where they started arguing and I had to really bite my tongue as I wanted to go over to them and tell them off. But I’m not nannying them. They were just confident, chatty kids. So I held back and took deep breaths.
Great movie. Highly recommend.
After the movie my original seat had been taken so I found a spot not near a window, where all the families and groups of friends were sitting. And I started to feel really lonely. I will admit, I was chatting a lot to people on my phone but it just wasn’t the same as having a friend physically there with you. I looked around at all the people who had travel buddies, and as much as I love travelling on my own, I started to wish I had someone to share my experiences with. Someone who I could bounce ideas off of, someone to get excited with, someone to discuss random ideas with as we sailed slowly across the ocean.
For whatever reason, on both crossings (there and back) I found myself feeling really lonely. My assumption is that even though there are so many people on board, it’s not really a place to mix and mingle. And places like that can be hard on a solo traveller.
But I made it through! On the other side of the ocean was a beautiful hostel waiting for me… But you have to wait until the next post to find out all about it..
