Quote: (03-05-2019 12:26 AM)Black Caesar Wrote:
Meeting people while solo traveling is trivially easy because almost everyone is curious about you, so if you have any level of social skill you can turn that in to a social circle without issue.
Quote: (03-05-2019 12:26 AM)Black Caesar Wrote:
Literaly you have to work to not meet people as a solo traveler and after a few weeks in a place you should be able to have a solid circle.
Almost everyone? Wow.
I sat and thought to myself whether I thought this sounded like it was actually the case but I'm not sure anymore. I would probably say almost no one is curious about you these days.
I think it depends, it's a different thing traveling today compared to before. I think you have to be more specific if you're going to make a claim like that.
Especially in Western Europe where so many cities have turned multicultural and with the Schengen agreement it's like people don't find it that exciting or exotic with a foreigner.
Unless you first make them aware that you have some sort of superficial value like a good Instagram, that is. Maybe a little exaggeration but I sense there's a bit of truth to it.
People and especially younger generations seem more interested in their smartphones than making human connections. Unfortunately, the few cool ones tend to be those guys who are out there solo traveling themselves, that you'll often just hang out with for a such a short period of time, before you change paths and most likely never see each other again.
And the paradox here is that when you're young it's a bit easier since you have people your age and they're often willing to hang out but many in their 30's are too busy with their new families, girlfriends and wives and kids and so on and have less energy and have pretty much given up on life (and are usually boring to hang out with to begin with since they have so low energy).
When I've been to many places in Eastern Europe I can't say people have taken much interest in me. If you look into that Poland thread, for example, there are multiple guys that confirm that westerners who go there are often looked at just as losers for going there. No one is particularly curious about a loser or wants to be his friend.
With that said, it's obviously not impossible. There are cool people out there too but I wouldn't say building a social circle from scratch in your 30's is something anyone with just a bit of social skills can do "without issue" and is a matter of weeks.