How I moved to a country where I knew nobody — and why it was the best thing I ever did

The first month, I knew three people: my flatmates, who I’d found on Facebook. One of them became a close friend. The other two I said goodbye to at the end of the year and never spoke to again. That’s how it goes.

The warning everyone gives you

“It’ll be lonely at first.” Yes. It will. That’s not the part they tell you clearly enough. The first two months are slow and a bit hard and you question the decision every other week.

What they don’t say is: and then it isn’t. And then you have a place that’s yours, a routine, people you’ve chosen rather than been assigned by geography. That version of your life is worth the two months.

What moving abroad teaches you about travelling

Living in a country where you don’t know the codes — the social rules, the timing, what’s rude, what’s polite, what people actually mean when they say things — turns out to be very good preparation for travelling.

You learn to be wrong without it being a disaster. You learn to ask. You get comfortable with not understanding everything and acting anyway.

That’s the main skill solo travel requires. It turns out moving abroad is a long, slow way to develop it.

The thing I’d tell myself before going

Don’t wait until you feel ready. You will never feel ready. The readiness comes from going, not from waiting to go.

That’s the whole message, really. I wrote 800 words to say that one thing.