It has some magic of solitary traveling in Europe. It is the independence of waking up in a new city with no plans and letting your curiosity to know the new place be your one and only guide; it is the sense of peace you get after successfully finding your way in a metro system of a different city on your own, and it is the sense of the pleasure that you get when you eat just the way you want it to be eaten. And we are all familiar with the big ticket attractions: the romantic charm of Paris, the ancient majesty of Rome, the colourful anarchy of Barcelona. However, there is more to these popular (and sometimes over-populated) locations of Europe, the Europe of forgotten courtyards and undiscovered trails, and first-hand encounters. It is a tribute to those who went unnoticed, the cities thanking their dues in the backstage awaiting their glorious shots. These destinations combine discovery, safety and affordability as well as being ideal to the solo traveller in that they are not crowded much as their popular counterparts. They offer room to breathe, to get lost and to relate to a place more intimately. Forget about the long queues and the tourist traps; weekend trips in one of these underrated cities are your chance to make your own unique, personal, and quite unforgettable travel story.
Most tourists are rushing to Florence and Rome but the cognoscenti will tell you that the true pulse of Italy culinary culture is actually beating somewhere in Bologna. Bologna is the capital of the Emilia-Romagna region and, on landing there, it warmly welcomes the solo traveler. It is called by the locals as La Dotta (the learned) because of its ancient university, La Grassa (the fat) because of its rich, world-famous food and La Rossa (the red) due to the warm, terracotta shades of its roofs. It is a wanderer of a city. The most striking characteristic of it is the close to 40 kilometers of beautiful porticoes/covered walkways that face the streets. It also has come rain or shine to poke about in old bookstores and old osterias. Bologna is a dream to the solo traveling enthusiast. It is so easily accessible by foot and there are no suffocating tourist throngs of visitors so this is more real. The idea of your mission on the weekend is to eat. It is the place of the tagliatelle al rag, tortellini and mortadella. An excellent solo activity can become a food tour or a pasta-making lesson. Mercato di Mezzo is a food market where you can create the ideal picnic, do not miss it. Take a hike up the Asinelli Tower when you are in the red city to experience an impressive view and spend an afternoon wandering aimlessly in the network of narrow streets in the Quadrilatero that is the old market area of the city. Compared to other cities in Italy, Bologna does not scream to be heard; Bologna tells instead in its own sweet tone and essence.
Imagine a city with medieval castle overlooking a clear emerald-green river, bridges are guarded by dragons, and the whole area of the city center is a zone without automobiles. This is not a fairy tale this is Ljubljana. The Slovenia capital is contested as being among the Greenest and most liveable cities in Europe, not to mention the fact that it is tiny and affordable to navigate, and that its cosy ambiance makes it a pure gem of a single-person weekend trip. It is a city that is big and small; it has stunning architecture and you feel safe there. You can begin your weekend by going on a walk along the banks of Ljubljanica River where cafes are plenty. Buzz the symbolic Triple Bridge and the adjoining Dragon Bridge and wade towards the funicular that ferries you to Ljubljana Castle where you take in panoramic sights. The Strolling is incredibly wonderful, and a bike is the best be able to do it, to acquire down too far, axiomatic to the enormous Tivoli Park. The food situation in Ljubljana is a pleasant surprise, and the Open Kitchen food market lets you get a flavour of food of every part of Slovenia. The city is very slow paced and this is what makes it desirable. It is a place where one can just be, can take his/her time having a coffee, be in no hurry, and be able to do it all alone, and be comfortable with that.
Ghent is a city that people might not usually visit due to the overwhelming presence of the picture-worthy city Bruges, but they will be pleased they did. It has all the medieval charm you could wish and yet, there is vibrant, creative and slightly rebel heart to Ghent. It is a university town which makes it young and vibrant and with a good arts and music scene. A solo traveler can find no better equilibrium in Ghent since it is beautiful but not too much so that one is tempted to think one is in an escape, it is too much like reality to be considered alive. The most breath taking part of the city and it is the two quays of Graslei and Korenlei along the Leie river with a row of old guildhalls. You cannot miss taking a canal boat tour. The only pleasure of Ghent is the visiting. Drive up to the top of Belfry to have the most wonderful views, and to the imposing Gravensteen ( Castle of the Counts). The Ghent Altarpiece in St. Bavo Cathedral is a must-see to the art lovers. So do not confine yourself to major attractions. So, explore Patershol area- a maze of cobblestone streets crammed with lovely restaurants. Ghent is an alternative name of the veggie capital of Europe and has an enormous amount of vegetarian and vegan restaurants. It is a city of differences which is both conservative and progressive.
Krakow is a city with history on its sleeves. The former royal capital of Poland is a glorious brocade of the Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque building, which surprisingly survived the ravages of World War II. To a single traveler it provides a heart-throbbing life-changing and very cheap weekend getaway. The city is concentrated on Rynek Glnny which was one of the greatest and the most beautiful medieval market squares in Europe. All of the Old Town is very easy to walk form here. You should visit Wawel Royal Castle and Cathedral that overlooks river Vistula and stands on a hill. To the other aspect of the history, stroll in Jewish quarter of the past, Kazimierz. Now it is a bohemian district with quaint synagogues, little independent art galleries and bars. When in Krakow, the Auschwitz- Birkenau Memorial and Museum is one sobering and critical place one should visit. More humorously, the Polish cuisine is rustic and yummy. Do not forget to eat pierogi and zurek. Krakow is a beautiful and affordable city that is rich in history and therefore a rather intriguing option.
Porto is the second city of Portugal and offers its own charms although Lisbon tends to capture most of the attention. It is a hilly city with old and deteriorating facade painted in blue and white azulejo tiles and is a dramatic city located on the banks of the Douro River. It is a little dirtier, a little more soulful than Lisbon and the fact that it is smaller still makes it ideal to spend a weekend alone here. There is no doubt that your adventure will take you to the Ribeira district, one of the UNESCO World Heritage sites. Crossing the upper deck of the emblematic Dom Luis I Bridge will give you breath-taking scenery of the city and the port wine cellars of Vila Nova de Gaia on the other shore. Naturally, there would be no journey to Porto without sampling the city-s most well-known product. One of the most well known things about Gaia is the port wine lodges, spend a few hours there taking tours and tastings as you go. Take your chance to visit the beautiful atrium covered with 20000 tiles in the São Bento Train Station. Porto will please the people with both the desire to climb its hilly districts with amazing sceneries, mouthwatering dishes and one of the most atmospheric experiences.
To the traveler who wants to do something really new, Tbilisi is the answer. The city of Georgia is capital which is hard to classify. In this case, Art Nouveau mansions are neighbors to the buildings of the Soviet years, and ancient Orthodox churches. It is a city where the worlds of two continents and cultures meet and its emotions and vitality combined with the hospitality of its inhabitants make a memorable destination to visit alone. The exploration begins in the Old Town that offers maze-like streets and the wooden carved balustrades. Board the cable car in Rike Park up to the Narikala Fortress to have fantastic views. It is possible to state that one of the most original things to do in Tbilisi is a tour to Abanotubani district, the historical sulfur bathhouses. This food is an attraction on its own. Treat yourself on khachapuri that is a luxurious cheese-stuffed bread and khinkali savory soup dumplings. Georgia is in the world too one of the oldest wine-producing regions. To learn more about the modern Tbilisi, visit Fabrika that was once a Soviet sewing factory but today has become a great multi-purpose zone. Tbilisi is a city of fantastic contrasts, the city which seems simultaneously to be old and new.
Stockholm can be the beautiful capital, yet there is the second city in Sweden where you can find a calm, relaxed, and naturally cool environment a place to visit: Gothenburg. A Dutch-style canal needs to be filled with a typical Leefbow boulevard and an attachment to a sea region, and those are the characteristic features of this particular city located on the west coast of the Netherlands. It does not have a fancy or pretentious atmosphere making it very warm to individual travelers. One of the best orientations is to get on a Paddan tour that sails through the city canals on a boat. To get a shot of pure Swedish cool, shot through with a hint of country chic, stroll through the Haga district, a hood of cute wooden houses and intimate cafes. This is where you need to taste a hagabulle or an over-sized cinnamon bun which are quite comical to taste. To gain a culture fix, visit Gothenburg Museum of Art. The location is another distinct characteristic of Gothenburg because the city is close to nature. You can get out toward the Southern Gothenburg Archipelago a group of car-free islands, good to spend a day of hiking, with a brief tram ride. Fanatics will enjoy the Feskekorrka or the Fish Church as an indoor fish market where one may savor the freshest seafood. The beauty of Gothenburg is its laid back nature and concentration in simple living.
These seven cities are a witness to the possibility that most gratifying journeys of traveling, sometimes, are just a little outside of what you know. They provide us with an opportunity to get out of the masses, to get in touch with the beat of a new destination and to have the freedom of a free and unfettered man, which is an inalienable trademark of traveling alone. Therefore, when taking a weekend away, next time instead of going to the classic place you go to, you may want to consider going somewhere else. The ideal adventure that you seek could just be the unknown in a city that you never got to explore.
A decision to take such a route is not purely a decision made on geographical terms, it is a change in the whole ethos of travel. The great capitals of Europe provide a script, an already played down performance, an iconic view and experience driven experience that millions of others have preceded you in experiencing. One feels good about this yet in some way things may seem that you are just a spectator to the famous act of the city. The real present of this underrated city is that it gives you a blank page. There is no strict list, no intimidating pressure in order to view it all. Rather, you are asked to take part in writing of your life as its co-author, to see the reveals of the plot twists and characters that are behind the main stage. This is the crux of slow travel, and this notion thrives in these not-so-traveled locales. It is intercepted by the slowing pace as a matter of course. You are not dashing to the next monument to get a picture fighting off people. Instead you may quite indulge yourself in the luxury of time, that is, to sit several hours in a quiet square, watching children at play, to have a second coffee as the chat with the barista is only becoming interesting, to pursue a windy alley to see what it has to produce.
Such a change of mentality will enable you to detect immense beauty in the banal, the very stuff of local life that is so invariably bleached by the touristic crowd. The most memorable moment of your day may not be a popular international tourist attraction but the realization that there is a tiny bakery with a friendly owner who tells you with a smile on his face of a local pastry whose name you never heard. It can be that hour you dedicated to visit a local park, not as a tourist who needs some rest but as an ordinary member of society spending your time in a park along with residents dog-walking or reading newspaper. The details begin to reveal themselves to you: the unusual shape of door knockers, the colours of the clothes drying on balconies, the specific manner in which the evening light diffuses through the leaves of the trees going down a residential street. This is more textured kind of travelling. It develops a silent versifiability not found in the swagger to use a big hub. Where English may be just a little less omnipresent, the halting attempt at a local phrase can be received quite differently: not in impatience, but with more than anything like appreciation. You grow to have an habit of trusting to gestures, to smiles, to the language of the universal human kindness. Every triumphant encounter, every minor maneuvering success, is more weighty, a real accomplishment as opposed to a designer-packaged version of consumer success.
Naturally it takes a bit more preparation, a bit more savvy, to show up in a destination that has everything a bit less developed on the tourist side. Your entry is the first scene and you would like that to be a smooth one. Jot down the address of the place you would be staying on your first night, in English as well as in the native language, before you leave the room as a screenshot on your phone. This is priceless at the time when you have to meet a taxi driver who probably does not speak your language. Beforehand, research how you are going to travel to the airport or the train station. In smaller cities a bus or tram may well be a more frequent and cheaper alternative to a special airport express train. A little prior knowledge of the route and the ticket system will make the whole process of arrival less stressful but a smooth entry into the local life.
The only magic comes, after resettling, when a person is real and can finally communicate with a place through human contact. This is where the single traveler gives himself/herself an advantage. An individual person is by themselves approachable than a couple or a group of people. You are enigma- an open-book. To use this to your advantage, put a real effort in the language. Saying hello and thank you is good but saying something like: that looks delicious or what a beautiful day, can open some of the most unimaginative doors. The best platform you can use is the local markets. It is not a good idea just to be there and browse. Ask a vendor of fruit, what is his best melon? Ask the monger some question about a local speciality in the cheese shop. Your curiosity will be frequently venued by a tale, a savor, a mutual imparting; a common intercourse. Enter a small non-touristic shop half-bookstore, half-hardware-store, half-workshop, whatever and ask the shopkeeper which was their favourite place to have lunch. This is the one question that might bring you to a lunch, an experience you would never step one foot to in any guidebook. Keep in mind there is nothing more effective in use than an open-faced smile. It breaks language boundaries and indicates that you are not a consumer but a visitor.
Eating by oneself is one of the anxieties of people wanting to travel solo. When sitting at a table at a restaurant as a single, one would feel as though he is illuminated under a bright light that is so harsh. It is not a challenge though, in these underrated cities it is an opportunity. It is the trick to managing your location. Pick shops where there are stools or bar seats and it is acceptable to be seated by oneself. They are usually tapas bars, sushi counters, or brash bistros where you watch the cooks as well, which is the show by itself. A little, noisy local osteria is a lot friendlier than a big, stuffy formal dining room with big parties of diners. Love the position of the audience. A meal by itself is a first-row access to the everyday existence of the city. You see how the members of the personnel treat their frequent visitors, how the dishes are being shared by the families, how quiet the service is. Carry a book or a journal and not to hide under, but to have. It keeps your hands busy through the slow times and lets you appear a happy and well-traveled local rather than the sad foreigner. And sometime only pack it all up. Give attention to what you eat. Give a taste to all the ingredients. Thereafter enjoy the wine. The opportunity to spend a leisurely meal in a multi-course meal, having nobody around to think about, being almost a luxury experience and a mindful experience of your whole trip.
These cities tend to be safer than the bigger ones, but this does not mean that you do not have to be alert yourself as the tourist schemes still take place; however in general the streets of these cities are safer. The trick is to appear like you belong, or at least a person that knows what he/she is doing. Never walk aimlessly even when you are lost. Look at your map in the relative privacy of a shop or a cafe and not on a crowded corner. Dress decently to fit in; the locals wear better or worse clothes than you and you can strive an equal standard of smartness or casualness. Lost in the beat of the city. And when something is creepy in a street, or your gut is telling you that something is not right, listen to your instinct. Keep turning and head back to the light direction and the noise. The real happiness of the three places is that one can wander but wandering is smart when you keep your senses in touch with the environment.
Just to experience the soul of these cities, one needs to scout out into the beautifully maintained and sometimes minuscule set of old town. It is the living city, the city that people live in, where one can search for the real one. Here the local bus or tram system comes as your key. An all-day ticket gives you access to a trip all the way to the station. Get off somewhere that appears interesting in a neighbourhood and simply walk. That way you discover which park grandparents push swings in on Sunday afternoon, which district student pack leafy tables at cheap, delicious restaurants, where vacant factories are being transformed into galleries and studios, the emerging arts center. It is at such occasions when you are not in a tourist area that you get to feel the pulse of a place. You no longer are a tourist gazing on attractions, but one moment of a day, you are a mute actor in the lives of the city.
These secrets of the gossip column are ever growing and endless, a fact that can attest to the amazing diversity of Europe. Just imagine Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, a place that lies in a valley and is covered with the most touching history. Walking its streets one is surprised to find superhuman strength. In this case, an Ottoman-era Baščaršija marketplace of coppersmiths and confection runs into matriarchal Austro-Hungarian boulevards. It is place that makes one think and its people are extremely hospitable and its cafes life oozes out in all its jazz to such shocking splendor upraised against its blighted history. Or think of Brno in the Czech Republic and always in the shadow of Prague. It is not a city that takes fairytale beauty seriously; it is full of youthful, intellectual vibe; the city has a huge number of students. It is a shrine of modernist buildings, featuring the renowned Villa Tugendhat and its bohemian-bordering-on-irreverent feel, with secret bars and ground-breaking restaurants, which provide an insanely good value.
More to the north, in Germany, Leipzig is the new Berlin, which has risen out of ashes of its industrial life as a labyrinth of high culture and art. Massive former cotton mills and iron foundries have been converted to huge galleries, working areas and performance venues such as Spinnerei. It is gritty in places, full of creativity and just the place to ignore the world around you, only in a way that is more accessible and less in-yer-face than its ancestors in Berlin used to be, even as it continues to live well in the traditions of classical music in being the city of Bach. In Italy, tourists have flocked to the neighbours of Turin but ultimately Turin itself retains a soul of subtle beauty. It is a city of broad, tree-edged boulevards, baroque monarchical squares and ancient cafes where the coffee ceremony is accorded almost a religious fervor. It is an industrial powerhouse which bgt the world Fiat, but it is aristocratic and unhurried. It is a town of gourmets, a town of people who love fine museums, urban aperitivo culture and the breathtaking Alpine view with none of the touristy people.
Travelling through these cities and the numerous others that are similar to them is a conscious discovery. It asks such a traveler to be more than a receiver of sights and sounds. To be curious, to be patient, to be observant and to be open: it is this question. The payoff of this minor effort is gigantic. It is the joy of discovering a space that is have it your own secret and having a fill of tales that your friends have never heard of and having a feel of the soul a nation as opposed to merely hearing of her most well known front. In these hushed depths of the continent the real lifelong magic of a European trip comes out, not as a magnificent, dramatic presentation, but it is, rather, a very small but sweet and memorable chat.
