How do you spend your birthdays?
There are different kinds of birthday people. For some of us this day is the most important day of the year, and they spend it with a lot of people. Others don’t want to be reminded of growing a year older and like to hide at home. I like birthdays and being with family and friends. But I spent my 27th birthday alone on a solo travel. Afar from every person I knew, willingly. It was one of the most adventurous days of my life, but let’s start at the beginning of the story.
Should I really spend my birthday alone on a solo travel?
You probably know this feeling, when all you do is work. You had a lot of deadlines and all you need is a few days off to release tension. But what to do when the only possible date is the week of your birthday and nobody has the time to accompany you on a trip? Not a problem for a solo traveler. I traveled alone a few times already so this doesn’t frighten me. But I never spent my birthday alone in another country. I mean this should be about celebrating with family, being the most important person of the day, everybody hugging me and having good wishes for me, right? At least most of my birthdays were like this.
Birthdays should be about celebrating with family, being the most important person of the day, everybody hugging me and having good wishes for me, right?
On the other hand I really needed to get out of my daily routine. So the decision was made, I would go on a solo trip. I mean I’m an independent woman, I can be happy on my own, party with myself. I don’t need everybody I know around me, right? And what about these skydiving plans I already had for a long time? If I have to spend my birthday on my own, then at least I should have a great present!
This said I searched on the web and found this really nice skydiving center called Skydive Empuriabrava. It’s located in the north of Spain, near Barcelona. I had already been to the city twice but never had time to explore it because the first time was just a stopover and the second time was a business trip. So this time I would spend a whole week there. And which day would be better for skydiving than my birthday? 3 hours later everything was booked. I told everybody that I wouldn’t be home on my birthday and two weeks later I was on my way to Barcelona.
I’m not the only birthday girl in Barcelona.
When I’m solo traveling, I like to stay in hostel dorms so it’s easy to meet people. [Link to “How to meet people as a solo traveler”] When I arrived in my room there were two other German girls there. After an hour of talking we found out that the next day was both mine and one of the girls’ birthday. And we were born in the same year. How likely is it to meet someone with the same gender, nationality and exact birthday in a hostel room in another country?! Awesome, this was already a good start! I mean, it just has to be a good day! But things turned out a bit different.
How likely is it to meet someone with the same gender, nationality and exact birthday in a hostel room in another country?!
On the next day I woke up to my alarm after having slept for about 2 hours. I was so excited and also worried that I wouldn’t hear my alarm, that I couldn’t sleep for most of the night. But why should being tired stop me from having a great day?! So I set off for the skydiving center, which is a one-hour train ride from Barcelona. I need to mention that I couldn’t eat anything for breakfast, because my stomach wasn’t feeling well. The stress of the past weeks made itself felt now. Moreover, the train didn’t stop at the station I thought it would, because I took the express train. A 30-minute walk later I arrived at the bus terminal near the other train station where I took a bus and luckily arrived in time at the skydiving center, because I set off early.
Omg, I did it! I jumped out of a plane on my birthday!
I only told my best friend about my skydiving plans and nobody else knew about it. My plan was to do this just for myself and talk about it later. Maybe there was also a little bit of fear, I wouldn’t be able to do it. If I had told everybody about it beforehand, this would have ended in an embarrassment.
Anyway, I was there and about to jump out of a plane at an altitude of 4,000 meters. To get some good photos I booked the package where you have a second skydiver who’s just there to film you. The staff was really nice and I felt very secure and in good hands. After a short instruction we boarded the plane and went up into the sky. When it was time to jump, everything just happened so fast I didn’t have time to be afraid. [If you want to know more about this experience, read this post about my skydiving adventure.]
About 20 minutes later I was back on the ground, in a rush of adrenaline. My legs were shaking, I was smiling and wanted to do it again. Just not on this day, admittedly it was an exhausting experience, both physically and mentally. I mean, how would you feel after falling to the ground for like forever without any control?! But there was this feeling that I’de definitely do it again sometime.
How would you feel after falling to the ground for like forever without any control?!
What about the rest of the day?
After mastering this adventure, I had a small solo picnic in a park, where I opened the present my best friend gave me to take along on my trip. And there it was, this feeling of simply feeling good, being loved, enjoying my friend’s present and I knew my decision was right. I wanted to be here, I was right to go on this trip. Being on my own wasn’t a bad thing. This also was the time when I posted the first photo of me diving in the sky. But it wasn’t very important. Of course, I wanted to show, which kind of cool stuff I was doing, but I realized that I wanted to enjoy my time here a lot more than telling everyone about it. Eventually this day was for me and not for all the other people to see on Facebook. So I was just happy about it.
Because the day had already been exciting enough, I took the rest of it easy. I talked and messaged to some friends and family and later at night I exchanged birthday stories with the other girls. We stayed in our room and didn’t go out that night and had such a nice time. Believe me, I slept so well that night!
I would definitely do it again and so can you!
It definitely wasn’t the best day I ever had in my life. But it was a good day. I decided to spend it like this and still don’t regret it. So if you’re worrying about spending your birthday on your own, without anyone you know, in a place you’re not familiar with, don’t think it’s a bad thing. Make the best out of it and don’t blame yourself, if it’s not prefect. Being afraid is completely fine. Think about what is important for you and what you definitely need to be happy. If you need to talk to your family, you can just as well do it over the phone. Include those things in your day plans and you will enjoy it. And also remember, it probably will not be your last birthday ever. You can always do it differently next year. So why not do something new this time?
