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I have only had one “major” problem while traveling by myself. This happened way back in 1998, when I was working as a teacher in Romania. During my two week Easter vacation my sister and I went on a “sister-bonding” trip through Scandinavia. After dumping her off at the airport, I just wanted to get home and relax. Against my better judgment and multiple warnings from my surprisingly travel-savvy 5th graders to “NEVER EVER TAKE THE NIGHT TRAIN FROM BUDAPEST TO TIMISOARA!!!” I decided to go ahead and take the dreaded night train to Romania. The whole thing was a disaster. Once I got to the train station I was unable to buy a ticket for the “Romanian” portion of my trip, due to local bureaucratic peculiarities that were (and still are) baffling to me. I finally decided that I was going to take a chance and try to buy a ticket from the conductor once I crossed that border, and started to settle into my compartment. While stashing my luggage in the overhead compartment, I was suddenly relieved of my purse by a charming Hungarian petty thief. I channeled my inner Powerpuff Girl, chased the guy down, grabbed my purse back, screamed Romanian obscenities that made no sense whatsoever coming from a girl, momentarily incapacitated him, and made my way back down the corridor to a chorus of “bravos” from all of the Hungarian men that witnessed the event, but didn’t bother to help me. As I sunk into my seat, a large majority of these men surrounded me, pinched my cheeks, told me to be careful, asked why I wasn’t married, and persistently tried to sell me their watches.

The rest of the trip was uneventful until I reached the Romanian border. There the ticket controller tried to convince me that the ticket to my destination (about 30 miles away) would cost me about $200 US dollars. I tried to put my newly acquired bargaining and bribing skills to use, but I was clearly a bumbling novice and failed miserably. That is when I completely broke down and began crying for all it’s worth. This totally worked. At the mere sight of my tears, the controller started to look really uncomfortable and helpless. In between tears, I bawled about my job as a poor teacher (my salary worked out to $35 dollars a month), about how I had no money, about how Romanian was a difficult language to learn, and how I just wanted to go home. By the end of my performance, he accepted about $1 dollar for the ticket, consoled me with a tasty sweet bun to eat, and agreed with me that the Romanian future tense is really hard. One hour later I finally arrived safely home.

I should have used better judgment in some of my choices concerning my personal safety. It probably wasn’t the greatest idea to have chased the thief or put myself in the situation of not having a ticket. Which brings us to a very important topic of women’s safety issues while traveling alone around the world. While I have traveled solo to quite a few countries I am by no means a “expert” on this subject. I am constantly looking for suggestions and ideas especially since I might be traveling through Kosovo this summer. I have particularly been impressed with the roundtable discussion on worldhum.com and Lonely Planet’s site. I also found Stephanie Elizondo Griest’s suggestions in her book 100 Places Every Woman Should Go to be very helpful and practical. I was pleasantly surprised that one of her tips for getting out of bad situations was one of my natural reactions. Just cry.

Read more: Eastern Europe, Solo Travel, Travel, Travel Advice, Travel Safety, Travel Tips and Resources, Women's Travel


Lisa can usually be found staring longingly at the Eastern European shelf at the Globe Corner Bookstore. However, she really wants to go to Colombia.

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