Some hazards of traveling alone

An assertion was made to me during my time in Spain that traveling alone is usually better than not traveling alone. The basic idea being that decision making happens faster if there's only one person making decisions.

I don't buy it, and this trip left me with a few potential reasons why two heads are often better than one.

Reason #1: losing things. I lost, at different times and places, my sunglasses case, my sunglasses, and the case for my binoculars. More eyes might have recovered those things.

Reason #2: divide and conquer. Eric and I arrived in Tampere, Finland at about 7PM without a reservation. One person watches bags, other person goes to find digs to stay in.

Reason #3: double-checking travel arrangements. Due to the popularity of night trains, I had to book my Madrid->Paris night train well in advance (and even then, I only got second class). When I made my hotel reservations for Madrid and Paris, I did not remember for which night I had reserved the train. This resulted in a scramble (luckily only with minor financial costs) to correct things, since there was no other reasonable, cost-effective way to get between Madrid and Paris. (Local trains taking 14 hours doesn't count as reasonable.)

Reason #4: avoiding the odd bone-headed maneuver. I might have made the bus into the Sierra Nevada on the first day if I'd arranged things a bit differently, including my tactical actions at the bus stop. (Hint: go to the bus, don't stand in the ticket line.)

There are probably other reasons, but these fell out when I thought about it, and I figured this was a good place to share them.