Pros and Cons of Traveling Alone

After traveling alone quite a bit over the past year--be it by plane, car, train, bus, or ferry--I've compiled in my head some of the pros and cons of traveling alone, and I thought I'd try to put them down here. I feel like I should note that I realize that, depending on how you look at it, many of the pros could be cons and the cons could be pros.

PROS:

• You go where you want to go
• You do things when you want to do them
  
• You talk to and meet lots of interesting people that you probably wouldn't meet if you weren't alone (this may be the biggest pro)---In Vienna and Croatia I met really cool people everywhere I went...locals, Americans, Koreans, Japanese, Israelis, Canadians...
  
• You never have to carry anybody else's stuff
• You learn to do lots of things that you may have otherwise relied on others to do, such as:
  
• read maps (never been a strong point of mine) and schedules
  
• rent a car
• buy train, bus, plane tickets
• be in the right place at the right time--not necessarily true when it comes to ferries :)
  
• use public transportation
• get out of tough spots and just generally figure stuff out
  
• You get good at spotting great places to set your camera to get a timer shot
  
• You learn a lot about yourself--how you react in situations when no one else is around to see your reaction, for example
  

CONS:

• You have to make all the decisions alone
  
• You end up with lots of people-less pictures and extreme close-ups (product of the extended-arm-shot)
• You can't share the cost of a hotel room
• It's not very fun to go to a restaurant alone
• There are so many moments that can't be captured and you want to share with someone else--it's kind of sad when you have no one to share the memory with
  
• There are some things you just can't do because it's not very safe, like going out when it's dark or hiking in more remote areas...this is obviously more of a concern for girls
• Sometimes you just need someone to talk to who you know you can trust
  

Anyway, this is just the start of a list--there are lots of other things that could go on here as well. I tried to keep the lists pretty even because I don't mean this to be a biased post one way or the other. If you've ever traveled alone, I'd love to hear your additions to the list :)