What’s the best way to meet new people while traveling?

Being DeafBlind, communication can be tricky, not everyone use ASL (Sign Language) or is willing to write… It is very common for me to go out all day without actually talking, or signing, in-depth with anyone.

But, let’s focus on traveling…

26 years ago I went to London, my first solo international trip.

I had it all planned, I’d arrive at Heathrow, grab my backpack & grab a shuttle to central London, then take the underground to the (wrong) hostel I had booked.

Arriving unscathed at around 8 am, I swished my white cane up to the, surprisingly, crowded check-in desk.

I pulled out my pad and paper, no cell phone did I have, and wrote something about who I am and that I was booked at this hostel.

The guy looked into this prehistoric big ass monitor, and wrote on my pad along the lines of “You are booked at Camden Yards hostel.”

I was crestfallen, my crest had indeed fallen off my backpack!

That’s when a stranger approached me; she grabbed the pad and pen and wrote something like “I’m Vicki (or was it Stacy, I can’t remember)! from Victoria BC. I heard the guy say you’re at a different hostel…” and we chatted that was for a time. I’m very sure she showed me how to get from that hostel to Camden Yards. She even walked with me to the Tube station. I’m also pretty sure she gave me her e-mail, but I didn’t send her a thank you bouquet of cyber flowers, I was dating someone else!

I was visibly distraught, perhaps exuding a “lost boy” aura, and Vicki/Stacy saw that. Whenever I’m really confused, lost or distraught, somehow some appropriate empathic stranger appears outta nowhere, destined to save my ass!

I’m not visibly lost often, but it happens, from time to time, even in my hometown.

Thanks for reading!