Short Story 3
Spain, Italy, United Kingdom, France, Netherlands, Ecuador, Turkey, Bolivia, Hungary, Austria, Czech Republic
[PART 3] 35 Memorable Countries for Solo Traveling Adventures
May 2026
Contents
Introduction
Other Countries
Introduction
Welcome to PART 3 of 35 Memorable Countries for Solo Traveling Adventures! If this is your first time in the three-part series, in PART 1 (Short Story 1) and PART 2 (Short Story 2), there are 24 countries (12 in PART 1 and 12 in PART 2) to visit.
In PART 3, we'll explore countries 25 through 35, uncovering 1 must-see city or town in each country through my solo traveler’s lens.
With that said, you know what to do from here!
25. Spain
“Wow,” is my first reaction to the astonishing Sagrada Familia basilica. It’s a massively tall church that people from all over the world flock to when traveling in Barcelona, Spain. In fact, the Sagrada Familia plans to be the tallest religious monument in the world at 566 feet high, and with 18 towers by 2026. The tour guide is right, people can spend a few hours just observing the 12 high towers and exterior elements of this Roman Catholic basilica. This includes the nativity façade, sculptures, and other fine details around the temple. My eyes feel somewhat overwhelmed because there’s so much to see.
The inside of Sagrada Familia is structured like a colorful forest that will take me to another dimension, or up to the divine spirit. It’s like a church jungle with hardly any statues. Tall stone columns are designed as forest trees holding branches up to the ceiling. The east part’s walls have stained-glass windows containing different shades of blue, which represent daylight. The west zone’s walls carry orange stained-glass windows to symbolize the sunset. I can see why the inside of the temple is called the “Temple of Light.”
This is the most creatively built church I’ve ever witnessed! Whether someone is religious, non-religious, or atheist, the beauty and creativity of this basilica will grab anyone’s attention. Traveling to Spain and not visiting the Sagrada Familia temple in Barcelona is a no-no.
26. Italy
Exploring some of Italy’s major highlights has been a cool experience, but Florence resonates with me the most. Other than the interesting homes and buildings demonstrating Renaissance heritage, the narrow and curvy cobblestone roads, and the exquisite sights inside various churches, one place stops me in my tracks. It’s not on my agenda to check out Museo Galileo. Even though the outside of the brick-and-mortar building of this two-story museum isn’t eye-catching, my intuition says to give it a try, despite being tired from walking and sightseeing.
To my surprise, Museo Galileo is about astronomy, with about 1,000 items inside this museum. Galileo and a few former top-notch Italian astronomers utilized different astronomical tangibles during the 16th through 19th centuries in Italy. The telescopes, astrolabes, navigation tools, and other artifacts are hitting my psyche hard.
What’s compelling is Galileo and other scientists during his period knew that higher planes of existence and metaphysical dimensions existed, containing at least seven realms outside of the world. I first discovered some cosmic levels beyond the sky during my psychedelic therapy sessions and ceremonies with a few mind-altering medicines. Museo Galileo confirms that other dimensions have existed for a long time and that I’m not crazy. I never thought that out of all the places I visited in Italy, Museo Galileo in Florence would be my favorite encounter.
27. United Kingdom
I’m blown away by London as I ride on the Hop-On, Hop-Off city bus. This includes glimpses of Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, and the London Bridge, to name a few. Anyone using the Hop-On, Hop-Off bus gets the most bang for their buck because they see all of London’s major landmarks in three to four hours without getting off. At the same time, being able to get off at any checkpoint throughout the city, whenever, is convenient.
Even though the winding and narrow streets in central London look like a pain in the ass to drive, there’s something unique about the chaotic roadways. Kudos to the local drivers who can get around these complicated routes cool, calm, and collected. Still, I like this fast-paced United Kingdom vibe in London.
My intuition prompts me to get off at the London Bridge stop. While I walk along the riverside, I come across the Borough Market, a bustling place with plenty of local street food and some vendors hollering, offering free samples. This thick, 12-inch-long sausage hot dog I’m devouring is the biggest and best hot dog I've ever had! Other yummy street food in my stomach from Borough Market includes mushroom risotto, lamb croissant, oysters, and some cheese samples with names I’ve never heard of. If it weren’t for the easy access of the Hop-On, Hop-Off city bus stops, I might have missed this great place to chow down on local London food.
28. France
The Eiffel Tower in Paris is massive, and I haven’t even been to the top floor. It would be foolish of me not to visit this famous landmark constructed in the late 1800s while staying in Paris. I look forward to reaching the top floor/summit, which is 906 feet high, since I didn’t know the general public could take an elevator to the top until I booked the ticket. I assumed people typically observed the Eiffel Tower at a lower level or outside the entrance.
The elevator reaches the summit of the Eiffel Tower. This circular aerial view is better than I thought! There’s a lot more to Paris than this landmark. The lower/second floor has its perks, but paying a few more dollars to be at the top/summit is worthwhile. There’s also a daily Eiffel Tower light show at night, starting at 8:00 p.m. It begins at the top of the hour for the first five minutes, until 11:00 p.m. The free nighttime event is viewable outside the entrance of the Eiffel Tower, wherever it's noticeable throughout Paris.
A few hours have passed since my daytime visit to the Eiffel Tower. It’s 8:00 p.m. and the show has started. The golden-yellow sparkling lights covering the 1,083-foot-tall landmark are a beauty. Visiting the Eiffel Tower is a double whammy: a daytime visit inside the summit, plus the nighttime light show, equals a pleasant and useful day in Paris, France.
29. Netherlands
The Amsterdam-Centrum city center is moving and grooving this afternoon in Amsterdam. Many Dutch locals ride their bicycles as if they are tailgating each other on the streets. Buses drive by while numerous pedestrians walk through the area. The canals are active with boats cruising and houseboats floating. Meanwhile, the Amsterdam train station has a constant flow of crowds exiting the compound.
As I go deeper inside Amsterdam-Centrum, there are different marijuana coffee shops, restaurants, cool gift stores, places to shop, and even psilocybin dispensaries where people can buy magic mushrooms legally. Folks can purchase peyote cactus plants too. One thing that’s both kid- and adult-friendly is Amsterdam’s popular local fries. They are thick like potato wedges, but shaped as French fries. It’s my first time eating Amsterdam-style fries drenched in mayonnaise, and they taste good.
It’s nighttime, and the vibe has completely changed. De Wallen, Amsterdam’s gritty red-light district, is where prostitution is legal and readily available until 6:00 a.m., seven days per week, 365 days per year. The tall and narrow homes, built in the 17th century beside the middle canal, have a bunch of window brothels, in each window has a bright red light. About 200 windows operate throughout the De Wallen red-light district. Inside every window is a woman dolled up and standing, dressed in exotic and revealing lingerie, watching men like a hawk. What’s left to say about spending the day and night in the Amsterdam-Centrum is that Amsterdam has it all!
30. Ecuador
I arrive at the Amazonian Kichwa community in Puerto Misahuall, in the Napo province of Ecuador. It was a five-hour drive without traffic from Quito to this remote region in the Amazon rainforest. The last 60-minute route is a bumpy truck drive through a gravel and stony road with lots of potholes. Landing by plane in the Napo Amazon isn't an option.
Drawn by the sound of drum beats from a nearby hut inside the Kichwa community, eight females dance freely and barefoot in the center of the sandy ground. Two adult women play instruments, one hitting a shamanic drum as the other scrapes a stick across a round guiro instrument. My guide, Carlos, who also lives in the Amazon, brings me to the central dance area. He puts a handmade Kichwa straw band over my head, gives me a wooden spear, and tells me to dance in front of a Kichwa girl, moving forward and backward while striking the weapon downward.
The sacred indigenous Kichwa dancing comes to a stop. A young woman from the tribe gives me a small bowl of yucca juice, their main energy drink, which her community produces and consumes by grinding the plant in a pot. The watery milk-like liquid tastes smooth, organic, but slightly bitter. Carlos paints some goldish tribal lines on my face using a reddish plant. "Shaman," says Carlos as he finishes drawing. This visit to the Kichwa community in the Napo province in the Amazon rainforest is my highlight of Ecuador.
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31. Turkey
As I stand inside the basket of this jumbo hot air balloon, eagerly waiting for the tour to kick off, I don’t feel nervous or scared. Rather than thinking about what could go wrong during this hour-long tour in the sky, my mind is clear. The 45- to 60-minute flight from Istanbul, Turkey’s major tourist hub, to Cappadocia, where the tour begins, is what I signed up for.
The giant hot air balloon attached to the large casket, with roughly 20 standing tourists, is released from the ground. About 30 other colorful balloons are scattered in the sky, surrounding the one I’m inside. All of them fly slowly in different directions, gliding peacefully throughout the atmosphere. The incredible aerial view overlooks Cappadocia, an area covered with a good chunk of cave-like buildings and cave hotels carved from the region's volcanic rock. I feel like a kid, pure, weightless, and hopeful for the future.
The tour reaches a peak altitude; time feels nonexistent. Most of the other hot air balloons are below me, far away. I zone in on the mountains straight ahead as the sun slowly rises above the peaks. The sun beams on my face, causing my eyes to squint because I'm not wearing sunglasses. I smirk, feeling connected to the universe and my spiritual essence from this magical experience, as I gaze at the sun above the mountains.
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32. Bolivia
This altitude in Bolivia is kicking my butt today. La Paz is at an altitude of approximately 12,000 feet above sea level, making it the highest capital city in the world. The neighboring city, El Alto, is another 1,500 feet higher. I huff and puff as I walk up a few stairs, ready to hop onto Mi Teleferico, also known as the cable cars in La Paz. It’s a taxi service with 10 cable car lines and a reliable form of public transportation for the locals.
As the cable car ascends at an incline, the aerial view of the hillside city of La Paz, set inside a mountain valley, is incredible. There are a bunch of square-shaped, one- to four-story brick-and-mortar houses on steep hills in the Andes Mountains. The red brick houses are stacked like Legos next to each other within a wide and densely populated region. Some houses have bright-colored paint on the flat concrete roofs. The infrastructure reminds me of orderly chaos, with neighborhoods rising and falling closely together along the steep slopes at high altitudes. This is so cool!
A wise shaman and local resident told me that “Bolivia is the hidden treasure of South America.” It doesn’t sound sugar-coated either, not after this epic cable car tour, exploring the charming city of La Paz from a bird's-eye view.
33. Hungary
Even though it's been cool hanging out in Budapest, I'm now a few hours away from the city, at a horse ranch in the countryside of Lajosmizse. Behind the barn, some trees with tall, thin, straight trunks give this part of the ranch a mini-forestland vibe. The tour guide takes the group and me inside the barn, where different horses are chowing down on hay in their stalls.
I walk by a big bright-brown horse that looks into my eyes. I stop; the animal puts its head down and moves closer as an invitation for me to pet it. My right hand caresses the creature between its eyes. I feel some type of warm connection with the benevolent horse. I'm tempted to place my forehead on the creature's face to bond with it on a deeper level, but we've just met, and I must respect the horse’s space and sanctuary since I'm a guest.
Across the barn are two young charcoal-colored horses with a wide vertical white stripe going down their faces. As I adjust my camera on my phone to take a picture, one horse sniffs and licks my screen, while its next-door neighbor licks my right elbow. I smile and giggle from being licked simultaneously by two friendly horses. Outside the barn, I pick some grass to feed three young horses. Being in nature with these harmonious animals is what my soul needed in Hungary.
34. Austria
A day before arriving in Austria, three foreigners (two from France and one from Argentina), who I had met during a group tour in Budapest, lit up when I said I was going to Vienna tomorrow, and told me it's underrated. Fast-forward twenty-four hours: I know what they mean. I've been roaming around Vienna on foot, coming across hidden gems unexpectedly throughout the city's landscape. This includes the historic St. Stephen's Cathedral, various appealing statues, and landmarks like the Hofburg. It’s nice to see horse-drawn carriages that are driven by men dressed as Flakers from the 1600s.
The more freely I walk, listening to my surroundings and gravitating toward where the people are heading, the more impressive Vienna is. An advantage of being in the downtown area is that an Uber isn't necessary to get from point A to point B. In fact, it's more efficient to just walk, and it's hard to get lost in Vienna’s city center. Walking up, down, left, and right on flat pavement streets makes the landscape straightforward for first-time travelers.
Two to three full days in Vienna are enough to see the major highlights without rushing. It's a good balance of a short and sweet place to visit in Austria. The sausages are delicious too. Vienna makes processed and packaged hot dogs manufactured and distributed across the States seem mediocre, in terms of flavor, quality, and density. I feel like I got my money's worth by including Vienna as one of my Central Europe destinations.
35. Czech Republic
Navigating through Prague during the day or at night can feel like a fairy tale sometimes. The cobblestone roads, the Old Town Square from the early 1300s, the fourteenth-century Charles Bridge, and the Prague Castle that dates back to the year 880 make this medieval-type city the bread and butter of the Czech Republic's tourist hub. Being in Prague each day leaves me in awe wherever I go. There’s always something to see!
The most crowded area in Prague is in front of the famous astronomical clock in Old Town. Built in the 1500s, it's the oldest clock in the world that still works today, as of May 2026. Eighty percent of what I'm seeing is the original design, according to the knowledgeable tour guide. The astronomical clock is hypnotizing, causing me and the flock of people around me to stop and stare at this masterpiece while standing on the cobblestone road, rain or shine. If I could take only one picture in Prague, it would be of the astronomical clock.
The last stop in the city is to get up close and personal inside St. Vitus Cathedral, known as the monumental Prague Castle. Saying that the interior designs and colors of the stained glass windows look nice is an understatement. The brightness and colorfulness are mind-blowing! Whether someone is a devoted Catholic, a religious follower, spiritual, or an atheist, they would admire the artistic designs of the stained glass windows inside Prague Castle.
Other Countries
High five for making it through the end! As a reminder, 35 Memorable Countries for Solo Traveling Adventures is a three-part series, featuring different countries for each part.
If you're ready for other countries in PART 2 (Short Story 2) and PART 1 (Short Story 1), click the button(s) below!