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Unfamiliar with the new places, people and culture. I, being a Pakistani and also a girl, was very scared to travel alone, as i never did it before. Year 2017, I was in college, the same year i had my 18th birthday, applied to the UK, with all my mothers support, she wanted me to fulfill my travelling dreams as she could not do herself. Few days after submitting my passport in Gerry's ( Lahore ) i received a text message to collect it. The moment i was handed my passport, the visa officer told me that i did not get the visa, i was truly heart broken as this was something i did not expect to happen at all, reading all the reasons for rejection, i realized there was something wrong in it, so i appealed them to review my application again, and luckily, i got the visa this time. The happiness, excitement, fear and nervousness of a solo trip made me forget the world for a few seconds. i was astounded. 22nd Sept,2017, was my first connecting solo flight from Lahore to London. I had a stay in Istanbul and i got an E-visa for Turkey. While i was finding my way out from the airport, i saw beautiful people laying heads on each others shoulders, waiting for their flights. I saw how beautiful everyone looked and how they were running in different directions in search of their terminals and baggage. everything stopped there for a moment. i realized i was alone, without any restrictions, all alone in an entirely new country, nobody knew me there. being a brown girl and being known by the least met relatives, who would always be aware of my whereabouts i had to be extremely vigilant as my parents were answerable for the stuff i did, it is just how our culture is. in that moment i realized i was free to do anything. i checked in at my hotel, did not rest as it was stupid of me to waste my freedom. roaming around the European side of Istanbul. Blue Mosque, Gatala towers, the spice bazar, the Bosphouros cruise, istaqlaal street and the freedom,made it all look like a dream . Street food and ice-creams is all i had that day. it was unreal, as i in my home country was not even allowed to even go alone to get stuff from a departmental store. The next and last day at turkey was when i went to the Princess island. Took a cruise to that beautiful place, and saw how everyone was so in love with each other there. They were all expressive and that made it even more beautiful. The blue water, white birds, fresh air, beautiful people, made me fall in love with that place. I forgot everything i had been through in my childhood. I met a Turkish guy who worked at a ice-cream parlor at the princess island, As we were unaware of each-others language, talking in symbols made the cruise ride even more interesting. He showed me all around the island and even gave me free ice cream from his workplace, the fact that we were talking with hand gestures the entire time made me realize how connection is the only thing that connects people and we do not need a language for that. I had my flight to London at 8 am the next morning. Came back to the hotel, rested for a while then went for shopping to Taksim square. took a shower and sat on the balcony for an hour and recalled all the beautiful moments i had there. reached the airport around 5.30 am and everything still felt like a dream. Waiting for my next flight, i remembered how when i reached Istanbul, that Turkish air-hostess was greeting everyone in English but she greeted me in Turkish language maybe she knew that just in the time-span of two days i would leave my heart there and how i would always stay Turkish at heart.