I felt unsafe travelling alone. I'm not sure what would've happened if I hadn't followed my gut

Red flags are easy for some people to spot in the moment. For others, they only appear in hindsight. Insight explores warning signals in relationships, dating, travel, health and finances. What happens when we heed the warning, and what are the consequences if we don't? Watch Insight episode Red Flags on SBS On Demand.

Two years ago, I had an uneasy experience during my four-month-long Europe trip that I still think about to this day.

I wanted to visit Albania on this trip and had heard conflicting stories about the country from other experienced female travellers. But as someone who prides themself on being an independent thinker, I wanted to make up my own mind.

I would soon come to feel great unease on my travels in Albania.

I had been travelling with my friend for 10 days, and we were spending 24 hours in the capital Tirana, before she was to head north for a week and I was to head south, alone.

We explored the city on foot, and I couldn't shake a growing unease as we wandered the streets, feeling very watched by mostly the men.

I was excited to travel solo again the next day, but there was also nervousness sitting in the background I couldn't ignore.

And that feeling grew when we got into a taxi.

We asked the male driver to take my friend to the bus stop, then drive me two hours south to a beach town.

We were following the journey on the maps on our phones, and started to give each other nervous side-eyes when we realised he was driving in the completely wrong direction to the bus stop.

We end up saying something like, "Hey, just checking you're going the right way."

To which the driver got aggressive and started yelling at us. We felt so uncomfortable that when we finally arrived at the bus stop, I got out of the car, thinking, "I'm not going all the way to the beach town alone with this man."

'I need to get out of here'

I ended up getting another car to the beach town and hoped I'd feel more comfortable once I got there — that I'd feel safer. But it almost felt worse, and I felt even more stared at on the streets by myself.

I don't think I researched my accommodation enough before booking. The Airbnb was run down, and I felt a little bit uneasy knowing the male host knew I was travelling by myself when he checked me in.

The lock on the door didn't work properly, so I ended up having a chair up against the door to make myself feel more secure.

It was about 40 degrees that night, and I had the air conditioning on, but soon realised the unit had been dripping water all over the power cords.

There was a pool of a few inches of water near the cords, which was the final straw.

"As soon as I wake up in the morning, I need to get out of here," I thought.

I wasn't sure if I was overreacting or if I was judging the area and people without knowing them, but I felt scared being on my own.

'I don't know what I would have done'

The next morning, I moved to a hotel down the road, which was out of my budget, but I just wanted to be somewhere where there were other people.

It was that morning when my friend called and told me she had to turn back on her hike because she had become so unwell with diarrhoea and vomiting.

I was listening to her, thinking, "Oh, my stomach feels a bit weird, but I'm probably fine."

A few hours later, I started feeling extremely unwell myself.

My symptoms then got to the point that I passed out in the lobby of the hotel, from what I assume was severe dehydration.

The next thing I know, I'm waking up on the floor of the hotel lobby to the staff telling me an ambulance is on the way.

There was no hospital nearby, so I was taken to a medical room via ambulance and put on a drip and felt so much better after a few days.

I was so thankful that I was in a hotel and there were people around to take care of me.

I don't know what I would have done if I was still alone in the Airbnb, as I realised I wouldn't have even known the local emergency number. I only had 000 and 911 in my head.

I was so glad I listened to my gut and moved accommodations.

Attuned to the warnings

As a solo female traveller, I really think you need to keep your wits about you and always be attuned to possible red flags.

These experiences really proved to me how worth it is to listen to your intuition. And sometimes I do feel like it's better to be safe than sorry — rather than pushing through the discomfort.

Although nothing happened to me beyond feeling watched, I feel like I've become even more cautious about warning signs when travelling. And if a man comes up to me on the street, alarm bells go off — or if a taxi driver asks the probably innocent question of, "are you by yourself?" immediately I tell them I'm meeting someone.

But I'm also a firm believer that everyone has different experiences of a country, and if there were a reason for me to go back to Albania, I'm not opposed to travelling to this part of the world — but maybe not alone.

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