I did in my younger years travel with a rugby team, but I knew them. This will be by first ever group travel aside from that, and everyone else will be strangers. Two weeks in the Baltics, traveling by bus, a group of 14 people.
As I tend to do, I went for a long-walk and brainstormed the possibilities with myself in my head, so that I can be more comfortable before next week.
I doubt Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are high on the travel dreams of younger people. And the very old tend to cruise the Danube or whatever. I’m pretty confident the age range will be 40s to 60s (I have seen photos or read about the trip, nothing like that has influenced by guesswork).
Older people are more likely to travel as couples. Out of the 14 my guess is 5 couples and 4 singles including me. Older solo travellers are more likely to be women, so I figure it is 50/50 I am the only single guy. The most extra rooms they will need, in case of a male/female mismatch among the solo travellers is two. I expect I will get my own room.
Of the couples at least one will be Australia/NZ and another will be UK/US/Canada, so I should have people to hang out with from my own tribe and language.
Of the solo women (and this is based on a lot of travel scenarios in my life, and 5 years of backpacking), one will be nuts and nobody will want anything to do with her. She might be loud, she might complain a lot. Another is quite likely quite young, maybe even 30s, from Western Europe or South America, slim, attractive, brunette and aloof. The third will be someone in their 50s or 60s, retired or semi-retired, divorced, with a very specific aim like seeing wooden churches or something. So there is a slim chance I will make a friend.
Yes, I overthink 🙂