“The men! I felt like prey. Even the husbands who sat with their wives would break their necks to stare at you as you walked down the street.”
American 19-year-old Eve Kovac, a solo traveller, tells MailOnline Travel about her first trip to Europe and her experiences in Albania, where she ‘didn’t feel very safe’.
Eve, from Connecticut, began her first solo adventure just a few months after turning 18.
She notes, “I left America for three months alone with a backpack the size of a foot by one foot. I felt like there was something for me.”
Eve has amassed 154,000 followers on Instagram, under the username @outdoor.eveby documenting her adventures through seven countries during her journey.
American solo traveller Eve Kovac, 19, tells MailOnline Travel about her first trip to Europe – and her experiences visiting Albania (above)
Above is Eve in Albania, where she ‘felt like prey’. She added: ‘Even the husbands who were sitting with their wives would break their necks to stare at you as you walked down the street’
She tells MailOnline that she wanted to prove to herself that ‘the world is not just big, it’s also kind’.
“I was right,” she added, although Albania sometimes made her feel like a “target.”
She adds: ‘[While there] I had someone touch my hair in the grocery store, and a few people took my picture. I think I could be a target because I’m blonde and short with blue eyes.’
Norway was a contrast, it was where she felt safest.
She says: ‘Norway shocked me with how safe I felt. I took the locks off my bag on the second day.
‘I didn’t get the same overwhelming welcome as in Italy, but rather an overall feeling of safety and security.’
Italy won the award for her favorite European country to visit. Eve says, “My favorite place in Europe is the Amalfi Coast in Italy! I’ve found amazing hospitality, surfing, and farming there.”
Eve is pictured here in Norway, a country so safe it ‘shocked’ her
Eve wanted to prove to herself that ‘the world is not only big, but also friendly’. Here she is seen travelling through Spain (left) and her favourite European country, Italy (right)
On the other side of the Ionian Sea, in Greece, it was a different story.
Eve says: ‘In Greece my hostel was full of bed bugs. A nightmare. I fixed the problem, slept in my hammock and left the next morning. That was before I knew I had “oh s**t” money for a hotel.’
She says that after her travels through Europe she has learned something from every country.
Now she gives safety advice to potential travelers.
Eve explains: ‘My safety measures are: I have locks on my bags, I always keep an eye on my belongings and I stay alert.
Never give money to anyone who asks you for it, never accept anything from a stranger.
‘I follow my feelings and believe in them with all my heart. If the feeling is right, then it is right. When you start to feel that it is wrong, then you know that it is wrong.
“Last year. I traveled for over six hours every day for a week. I felt like crap. Take care of yourself. Take it easy. Enjoy it.”
Eve, who has visited 11 countries and is currently based in Tromsø, above the Arctic Circle, also notes that travelling is “cheaper” than people think.
Eve is seen here in the Albanian Alps during her three-month solo trip across Europe
Eve says she had a “general sense of safety and security” in Norway (where she is pictured on the left), but didn’t receive “an overwhelming welcome” like she experienced in Italy (right).
She says: ‘I’m working for a few months and saving. Living rent-free in my van helps. I still have bills, phone, insurance, petrol… but I’m very good at budgeting myself to be able to spend a few months abroad.
“I travel absolutely cheap. Cook a lot, buy what’s on sale, never buy clothes or make-up. I think I’ve had my nails done maybe twice in my life. Never had my eyelashes done and I’ve been cutting my own hair for three years.
“Cut costs where you can. It’s all about priorities, and mine is travel.”
In addition to the many jobs the self-proclaimed nomad holds to finance her travels, she has worked as an RBT [Registered Behaviour Technician] for disabled children, as a barmaid, in skate park construction, as a waitress, dog walker, nanny and she even tried her hand at picking olives in Italy.
After her trip to Norway, Eve will return to Italy to backpack through Europe for a month, before traveling solo through Asia.
