r/travel • u/AutoModerator • May 30 '19
Discussion r/travel Topic of the Week: 'The Very First Time'
Hey travellers!
While many of you have some impressive '96 countries' in your personal travel flair, let's get all sentimental and go back to your very first trip abroad. Bought an interrail ticket to explore Greece? Hitch-hiked to Mexico? Cycled with your friends through Spain, camping, getting high on cheap weed?
Please share with us all your favourite memories and experiences of your very first time abroad!
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u/jippiejee Holland May 30 '19
My very first trip abroad probably triggered my lasting travel lust: when 15yo I won a trip to South Africa in an essay contest. This would be the first time I travelled out of my country alone, a very different experience from the normal holidays (camping in France) abroad I was used to as kid. Explored the Cape, drank wine in the Stellenbosch wineries, visited the Kruger National Park, and wild camped in the jungle with snakes all around... :') Still scared of those. I was also on the tv news there haha, so felt quite the VIP.
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May 30 '19
I won a trip to South Africa in an essay contest
Ik wil naar Zuid-Afrika gaan om de leeuwen, stokstaartjes en hyena te zien.
Alstublieft.
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u/jippiejee Holland May 30 '19
Well I know I completely skipped the whole topic of apartheid :') Something something harmony of life... lol.
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May 30 '19
As a complete aside...I'm quite certain that I have the world's most peculiar Google Translate habits.
I'm probably on some CIA watch list.
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May 30 '19
Something something harmony of life... lol.
I hope you get to collect royalties from the Elton John Lion King album.
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u/onelittleworld Chicagoland, USA May 30 '19 edited May 30 '19
I was 28. Half my lifetime ago. My wife and I had both gotten big promotions and raises at work the year before, and we both felt the time was right to start "seeing the world" as we'd always planned. So we booked a trip to Italy in the low-season, late October, and decided to just wing it as far as destinations and itineraries were concerned. Little did we know that All Souls weekend would be a heavy travel occasion, as many Italians go back to their ancestral hometowns to visit family (living and dead). Made for a couple interesting experiences, but it worked out in the end.
"Winging it" led us to this itinerary of overnight stays: Merano > Verona > Bergamo > Santa Marguerita Ligure > San Gimignano > Cortona > Perugia > Firenze > Ferrara > Venice > Asolo > Munich
Long story short: we made over 100 rookie mistakes in two short weeks, and still had the time of our lives. We have a good 4 or 5 oft-told stories that we still like to tell from that one trip, 28 years later.
Only a handful of our pictures made it into digital form, and they are completely out of sequence in this album. But here's what northern Italy looked like in 1991: https://onelittleworld.zenfolio.com/p226205191
EDIT: added a couple of overnight stays
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u/Brown_Sandals Jun 05 '19
Looks incredible. As someone in their late 20s who has an itch for travel, this gives me hope.
I’ve been to many places within the US but dream of taking several months to travel abroad and see what it’s like. I just lack the courage of quitting work, dropping responsibilities, and going though.
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u/onelittleworld Chicagoland, USA Jun 05 '19
I just lack the courage of quitting work, dropping responsibilities, and going though.
Please don't confuse rational level-headedness with cowardice. The fact is, you can build your career AND build your travel portfolio at the same time... it just takes a long time. Mrs. 1LW and I have both worked full-time jobs for over 30 years now. Go back to the link I posted, and click on "Home" in the upper-left, and take a look... that's just a sampling of the places we've managed to visit (so far). I expect to double that before I crap out.
Also, thank you for your kind words. Best of luck, and happy trails!
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u/ResonancePhotographr Jun 05 '19
Awesome pics. The B&W Venice shots (37, 38) are especially nice.
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u/onelittleworld Chicagoland, USA Jun 05 '19
Thanks. You have no idea how long I waited, in the rain, for the boat traffic to clear in #38. Worth it, tho. Note: both shots are hanging in a frame about six feet away from me right now (in my office).
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u/ResonancePhotographr Jun 05 '19
that’s great you got that one framed and can still connect back to that first adventure
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u/onelittleworld Chicagoland, USA Jun 05 '19
I have a notoriously bad memory for most things. But pick any random shot from any of our travel albums, and I can tell you the story that goes with it.
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u/ResonancePhotographr Jun 05 '19
I hear ya. I’ve posted a near daily photo to my blog for the last 15 years, and can still remember the story behind just about every image out there.
Photos have a great way of encapsulating memories into one frozen moment.
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u/Square-Community-516 Aug 24 '24
wow , beautiful pictures , do you remmeber what modell camera you had ?
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u/feed_me_ramen May 30 '19
Went to Europe on family vacations a couple of times when I was a kid (we had family over there at the time) and did a student exchange in Germany high school where some German students came over as a group and stayed with a group of us in the US for a few weeks, and then we went over a few months later and stayed with them and went to class at their high school.
It wasn’t until I did a study abroad in college that I really felt like I was “going abroad.” That was the first time I had to navigate trains by myself, figure out how to order in restaurants, and generally just be responsible for myself. I stayed in hostels, and wandered the empty city streets at 4am. I went to bars with people I didn’t know and danced by myself to 70’s disco after multiple vodka shots. 10/10 experience, would recommend.
Nowadays my coworkers joke that I’m only working in between trips, but jokes on them cause I just booked an 11 day trip to Scotland in October (which I ...may or may not have enough vacation time for).
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u/Raven39 Jun 01 '19
I totally agree with the study abroad experience. It changed my life in more ways than one.
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u/flamehead2k1 May 30 '19
My high school chemistry teacher took the AP class to Costa Rica. Some trip highlights.
Got to see a real night sky for the first time.
Got to buy alcohol at a store legally for the first time. Had to sneak out to do it since we weren't supposed to drink in the trip.
First time seeing a volcano and a rainforest. Some might say I got bit by the travel bug in the jungle.
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u/CheeseWheels38 CAN --> FRA/KAZ May 30 '19
My high school chemistry teacher took the AP class to Costa Rica. Some trip highlights.
What kind of high school did you go to???
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May 30 '19
You never went overseas with your high school? Strange. Some of my fondest childhood memories are when the whole P.E. class would go on heli-skiing trips to Switzerland.
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u/CheeseWheels38 CAN --> FRA/KAZ May 30 '19
We took a bus to Ottawa and stopped at the Hershey Chocolate Factory, so there was snow and chocolate... pretty much the same thing right?
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May 30 '19
Fun story, that chocolate factory closed down a couple of years ago and is now one of the largest weed growing operations in the world.
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May 30 '19
I remember that in 6th grade everyone was bussed to Seattle to see the Nutcracker Ballet and another time there was an Egyptian exhibit in Seattle that I think only the smart kids got to go see...but those are the only school trips I can remember.
I find this sort of thing fascinating because living here in the developing world I look at my upbringing in a somewhat shitty, depressing logging town and I see how INCREDIBLY privileged I was compared to so many people on this planet. How even growing up in a blue-collar working class American town with limited opportunity how much easier it has been to navigate life and follow my dreams and so on. I think about how lucky I am to have grown up in a household where dad had a good union job and we had food and clothes and camping/hunting/fishing gear and Christmas presents on Christmas, some money for my birthday and so on.
So anyhow, I find it fascinating to imagine what the world is like for those who grow up TRULY privileged - going to schools that routinely travel overseas and having parents who just pay cash for their tertiary education and so on. What I find the most fascinating is how so many of these people find this reality to be "normal." I mean, I'm not picking on Science Class in the Costa Rican Jungle dude above - but a few months ago there was a thread about a couple fighting over which college admissions consultant to hire for their kid. You pay this dude like a couple grand to help your kid pick the right school and fill out applications and whatnot...and to me this sounds just as absurd as getting a brand new Porsche for your 16th birthday.
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u/psyche_13 Canada May 31 '19
Yeah, we took a bus to Quebec City. Considering we were also in Canada, it doesn't count
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May 30 '19
You never went overseas with your high school? Strange.
I assume this is sarcasm ragging on rich people schools, but my high school was firmly (lower) middle class and our AP Spanish class went to Spain every year and my graduating class had a small group trip to Europe option which I partook in. It was also in collaboration with a couple other high schools in the area which were in straight up poor neighborhoods.
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May 30 '19
I would imagine some of this is small town vs. urban.
We weren't a tiny school (I graduated with like 220 kids) but there were no AP courses at all. A handful of "Honors" classes but no proper AP.
I was mostly joking, though...I know that having an overseas field trip doesn't equate to going to school with the Bush kids.
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u/Mr_Fkn_Helpful Jun 02 '19
My father took 6 months off work and we all moved to Europe for the summer.
We somehow, (pre-internet!) found a way to swap houses with some Germans, they stayed in our 1970's house in the forest and we stayed in their 1700's house against the mediaeval town wall. They had this rickety wooden ladder that we could climb down the outside of the wall on since it split their garden into two parts. We kids would race onto the wall to watch fighter planes practicing for the Russian invasion fly up the river valley below us.
Nine year old me had to learn enough German to be sent out to the bakery every morning, and I got to go to a bar to watch a world cup game.
Plus trains! Castles! Icecream!
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u/Unclemayar May 30 '19
I had wanted to travel for years, but never really had the money. Nonetheless, I fantasized daily about it until I reached a point where I was making enough money to actually do it. Me and three of my closest friends flew into Budapest, spent four days there, and then took a train into Prague for five days. The funny thing is that I originally planned the trip and the initial goal was to go to Prague, but my friend found cheaper airfare flying into Budapest first. It turns out that Budapest was my favorite part of the trip! I still consider Budapest my favorite city I've ever been to, in part because of the magic of it being my first travel journey. But that whole trip lived up so well to the hype I had built up in my head for travelling all those years that it only furthered my wanderlust. Every moment of that trip was just as magical and moving as I imagined it would be, even more so actually. I've travelled quite a bit since then and have loved every trip I have been on, but nothing is quite like your first time!
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u/RICH_PINNA May 30 '19
My first trips were as a kid with my parents. Of those, my favorite was skiing in Grindelwald, Switzerland.
My first solo trip was probably hitchhiking from NY to Ohio, a sort of “running away” trip that was short lived. Stayed at my friend’s house in Dayton.
First solo trip abroad was to Nice, France. Then from there I traveled through Italy for two weeks, then a couple of nights in Croatia, Prague and Berlin before flying back from Frankfurt in Delta One (buddy pass upgrade).
The credit goes to my parents, they have always urged me to travel.
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May 30 '19
I went to Iceland for my first international trip as a college graduation present to myself and it was the best experience of my life. I got to see the northern lights, hike a volcanic glacier, relax in a geothermal river, see the ocean for the first time, see some gorgeous waterfalls and eat food better than anything I've ever tasted (those Icelandic hot dogs though??). A few people in the group I went with also tried to rent a car to see the Sólheimasandur plane wreckage. We rented from a local place instead of enterprise because it was cheaper but they didn't have any automatic cars and I was the only person in the group who could drive a stick. They ended up giving us a car with a bad clutch and long story short I'm never driving a European car with a manual transmission again.
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u/psyche_13 Canada May 31 '19
First trip abroad other than Caribbean with family was the cliched (but cliched for good reason!) post-university Europe backpacking trip. I'd never been to Europe but I'm a huge history and culture nerd so couldn't wait to see all the cities I'd read about forever. Saw at least a piece of 10 countries in my 10 week solo trip, mostly by Eurail pass and staying in hostels. England, France, Belgium (just for an afternoon), Netherlands, Germany, Czech Republic, Austria, Italy, Spain, Ireland. Saw generally the main city in each and sometimes another stop. Amazing taste of Western Europe that got me continuing to go back!
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u/MFZilla Puerto Rico May 30 '19
Guatemala. Driving up to Antigua and feeling the cool, crisp mountain air and being surrounded by so mich green and such a colonial setting are what stick in my mind.
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u/krkrbnsn May 30 '19
My first real international trip was to Greece when I was in high school. I played trombone in our city youth orchestra which was considered 'pre-professional.' Every three years they toured abroad to give the students an idea of what touring as a professional musician would be like.
Along with 60 other high school musicians, I spent two weeks traveling the country and playing symphony concerts in Athens, Patras, Corinth, Heraklion and Chania (Crete). One venue was an amazing 2000 year old amphitheater.
As you can imagine with that many close to 18yo's Americans in Europe, it was many individual's first time drinking, smoking and going to clubs. Suffice the partying, we held 5 great concerts and represented our city abroad.
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u/swollencornholio Airplane! May 31 '19
My first international trip was without my family on an EF tour organized through my high school. We went from Vienna ->Salzburg-> Munich->Innsbruck/Tyrol->Lucerne->Heidelberg->Bonn/Cologne in two weeks on a bus. It was such an eye opening experience. I used to not really give a rats ass about soccer but it was 2006 and we were travelling through Germany who hosted the world cup. It was friggin amazing. It was also pretty fun being able to drink as a 17 year old.
Ended up liking that trip so much I've gone back to that region quite a few times and even lived in Munich for around 1.5 years.
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u/this-here May 30 '19
Technically my first trip was to Ireland to get baptised when I was a month or two old.
After that, I suppose probably Switzerland as a child.
My own proper holiday without family was to Barcelona, which was excellent.
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u/oknobye May 30 '19
I was 29 and still hadn’t been to Europe. My parents were big fans of cruises when I was growing up so we’d “been” plenty of places if you count being herded off and on a ship within 12 hours.
I had a random week off and booked a last minute ticket to Ireland. Took a train from Dublin to Galway, drove up to Connemara and down the coast. It was magic. The fog, cliffs, miniature ponies, and cottages all over. Too many Jameson/gingers. One of the happiest weeks of my life.
Went to Malaysia, Switzerland, and Italy the following year.
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u/FairyOnTheLoose Ireland May 30 '19
First trip abroad was a school trip. It used to be to Disneyland Paris but ours was the first year they changed it up. We flew to Brussels, drove to Cologne, drove to Paris. All over four days. Yep four. Of course at 15 you're not really that bothered about the sites, but it was still crazy. We were exhausted. Disneyland was good, though didn't have much time between the waiting times.
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u/Chraville May 30 '19
My very first time was to the USA. I've always wanted to go there so I saved up and took a trip with my brother. This is when we truly fell inlove with traveling. Just being somewhere different felt as if I was on another planet for the first 24 hrs. The air was different, but not in a negative way. We didn't happen to do anything truly adventurous but just that priceless feeling of being somewhere completely different, bought us. This trip inspired us to start our Travel business.
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u/OverallDisaster May 30 '19
My first time seeing snow and first time out of the country was on my honeymoon to Banff, Canada. Loved it so much and we've been back twice. We were there in March for our anniversary and got trapped in an avalanche. Still want to go back!
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u/BohoPhoenix May 31 '19
My first international trip was for my study abroad program in Heidelberg, Germany.
(Rainy) summer days filled with German language classes, liter Radlers on the Alte Brücke, taking almost every form of public transportation for the first time, and snacking on the delicious süßes Brot baked by our fabulous host mother. It's been almost six years to the day since we landed and I'm feeling nostalgic.
Two years ago, I got a tattoo of that trip's passport stamp and I still love it every time I see it.
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u/eatsdrinktravel May 31 '19
My very first trip abroad was immigrating to New Zealand from South Africa. I was 17 and we had a few days in transit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I was very uninterested in Asia and closed minded beforehand to learn anything about the food (I was a picky eater as a teen) or culture, but once I got there all of that changed! I was blown away by the kindness of the people, the delicious & interesting food.
Ever since then I started chasing travel and loved exploring different places. I have traveled to a parts of South East Asia but would love to go back and see more.
After moving to NZ, I would say my first vacation abroad was to Melbourne, Australia, that time I was very excited to go.
We have recently returned from a 2 month trip to the States and I have the holiday blues for real. I miss the unknown and change of routine, not knowing what will happen today, who will I meet or what I will see. I love that feeling.
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u/vagrantheather United States May 31 '19
I grew up totally financially strapped and basically without parents (mom moved to a different state when I was 16, leaving my 18 yr old brother in charge). I did not have the means to travel until my mid-20s. When I left one job, they sent me a check for the retirement account I didn't know I'd been contributing to (PSA: look at your pay stubs). I knew that the financially "wise" thing to do was to roll it over into a new retirement account to keep from paying high fees, but... I'd always been so cash-strapped that I wanted to finally do something for me. So I bought tickets to Scotland and had a blast in Edinburgh and the Isle of Skye.
This was in the middle of a college program to change my career. Between making decent money in my new job field and not having kids, I'm able to save enough to travel yearly now. Never thought I'd be that fortunate.
I did Scotland solo and I LOVED traveling that way. I've planned other solo trips since but always end up having someone else jump in haha.
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u/ExpressiveArcher Jun 01 '19
My family never traveled as I grew up, so once I got my first professional job I had the itch to travel. I found a Groupon Getaway tour to India for less than $1,000 which was all inclusive and thought that was a great first trip. I asked some friends and co-workers who wanted to come, and surprisingly a colleague that I wasn't super close with said she'd love to go. By the time we booked our trip, India was sold out but there was a Dubai/Abu Dhabi trip for the same price and we impulsively purchased our trip.
Many friends and family thought we were crazy for both of our first trip to be to the Middle East, but we had the best time! We met some amazing locals at a tea shop on our first night and they took us around to some of the less touristy places and we also had a few tours thrown in to our Groupon package. All in all, it was such a great trip and definitely struck me with the travel bug.
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u/jeeves5454 33 Countries and counting. ✈️✈️✈️ Jun 01 '19
My family kickstarted my ease with travel very early in life. At the tender age of 5, we were lucky enough to go, as a family, to Kenya and do the Masai-Mara Safari tour. I loved it. Got a chance to see Elephant crossing, a cheetah go after antelopes, feed giraffes, and even got to a great start on my foodie habits by eating at Carnivore, where I happened to try lion, crocodile and antelope (They were licensed to serve it, not some backyard slaughterhouse).
I went camera crazy and back then film was expensive so I remember that I was taking a bunch of picture on a disposable camera and after the trip, I did not get any of them printed out. Turns out, my parents did not tell me that the film roll was up, and that my picture taking (at 5 was relatively crap). Turns out I am not a 'Masters Nature Photographer' after all. :)
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u/SuperCooper12 Jun 01 '19 edited Jun 23 '19
I will come find this post at the end of my current (first) trip. Right now I'm a little salty because my dumbass got ticketed for not validating a bus ticket
Alright, finally back in the States.
I had a great time. Really enjoyed being able to just sit and observe another culture. I think a lot of the things I saw could possibly just be characteristics of a larger city (Rome) and not necessarily demonstrative of all Italians.
A short summary,
Many people mentioned on other posts I researched that 2 days would be good for Rome. I think 3 would have been ideal for us. Personally I hate large cities, the Vatican experience was less than great, the guys selling tours and selfie sticks were kinda aggressive, and in comparison to the residents of Lake Garda, people weren't as friendly.
Again, I'm open to the thought that big city folks just live at a faster pace, and well... Things are probably just different in Europe anyways. Not bashing Rome, but I've had my fill.
Santorini (Greece): Transportation to and from our place was iffy but either than that I loved Santorini. Spent 4 days and loved it. The people on the island were truly the most kind individuals we met on our trip. (except maybe the Dutch flight attendants) Food was great, nice folks, managed to avoid the hectic crowds during sunset in Oía, found a quiet beach, nice enough room. Good time all around.
Riva (North Lake Garda, Italy): spent a few too many days here since we didn't really wanna pay for rentals/lessons every day (bike/etc.) But it was a lovely town with a rich history and nice people. I absolutely adored the bike friendliness that the entire region offered. The food was awesome and our host spoiled us. We enjoyed being able to visit other towns since they're all close to Riva (the northern towns that is). Omkafe HQ was in Arco and that was AWESOME, highly recommend to any coffee lovers.
Tried to keep it short-ish. If this finds anyone's eyes that has a question about any of the places I mentioned I'd love to answer questions, send pictures, etc. We had a few surprises but all in all the trip went as planned.
P.s. we had like almost zero issues with ferries, planes, and trains so that was cool as I had never been on any of those prior to this trip.
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u/Melaninkasa Jun 01 '19
First travelling experience was to Washington DC. Definitely my worst trip up to date. I stayed for 3 weeks and spent majority of my time baby sitting my little cousin with no money and no camera to take any pictures (I was young so I didn't have a phone yet, and at the time phones weren't a good alternative to camera as it is today). I did everything that was worth seeing in the city in a day, so 3 weeks would've been too much anyway. Considering the fact that I had no camera nor money, I don't have a single physical memory of this trip nor am I speaking to those family members again so there's that. It made me more curious about the world tho so I don't regret it.
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u/t_fry Jun 01 '19
I had started planning a trip to Japan with my little sister as her high school graduation present when she was a sophomore, but while I was picking her up from school one day I saw a poster outside the gym advertising a tour the school was planning to visit their "sister-school" in Kumamoto, Japan the next year. It was a 10 day trip from Tokyo to Hiroshima hosted by EF Tours with an extra 4 days to spend time at the high school in Kumamoto. I was 20 at the time so not a student, but the school let me go along as a "chaperone".
The trip was basically life changing. We went in 2016 and I still think about the trip every single day. We crammed all the best touristy things into the first 10 days of the trip which wouldn't have been the same without the group we were with, but staying with host families and attending some of the high school classes in Kumamoto was incredible. I still keep in touch with our host families and send them letters a few times a year. The school put their entire finals testing on hold for the days we were there to hold an assembly, complete with a performance by their band, and have some fun in their class showing us traditional foods and learning about their culture, they even held a tea ceremony for us. It was surreal, they literally treated us like celebrities, they'd line up to shake our hands and try out their English with us. I had my doubts about travelling with a tour group, but we got along so well with the other travellers and had free time at night to explore the area and do our own thing, it was a perfect first trip abroad.
I had always dreamt of travelling and that trip definitely kicked off my adventures. I ended up taking my fiancee to Japan the next year because I had to show him how amazing it was. I'm planning to go back in 2020. In the meantime I'm getting out of town every single chance I get and taking at least one 2 week trip abroad every year.
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u/cbunn81 Jun 02 '19
I'm from the US, and apart from a short jaunt across the border to Toronto for a music festival (Björk!), my first international trip was to Japan. Growing up, I never traveled much. The family mainly took summer and winter vacations to the same places, about an hour or two away. We'd gone to Florida a couple of times, but just for the theme parks. I realized that I'd need to go solo if I wanted to really get out there. I suppose the first version of that was a solo ski trip to Colorado while in university. My family thought I was a bit mad for going alone, but they didn't interfere. It was a great trip and proof that I didn't need anyone's permission or help to go it alone.
It was several years after that trip that I went to Japan. 2011, to be precise. Late April to early May to be more precise. Anyone up on their current events of the time will realize that this was right after the deadly earthquake and tsunami. Mind you, I had booked the trip well before this, but as I had no intention of going anywhere near the badly affected areas, I didn't alter my plans. But sure enough, everyone thought I was mad again for going it alone halfway around the world to a country experiencing a nuclear catastrophe. But I'm glad I went. (Incidentally, it seems I have a habit of this, as I booked a trip to Thailand a few months after the coup and booked a trip to Paris on the same day as the November 2015 terror attacks.)
More than any other trip before, this was the one to bring out my wanderlust. Wandering around temple complexes thousands of years old in between navigating some of the largest metropolises the world has ever seen opened my eyes. I'd always enjoyed watching travel documentaries and reading travel magazines, but experiencing it first hand is something else, as anyone here surely knows.
Anyway, a few years later, I decided to move Japan, where I've lived for the past four years.
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u/cm0011 Jun 03 '19
It wasn’t a vacation but it was for a conference, I spent a week in Barcelona.It was enchanting to experience Europe for the first time and Barcelona is a beautiful city with so much historic Catalan culture, and beautiful buildings built by Gaudi.
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u/goingplaces_eu Jun 04 '19
Hi everyone, my very first travel abroad was with my family. It was 1980´s or so....as Im from post comunistic country, we were not allowed to travel abroad, so we had to fill up a lot of forms and then we went to Germany. But not to ,,Bundes Republic Deutschland,, but to Deutsche Democratische Republic... we traveled to Rostock to the sea...I was a child so I was realy looking forward.....what I didnt know was, that the sea in Germany is not warm, it was realy cold and waves and lot of seaweed...I was quite dissapointed.....but anyway...it was the journey and I realy enjoyed it. If you are interested in, I will send you pics of the car which we were driving by...... :D
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u/jiggaboo679 Jun 05 '19
21 college student looking to just travel the world for the rest of my life but don’t know where to start, I have a level 5 QQI in teaching English abroad as a jumpstart to my adventures, at least I think it’s a good jumpstart. I wanna see the most unique places the world has to offer but I have know way of knowing if it’s the right choice to drop everything and just live the nomad life. I wouldn’t know how I would make money to survive except for maybe for maybe teaching English and that’s a process of waiting for Skype interviews that the agency arranges. I hope to meet other travelers when I’m out there but I not sure if that will happen. It’s a big life choice and a risk. I would appreciate if anyone had any experiences or advice on the matter.
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u/Nephilimelohim Jun 05 '19
First proper trip abroad was to Cancun, technically... I was 10, and I remember sitting on the hotel balcony up on the 15th floor of our hotel, watching the sun go down on the pristine waters and ruminating about life and existence...
25 country visits later, I'm still moving around as much as I can.
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u/zacdenver United States May 30 '19
It was a school tradition that our high school choir did a week-long concert tour every year during spring vacation. In my senior year, 110 of us (plus a dozen adults) piled into three motor coaches and, much later that day, found ourselves on a pier in lower Manhattan. There we boarded the venerable rust-bucket known as the S.S. Olympia for a cruise to Bermuda. On the way there and back, we entertained the ship's passengers with a combination of classical and popular music, fought off seasickness (some more successfully than others), and did our best to stay out of sight of the chaperones. After docking at Front Street, Hamilton, we performed at schools, churches, the Royal Navy base, and in front of the cameras for the island's lone TV station. That latter event came at the end of a day when most of us had hung out at the beach. Dehydrated and sunburned while stsnding under the hot studio lights, a good three dozen choir members passed out and had to be hauled down off the risers while the rest of us gamely pressed on with our performance of Poulenc's Gloria. Even 50 years later, I can still remember much of the good times we had!
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u/ChasesCurse Canada Jan 17 '22
I'm 25 from Ontario, Canada-finally bit the bullet and moved to Banff National park, was supposed to be a short trip and it turned into five months exploring the West Coast, hiking, meeting new people and (it's cliché) but finding myself! It genuinely made me reevaluate my whole life. (I have only ever 'vacationed' or lived in cities no more than an hour away from my hometown)
I broke up with my long term partner (love them very much but realized we were on different life paths), started working two jobs to pay off my debt (debt i accumulated, because I was told I HAD to go to school, have the latest gadgets, nice furniture) and save up to start traveling the world.
I have realized I don't care to work a 9-5 job, get married, have kids, save for retirement. I want to live now and explore the world, I could drop dead tomorrow and then what would have been the point!
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u/[deleted] May 30 '19 edited May 30 '19
Drive to Canada for the lower legal drinking age, of course...if Washington to B.C. counts as "abroad."
But other than having vinegar on the table for your fries, Vancouver and Seattle are more or less the same place - with the same hippies - so my first REAL trip out of the country was Spring Break '99 in Cancun. Yet, you really only get half credit for that, too.
So I'd say my first proper overseas adventure was backpacking around western Europe for 6 weeks after graduating from college. And yes...as cliche as it sounds...and is...the experience completely flipped my world upside down and I've never recovered. It made me question everything I thought I wanted out of life and opened up an entirely new vision of what's really important.
What's really important in life is goofing off in foreign countries.