Hey everyone I have a question for you: After having read many of your blogs, I am impressed about how well traveled so many of you are. So, my question is this: Where was your first time? The first country you ever visited outside of your home country. For those of us in the US, I’ll make it a bit trickier, Where was your first country outside of Mexico and Canada? I’ll answer in the next paragraph.
my first country technically was Mexico. I visited with my family when I was about 12. We only crossed the bridge from El Paso to Juarez for about a half a day. It was kind of what border towns unfortunately often are. My parents were nervous wrecks the whole time. The last vacation we ever took as a family was in 1985 to Canada. We went to Toronto and Montreal. I loved them both, especially Montreal. I found out sadly my two years of college french were woefully inadequate with the Quebecois. I have since been to British Columbia and the Yukon territory as well.
My first “real” country was Poland . it was back in 1988 when I was 24. I flew almost directly with only brief layovers in Germany and Czechia. I didn’t know a word of Polish and was all alone. i had set up a job in advance to work at a horse ranch near Katowice. It was a two week assignment but i ended up spending about a month traveling around the southern end of the country. I loved Krakow. The polish people i met were some of the kindest people I have ever met anywhere. No matter how many countries i visit, Poland will always have a place in my heart.
So how about you? Which country was your first? Tell me all about it, I would love to have a conversation with you.
The first time I traveled on an airplane, outside the US, I was 10 and my family went to Bermuda.
bermuda is lovely. Did you like it?
I don’t remember much except having tea every day in the hotel where we stayed and feeding the fish bread from a pier (which my 10 year old self thought was awesome!) I also remember my parents building up the pink sand beach we were going to and then being disappointed because it wasn’t the bright pink I’d imagined. Flying in a plane was probably the highlight for me back then…wish I could get that fearlessness back.
Nice memory. Don’t think I’ve ever seen a pick sand beach, even off pink color. Thanks for sharing this.
I am enjoying your blog, thank you! For me, the first country I visited outside the U.S. that wasn’t Canada was Taiwan, which is my “motherland.” Halfway around the world (I’m from the east coast of the U.S.) for a little kiddo wasn’t easy on my parents, I’m sure! Have you been to Taiwan?? You must go if you haven’t!!
Hi Alice. Thanks for posting. I haven’t been to Taiwan, but in college I had several guys who lived in my dorm from there and they were just the coolest people. I would love to go and perhaps maybe try to track down some of my old classmates. So glad you like the blog. Regards, Darryl
The first country I visited was Hong Kong. It was also the country I visited the most, probably because I love the food so much. And I don’t know why but shopping is so much fun in Hong Kong.
I haven’t been yet but Hong Kong is definitely on the list. There seems to be a lot of energy there. And I bet the food is great too. I also wouldn’t mind heading to Macau I don’t gamble but I’d love to check out the casinos.
You can actually take a day trip to Macau from Hong Kong, it’s only about an hour away from Hong Kong by ferry. I only went to Macau for a day trip so I wasn’t able to see all the casinos but it was a great trip.
I come from Northeastern France which means we kind of had the same problem as the US, I probably crossed over to Germany dozens of times before I was 3, but I can’t really count it as traveling to another country! So the first vastly different country I went to must have been Argentina, when I was 3 or 4. From that one I only remember the adults setting up a cot next to the car by a lake while they talked around a bonfire. The sunset was very nice. For my sister, it probably was Spain as we moved to the Spanish border when she was born. I’m pretty sure we went back to Argentina when she was a baby, we saw Iguaçu Falls and stayed at an hotel with a very nice pool and I absolutely wanted to go in so we went shopping for a swimsuit at like, 8 PM or later, only for me to get scared once in the pool because the deeper end was all dark… But my main memory for that one was the monkeys/lemurs? rummaging through the trashbins… And the falls were really wet. Then I don’t remember visiting countries other than Spain and Germany until we went to Prague when I was around 10 or 11.
Argentina is on my list especially the falls area. I loved Prague the architecture was amazing. Great memories, thanks for sharing them
I technically traveled to Disney World (if you don’t count day trips to Fargo and Grand Forks, because who does?), but I’ll assume the same rules apply to Canadians as the Americans, so it doesn’t count as a first country visit haha.
My first out of North America visit was a trip to France in high school. We covered northern France and, of course, Paris and it was amazing. It was where I first fell in love with the iconic and always beautiful Paris and where I keep going back to time and again!
Paris is known for creating love at first sight.
My first country outside of Canada was Malaysia. I worked for Malaysia Airlines in Los Angeles and my supervisor asked me if I had a passport. Like many Americans , no I didn’t . I was told to get one quickly because I was going to Kuala Lumpur for more training. Didn’t know what to expect because I knew NOTHING about the country. I quickly learned and for the 8 years that I worked for Malaysia Airlines , I continued to travel there . I want to go back wicked bad.
I can imagine. Sounds like you may have had ample time to get to know the place. Did you get to tour much or were you too busy working?
I worked in their office in Los Angeles , which is now closed since they don’t fly out of the country anymore😢😢😢. I was only in the cities of Kuala Lumpur and Georgetown , Penang. Penang has the best food in all of Malaysia . If you ever get the chance , visit Malaysia you’ll love it.
The first country I visited outside of India was the US. I flew to Boston it will always hold a special place in my heart. It’s a vibrant and splendid city to live in. I just moved out of Boston and since then I’ve had the opportunity to visit 5 countries. 🙂
Hi Novembrella Thanks for posting. Next to Seattle, Boston is probably my favorite city in the US. It reminds me so much of London where I used lived.
I haven’t been to London, but I’ve heard Boston has a strong European influence. London is on my list of places to visit.
I think it’s the common areas and the row houses that remind me of London the most. I hope you get to visit London in the future. I’m sure you’ll probably love it. I followed your blog, thanks for following mine as well.
My first time was 3 years ago 😀 At the age of 23 for Italy alone for 6 months. First trip, first plane haha
It was an amazing trip!! A have so many memories from this experience. Now i’m traveling around Europe every year 😊
Excellent! You couldn’t have picked a better first country to visit either. Glad you had a positive experience.