Your first trip (or trips) abroad – what shocked, surprised or fascinated you?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Obviously inspired by this thread, which brought back memories of going to France some time around 1970-71 (I guess), when the world was a far less uniform place. I mean, France was only twenty miles away from England, but in some respects it was like a different world.

Here’s an example: you know how, if you’re walking on a road without sidewalks, you’re supposed to walk towards the oncoming traffic? If you drive on the right, then you should walk on the left, so that you’re directly facing the oncoming traffic, the better to be aware of potential danger and avoid it. When we first went to France, cyclists frequently did the same thing. As did people on mopeds and small motorcycles. I went looking for blogs as supportive evidence about this, but couldn’t find any, so you’re just going to have to believe me. It absolutely scared the bejaysus out of us the first couple of times it happened.

I miss these oddities and idiosyncrasies. The world’s too small these days.

So why not share a story about early experiences of travelling abroad and the strangenesses you encountered? As big or as trivial as you like.

What have you got?

j

PS: strangeness purely from one’s own perspective, of course. No xenophobia intended or implied. :slight_smile:

2

Cyclists in California do that now. It’s a good way to get killed by a car turning right.

What weirded me out most when I went to Europe the first time is the light switches work backwards. Up is for off and down is for on. Weird.

3

Thing that must seem like second nature to the locals in Europe would be just…different…to me as a traveler from the US. I quickly adapted, but on the first few days it really played with my mind.

Things like: door handles (which way do you turn it?), light switches (hotels requiring key cards in a slot), electrical outlets with additional on/off switches, toilet flushing (what do those 2 buttons do?), sidewalks with dedicated bicycle lanes (sorry, I didn’t know!). Encounter enough of that stuff all at once without someone to guide you and you can feel very VERY stupid in the moment.

And not shocked, per se, but staying at a spa hotel and encountering casual co-ed nudity. It’s just not something one would expect in the US.

4

My parents had been taking me to India since I was a baby, but I wasn’t aware enough to really be hit by the experience until I was a little older –

It’s a sensory overload – the heat, the noise, the colors, the smells, the languages, people everywhere dressed (or not) in every conceivable way, doing everything that humans do, including shopping and defecating, right there on the street – the insects clouding around lights at night, the geckos approaching them for a meal. It was like being hit in the face by an entirely new world.

This was the 1970s, and most of my relatives didn’t have televisions, mostly because there really wasn’t anything worth watching. News was gathered from newspapers (most people subscribed to at least two or three) and All-India Radio.

The feel of the warm, polished concrete floors on the bare feet.

The pinch of the buckle on my sandals against my ankles.

Having to walk while watching my feet because of all the potential things one could step in. And then being jerked up because I was about to collide head-first with a horned cow (also looking down).

No Twinkies, no cheeseburgers, no pizza, no spaghetti. I was used to eating Indian food at home, but not for every single meal, and it was so much more chili than my mom used. The milk tasted terrible, and people wanted me to drink it hot.

I was a shy kid, and India was not a place for shy people. People expected you to “be smart” and speak up and show off and be able to engage in the social niceties.

5

OK, what do those two buttons do?

6

One is a small flush for small jobs; the other is a big flush for big jobs.

7

I live here, and I thought it was for number one and number two. :confused:

j

8

After traveling in europe it surprised me how modern they are compared to us (US), and how much cheaper some things are. Also how much less they block off dangerous stuff, it’s common to find a 6+ ft drop off a sidewalk down to a lower walkway, highway construction with only cones preventing cars from dropping off. I was also impressed by the freedom they had some of which is rare in the US.

9

Travelling and living in Germany, I was greatly surprised at the total lack of public water fountains. I’m used to there being a water fountain near any public toilet, in train stations, zoos, shopping centers. They just don’t have any. If you want to drink water, you can buy a bottle (and it will almost certainly be carbonated)

10

First time in the U.K., I couldn’t find a street sign. That is until I realized they’re on the sides of buildings and such, not like in the USA on a separate signpost

11

The first time I went to England (from US) we stayed in London and set out on foot.
I was focusing on / adjusting to vehicles driving on the opposite sides of the street and was going to be extra careful before stepping out into a roadway to cross over.
At the first street I stopped at the curb and a van approached from my right. He slowed to a stop and I made the customary eye-contact with the driver to make sure he saw me before I crossed in front of the van.
Once across I was about to tell my friend “Did you see the guy driving that van? He looked like he was no more than 10 years old! Seriously, it looked like a kid was driving that van!” when it hit me. I was making eye contact with a kid riding in the passenger seat :smack:

12

The first time I traveled to another country was to Canada when I was maybe 7 years old. I don’t remember any big things that surprised me, just little differences that probably wouldn’t surprise an adult but were fascinating to me as a kid. Things like signs for the “washroom” instead of “restroom”, speed limit signs in KPH instead of MPH, that sort of thing. I thought it was funny the first time I saw a “Speed limit 100” sign, even though I knew it was in KPH and it was only around 60 MPH.

The first time I ever traveled overseas and not just to a neighboring country was to Germany in 2006. The thing that shocked me the most was the amount of smoking in public places. As soon as we arrived we encountered lots of people smoking in the baggage claim area at in the Hamburg airport. They were mostly congregated under these round vent hood things which were apparently the smoking areas. My German relatives told us they were supposed to draw the smoke up through the vents, but they don’t really work. And then out on the street there were cigarette vending machines just out on the sidewalk where anyone could use them. I think Germany has banned the vending machines now, but they were fairly prevalent at the time.

While it wasn’t my first time in a foreign country, I got to go to India for my previous job back in 2010. The thing that stuck with me the most was the traffic, that chaotic mix of buses and cars and motorbikes and those three wheeled motorized rickshaws, and no real lanes but people just driving where ever they fit. And everyone using their horns. I always say crossing the street in Bangalore is like a real life game of Frogger.

I do have to say I love the way Indian truck drivers decorate their trucks with sometimes extremely elaborate paint jobs. And always a “Please use horn” sign on the back. :slight_smile:

Being in India was my first experience being in a situation where I was obviously a different race from everyone else around me. I always felt really conspicuous being the only white guy on the sidewalk when I would walk back to my hotel. I imagine I got a taste of how non-white people probably feel much of the time in the US.

13

Back in …78? Mexican food is not what I thought it was. It’s great, but not TexMex. Construction workers cooking full chickens on the beach over a fire for lunch.

Seeing two ‘cops’ on a 125cc dirtbike in Guatemala. The one on the back with a sub-machinegun. Um… ok. Got to be sort of a regular sight. Beats walking.

At first I was a little confused about having to pay a buck or so in the Munich railway station to use the restroom. But we are talking clean, clean clean. And plenty of separate stations for travelers to freshen up and do their business.

14

And the spoons. I don’t no if an adult would find this significant, but any and every kid noticed that the cutlery (silverware) in Aus was HUGE compared to American cutlery.

15

Well, I moved from Scotland to Northern Ireland when I was 3. I didn’t know anything about religion (I’m really still quite ignorant). But I did come to the realization after a couple of years that we were Protestants and therefore lived in a Protestant neighbourhood. I, along with my new friends, hid in bushes and threw stones at Catholic kids, only because they were Catholic. This was mid 1960s.

Moving to Canada in 1968 wasn’t much of a culture shock, except I knew nothing about any North American sports until I was probably 9 or 10 years old. I didn’t know any of the idols that all my friends talked about. It took a while to figure out the basic rules of football, baseball and hockey.

I never watched Sesame Street, or Mr. Rogers, but we sure loved Saturday morning cartoons!

16

My first trip abroad was to Niagara Falls when I was about ten; we stayed on the Canadian side, where I was fascinated to find Kentucky Fried Chicken…in French!

17

Ah yes, I forgot to mention the pay toilets. Even in places like restaurants there was always a box to leave a few coins in for restroom maintenance. And I remember one, I think it might have been at the Munich train station, where there was a separate section of just urinals that was about half the price of the section with sit down toilets. I thought that seemed a bit like gender discrimination.

18

I’ve related my first encounter with British mustard around here before.

19

Explicit porno mags with women spread eagle on the cover in the open in French and German book stores right at the front was certainly weird.

20

Oh yeah. Forgot about that. My first trip to Europe I was surprised by the nudity on Broadcast TV.