With half a decade of non-stop travel under my belt, I can talk about a lot of subjects related to travel. The one thing I cannot talk about, however, is what it feels like to travel for the first time. Recently my assistant Amy made her very first trip outside of US/Canada. I asked her to write about her experience traveling abroad for the first time.
In the comments, feel free to share your first time traveling outside of your home country. Everyone remembers their first time and everyone has a different story.
Here is Amy:
In the past ten years or so, I’ve definitely broadened my horizons. I’ve been to 34 US states, including Alaska and Hawaii. I have lived outside of my home region for a significant portion of time, and I definitely love the rush of adventure. That 18 year old that was afraid of flying? She herself grew into a glider pilot, and married an airline pilot. I now easily jump on and off flights, fly standby and can calculate the best routes better than the average gate agent.
However, one thing still eluded me – foreign travel. For a long time, I didn’t have a passport (read about the remedy to that here). I couldn’t go abroad because I couldn’t go abroad. But after getting my passport, nothing really stopped me other than time. When TBEX asked me to speak in Costa Brava, Spain I knew this was the time. I was going to finally travel to a foreign country.
Arriving in Spain
I had to get a connecting flight through Toronto, so I had to speak to Canadian customs first. They asked a few questions and sent me on my way. Spanish customs was insanely easy. Both times I went through their customs station, they didn’t look at me or say a word. They just stamped my passport and I went on my way. To be honest, I was a little disappointed as it was happening that it wasn’t more of an adventure.
What little Spanish I knew was of no help. In Catalonia they speak Catalan, which seems to have its roots in French and Spanish. I did OK though. Most people knew at least a little English, and I could usually muddle my way through our interactions. I learned to order a “Coca Normal” to get my morning caffeine fix, and quickly learned that jamón ibérico was something I wanted to eat in large quantities.
Customs going home compared to entering Spain were different like night and day. It took me almost two hours to make it through US customs in Toronto. While it was far from scary, it was ridiculous. I had to grab my bags that were checked prior to getting into line. No less than 8 people handled my boarding pass while I was in the customs line. Three people scrutinized my passport. The redundancy was just maddening! When I finally got to the customs official, he was polite and efficient. But, there has to be a better way than what I encountered to let US citizens reenter their homeland that saves everyone time, money and stress.
Future Travels
