Writer: Helena Bergström
Here is a list about travelling. "The first time I ..." is simply about the first time you had different travelling experiences. Feel free to join in and make a list on your blog too - or answer the questions in a comment!
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ShareI found inspiration for this list from Annika/Resfredag, who wrote this list. However, our version is slightly modified.
The first time I ...
... travelled in Sweden
Helena: It's hard to keep track of all the trips you took in Sweden as a child. What I remember best are the summer trips from Lund, where I lived with my family, to the summer place in Tylösand. Great memories!
Peter: When I was two weeks old, I travelled for the first time with my family from Stockholm to our country house on Blidö in the archipelago. These trips continued every weekend, for a long time ...
... travelled abroad
Helena: It is possible that I had been to Denmark before, but I don't remember... The first trip abroad I remember was a ski trip to the German Harz in 1985. We stayed right on the border with East Germany!
Peter: When I was 14, I went with my mum to the Costa del Sol in Spain. What I remember most is that I was supposed to babysit my little brother, so that mum could lie in the sun ...
... travelled without their parents
Helena: When I was 16 years old, I went on a language trip to England with my friend Johanna. The year was 1991 and we travelled by bus from Skåne. On the way we got to see Paris too!
Peter: I used to hang out on Blidö all the time when I was young, where my parents had a summer house and I had lots of friends. Everyone had a boat and we often went out to different islands, where we sometimes spent the night.
... travelled by train
Helena: I don't remember when I travelled by train for the first time. It was probably within Sweden, maybe to the mountains. However, I do remember the first time I travelled by metro! It was when we visited Stockholm, when I was 10 years old.
Peter: I travelled by metro and commuter train all the time growing up, since I lived in Stockholm. The first time I travelled by train through Sweden ...? It was probably as an adult at some point ...
... flew
Helena: The first time I got on an aeroplane was in 1992, when I travelled to Iceland. I flew from Stockholm to Reykjavik and then from Reykjavik to the Westman Islands. The purpose was to stay as an exchange student for a year.
Peter: It was when I was 14 years old and flew to Spain with my mum and little brother. The flight was Stockholm - Malaga, and the year was 1976.
... stayed in a hotel
Helena: I don't remember which was the first hotel, but two early hotel memories are Trillevallen high mountain hotel, where we stayed for several skiing holidays and Zinkensdamms hostel, where we stayed the first time I visited Stockholm.
Peter: I have to answer Costa del Sol in Spain and 1976 again. I don't remember anything of the hotel though...
... camping
Helena: I didn't grow up camping at all, whether in a motorhome, caravan or tent. Sure, there were tents at a few festivals and such, but that's it... In 2007 we (me, Peter and Peter's sons) went to New Zealand where we went motorhoming for the first time. After that we were hooked!
Peter: I didn't grow up with a camper van or caravan either, but we did a lot of camping when I was growing up. We also stayed in simple shelters sometimes, and cooked over an open fire.
... lived abroad
Helena: The first time I lived abroad was at Iceland, when I was there as an exchange student at the age of 16. I lived with a family for one academic year and went to high school, on Hemön, Westman Islands.
Peter: I have not lived abroad, but we have often been travelling for a long time. The longest period was in 2015, when we travelled around Europe with the motorhome.
... ate something 'strange' abroad
Helena: I must mention Iceland again! I attended Þorrablót where they eat hákarl (fermented shark), svið (boiled sheep's head), hangikjöt (smoked mutton), hrútspungar (sheep's testicles) and flatbrauð (a kind of flatbread).
Peter: I have no such memories from my early travels. However, during our later travels we have eaten some different things, such as horse milk (Mongolia), goat intestines (Kenya) and sea cucumber (Philippines).
... travelled together with current partner
Helena and Peter: Our first trip together was to Hurghada in Egypt in 2005. It was a desert safari among other things!
... got scared or worried abroad
Helena and Peter: Most of our travelling memories are positive, but during the 2007 elections in Kenya the country became very unstable (with around 1 000 dead and 300 000 displaced). Unpleasant things were happening around us and we were stuck in a small guesthouse in Mombasa. Together with two other couples, we waited for an opportunity to leave the country.
New Year's Eve was celebrated at the small guesthouse and we went around the team so that everyone had to finish the sentence "If I survive ..." to express what you would do in your life if you got the chance.
How did it go? A few days later, a taxi driver dared (finally, for a month's salary in payment!) to pick us up and drive us (at high speed, between burning car wrecks) to the border with Tanzania. We crossed the border on foot, without internet or guidebook, and found a local bus to take us further
First time I ... your turn!
Feel free to answer the questions too! Feel free to write in a separate blog post, if you have a blog, or write in a comment.
The first time I ...
... travelled in Sweden
... travelled abroad
... travelled without their parents
... travelled by train
... flew
... stayed in a hotel
... camping
... lived abroad
... ate something 'strange' abroad
... travelled with my current partner
... got scared or worried abroad
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Netti Starby says:
Mine is from Poland so I was very young when we visited my family there for the first time. But the first plane trip I was around 10 years old and then we travelled to Turkey. Otherwise I grew up with camping life. Fun to read about your travels through life. Hugs <3
27 February 2025 - 6:23
Helena says:
Interesting to hear about your early travelling experiences! 🙂 Wishing you all the best!
27 February 2025 - 8:51
Anette says:
Fun post, it's interesting to find out a bit more about you. Especially about the time before Freedom.
The Kenya trip was less fun but those kind of memories often stick, maybe more than the positive travel memories you have.
Of course I'm keen to do a similar blog post, we'll see.
27 February 2025 - 6:38
Helena says:
The funniest thing is that it was appreciated! Yes, that part of the Kenya trip was of course less fun (especially terrible that so many people got hurt!) but it was a lesson for us, and an experience we will never forget.
27 February 2025 - 8:52
Monnah says:
What fun to read! I wrote to my sister that unfortunately I don't remember any of this! Or rather, I'm not sure my guesses are true. That's the way it is with all my memories. I remember details from different occasions very well, but I actually have no idea exactly in which villages we were in southern Germany, or where we went in Croatia, or details of all the national parks we visited in the United States. However, I have documented a lot in diaries and blogs, and the experiences still live on in emotions.
27 February 2025 - 7:48
Helena says:
I know what you mean! Even if you have a lot of memories, it can be difficult to sort them. I don't remember everything either, and to get some control (years and stuff) I have looked in photo albums ... 😉
27 February 2025 - 8:53
But says:
Visited Denmark quite early but first longer trip was the family's only sun holiday to Cyprus -97! The first flight was a short domestic trip because my mum wanted me and my sister to fly (we were maybe 8-9 years old then). The first train journey was probably the commuter train to the family in southern Stockholm. The first trip without parents went to Prague I think. I have also been afraid and worried, for example, I always feel a heavenly concern about missing the flight home or delaying me to something else important, it is still in there. Otherwise, some crazy taxi rides and shady neighbourhoods. I'm not good at camping, so apart from scout camps I've never been camping. I don't eat weird things because I'm picky. I'd rather eat nothing.
27 February 2025 - 13:05
Orsakulla mum at 20 - Dala life, fine china & poodle life says:
Exciting list there, think that everything has a first time. It really becomes so nice in many ways. Then you do not remember everything of your first.
27 February 2025 - 13:05