Pay attention and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all main podcast apps.
Hello, that is Dylan Thuras, and you've got reached the Atlas Obscura podcast line. I'm not residence proper now, however please depart me a message all about your tales of touring internationally for the very first time. Inform me your story after the beep.
That is an edited transcript of the Atlas Obscura Podcast: a celebration of the world's unusual, unbelievable, and wondrous locations. Discover the present on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all main podcast apps.
Visitor 1: Hey, Atlas Obscura. The primary time I ever traveled internationally, I used to be going to Germany. My household was shifting there. I used to be about to be a junior in faculty, and I used to be planning to only go over for a number of weeks throughout the summer time after which come again and go to high school in particular person. In fact, it being the summer time of 2020, it didn't work out that means, and I ended up having to rearrange my complete schedule and take all my courses on-line in Germany with a seven-hour time distinction. Woo!
However the precise journey to Germany was extraordinary. We had been touring collectively, so we received on a aircraft fairly early within the morning, and we headed out, and we're on this actually lengthy flight that I bear in mind maybe 15 or 18 hours into being awake flying over the French shoreline and looking and pondering, “Wow, the Atlantic Ocean is west of me.” Superb.
After which by the point we landed on the second airport and received all of our baggage—it was a lot baggage—and we received on the bus that will take us to the place we had been really going to be dwelling, I had been awake for greater than 24 hours at that time. I used to be so drained. I used to be absolutely crazy. And as we had been on the bus driving to the place can be residence, I used to be looking on the hills, and my thoughts began overlaying Van Gogh work onto this countryside, and I'm like, “Wow, wow, all of it actually appears to be like like that!”
I imply, there have been wind generators and fashionable buildings and all, however the countryside was there, and it was simply—it was superb. In order that's the story of the primary time I went to Germany to start with of a very fairly superb yr. I'm very glad I received to do it.
Visitor 2: My first journey overseas alone was to Switzerland in 1986 after my sophomore yr of highschool. I used to be attending a boarding faculty in Connecticut, and the daddy of considered one of my mates was a considerably well-known writer, they usually lived in Europe, and my good friend invited me to come back and go to them in Gstaad, Switzerland in a chalet that they had been staying there.
When my mother and father picked me up from faculty on the finish of the varsity yr, I requested them casually if I might go to Switzerland to go to him if I earned the cash for the aircraft fare. I used to be a bit shocked once they stated sure, and I believe they had been shocked once I really earned the cash.
However I did, and in early August, I took off from JFK in New York and flew to Geneva. I didn't know a lot French, however I did handle to get from the airport to the prepare station in Geneva. From the prepare station there to Gstaad, I believe there was a switch alongside the way in which, and as soon as I received to Gstaad, I had an incredible two weeks there visiting my good friend and his household.
My good friend had these motorbikes, so we motorbiked throughout city and up into the mountains and alongside the roads. At one level, he pulled off on this turnout alongside one of many mountain roads and pointed me to the aspect of the mountain, which from a distance regarded like a rock wall. While you received up shut, although, you noticed it was a display that was painted grey, and in the event you regarded inside, there was a clear, pristine concrete hallway with doorways with metallic bars. It was some type of authorities or army facility. We threw some firecrackers in there. They exploded very loudly, and we took off rapidly on the motorbikes.
At night time, we might go to the discos on the town. I realized the best way to drink whiskey Cokes, and we stayed up very, very late. One time I gave a woman a journey residence on the bike, however I used to be too shy to ask her if I might kiss her goodnight.
On the chalet with the household, my good friend's household, they taught me the best way to play the cardboard recreation hearts, which I had by no means performed, and I bear in mind one time I shot the moon just about unintentionally. I don't know in the event that they let me do it, or I simply was gathering all of the hearts, and abruptly it was inevitable, however it was a shock, I believe, to everybody on the desk that that occurred.
The day I used to be leaving, my prepare out was at one thing like 6:00 a.m., however I didn't have alarm clocks, so I stayed up all night time so I didn't miss the prepare. I walked the 2 miles or so from the chalet to the prepare station with my baggage within the early morning hours, made the prepare, fell asleep nearly instantly, nearly missed my switch, however I did make it again to Geneva, onto the aircraft residence to the U. S., I made it residence safely, and it's simply simply such a terrific reminiscence, and I'm so glad that I made the journey.
Leah Washington: My title is Leah Washington. I used to be ending or beginning in sixth grade. My dad retired from the Air Pressure. We left Missouri in 1977, headed for Tehran, Iran, when the West was nonetheless fairly massive there, and my dad went to work for Lockheed Plane.
And I bear in mind arriving within the airport, my brother, my mother, my dad, and I, in Tehran, and popping out into the airport, into this sea of chadors—the coverings that the ladies wore—males holding palms, hugging one another, and simply the ocean of strangeness and oddness and newness, coming as a 12-year-old in 1977, and getting within the taxi, and going throughout the town to our house to start out our lives there.
The nation was stunning. The individuals had been stunning and type, and the meals—driving on the roads was insane, and it was top-of-the-line experiences of my life. My mother and father had been so cool in that point. They really requested my brother and I earlier than we went if we needed to go and what we thought, and us being an Air Pressure household, we stated, “Let's go.”
And we had been there when the Shah Revolution began and left as issues of pupil uprisings occurred, and it's nonetheless considered one of my finest recollections and top-of-the-line experiences, and I'm so glad my mother and father stated sure to the expertise and that we had it.
Stacy: Hey, Atlas Obscura. My title is Stacy, and I needed to share my story about my first worldwide journey. Once I was 18, I went on an Ambassadors of Music journey to Europe. The journey general was superb and sparked my wanderlust for the subsequent 20-plus years, however I wish to discuss particularly about my most harrowing a part of that journey once I received left on the Tower of London.
So, everybody in my group needed to go see the Crown Jewels, however I used to be extra excited about a special exhibit. I don't even bear in mind what it was now, however by the point I noticed it, it was nicely previous the group rendezvous time, and the central sq. that had been bustling with vacationers simply an hour earlier than was now hauntingly quiet.
As I stood there attempting to determine my subsequent transfer, and never panic, one of many Yeoman Warders, aka Beefeaters, stepped out of the mist, approached me, and stated in his stunning brogue, “Do you know that seven individuals had been executed on this spot? Six of them had been ladies. 5 of them had been redheads.”
He should have been very amused with himself as my face probably turned as brilliant as my fiery hair. I believe I smiled sheepishly and thanked him for the fascinating truth earlier than bolting to the exit. I did fortunately find yourself discovering my group a pair hours later, and vowed to stay like glue for the remainder of the rest of the journey.
Frederic: Howdy Atlas Obscura, Frederic from Normandy in France. I needed to share with you my first worldwide journey. It was once I was 17, I'm over 40 now, and it was to New York. So we had like this factor for youngsters at my father's job, and nicely, I went with, I believe it was a dozen of different children. We went to Montreal first, after which we rented a minivan and we went to New York.
It was a life-changing second actually for me to only step out of the minivan in New York, as soon as we parked—the large constructing, the colourful streets and the automobiles all over the place, and it was simply dizzying. So we spent like, I believe it was two or three days in New York.
We got just about a variety of free time there. So nicely, I simply went and explored the town. I went to Chinatown alone, I went to the Monetary District, I went to the New York Inventory Change, don't ask me why, I don't know why I went there. And I went to the Empire State Constructing in fact. I simply went round and I simply misplaced myself within the metropolis, and it was simply so, it was like within the motion pictures and the sequence I watched again then.
I needed to go and see the World Commerce Heart, so I used to be simply there on the backside of them. I used to be trying up, they usually had been so big, such big towers. In order that was August of 2001, and you'll think about principally what I felt when like a month later, they had been gone. I imply, that was it.
So principally now I'm simply pondering each time I am going someplace, simply go there. There's no subsequent time, I simply go there if I can, as a result of that taught me that even the largest buildings gained't be round without end. So simply go there.
Dylan Thuras: We would like your tales of touring with a big different for the primary time. Your relationship journey tales. You don't should have stayed collectively. It might have gone very badly. Or possibly that journey was the factor that set your relationship in movement. They are often candy, or they are often embarrassing, surprising, stunning. Yeah, we would like your journey tales with a romantic associate.
Give us a name at 315-992-7902 and depart us a message telling your title and story. Mailbox will lower you off after two minutes, so name again in the event you get disconnected. Or file a voice memo and e-mail it to us at hi there@atlasobscura.com.
Pay attention and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all main podcast apps.
This episode was produced by Manolo Morales. Our podcast is a co-production of Atlas Obscura and Stitcher Studios. The individuals who make our present embody Doug Baldinger, Chris Naka, Kameel Stanley, Johanna Mayer, Manolo Morales, Baudelaire, Gabby Gladney, Amanda McGowan, Alexa Lim, Casey Holford, and Luz Fleming. Our theme music is by Sam Tyndall.
