No problem
Does it stir any memories for anybody?

First time I went "abroad" on holiday was June1978 to Corfu. My OH had been several times from college,both for Sun and skiing, but I was a hot country "virgin", I had actually only flown once before.
Turned up at Gatwick dressed in heavy jeans,jumper and a jacket! I'll never forget the blast of heat that hit me as I walked off the plane at ~ midday in Corfu!!
Other first time memories? ...well trying to pay for a meal in a taverna with a cheque cos I'd left my drachma in the room!!!Getting sunburnt shoulders riding a bike along the coast road at 9:00 in the morning.
Awestruck watching some German lovelies wearing virtually nothing on a deserted Benitses beach....and finally drinking a local wine called Lais ,which we thought was the bees knees ...til we got it home and realised how awful it was!!

My first trips abroad as an adult were more of an adventure than a holiday as such as me and my then boyfriend hitch-hiked to Chamonix in France with just a pup tent and rucksacks. Next we used the Inter-rail to travel to Greece and Island hopped, again with the tent/rucksacks so no air- cond or mod cons.

Once I was married and had my son years later our first family holiday abroad was, in order to keep the cost down, with Siesta on the coach to Spain. We were in a poky caravan in the blazing sun without any air-conditioning. I remember waking up and scrabbling over my sleeping husband to get outside the van for some 'air'. We had to go every night to the sites club with the young 'un so he could join in the entertainment and, of course, we had to do the club dance at the end of every evening.
When it came to our first family flight holiday, I do remember, with horror now, spending hours and hours with every brochure under the sun piled up around my feet, searching for the right holiday. I'd go through them all whittling it down eventually to the resort, then came the accommodation

So scared was I of getting it wrong, that I'd scan every photo in all the brochures, mentally being pleased with myself if I found a photo where the pool looked huge, then I'd find an aerial picture which showed the said pool was in fact tiny. (Aha they thought they'd fooled me ) I'd have reams of lists of accommodation, travel agents, varies flight times/airports all in order to compare and get us the best deal and the best accommodation.

My head would be full & I'd go to bed stressed to hell, so frightened was I of making a mistake, and that was just the booking
On arrival in the 'foreign' country we'd hold up many a queue whilst we checked and double checked each coin so that we didn't inadvertently hand over £10 instead of 1p. (I remember on a trip to France once, years before, my friend putting the equivalent of half a weeks wages into the collection plate in Notre Dame Cathedral as she thought it was a couple of bob).

People would view any local food as suspicious, whinge about the toilets, & thought all the waiters were going to chat you up and whisk you away to some remote shack in the hills.

Glynis HT Admin wrote:

On arrival in the 'foreign' country we'd hold up many a queue whilst we checked and double checked each coin so that we didn't inadvertently hand over £10 instead of 1p. (I remember on a trip to France once, years before, my friend putting the equivalent of half a weeks wages into the collection plate in Notre Dame Cathedral as she thought it was a couple of bob).

....reminded me of our first trip in the car to Europe in the late 80s..before the Euro....my wife bought some food at a service station in Belgium...bought the bill back and I went beserk!!........had to apologise profusely (and still do ) when I realised that there were ~12-15 belgian francs to the French franc

brewerdave wrote:

had to apologise profusely (and still do )