Stepping Out of My Comfort Zone: Traveling Abroad for the First Time

It was Monday afternoon, a busy start to the week. Half of the day it was passed. It was time for lunch. There was a bowl on the lunch table with nice curry made with capsicum and potatoes and rice. I completed having lunch. It was yummy, I enjoyed the food.

A typical Telugu meal doesn’t end without having curd or yoghurt. I took a teaspoon of sugar and yoghurt into a bowl, sat on the sofa, and started scrolling my Instagram feed.

Five minutes passed, and suddenly a pop-up came, alerting me that I had spent five minutes on Instagram and asking me if I wanted to continue further or take me out. Upon pressing the “Take me out” button, a train of thoughts started and dropped me in August 2022.

In August 2022, I travelled to Germany. It was my first foreign trip. I was very excited about the journey. I lived in Hyderabad for around eight years. Hyderabad became my new hometown and my comfort zone.

During the COVID time, I went back to my native place, I stayed there for almost two years. During this time, I started having a feeling that, I was stuck in my comfort zone.

I started looking for opportunities outside of India. I wanted to meet people from other cultures and travel outside my comfort zone. I enjoy learning history. Finally, in Feb 2022, I got an opportunity to work in Hamburg. It was not an easy journey.

Later I applied for the visa. German authorities are known for taking their sweet time to process things. Of course, everything is appointment-based. It took three months to get everything completed. Finally, in August, I planned for my exciting trip.

My flight to Hamburg in Hyderabad was around four am. It was an Emirates flight. I said bye to all the loved ones who came to give send off to me. I never left my family for a long period. Though I was in Hyderabad, I used to visit my hometown every 2 months at least. Now this will be a long trip.

A lot of other thoughts that were pulling me back. Anyway, I took a step forward and crossed the check-in counter and the security checks. Upon passing the security check, I already started feeling that I was at the border and waiting for my carrier. When the flight took off and pierced through the clouds, it felt like a different world to me.

Since my stop-over was in Dubai, the flight reached Dubai around six thirty local time. It was surprising for me when I checked the weather in Dubai. At six thirty am, the temperature reached forty degrees centigrade already. My flight flew over Burg Khalifa which I never thought I could see it.

From Dubai, it was a straight six-hour journey to Hamburg. I reached Hamburg around one thirty pm local time. I traveled almost thirteen hours including stop over time. Crossed many borders. Different kinds of lands and cultures. As an Indian, I landed into a different culture which is quite different.

In Hamburg, my first experience was with sign boards. In India, though we have many languages and English is not our primary language, we accept English, and we keep sign boards in English along with the local language everywhere.

I was under the impression that this would be similar everywhere. When I looked at the sign boards, they looked like they were in English, but when observed closely, they were not. They are in German.

The starting point for my confusion and regret for not learning at least a minimum of German. Finally, I could reach the place where I wanted to stay after a struggle.

In the past two years, there have been many surprises, that I never thought of while I was in Hyderabad.