Do You visit friends from around the world? Everyday life and customs

Good evening,

Of course for sure we have friends on this site from various countries. Maybe some of You found friends in different way, or with different site/ application/ telepathic/ Soul traveling/ etc.

What I want to ask about is:
Do You see Your friends from another countries in real? Did You meet with them sometimes, do You visit each other (maybe once, maybe regular?)?

If yes, can You say something about Your experiences in this matter? How often, who visits who first, how Your first conversation looks like, etc, etc...

If no, are You planning to do that in nearest future?

(Yes, I know, covid is problem right now, but for some of You it may not be a thing, or just tell about past, before current situation).

Thank You for answers,
Oxiu

Hey,

I've seen many people from this site, as well in the Netherlands as in other countries.
For example, I have visited people in Belgium, Germany, Italy, United Kingdom, Norway and France as far as I can remember. Some visits were whilst I was on my way or when I was on holidays, at others I stayed in their houses and had my holiday there. I also had people over from Germany, France and America in my house, so they had a cheap stay as well

Thus far all my experiences are great, and I still have contact with most of the people, but you need to get to know someone before you decide to do this, example do some face calls so you really get to see and know the person.

If you have more questions, feel free to throw them

Bart

I don't have any experience with penpal visits at all but if I get to know a person good enough I would definitly consider to visit them.

Yes I did once, and it changed our relation forever! We talked so much in person (through the night actually 😁), that we didn't have much left the next weeks to write each other. But it could have also been, that we both feared to become TOO closely related and were afraid of the huge distance (>6000km!). We slowly disconnected afterwards and only write occasionally now...

So, be aware that meeting in person may change something between you...either good or bad (the other one could be smelly!), and try to think through the consequences beforehand. 🙂

I met up with a penpal once, in Germany. It was two years ago and it was a good experience that I'm looking forward to repeat. Well I cannot with that person because we lost contact. It was rather a penpal than a friend if that makes sense, since we were very different people.

I will do it in 2022, South Korea. Well this time, meeting a good friend instead.
You usually can only go so far just through chatting. It's nice to do things together, whether it is online like playing games or you know, in person.

I've met two of my pen pals so far. The one I've known the longest and I have gotten together twice. I visited her in England on my way back to the US from India. I spent a week with her and we went to a bunch of plays in London along with a Suzanne Vega concert. We had a blast. The last time I was in England we got together twice, once for dinner and drinks in London and also on a weekend trip to Liverpool.

Another pen pal I knew from Canada flew into San Francisco on her way to Australia and we went camping in Yosemite and spent some time in San Francisco as well.

I've gotten together with a few people to climb after meeting them online. One I met up in Yosemite when he was camping with his family. Another from the UK was at a medical conference in San Diego and I picked him up at the Ontario (California) airport and we went climbing and camping at Joshua Tree. I also reached out to someone who worked in India at the same company I did when I visited there and arranged to go climbing with him as well.