If you live in the north-east of England, your closest 'abroad' country is not France or Belgium; it is Norway, and that is the first foreign country I ever visited. Shops in Newcastle used to have 'We speak Norwegian' in their windows (something like 'Norsk Sprakken', I think).
You have to get an overnight ferry to Bergen, and my family set off for the port all ready to travel and all excited.
However, we were kept waiting for hours on the quayside with hundreds of other passengers. Eventually, a section of the travellers started singing 'Why Are We Waiting' (to the melody of 'O Come All Ye Faithful'), and gradually, the whole massive shipload of people joined in, all in very good spirits, standing there next to the ship with their luggage in the sunshine, singing for what seemed like hours:
'Why are we waiting?
Why-ee are we waiting?
Why are we way-ay-ayting?
Why? Why? Why?'
(I never did find out why we were waiting, but we did get to Norway, and I loved it)
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