As an extrovert who had experience travelling solo, I once found myself travelling to Germany at the last minute due to being the only person on the project with a passport (and, I'll note, German not a language I'd had any acquaintance with at the time). It provoked significant worry from me, especially given that my directions to the site involved public transit and directions of the "know it when you see it" sort.

So I can understand the concerns. Heck, I ran into issues later when I left my phrasebook behind. I couldn't remember the word "Geldautomat" and was out of cash. Fortunately I did find someone who spoke enough English to help.

That said, I found the Germans I met along my journey to be far friendlier than the typical American stereotype of them, and the trip went just fine (and many more like it, later) -- but I was already a seasoned traveler who was used to all the aspects of long-distance air travel.

Not all people are socially able to do that. Each people have their fear ... Some are heights , dogs , cats , fire , gun ...

It's not rationnal but it's how it is ....

The only way I could read this is the the author has some kind of personality quirk or anxiety issue. Strange (to us), but understandable (he/she isn't alone).

> What is scary about traveling to a presumably a big city in one of the richest countries in the world?

Not everyone enjoys, or is comfortable with, travel in its own right. It doesn't have to be about the destination, or even the journey - some folks are just homebodies, and that's okay.

In fact, I'm one of them! My trip to Manhattan last year was pretty much the first time I'd been out of Baltimore in half a decade, unless you count camping as travel, which I don't. It was rewarding but initially nervousmaking as well, especially when it took a quarter hour just to get to ground level from the deeply subterranean arrival platform. In the event, people there were uniformly lovely to me, and I had a great time. But it also helped to know that, if things went badly, I could just change my return ticket, get on another train, and be home again in a few hours. The same wouldn't be true in Germany, and I would face the prospect of a journey there with considerably more trepidation therefore.

Like so much of The Wire, that's exaggerated for dramatic effect. And I'm Mississippi born and raised, in any case. But I do dearly love this town, and I don't expect or intend ever to leave for good.

I picked up on that as well. I've been a solo traveller to Germany (from Australia) several times now, and it's probably my favorite country. The first time I knew very little German and anyone in their 20s or younger had very good English. Travelling solo tends to be scary until you do it and get some experience of it.

I'm not saying that's what byuu should have done, sending the package seems perfectly reasonable. Being nervous of solo travel is reasonable too. I just wouldn't want him to miss out on an awesome country because of it... and especially a country as passionate about electronics & technology as Germany is.

Yeah, I'm Australian and can speak a tiny bit of German but hardly needed it when I went to Berlin.

I reckon the German education system must be great because the average person over there seems to have very good English.

> I reckon the German education system must be great because the average person over there seems to have very good English.

Hahahaha … no!