Question: How do I get out of Old Ascalon

My friend and I decided to try Guild Wars using the free trial. She started last week and I only started today. Now to the problems we have, and I'm sure they are absolutely going to sound stupid but we are stuck.

1. We wanted to "meet" so we both switched to the same area but then we were unable to do so. We then realized that she was in "old ascalon" and I'm in "ascalon city". When she looks at her map everything is "old looking and brown" and my map is "green and alive looking". We don't know how she got there and we don't know how to get her out or how to get me there.

2. We became friends (I think) but we still can't go to each other.

Please help!! We were thinking about becoming members and playing Guild Wars but at this point we are rather frustrated.

I would appreciate any help. Thanks in advance.

ok, you are still in the 'training' area with the green hills and nice looking houses. Your friend has moved on past the 'searing' which means she has done a few more quests (taken a few rewards) that you have not. You can catch up to her by looking in your quest log. You will find this by either the menu or using the L key. You will see (hopefully) a primary quest (most likely picking a secondary profession).
After you pick a 2ndary you can then talk to Sir Tydus which will take you out of the tutorial and into the same area as your friend--Old Ascalon.

If you have any other questions there is a wiki that has all the quests and information about guild wars: http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Main_Page

I hope this helps

Thank you so much. I did take my secondary but have been running around like a crazy trying to get to my friend.

And don't worry, there's aren't any other "time jump" sections in the game like that where one of you will end up in a different playable world then another.

After picking your secondary, there should be a quest from Tydus called Path To Glory, that quest, when you complete it, will send you to the 'brown' world your friend is in.

Would be a good idea to keep one of your chars in what is known as pre-searing. Easy to farm for dyes and traveller items.

Thinking about it, GW1 is a bit confusing when you are first starting out like this. I remember the exact same problem happening at release when I wanted to meet up with friends. lol. I remember scraping round the borders of pre-sear trying to find a way out

If you follow, and more imporantly read the primary quest line then it is fairly obvious at what stage you make the jump.