Dang...what level was that at and how did you get so much exploration and observation?

I've had some new PCs where I specifically moved around like molassas reading everything, looking at everything going from area to area for the inital quests and trying specifcally to find a way to register more exp just like this and it is pretty mcuh the exact same as ones that I just put it out of my mind and go through normal efforts to do lower leveling. I don't know if trying to do those quests is what is hurting me, or if I just don't know the good places to head to to pick some of that exp up.