Yes, i did all of Burg, Parish, rang the first bell (by summoning two NPCs, completely by chance, and it was such a relief, cause i was getting my ass kicked ad nauseam). Then after i met the first smith i went on to the Darkroot Gardens/Basin, thinking that would be the way to go, but it seems like its only a side area. It took me forever to get good enough to beat the Wolf (also the Hydra was my first true holy shit moment in the game).
When i went back to other areas, like the Depths and New Londo Ruins, it felt a bit like i should've went through those first and the Gardens/Basin later, cause the enemies seemed harder in the Gardens. But there's no way to tell with this game.
I didn't want to use guides or anything similar, but this golden fog kinda pissed me off, just the thought of having to leave Tomb of Giants just to go back through it again is making me not wanting to play. At this point it's by far the worst area of the game, it's not confusing like Blighttown seemed to be, but way more soul crushing.
This teleporting thing, can i find it at this stage i'm at, or is it only further in the game? Can i leave Tomb of Giants knowing i can just teleport back to finally go through the golden fog, or it doesn't work like that at all? (i must confess i'm not much of an adept of the Metroidvania style) Did anyone actually play through all of Dark Souls without using the internet?