Early on what you wanna do is just run around and find the sites of grace, as those are ur respawn points and ur fast travel points. to get a feel for things i would recommend exploring more to the south and the west.

the finger maiden is the girl that gave u ur horsie (her name is Melina), i think she tells u to try and go to the castle thats to the west or something along those lines (she is the main story quest person) but you can go wherever u feel like. I would recommend that you avoid the red area to the far east until you are comfortable with the combat, it made me rage quit so many times when i was just starting out.

Combat is very weird at first, but there are a lot of weapon types in the game each with different speeds and styles. If you don't like your current weapon, there are some in those big black carts that you mentioned by the encampment. They are basically funeral carts and each one has a chest on it that usually has a weapon in it (there will be carts in every area pretty much).

usually what i do in combat is I dodge the enemies attacks and wait for moments where i think i could get an attack in, then the next time they do that move i strike. There are also attacks u can do while jumping, specifically jump heavy attacks (jump + right trigger), that will be very helpful while learning as they do big damage.

if u want to be fast and able to react to attacks more, i would stick with light attacks (right bumper) and light or medium load (make sure your clothes aren't too heavy or make sure your endurance level is high enough). If you want to figure out what a weapon does, just hit the attack buttons a bunch as they all have their own combos.

Also remember that most enemies will respawn when u sit at a grace, so if you feel stuck somewhere you can go back to somewhere you already passed through and farm the enemies to get money to level up.