LOST!

Have you ever been lost?

Have you ever been lost? I hadn’t — I’ve always had an excellent sense of direction even when in an unfamiliar place — that is until I had general anaesthesia 6 weeks before I launched myself on a 4 and a half month trip around Europe. Something inexplicable happened to my brain. I had a week off work and when I returned to work, I took a wrong turn to almost every school I had been to every year for the previous 5 years. When I made a mistake, the weird thing was always a 180-degree mistake so I would end up heading in the completely opposite direction to where I needed to go.

It’ll by ok by the time I leave for Ireland I thought. But it wasn’t! And I was the appointed navigator for the whole group because of my superb navigational skills. I very soon lost my esteemed position.

Lost in Dingle

We had been to a music concert. Keeley, Dale and Rhys had already left. I thought about catching a cab back to our B&B but walked briskly through the town. It had stopped raining but had become very cold so I walked fast. I thought I knew the way home but took a slight deviation and ended up at a dead-end at the wrong place, so I had to retrace my steps.

Just what I needed! I then took the correct path which was well-lit for a couple of hundred metres then pitch blackness. I couldn’t see a thing, except I thought I saw a reflection off water and was too scared to venture any further so I tried unsuccessfully to find an alternate route. At that moment of desperation, I spied Dale and he guided me through the water, ( which was only a huge puddle, not a lake) to our lodging. After such a long terror-filled walk, it didn’t take me long to fall asleep.

Lost In Galway

Keeley and I thought we’d check out the shops so headed downtown at about 10 am. It was very quiet and we soon discovered why. Nothing opens until midday on a Sunday so since it was raining and miserable, we decided to catch a movie. Problem number 2 — the movies don’t open till 12.30 pm too! I didn’t want to walk back to our guest house the way we had come and said to Keeley we’d take the shortcut. I don’t know what happened but we got hopelessly, unbelievably lost!

I am blaming the fact that very few of the streets have signs so when I asked anyone where College Street was, they either didn’t know, didn’t care or gave us a bum steer. Not encouraging for our trip around Europe. We walked for 3 and a half hours before we reached home! And we did do at least one huge circle because we went to the same cemetery twice! We just about peed ourselves laughing at that stage!

We had walked miles away from anywhere interesting and at one stage came across a sign that said WELLPARK ROAD. When we did get back to our room, I googled it on googlemaps to try to work out where I had gone wrong, and there is a whole suburb where almost every street is called Wellpark Road! I kid you not! Check it out for yourself! Put in Wellpark Road, Galway. If that’s not typically Irish, I don’t know what is. Naming all the streets the same name haha!

Lost in Munich

We arrived in Munich and proceeded to the taxi rank with the idea of catching a cab, but made the mistake of telling the cab driver where we wanted to go BEFORE we got into the cab. He told us the Atlas Residence was not 2 minutes straight down the road! I wish I could find him again! It was NOT straight down the road, and actually, none of the THREE Atlas Hotels was straight down the road. We actually trudged to the other two, dragging our suitcases behind us, before finally finding the right one! Lorelle and Kiryn were already there (of course) as Kiryn actually knew where it was. I hadn’t bothered listening to directions because I had the intention of catching a cab!

Lost in Vienna

After visiting the Schönbrunn Palace, I planned to walk up to the Gloriette, but the temperature was dropping quickly so I abandoned that idea in favour of catching the tram back to the hotel.

I ran to catch the tram ( the driver waited for me!) and had an uneventful journey back to the station. Our hotel is maybe 200 metres from the station but do you think I could find it? Of course not! I ended up walking for a half-hour before I stopped to ask where I was. Naturally, I had walked in the opposite direction and was told to just go back to the station and go the other way. But somehow, I became hopelessly, completely, utterly lost!

I could not even find the railway station and it’s bloody huge! I walked down streets and didn’t see a soul. God only knows where I was. I ended up seeing a tram line in the distance and headed for that. I hopped on a tram that said it was going to Mariahilfer (I recognised this as the street our hotel was in). I could not believe I was 4 tram stops away from the station. I jumped out at the station and still couldn’t find my way! I have completely lost my innate sense of direction! Completely! I blame the anaesthetic I had in July. (He was a Russian anaesthetist!) I think I have been lost in every place we’ve been so far. I have given up finding my way from the station to our lodgings even when it’s 200 metres away because I have been lost every single time. I can barely believe it myself. I have never been lost anywhere in my whole life before that op!

Lost in Paris

We started off a leisurely Friday with the only plan being to do the night bike ride tour at 6 pm. By 1 pm, we were both bored so decided to get our sandwiches and go for a picnic. The nearest patch on green (on the map) just happened to be Pere-Lachaise Cemetery so that’s where we headed. It was only two blocks away so I thought walking shoes weren’t warranted for such a short distance. First mistake. We arrived at the cemetery and sat down on the stone steps to enjoy our picnic. (We had bought beer and olives on the way.)

We were unsure if it was polite to have a picnic in a cemetery, but we didn’t sit on any graves, although it was tempting. Those stone steps were not comfortable at all. We were smiled upon and frowned upon, so that didn’t enlighten us on cemetery protocol. One woman death-stared Keeley, who told me quite innocently, then realized how funny it was. Then we got the giggles- you can’t take us anywhere!

We climbed up, up, up, till we (should I say I) could climb no more, and we gave up on finding any tombs of note. I wanted to see Oscar Wilde’s tomb but he was miles away! Sorry, Oscar!

My poor toes were protesting so we headed back to our airbnb. And of course, we became lost. Don’t ask me how! It was two blocks for heaven’s sake! I think we were too busy talking and missed our turn. After walking for what seemed like hours, (Keeley assured me was only minutes), I yelled at her to show me the map on her phone, as I didn’t trust her navigation skills. I probably wouldn’t have yelled if my feet weren’t in so much pain. I didn’t want to walk one inch further than necessary.

She stalked off not speaking to me the rest of the way back to our airbnb. (It felt like half an hour, but in reality about 2 minutes.) She was really upset I had yelled at her. It shows you how often she’s yelled at that she had such an extreme reaction. Poor Keeley! When we arrived home, she climbed out through our window onto the roof to drink the rest of the beer. She obviously didn’t want to have anything to do with me. It’s my fault she hates confrontation. She did say at some stage that she wished she had let the bus hit me, but she didn’t mean it. (I hope!) I forgot to mention that I was almost run over by a bus on the way up to the Cemetery. I am pedantic about only crossing when the light turns green, even though everyone else walks when it’s still red, and yet I managed to step out in front of a bus and was pulled back onto the footpath by Keeley. What can I say? I just didn’t see it, or it didn’t register in my brain, or do I have a death wish? I have no idea.

You may notice that all of these misadventures happened while walking. I have a whole heap more that occurred while I was navigating and someone else was driving.

Have you ever been lost? Or do you have an excellent sense of direction and never get lost? I went from one extreme to the other overnight. I blame the anaesthetic… has this happened to you?

Globetrotters, if you’re up for a challenge, tell me about the time or times you’ve been lost. Tag me to make sure I’ll get to read them.