So for as long as I can remember, I have always been directionally challenged. When I was younger, I could never figure out how to get anywhere. In fact, in middle and high school, whenever my friend's parents would have to drop me off at home after school, I would literally have to give them the address because I didn't know the way on my own. And I only lived like 10 minutes from the school. The school I attended EVERY DAY!!! I always thought that the problem was that I was a passenger and never needed to pay attention when others were driving, hence my lack of knowledge. But even after I got my license, I still had to google the directions to everyday locations because I could not remember on my own. To this day, 7 years after having gotten my driver's license, I am finally at the point where I can get to a few places on my own or will recognize where I am when my exit is coming up. But I STILL need Google Maps for most places, no matter how many times I have visited or how long I have lived in an area. At this point, I consider myself a lost cause and just turn on the GPS every time I get in the car.
As you can imagine, my struggle abroad is amplified times 10. Up until this point, I've traveled without WiFi so I've picked up a routine of screenshotting the step-by-step directions beforehand and using that to guide me to each destination. And especially when traveling solo, I didn't make a habit of veering off course so this method mostly worked for me. But let me tell you! While this method can usually get me to a destination perfectly fine, the return process has not always proved 100% reliable because I have still gotten lost abroad. Nothing major because I'm clearly alive, untraumatized, and have continued on to many more countries. And I am so happy that for my last few trips, I've had my roommate's geographical skills to assist me and I recently bought a pocket WiFi device for future use. But it's still really funny to know just how much of a strugglebus I really am. Here are a few stories about my international struggles LOL.
The first time I vividly remember getting lost was while waiting for my bus in Madrid. During my time teaching abroad, I lived in Valladolid, a small city about 2 hours outside of Madrid. While in Europe, I decided to take a few weekend trips to other countries. In order to get to these other countries, I always had to take the bus to Madrid and then fly out from that airport. When heading out for one of these trips, I had to wait about 1.5 hours for my bus from Valladolid to Madrid. I decided to walk to a cafe a few blocks away to wait there instead of sitting in the bus terminal so I used the terminal WiFi to google the directions and took the 10ish minute walk no problem. Me thinking "Oh that was simple, I know how to get back" I don't pull up any directions and just start walking back to the bus terminal after eating. Of course, I was quickly humbled as I had to turn back around to use the cafe's WiFi to pull up directions back. My confidence came and went expeditiously LOL.
The second time, I got LOST LOST in Paris. I took a day trip to France and had pulled up directions beforehand with every bus, street, etc. I would need to get to the few places I wanted to see that day. I believe I started by Notre Dame and my next stop was the Eiffel Tower. I looked at my phone to see which bus I needed and matched it to the information at the bus stop and confidently waited for the bus. When the driver pulled up, I asked "Is this the bus to the Eiffel Tower?" and he shook his head yes in response. I sit down like OK cool and at this point, I think it's smooth sailing until I get to my stop and hop off. I'm riding and looking out the window waiting until I see the name of my stop. The whole time, I am just overly excited because I'm in Paris duh! So I'm riding...and riding...and riding...and still riding??? At this point, I'm getting extra nervous because it should not have taken this long. At the very next stop, I ask the driver again "Are you headed to the Eiffel Tower?" to which he responds no and starts speaking in French something I could not understand! I realized one of two things had happened. Either he didn't understand what I asked when I first got on and I got on the wrong bus. Or I missed my stop a while ago. Like I previously mentioned, I did not have WiFi so I couldn't just google it. And I didn't speak French which meant I couldn't ask just anybody for help. I remember literally standing at the stop asking multiple people if they spoke English so that they could help me get to the correct bus. The first few people couldn't help but I eventually found someone who spoke English and was able to direct me. I did make it to the Eiffel Tower but I might as well have had "lost tourist" written across my forehead SMH.
The last and most recent moment I can recall was leaving the Tulum beach with my roommate to head back to our hotel. I screenshotted the directions to get to the beach and we rode our bikes there. It took a long time because it was super hot and we had to take breaks, but it was actually a pretty easy route. Like 2 turns total. I remember Google Maps said the bike ride should take about 20 minutes but we literally took almost an hour. When we were about to head back, I remember saying to my roommate "Maybe it took so long because we either went the wrong way or maybe there is a shorter route to get back" because I was tired and not ready to take the long ride back. My roommate responded, "No, I think we went the right way but it just took a long time for some reason." We even asked 2 other girls and they had come from the same direction as us. So we start heading back and we get to the first turn which is actually a roundabout. It was at this moment that I lose all hope and realized I'm truly a lost cause! When we came, we followed the sidewalk to the right and did not have to interact with the roundabout itself at all. Which means headed back, we should follow the sidewalk to the left. Yet somehow, on the way back, my confused sense of direction said that we needed to cross the roundabout to continue straight because it wasn't time to turn yet. Idk why my roommate (who is much better at remembering where she came from) didn't put her foot down because of course, that was the wrong way. So we bike about 5 minutes in the wrong directions before we finally turn back and she leads the way. I follow her and, after a while, we get to our street where we make a left and will eventually run into our hotel. As you may have guessed, I got confused here too. Can I remind you that this was literally 2 turns total!!!
So at this point, I've accepted my fate. I can get you there following written directions but that's it! Any slight detour, I'm going to be confused. On the return trip, I'm going to be confused. If we missed a stop, I'm going to be confused. For some reason, it's not as simple as just remembering "two lefts and a right" or "turn once you get to 7-Eleven" or "turn right on Benjamin St." or "just remember, our hotel is in that direction so always try to end up that way." I will consistently forget all of these things and end up lost. Google Maps is essential for all of my adventures. And having a travel buddy that can recall locations definitely helps!
Please tell me I'm not alone. Are any of you directionally challenged as well?
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