|
  |
 Getting lost stories... |
|
|
| kathryn77 |
 May 15 2008, 04:52 PM
|
Vagabond
Group: Local Expert
Posts: 1527
Joined: 12-December 06
From: Scotland
Member No.: 30044
|
I was living and working in England a couple of years ago, and was due to visit a client that was based only 14 miles from my house, a straight run down the motorway. However, I had to pick up some colleagues from the train station in the centre of the city first. I have a thing about paralllels, and knew that I was on the road parallel to the one I should have been on, but figured they'd both join the same motorway. My road turned into the motorway alright, but it turned out to be the wrong one and before I knew it, we were heading to Scotland (must have had my homing device switched on, ha ha!)
On looking at the map, we decided it'd be quicker and easier to go cross-country (yeah, was that far up the motorway before realising!) So we headed across the countryside and ended up in this little village called Hindley. Hindley has a lot of quaint little shops, but the one that cracked us up specialised in both photography and sugar confectionery! One of my colleagues was a Londoner, and I confirmed on this one trip what many Londoners think - that it's grim up North! (It's not!)
Anyway, I've never lived it down, and while I was travelling, it was the constant e-mail joke "Where are you? Made it to Hindley yet?"
--------------------
|
|
|
|
|
|
| kathryn77 |
May 24 2008, 10:29 AM
|
Vagabond
Group: Local Expert
Posts: 1527
Joined: 12-December 06
From: Scotland
Member No.: 30044
|
QUOTE(starlagurl @ May 20 2008, 02:28 PM) 
OMG, what on earth are you talking about Kathryn? How did this happen?
Sorry it's taken me so long to reply. I got lost. (Ha ha, only joking, but I have been all over the place this week at interviews, absolutely knackered!) So, the Prague/Amsterdam palava....it wasn't because I got lost, but it's quite funny now... I'd won some vouchers at work, and of course I decided to buy a flight with them as that was one of the options. Decided to visit some friends I'd worked with, who were back home in Prague, as I'd never been, and they kept inviting me. Everything was planned, and they had a whole itinerary lined up to show me round their homeland. I got to Gatwick airport, and it was the first ever Easyjet flight from Gatwick to Prague, so the check-in staff were all dressed up in traditional Czech clothes, they were offering you either a Czech beer or Czech vodka after you'd checked in, and the 'Gatwick Express' newspaper was even there taking photos for the next edition. All was good! Went through customs etc, and was getting the final passport check before boarding, when the steward said "I'm really sorry, but you can't go"!!! I was really confused and asked why, and she said that the Czech Republic required you to have 3 months validity on your passport to enter, and I had something like 2 months and 25 days! I asked if I could go anyway, but she said no as if she'd let me on, they might not let me leave the airport in Prague! I asked why I hadn't been told at check-in, and she admitted that was the fault of the check-in staff, but as it was a new destination, they might not have realised. So, with her admitting fault, I cheekily asked if I could go somewhere else, thinking I wouldn't be able to since it was the budget airline Easyjet! She said to go to the front desk when I got through and she'd call them to explain, but couldn't guarantee anything. I'm walking back, and the tannoy kept calling my name as I hadn't boarded - so embarrassing! Turns out it's an automatic tannoy thing if your boarding card hasn't gone through, as I asked someone, confusedly! Back at the desk, they admitted fault, and said I could go anywhere on an Easyjet flight that was leaving in the next few hours, so long as the passport restrictions for that country accepted me. And that is how I ended up in Amsterdam! Worse though was having to call my friends and try and explain what had happened. As they hadn't lived in the UK for a while, their English wasn't like it had been, plus the airport noise and my Scottish accent weren't helping matters! I eventually just had to be blunt and say "I'm not coming, I will e-mail you on Monday" I felt really bad, but once they got my e-mail, they thought it was hilarious. The worst thing was though, the Czech Republic joined the EU one week later, so if that had happened one week earlier, I'd have been allowed to go! 
--------------------
|
|
|
|
|
|
| inasia2008 |
May 27 2008, 06:19 PM
|
Unregistered
|
Wow, that is some story! Amazing...
I can't remember ever getting really badly lost, had a few minor mishaps, like when you are in a new country and just not exactly sure, but always got there in the end! Although I am sure some people probably wished I had gotten proper lost... LOL!
|
|
|
|
|
|
| b2009 |
Jun 9 2008, 02:14 AM
|
Drifter
Group: Members
Posts: 28
Joined: 23-May 08
Member No.: 187629
Nominate me as a Local Expert
|
In 2002 when I was 20 I spent the summer at my grandfathers in Leven Scotland (a small town in fife), and I took a bus to Glasgow to get some drinks with a friend, when I came out of the pub the rain was unreal and it had been all sunny and nice just a few hours previous, so sunny and nice I didnt even take a coat with me to Glasgow. So then, soaking wet head to toe, i went back to the bus station at about 16:30 and waiting for my bus home... the rain was so bad my bus got delayed, so I waited a couple more hours, finally the bus came, or so I thought... I boarded, I paid, I took my seat. It was 21:00 and I ended up in Glenrothes a few miles away from Leven, and the driver called it the end of the line, apparently my bus got canceled, but I had no money for a cab back to Leven, no idea even the direction I should start walking. so I asked the driver for his advice on how I should get to Leven, he was semi helpful and pointed me in the direction and gave me some sort of directions to a bus stop... I ended up wandering the streets in search of this bus stop that would take me home for a good hour or two. Somewhere towards the end of this search my sentiment switched from frustrated despair to quite a comfortable sense of freedom. I felt pretty alive in the moment, soaking wet, somewhere in scotland. and then I finally found the bus stop, and 10 mins later the bus came, and I got home at about midnight. I realised I love being lost, and I make it a point to get lost in every city I go to.
|
|
|
|
|
|
| starlagurl |
Jun 13 2008, 08:35 AM
|
Rolling Stone
Group: Local Expert
Posts: 14509
Joined: 5-November 07
From: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Member No.: 103914
|
You're right you're right! Here's my story about getting lost in Montreal, I'm just gonna blatantly paste it from my blog. I went to visit my friend Mike and here's what happened on the way home from the bar. http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entri...18660/tpod.htmlMike knows quite a few people at this bar, so I briefly talked to some of them, but none of us had meaningful conversations. One of his friends was pretty obviously interested in me, but he was also gross. So yeah... soon it was 3 a.m. and I got on the night bus, that "friend" of Mike's tried to get me to get off the bus and go home with him, so I stayed on it, no matter where it was going. This meant I probably got on the wrong one because I had to walk about two hours to get to what I thought was Louis-Philip's house. (That's where I was couchsurfing for the night) I'm walking and I'm walking, but somewhere along the way, I lost the address that I had written down. I thought I had memorized it as 6448 St. Laurent, but this was wrong. I walked and walked until finally I saw a store called "Bling Bling" that we had mocked on the way into town. This is when I realized that I had passed LP's house...a long time ago. There was no way I was walking back, because I was SURE I hadn't seen it on my trek north. Luckily Bling Bling was right near a Metro station, so I went in there and called Mike. His number was the only number I had on me at the time. My iPod had broken, I don't know if it was dead or what, but that's where I keep all of my phone numbers, and JM's was in there. So there was no way I could call him either. I called Mike and he directed me to his house, so that I could finally get some sleep. It was all the way at the end of the subway line, then a $12 taxi ride to the suburban split level home in the southwest side of the city. (I had walked all the way to the northeast side in Little Italy) By the time I got there, it was 8 a.m. and his mom was up with tea for me, and then I emailed everyone to tell them I got lost and not to worry about me, only the email to LP came out like this because I was DELIRIOUS: "I'm in Lasalle, please send me your address, I am so lost! I tried to walk back last night and I don't know what I'm doing, ohhhhhhh my god. I have your key, just let me know where I have to go! Oh god, HELP.
Louise"Understandably, he wrote back pretty quickly asking if I was OK and gave me his work and home numbers and even offered to let me come and meet him at work. So that was a very nice thing to do. After sending out that distress signal, I pretty much just passed out in Mike's brother's bed and that was that.
--------------------
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
