Did you ever get lost while travelling? Did it turn out to be a good or a bad experience? How did you eventually find your way?
I arrived at my hostel in Budapest late in the evening. I decided to go out for a look around and a snack. It was getting very late when I decided to go back to the hostel. I then realised that I could not remember the way back, nor did I know the name of the hostel or know the address of it. Up until the moment I realised that I was lost and it was getting later and later it was a good experience just wandering around and looking at the local houses and gardens and shops of the area I was in.
Luckily an old man I described the hostel to knew it, and showed me the way back.
Mel
Reply to this Mell, which hostel did you stay at? Would you recommend it?
I got really, really lost in Budapest too this summer - I couldn't remember if I had to turn left or right at the train station to get to my hostel and knew that if I made the wrong choice I'd end up walking further and further away from it. It was already about 11 at night, dark and then heavy rain turned into a thunderstorm. An empty wallet, aching feet and full bladder didn't make things any more comfortable. Luckily the third person I asked pointed me in the right direction.
And the next night - did it again!
Reply to this Mell, which hostel did you stay at? Would you recommend it?
I still dont know the name and location of it. :D It was very cheap and small. I think it had only one dorm which was mixed and a small common room and one shower. Certainly not all the facilities that a hostel can have. I just slept there but didnt spend much time hanging around. And it was 10 years ago so it might not exist anymore. It was listed in one of the backpackers guide books.
Reply to this Hi, I'm new here......I am 57ish and my husband and I love to travel.
Our first trip to Italy, we arrived in Milan and thought we'd drive around and see a few sights since we'd arrived early in the morning and our room at our hotel in Lake Maggiorre was not available until the afternoon.
We rented our car at the airport and were on our way. We didn't have a good city map and finding one to purchase was a challenge. Well, my husband always has a very good sense of direction and does not get lost easily............but in Milan, we absolutely could not get our bearings....we spent what seemed like hours driving around in circles trying to make our way to see the Duomo and the church with the Last Supper.
At one point, we found an office that we thought was something like our Auto Club in the U.S., and my husand made me jump out and inquire. Well, there were 5 people in that office and no one could understand why I was there. I quickly gave up on that....We finally did find our way, but between the crazy drivers and our not being able to speak the language, all we could do was laugh about it.
Reply to this What I love about traveling is that you rarely can get lost. To be lost, you need to be going somewhere specific. When I am traveling I just wander around meeting people and enjoying myself. The only times you can get lost is when you are trying to find your way back to the hostel or hotel. In these cases you always meet the coolest people asking for directions. Last year I got a cell phone with GPS an all that jazz, but I stopped using it very quickly, it's not that fun knowing where you are and how to get to your destination all the time... I guess I enjoy being lost 😊
Reply to this D0m1n1c - I would agree with you completely. I love just to take in my location rather than get to my destination. Traveling is funny that way, even if you didn't mean to find something, it may end up being just what you were looking for. I think that rule can apply to both locations and also to one's self. I think that the people you meet along the way are half the adventure.
Reply to this I've gotten lost several times but have always ended up laughing about it later....I do remember one time when I was in Boston though and the hostel was kinda empty because of the time of year, so I decided to do a relatively late night trip down to the mall.....I thought I had the way back sussed out!! But no!! I don't know where I ended up, I do know I ended up in some kinda snow drift and managed to soak my entire clothing lolz! it probably wasn't the smartest idea to go out at that time of night because there was a blizzard....But I eventually managed to find my way back via the fact that I'd used starbucks as my landmarks lolz!! Luckily there was a nice big old fire to sit beside when i eventually made it back to the hostel:-)
Reply to this I prefer to be lost, because that is when most of my best memories occur. That is what I like about travel, I love serendipitous discovery. I think too many people approach traveling like they do their daily business lives. For me, I like to forget about agendas, and schedules and really experience the surroundings and people. Travel is my escape from forced performance and deadlines of my business life, and getting lost has been the happiest parts of my travels.
Reply to this That's the spirit! I agree......that's why we rent a car and just go......none of those scheduled tours for us! We have taken the train and have hopped on the wrong one, and that's ok!
Reply to this Last time I was in Berlin I was on my way to a lake outside the city. There was a forest near the lake. I though if I walk through the forest it will be a short way to get to the lake. I walked and walked and then realised that I was not reaching the other side of the forest. I sat down for a while in case somebody came along so I could ask directions. Nobody came, so I started walking again. Eventually I was excited to see the edge of the forest and hoped I had at last reached the lake. I got out of the forest at almost exactly the same spot as I entered it and was as far from the lake as ever. :D
Reply to this I've lived in Venice for almost 7 months now and I still get lost every now and then... but it's a beautiful place to be lost in 😊
Reply to this Out of the two of us, Neil is the one with an impeccable sense of direction, so I end up following him. On the rare occasions I have taken the lead with directions or looking at maps I have got us horribly lost...as in 5 hours of walking in a totally different direction to where we want to be. I have given up with trying to find my way anywhere successully and resigned myself to the fact I will get lost everywhere I go! If you read our blogs it is a recurring theme and running joke of me getting us lost thinking I know best 😊
The 'best' instances of us getting lost has been (surprise surprise!) my fault was when we were in a campervan in New Zealand. Once I took us on an unsealed road to get from Napier to Rotorua, I thought it would take us 2 hours and it ended up taking 6 hours with us getting lost on the way! The other again was in NZ, where we were trying to find a DoC campsite I had heard about and we ended up driving for hours and doing some impromptu sheep herding along the way for a friendly farmer. Another getting lost incident that sticks in my mind was when we were in Hanoi, we ended up wandering around a residential district talking to locals in broken English and French, coming across a chihuahua (is that how you spell it?) being barbequed on a spit! The last, finally, was in Beijing looking for our hostel and a friendly guy went out of this way to escort us to the door, making himself late for work in the process, just because he wanted to help!
Saying all this though, getting 'lost' is sometimes the best way to see a place, you come across all sorts of things and meet so many people.
Reply to this When we went on a trip to Italy. We were in Lazio, we got lost in the hills somewhere, then there were police up head that were checking the cars. It was nervous, but we got around.
Reply to this One time in Mexico, I got quite ill on the coast and decided it was time head towards mexico city, I got the overnight bus and in the early morning arrived at what I believed was Mexico City. I got off and looked for directions to the hotel I wanted to get to but searched endlessly without finding it, I started to feel sick again and ended up leaving my breakfast on the sidewalk. I thought enough was enough I got the nearest hotel and went to bed, I found out the next morning I was still about 200km from Mexico City in a town called Quetaro. It was nice city with lots of colonial architecture. I think alot of the time it is the journey that is the trip and not the destination.
Reply to this On my first trip to Venice, we stayed near the train station, so we were a bit further from a lot of the "action" and a lot of the streets were windy and looked similar. It was a group of 8 of us and we all walked together to St. Mark's square on our first night. The group split up and my boyfriend at the time and I decided to head back to the hotel. We got completely turned around in the dark, trying to navigate the streets and it took us several hours to get back. We were a bit embarrassed, until we got back to the hotel and realized we were the first two back - turns out the rest of our traveling companions were still out wandering lost and trying to find our way back. Needless to say, on my next trip to Venice I stayed near St. Mark's Square instead.
Reply to this IUMy23: ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.....but what a place to get lost! Even with a map, it's like being in a maze.....a wonderful maze!
Reply to this Yolanda, I agree! I think had it been daylight and we hadn't been traveling from Vienna all day, we wouldn't have minded. It was the dark and the end of a long day that bothered us most I think!
Reply to this 
