About Getting Lost

We don't usually get lost easily in foreign cities, although we still neither own nor rent a GPS. When we travel, we get equipped up front with all the printable maps and most of the time it's enough to find our way.

However, we got totally lost in Los Angeles. Upon arriving at the airport, we rented a car. The person at the rental agency gave us another map and kindly showed us the way to the interstate that was to take us to Las Vegas. He even draw the route on it. So we set off happily in a nice Ford, and soon found ourselves on Century Boulevard, which, I thought, was the right road. But alas, I didn't know that there was also Century Freeway, running parallel to Century Boulevard. We knew that something was wrong when Century Boulevard suddenly disappeared right in front of us. It was somewhere in Watts or Compton. We couldn't believe our eyes and just stopped there not knowing what to do and where to go. People were honking, a lady in a car stopped and tried to help, but the only thing she said was that that was not the way to Vegas. No help from all those maps either. We were driving around, everybody nervous and frightened and yelling at each other, when suddenly, there it was, the entrance to Century Freeway. The rest was a piece of cake.

In South Beach we went for a ride on the SBL (South Beach Local). It cost only 25 cents, and because I thought it was a circular line, we decided to see all of SoBe by bus. It was around 8pm, but already dark. Of course, this wasn't a circular line so when the bus arrived at its last stop we were asked to get off. We froze with fear when we saw where we were: a dark parking lot with no people around. Luckily, the driver took us to a well-lit bus stop in front of a huge shopping mall. He told us that he would be coming with his bus in five minutes so we waited for him, got on and later he showed us where to get off. He was even so kind that he let us ride without paying.