To wake up in a new city, in a country you have only seen
through photographs and movies is a beautiful thing. Setting off for the day of
exploration, with only a map for guidance is the start of a new adventure. You
never know what challenges, or people you will encounter. For anyone who knows
me from a bar of soap, they’d know I’m directionally challenged. I am from one
of the smallest cities in Australia, where I have lived my whole life and still
can’t remember how to get to friends houses. So it didn’t come as a shock to
many people, when I told them of the amount of times I got lost whilst
travelling. As an estimate, I would say I had no idea where I was for 30% of my
trip. Yet each time I spent hours searching for my seemingly close hostel, it
was the kindness of a stranger that helped me find my way. Generally the people
couldn’t even speak English, but they saw a young foreign girl lost in their
country and decided to help.
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On the day of my departure back to Australia, I was in the
capital city of Croatia, Zagreb. I had a 5pm flight out, so I decided to make
the most of my last day and venture into the city centre. I bought some
clothes, tactically bought a water so I could use a little café’s toilet and
some medication as all the partying in Budapest had given me a pretty gnarly
chest infection. I walked back to the hostel without getting lost, packed up my
belongings and headed to the bus station. I arrived to the bus station with
time to spare and a massive internal smile going on as I realised this was the
first time in three months I had successfully walked to various places I hadn’t
been before without getting lost. It’s fair to say I was killing it, thinking
that with all this travelling maybe I was getting the hang of maps and
directions. I got on the bus to pay the driver, scrimmaging through my bag, my
heart dropped. I didn’t have my wallet. No, no, no please tell me I had my
wallet. I realised I must of left it at the hostel. The bus driver could obviously see my worried and just generally annoyed expression as he said he would take me to
the airport for free. I said thankyou, but explained how I had left my wallet at the hostel and I had to go back to Australia and would need my money,
ID, cards etc. At this point I was holding off panicked tears, thinking I’m
going to miss my flight when the driver told me to follow him into the office
of what I’m assuming was the boss. There were a few men speaking Hungarian to
each other, when one of them got me water, told me to sit and asked for the
name of my hostel. They rung my hostel to confirm my wallet was there, I
thanked them so much for their help and said I was going to walk back to get
it.
“No, no, no!” they grunted, “I drive you.”
So one of the men drove me to my hostel, collected the wallet, drove back to the bus station and I still made it on time for the bus to the airport.
“No, no, no!” they grunted, “I drive you.”
So one of the men drove me to my hostel, collected the wallet, drove back to the bus station and I still made it on time for the bus to the airport.
That day I learnt that Croatian bus
drivers are my new favourite people and I couldn’t even explain how thankful I
was for the kindness of those men. I also learnt not to be cocky, because there’s
always something else ready to bite you on the bum when you least expect it.
And lastly I learnt, that it is much easier to live a directionally challenged
life than a forgetful one. Next time, I
think I’ll stick to getting lost.
