Friday 20 February 2009

Yank's Great Adventure subtitle Yank gets lost

In my ever ongoing adventure of walking more I decided to walk up three tube stops instead of two yesterday evening on my way home from work. I consulted google maps it was a straight shot up the street I usually take and was only another .4 of a mile so a few extra minutes. I had a small detour to take but all in all it would add no great time onto my journey. The whistle blew at work and I headed down the four flights of stairs invigorated by my new adventure. I made my detour delivered the goods and headed back to the main road. In my cockiness of knowing where I was going I dialled a friend to confirm a dinner date next week and after a few minutes on the phone to her wondered if I had some how missed my station but since I am a horrible judge of distance I just figured I thought is was closer than it was. With the firm belief that it is impossible to get lost in central London as there is a tube stop on every other block and a bus stop on every corner I carried on and rung my MIL to make a dinner date for this weekend. I know quite the social butterfly. Towards the end of this conversation I realized not only had I missed my mark that I really had no clue where I was and had no point of reference for this area. Still the panic did not set in as I held firm to my belief that being on a major road it was only a matter of time before I either passed a tube station or a You Are Here you stupid idiot map that are so common in central London. A few intersection later and sign for places I knew were in north central London (I was trying to head east) and a lack of tube and bus station later I wondered if I should start being worried. Yet a few more intersection later I panicked and called Mr. Y in E to tell him I was lost (he knew of my intentions to walk to Holborn station) first he asked what road I was on and the last major intersection I crossed. When the detail were given his answer sounded something like this: How the hell did you end up in North Central London when you were trying to get to Holborn? My answer sounded something like this: Um dunna know. With Mr. Y in E's vast knowledge of London and a few more phone calls to confirm I was heading in the right direction I finally made it to my destination of Liverpool Street station where my train departs from an hour later than expected. The high light of my grand adventure was that instead of adding .4 of a mile to my pedometer I added 3.5 for a grand total of 8 miles for the day and I have now seen a part of London that before was unknown. Maybe I need to have more Grand Adventures, maybe I need to look at the maps better, hell maybe I should print the maps out.

UPDATE: This morning I spoke to a friend who is a sports injury specialist about some pain I have been having in the back of my knee at night. He gave a long winded explanation as to what I had done to injury myself but it boiled down to the fact that I should only do the walking necessary to get me to and from work. That stinks no more Grand Adventures for a while.

4 comments:

AMY FLEMING said...

OHH! what a pain!! i hope you get better soon :)

sideoats + scribbles said...

Oh wow, what an adventure! :)

A similar thing happened to me in Tokyo -- I figured I could hop on the subway, no problem -- but couldn't find one anywhere in sight AND the street names are not in English...hmmm. Eventually I was able to retrace my steps tho, whew!

Hope your leg feels better soon! :)

KimB said...

HI Lynne,

thanks for stopping by - hope you back improves - love your puss - we have a Burmese that comes out for a cuddle as soon as the kids are safely in bed.

Kim

Michael5000 said...

My favorite thing about British cities is that it's possible to get lost. I have a hell of a time trying to get lost in the United States, and consider getting lost kind of fun.

Sorry about the leg, though....