Cairo in all its monochromatic glory
I don't have a great sense of direction. I still get lost in the neighborhood where I've lived for more than 3 decades, and don't have any instinct for which way is north or east. I think it came from growing up on the prairie, where there's no monument to orient yourself by. When I lived in Colorado for a year in my 20s, I thought that everyone from Denver must always know which way is which, since the mountains instill west as a matter of instinct, like getting perfect pitch by practicing as a baby.
I can read a map so I don't always get lost.
A surprising number of people tell me I have a "great" sense of direction. Either they're not paying attention (I can get home for heaven's sake) or there is some sort of geographical dysmorphia at work.
What I hate is when people tell you to "head west" as though I am steering by the sun. East & west (or north & south) just never seem to have anything to do with where I'm going.
In Cairo once, one of the other journalists on our trip got us in and out of the souk without breaking a sweat, whereas I assumed I would spend the rest of my life in those double-back, identical alleys.
However, he couldn't find the Napoleonic Museum, which wasn't where the map had it. Me, I went straight there. (It was closed.)
Perhaps my resource is for the imaginary, the misplaced, the lost.
I can read a map so I don't always get lost.
A surprising number of people tell me I have a "great" sense of direction. Either they're not paying attention (I can get home for heaven's sake) or there is some sort of geographical dysmorphia at work.
What I hate is when people tell you to "head west" as though I am steering by the sun. East & west (or north & south) just never seem to have anything to do with where I'm going.
In Cairo once, one of the other journalists on our trip got us in and out of the souk without breaking a sweat, whereas I assumed I would spend the rest of my life in those double-back, identical alleys.
However, he couldn't find the Napoleonic Museum, which wasn't where the map had it. Me, I went straight there. (It was closed.)
Perhaps my resource is for the imaginary, the misplaced, the lost.