Travel 101: Thou Must Learn To Map Read

Travelling solo often means navigating places on your own. It can be both a frustrating and exciting thing to do (well when you are not walking three miles in the opposite direction). My orientation and survival skills appear to be getting better with each trip. I have found in some countries, when locals see a tourist with a map uttering in the countries broken native languge the name of a street most times the locals will stop to ask if you need assitance. Navigating Vienna was a joy because even the cyclists would actually get off their bikes to point me in the right direction. And the city was pedestrian friendly which is always a plus for a traveller.

However, Denmark was a different story. Not once but twice I ended up walking a minimum of 3miles in the opposite direction of where I was heading to. I mean, my map reading skills are not so atrocious that i end up crossing the border to another country (almost!). I was in a hurry to get to the Royal Ceremony (thingy), and with only 45mins to spare I set off on foot towards Charlottenborg Palace, only to end up walking towards the free way heading to Sweden. I could have taken a bus or metro you might remark. I was nowhere near a metro or bus station. Steam coming out of ears i retrace my steps and ask for help. Running late I just about make it to the ceremony dishevelled and breathless. Comedically I made it right into the middle of the guard change, disrupted the whole event, get yelled at by the police and laughed at by the tourists.

Moral of the tale; "thou must learn to map read"

(Here is another tourist getting told off by the Politi for crashing the parade)