Two Lefts Don’t Make A Right

I went to the beach a few days ago and it was picture perfect.  The sun was shining, but not too brightly, and it was warm, but not too hot.  Almost the entire group of Holy Cross students found a nice piece of sand to enjoy in the late hours of the afternoon.  But when the sun started to go down, it was time to leave, so we packed up.  We started on the walk back to the main part of the city, but we came to a crossroads.  I waved goodbye to my friends as they turned into the city.  For the most part, their homes are a bit separated from mine, so I thought I could find a shortcut.  I made my alone down a street I thought was familiar, but of course I was wrong.  It was starting to get dark and I realized I made a mistake.  Coruna is not a complicated city.  It sits on a peninsula, and the apartment I am staying in is by one side of the water and the beach I went to was on the other.  Therefore, I thought, as long as I kept walking straight, I was sure to reach the other side of the peninsula.  So I walked, but I lost my bearings, and pretty soon I didn’t know which direction would lead me to the other side of the water.  One wrong turn led to another, and I felt slightly uneasy as I noticed that the buildings became considerably more deteriorated with block I walked.  Coruna is also known for being a very safe city, but I admit that several rows of abandoned apartment complexes with broken windows were enough to make me pick up my pace.   After about 25 minutes into this area, an old man stopped me by his rusty old car pleading for help.  In Spanish, he told me that he couldn’t open his car door, and after a closer look I saw that his key was stuck in the lock.  I did not want to take attention off of my surroundings, but I tried to fix the key to no avail.  I apologized to the man, and then I walked off.  Finally, after another stretch of time, I found a street that I recognized, and I was able to go home.  I have often heard the maxim that getting lost in a city is good thing.  I always thought that was true, but now I know better.  Getting lost can lead to some exciting new experiences, or it can simply be a stressful waste of time.  Hopefully I get lost again sometime soon, and I can find an exciting new street, or at the very least find unlock that man’s door.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 9th, 2016 at 8:19 pm and is filed under Study Abroad. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.