Oh Lisa I’m too old to get lost and be ok with it. Having said that I so love reading about your adventures and advice. They make me smile and I continue to be in awe with your courage. I live vicariously through you😀
Many years ago I was living in Paris, staying in a little studio flat near Cite Universitaire, kind of out in the boonies. One Sunday night I met some friends at a student bar near the Seine in the Rive Gauche and had such a great time that I missed the last metro running that night and so had to walk home (taxis were not in my budget). It must have been sometime after midnight when I set out. I walked and walked, through one neighborhood after another until after an ungodly number of hours wandering down one boulevard and then another, I realized that the sun was starting to come up. And I was back at the Seine. Just about a block away from where I’d started. I’d walked all night in a giant circle! But, boy, did I see a lot of Paris after dark!
When I moved to London for my first Proper Job, in the mid-2000s, everyone had an A-Z on them - a densely packed book with pages and pages of maps for all the zones in London. Smart phones weren’t yet ubiquitous enough to do away with paper maps but slowly, slowly it happened to us all of course, like frogs in boiling water. I can’t remember the last time I consulted my A-Z, but just the thought of it makes me feel bewilderingly nostalgic. Like my early adulthood is somewhere in those pages too.
The solution is really quite simple: Turn off Location Services (GPS), and use Google Maps.
That's what I do. I can read a map; I don't need (or want) a map that reads me.
The maps themselves are great -- better than those glossy tourist maps you're likely to find at the hotel. You can zoom in (for detail) or out (for context), and you never need to worry about wandering beyond the edge.
Great idea. I'll still probably keep using paper maps--I like them as objects and am usually happier when I don't have a phone in my hand--but this is useful in a pinch!
With the phone, you have a world atlas in your hand, at street-level resolution -- and it's far easier to handle than a folded, floppy (and easily torn) paper map.
I'm 74, and every year, for decades, I'd wait for the new Rand McNally Road Atlas to go on sale -- and then, every day throughout the year, I'd keep it beside me in my car. Then, around ten years ago, I was lost somewhere in Spain, and called a friend in California to see whether he could help. He exclaimed, "You're not lost. You have a little computer in your pocket -- and wherever you are, you have a detailed map!"
These days, If I get lost while I'm driving, I still pull over to read a map -- but now (up-to-date, compact and and untattered) it's on my phone.
In other words, it's not just a phone. If you use it judiciously -- and don't fall for all the tricks to keep you under surveillance (i.e., GPS, "social media," etc.) -- it's (complete with map room) the greatest library in the world.
So much for fetishizing paper. -- but then again, to each their own.... ;-)
This was such an inspiring reminder of how freeing it can be to travel without relying on our phones. Your tips made the idea of unplugged exploring feel both doable and exciting.
Oh Lisa I’m too old to get lost and be ok with it. Having said that I so love reading about your adventures and advice. They make me smile and I continue to be in awe with your courage. I live vicariously through you😀
Don't sell yourself short, Sandi-- I bet you can handle a few wrong turns just fine. And thanks so much for the support and sweet words.
Many years ago I was living in Paris, staying in a little studio flat near Cite Universitaire, kind of out in the boonies. One Sunday night I met some friends at a student bar near the Seine in the Rive Gauche and had such a great time that I missed the last metro running that night and so had to walk home (taxis were not in my budget). It must have been sometime after midnight when I set out. I walked and walked, through one neighborhood after another until after an ungodly number of hours wandering down one boulevard and then another, I realized that the sun was starting to come up. And I was back at the Seine. Just about a block away from where I’d started. I’d walked all night in a giant circle! But, boy, did I see a lot of Paris after dark!
That sounds like a good night.
When I moved to London for my first Proper Job, in the mid-2000s, everyone had an A-Z on them - a densely packed book with pages and pages of maps for all the zones in London. Smart phones weren’t yet ubiquitous enough to do away with paper maps but slowly, slowly it happened to us all of course, like frogs in boiling water. I can’t remember the last time I consulted my A-Z, but just the thought of it makes me feel bewilderingly nostalgic. Like my early adulthood is somewhere in those pages too.
I've heard of this A-Z! Sounds very nostalgia-inducing, indeed.
Using Google Maps (with GPS turned off) is just like using A-Z -- without having to fumble for the appropriate page.
Damn, I have always thought that the Bologna train station is south of the city.
It's so confusing!
The solution is really quite simple: Turn off Location Services (GPS), and use Google Maps.
That's what I do. I can read a map; I don't need (or want) a map that reads me.
The maps themselves are great -- better than those glossy tourist maps you're likely to find at the hotel. You can zoom in (for detail) or out (for context), and you never need to worry about wandering beyond the edge.
Great idea. I'll still probably keep using paper maps--I like them as objects and am usually happier when I don't have a phone in my hand--but this is useful in a pinch!
With the phone, you have a world atlas in your hand, at street-level resolution -- and it's far easier to handle than a folded, floppy (and easily torn) paper map.
I'm 74, and every year, for decades, I'd wait for the new Rand McNally Road Atlas to go on sale -- and then, every day throughout the year, I'd keep it beside me in my car. Then, around ten years ago, I was lost somewhere in Spain, and called a friend in California to see whether he could help. He exclaimed, "You're not lost. You have a little computer in your pocket -- and wherever you are, you have a detailed map!"
These days, If I get lost while I'm driving, I still pull over to read a map -- but now (up-to-date, compact and and untattered) it's on my phone.
In other words, it's not just a phone. If you use it judiciously -- and don't fall for all the tricks to keep you under surveillance (i.e., GPS, "social media," etc.) -- it's (complete with map room) the greatest library in the world.
So much for fetishizing paper. -- but then again, to each their own.... ;-)
This was such an inspiring reminder of how freeing it can be to travel without relying on our phones. Your tips made the idea of unplugged exploring feel both doable and exciting.