Wandering the mean streets of Poplar

By the time I got to Shaun’s flat in London, my backpack and messenger bag were brutally weighing me down.

Like I knew they would.

I just hadn’t expected it to happen so soon.

I had wondered through the Poplar area of town for nearly two hours before I successfully found Shaun’s home. It wasn’t her directions that were poor, it was the person following them had a serious case of travel brain.

She told me to go straight down a road, and I turned left because I didn’t see a street straight ahead after being on the DLR, only a brick path. I didn’t figure it was wrong until her directions called for crossing a street and continuing straight and there was no street to cross in sight.

I’m a pretty resourceful girl, so I saw a car parked on the side of the road and tapped on the window. The man pulled out a map to help me and I thought I had it figured out.

Wrong.

I passed the big old church like he said, but continued on when I should have gone right since I didn’t see the road I was looking for. This took me to a row of stores where I popped in to ask another person directions. The problem with where Shaun lives is her road is tiny and not one many people know.

After the woman told me to go back the way I came and turn left, then cross through a park, I did (and ran into the man who originally gave me directions and asked why I had not yet found the place). But, saw no park.

So, I continued on until I hit a market and asked another person, who had no clue where I was going.

By this point, I was exhausted.

I had traveled via the Underground for more than an hour and had been wandering around bewildered for even longer.

I saw a Royal Mail worker dropping mail at a pub so stalked him until he exited and asked him for directions.

Thankfully, there were my final set.

Her house was just down the street, about a two-minute walk. Turns out, had I gone down that brick path originally, it would have taken me about four minutes to get to her home.

But, getting pleasantly lost is par for the course and something I am pretty used to after my previous travels. Good thing people are nice. And, bonus points for finally getting lost in a city where English is the main language. Makes it a hell of a lot easier to navigate.