Decisions, Decisions!

Life is full of decisions. Some you make are good, some turn out to be quite the opposite. Hindsight is always 20/20 but at the time, moire often than not, you have no idea if the decision you have made is a good one or not. Lets take my decision to walk from the train station to my hostel instead of taking a cab.

It was the middle of the day, it was early enough for it not to be getting dark for quite some time and I figured not only would the walk do me good but I'd save a good few bucks by using my feet. It wasn't even as if I was walking blind. I had directions printed off from the hostel booking website. No reason for it not to be easy, surely.

The directions turned out to be next to useless to anyone that didn't actually know the place and on several occasions I had a feeling that I'd missed a turning or was plain walking in the wrong direction. Having walked for considerably longer than I figured for I was almost certain I'd gone too far. These fears were all but confirmed by the looks I was now getting.

As I trudged along, backpack now seeming to weigh a tonne I was noticing how things had rather rapidly changed to where I was just a few minutes before. Large groups of people were gathered outside their homes, families, some looking a little disheveled gathered on porches. Their eyes fixated on me. There was very little doubt now that I was in the wrong part of town and the looks seemed to ask me what the hell I was doing here. They had a point to be fair. I wondered what the hell I was doing here!! Now all I had to do was try and turnaround, walk right past them again all without looking like a complete prat. This, however much I thought I could pull it off was completely and totally unavoidable!

I did eventually find my way to the correct turning and located a two way street with trams running up and down it. Again, my instructions were next to useless. I didn't even know which direction I wanted to go in! I crossed the street several times trying to figure it out. I tried asking a couple of people but got either blank looks or totally ignored. Someone was kind enough to let me know which direction they thought was best. Once on the tram the driver was as useful as my map and it was by luck that a kind man had some idea of where I wanted to go and gave me directions for getting off the tram.

I finally arrived at the hostel a good hour and a half after setting off from the train station. I'd made it but in hindsight I wish I'd taken that cab!