As I was preparing to leave the bus, arriving at my hometown, a girl on a seat nearby looked at me and asked: “What is the station which we are in?” - I told her then where we were, and she thanked me. Then I asked where she and her friend were supposed to go, and she told me. I searched in Maps just to be sure and confirmed it was where we were.
After that, calling an Uber to go home, as I was approaching the main exit of the Bus Station, another girl, this time, one which was directly behind the two aforementioned girls, saw that it was me (presumably the guy from the bus), and then asked: “Hey, do you know what is the name of this street? I need to request my uber, and don’t know which exit to select”. I then instructed her to select the second one, which was the main exit where we were located. She thanked me, I hopped on my Uber ride and came back home, pondering about this.
Twice in a row, and it was not the first time something like this happens. Of course, I guess lots of passer-bys must have asked you guys for directions, but sometimes things seems to be at odds.
Once, in a big city with Metro nearby my hometown, I was cruising from one station to the next, and there was just PACKED with people, loads of them. Then, suddenly, back behind me an old woman, is gesticulating towards me, I stop, in the midst of a bunch of people, to listen to her, and she asks me something along the lines: “Station X goes Y?” She didn’t sound native. Worst of all, I didn’t know if really that X station went to Y as she expected.
I wanted to help, but I had no viable information.
Suddenly, and by a sheer streak of luck, another passerby must have seen my struggles or at least my confused face trying to communicate, when I must have said out loud the name of the station she was asking me. That other guy went next to us in the midst of the crowd and assured me and the old lady that, indeed, X went to Y.
She looked satisfied, I guess, and hurried to catch on the next train.
I followed others along the lines and so the day went by.
It has happened to me a bunch of times, and once, I felt bad for the guy, when I was going through a bus trip between two cities in Europe, an asian guy approached me and brandishing his ticket started asking me: “Wroclaw? Wroclaw?” From what I can remember, maybe I was in Poland, or going to somewhere near there. From what I knew, the bus I was taking wasn’t going to that city, afterall, I bought the ticket for somewhere else entirely, so I answered him what I knew (with my fraught understanding), that “No, no Wroclaw”.
He even came back, together with his father, I guess, to check on me, to be sure it was going to that city, and again I denied. I didn’t know better. I boarded the bus, he stayed. Some 15 or 20 minutes later, the bus stopped at another station in a nearby city. The sign read: “Wroclaw”.
My heart sank.
Fuck me. I had just left stranded in another city two people, for not knowing any better. We were in Poland, I didn’t speak polish, the guys over at the station could barely understand english, and to this day I regret not having thought a little more and maybe asked the bus driver instead. My memory fails me, but I guess I might have insisted for him to check with somebody else, maybe the ticket seller.
I still don’t know what must have happened after that. I hope he could have boarded another bus, and I didn’t wreck too much of his travel plans or worse.
My dear friend, if you ever read this, even though you don’t know who I were during that time, I am sorry for that day.
I hope you could find your way home later, buddy.
Still, sometimes, we can’t help much, while others, we know a thing or two.
God, was I bad at geography.
Pardon me.