When nothing goes right, go left!

I need to take a step back before I go any further with this story. I left out one place that played a huge part in my first few weeks in Canada......Vancouver Public Library, VPL for short! I failed to mention it once in my previous posts and to be honest, I have no idea how that happened! VPL Central Library became my sanctuary while I was living in the Samesun hostel.

It was quiet, it had free access to the internet and gave me the possibility to print CV after CV for a very low cost. Also, it had a lot of books!! It was the perfect antidote to spending endless hours in my bunk wondering what to do next. When I entered the building, it was like a sense of calm came over me!

However, I struggled getting there. Every day for the first week, when I left the hostel to go to the library, I ended up in the wrong place. Even using Google Maps, I seemed to get lost EVERY SINGLE TIME!! If any of you are familiar with Vancouver, you will know that VPL Central is quite an easy place to find! And from where I was staying, you literally had to follow the street to the big busy junction and turn right, and you would find it. Simple......not for me! I have always been somewhat directionally challenged, but this one really just stumped me for a ridiculous amount of time!!

Eventually, I managed to figure out how to get to the library from the hostel without the help of Google Maps. But then came my next challenge, sometimes I didn't go to the library straight from the hostel. Maybe I went to the shop, maybe I went for something to eat.......once again, I was baffled! The library is on one of the main streets in Vancouver, it's not like it's hidden down some alleyway. It is also quite a striking building, so doesn't exactly blend into the rest of the buildings around. I had no excuse for not being able to find this place, and yet, time after time, it eluded me! I lost a lot of precious library time because of this. 

One of my main issues is I have a tendency to always turn left. It's almost like a supernatural force that pulls me in that direction at all costs. Even if the map is clearly telling me I need to go right, something inside (or outside) convinces me it's wrong, and that I need to go left! This has caused me quite a few problems through the years! So much so, that my parents bought me a fridge magnet to remind me of this impairment!

Once on a visit to Paris, I wanted to go to the Arc de Triumph, which, according to those trusty maps was only a six-minute walk from my hotel. I left my hotel and turned left immediately. After over an hour of walking, I thought, something wasn't right (no pun intended). This was at a time when using Google Maps abroad was extremely expensive, so I was using them very sparingly. I instead messaged my parents, told them where I was, and asked them to look at the map back home in Ireland. 

I had walked most of the way to the outskirts of the city in the completely wrong direction! I had not taken any turns, it was a continuous street, so I turned around and headed back the way I came. As I got closer to my hotel, something large appeared in front of me, the Arc de Triumph, exactly as the map I had checked in my hotel room that morning had told me, a six-minute walk away.....to the right! 

I also tend to avoid public transport in cities, as the same thing happens, and much larger distances can be travelled in a much shorter time on public transport, so who knows where I would end up! Generally, when I visit a new city, I rack up at least 30,000 steps per day, but never really get very far!!! I hope someday, I will figure out how to navigate both cities, and my life!

But back to the library! It is an amazing building, from the first moment I saw it, I was taken by it! And so that was where I spent most of my time (when I wasn't lost, of course!) I guess the moral of this story is, that no matter how lost you get, keep going, you will eventually get there! And occasionally take a right turn along the way, even if every fibre of your being is telling you it's wrong! Also, if you ever go to  Vancouver, I highly recommend a visit to the Central Library!!