I can orient myself during the daylight hours. At night, I am hopeless. I cannot find the north star on the clearest night ever.
I was visiting friends in San Francisco and wanted to go home to Santa Cruz, which is south of San Francisco. If one is facing the pacific ocean and desires to go south, one turns to the left. I didn’t and when I found myself on the Golden Gate bridge my first thought was “I don’t remember this bridge.”
Shrug, in many other countries the system of coordinates used is just different; most people can’t find north to save their life but they never need to, either. The problems appear when you mix people who are used to two different systems. We’ll be saying “head uphill at the roundabout, then toward Pamplona” and you’ll be asking “is that North?” - first, most people here wouldn’t even comprehend the question, and second, not really: that particular road heads WNW, but it’s clearly labeled Pamplona in every crossing.
No, that would require Catholics to be lying down with our head pointed southward any time we cross ourselves. And keep in mind that “up=north” is, even nowadays, not the only possible orientation for maps.
I am generally well oriented but some towns where I have walked around without consulting a map are not on a South to North axis. It took a while for me to grasp that what I considered North in York was really East and both the town outside of which I grew up and Tallinn are upside down.
Yes. But they are clearly labeled for the changes. Hell, we have for a while, I-890W and I-7E traveling on the same highway, in the same direction.
But everything is well-labeled here. And you know when you are on an interstate you can always get off at the next exit and usually pretty easily find your way back on if you need to go back. It’s usually just a left and a left. And the warning signs are updated, and frequently, and they are accurate. And there’s nothing but cars (or trucks/vehicles) on the highway - no chickens, ducks, cows, pigs, pedestrians, three-wheeled scooters, horse-and-buggies, and the highways are usually well-maintained and there is regular construction to fix potholes and such.
I have no idea what Europe is like but I have been on some shitty highway systems and I love the States’.
In the Wytheville, VA area you can be traveling on I-81 North and I-77 South (and versa vicey) at the same time for about 10 miles.
I sometimes think I might be part homing pigeon.
I cannot remember ever getting lost*…and if I go someplace once, I can find it again years later without a map or any GPS or need to ask directions - even in the dark. I have done it so often that my SO just gave up being amazed by the fact. He, on the other hand, would have problems finding our front door from the living room if I ever gave him directions using N,S,E,W…he hasn’t got a clue.
Not sure why…perhaps as a kid roaming through the woods and always finding my way back? Or perhaps always wandering through strange cities and countries and easily being able to turn around and find my way back from where I started?
I can’t describe it other than to say it is like my directions have been embedded into my brain and all I have to do is think about it and I can retrace my steps…immediately or years later.
*There have been a few incidents where I think I might have been lost trying to find a business of some kind - and then find out they no longer are in business or have moved, thus I could not find them where they used to be. Usually I only find that out when I break down and ask someone in that area and they let me know such and such business closed down a few years back or whatever.
Can you do the freaky blindfold & spin-around thing my sister does? Because I’ve known her her entire damn life, and it still freaks me the hell out.
If I’m somewhere I’m familiar with, or where I’ve at least managed to determine the cardinal directions, I won’t lose them, no matter how far or long I travel by foot or car.
However, the time I usually get messed up is when traveling by air or train, and then getting to my destination and having no idea which direction is which until I get to my hotel and orient myself via a map, sunlight or Polaris.
From then on though, I’m usually pretty good about it.
Huh. I can’t remember getting lost in real life either (I have in video games). But that doesn’t mean I know my cardinal directions. I may not be able to do it for as long as you can, but I can retrace my steps pretty well. When I’m in unfamiliar territory, I pay attention to plenty of clues.
What astounds me is people like my sister who can go to two different places, each from a third place, and somehow know the most direct route between the first two places. In other words, she can travel from A to B and A to C and then know how to get from B to C without using A.
I don’t think I’ve ever known where I was in relation to compass points, and I can’t think of a reason why I would ever need to know. I have no idea how you would work out directions using the sun. I don’t even know how to use a compass.
I wonder if this “automatically knowing your compass points” is specific to the US and any other places where roads are on a grid system.
So you never go into the wilderness, I take it?
I grew up in Salt Lake City, with the perfectly straight streets on a grid, and in the shadows of the Wasatch Mountains, which are to the east. The only time I got is the slightest bit lost was during an exceptionally foggy night. I did a job as a driver just out of high school for a year, and so I learned every bit of the valley.
When I moved to Japan, I would get completely lost as living in a castle town means a lot of roads go in circles, and aren’t on grids. All but the largest roads aren’t named and the addressing is hell. No mountains where I lived to orient myself either. It look a long time to develop a sense of directions which I could do without having to constantly reorient myself. The easiest way to drive is to get a GPS and turn your life over to it.
It’s too cloudy here in eastern Taiwan to see the sun most days.
My older sister had an interesting problem. As a child, she knew that north was “up” so she thought that the street in front of our house went north as it went up to the mountains. The mountains were to the east of us, though, so she was off by 90 degrees her whole childhood.
I can tell which way north is (and the rest of the compass) when I’m indoors, underground, in the dark, etc. I just always know which direction is which; it’s pretty handy.
Sailor, aerial mapping pilot, etc…
I think my Dad taught all of his kids before we could walk.
Also, ALL of his kids learned to back a boat & trailer down a boat ramp before we could legally drive.
So your sister can go from her home to the mall and from home to the grocery store and then go from the mall to the grocery store?
I’ve never had a problem with directions. I’ve always learned the freeways/highways and which ones run east/west and north/south and used those as mental references.
This is me too. I can get back to anyplace that I’ve been to once.
I once drove to a childhood home that I lived in for 7 months when I was 6 years old. I was 39 years old when I next saw the house. From the house, I then drove to my former elementary school. No mistakes, no mis-turns.
I usually could answer to what direction I am driving, but only after some thought visualizing a map in my head. No incentive to think in cardinal direction terms while navigating because here in Germany we almost never communicate driving directions in terms of cardinal directions, using city/town/neighbourhood references instead.
I know which is north/south etc but if I’m giving directions I usually give the ‘towards landmark’ or ‘away from landmark’ because most people don’t seem to have a clue.
I was planning with a friend to visit the city for Vivid.
Me, “If we want to see the Bridge lit up, we’ll have to catch a ferry because they’re only lighting the western side.”
Her, “???”
Me, “The side that faces towards Parrmatta, not the side that faces the Heads.”
Clearly she had no idea that the Bridge is orientated north/south or had ever even thought about it.
Someone who lives in Sydney? As in, the Sydney with the “North Shore”? :dubious:
Yep… They make it easy here… if you are going towards the mountains it’s west, going away is east… north and south follow from there.