Lessons from traveling abroad: finding a street address

Budapest.  Sar and I had made it to Budapest.  It was around 1pm local time and we were too tired to know what time that was at home or how long we had been traveling so far.  Early morning.  Too long.  Something like that. 

We had fortunately had the presence of mind to get ourselves a place to stay that night in Budapest instead of trying to press on to our final destination.  I had found us an apartment listed on Airbnb for only $35 USD, right across the street from the train station where we would leave from in the morning.  It was perfect.

Well.  I thought it was perfect.

I got my first inkling that trouble was brewing when I handed the slip of paper with the address to the woman organizing our shuttle from the airport and she asked me for the street number.

Uhhhh, it's right there.  Isn't it?

1077 Budapest Baross tér 18

Budapest, Budapest 1077

Hungary

That looked like a complete address to me.  I mean, yes there were a surprising number of "Budapest"s in it and I had noticed the coincidence of the street number and zip code being the same, but that was coincidence right?  Right?

I told the woman that they could just drop us at the train station.  We'd find our way from there.  Clearly this shuttle company just didn't know the area like I did.  

So they left us at the train station where Sar and I settled in for a nice two hour wait until our apartment would be ready for us.

Lesson #1: If you are not 100% positive you know the exact location to which you are headed and how to get there, find out that information before deciding to sit on your bum for two hours before you're supposed to be there.

Kerepesi Train Station, Budapest, Hungary

About fifteen minutes before we were supposed to meet our host, we gathered up our bags and headed out.  The directions which were so easy to virtually follow on Google maps, became increasingly difficult on foot.  

While I had only my trusty backpack and a small drawstring bag, Sar had two large suitcases because she was bringing gifts and supplies to the ministry.  This would've been only a minor inconvenience on crowded sidewalks….if the sidewalks had been paved.  But they were not.  The whole street was under construction on both sides, for about a half mile.

Lesson #2: Do not bring wheeley suitcases unless absolutely necessary.

I don't remember how long we paced up and down the street I had thought it was on, looking first for the address, then for the landmarks our host had described.  I knew we were in real trouble when two different people stopped to ask if we needed help, but still couldn't figure out the jumbled address which I presented to them.  We wandered until Sar was in desperate need of food.  Which is how we ended up at McDonalds, much to my chagrin.  

Lesson #3: McDonalds is the home of free WiFi in Europe.  (So is Starbucks, of course)

I tried emailing our host, explaining the situation and asking for clarification, but didn't hear back from him before we were finished eating, so we wandered out again.  We circled the block a few times before I noted that I thought the apartment was somehow inside the block, as entrances were only on two sides of the giant square building that was the block.  We started going up to every private entrance, locating the number of the apartment we were supposed to go to, and then attempting to put in the code we had been given.  Eventually one worked, hurrah!

It might have helped had I seen this screencap of Google's satellite view of the block

Luckily our host was waiting for us and waved to us from the appropriate balcony so we knew which apartment to go to once we got inside.  Turns out he didn't speak English, and Sarah hadn't used her French in almost a decade--par for the course that day--but it worked out.

I had this happen one or two more times during my travels, where the location I needed was basically inside a walled fortress, but thankfully it never took me this long again!  Best I can figure out is that our host tried to make his address fit the American system (Google was able to find the approximate location with the information, after all), but the American system is not helpful on the streets of Budapest.

Overarching lesson:  You can not get too many variations on the same directions. Write out street direction.  Get landmark-centric directions.  Take screenshots of Google Maps so you don't have to use data to look at them on the move (this became my go-to method after a while.)  Grab a map from your hostel before you leave.  Ask pedestrians for help, but BEWARE if they offer to walk you there.  (More on that in a later post.)