Wanderoo

So this is a story of when I came back to Newcastle after Christmas.

I arrive at the airport, and I collect my baggage and all (and I get stopped at customs, have a little chat with the bloke and he lets me off for having too much alcohol) and well, I make my way to the metro (because that is how I'm going home... intriguing).

When I get to the ticket dispenser, I notice that I need change, as the machine will only take coins and I only have notes. So I line up to use the "change machine". There's this Asian lass in front of me, and she seems confused. She asks for help, asks me why she can't get any change. Well, the machine's not working (what? This is the UK, things should work!) so well, in order to get change our best bet is to buy something in one of the shops. So we go back and I get a newspaper and she gets... no clue. So we're back at the ticket dispenser and I get my ticket, and as soon as I'm getting ready to move on, the girl again starts asking me questions (basically, what stop do I go to in order to go to the city centre) and I comply because, well, frankly I have nothing better to do. So she's getting off at the same stop as I am. Oh well. So the 20 mins go by pretty fast, and neither of us get mugged, and then it's time to get off.

So we both grab our baggages and get off. I ask her exactly where she's going and she says "city centre", which isn't her exact destination unless she's planning on sleeping in the streets (I wasn't discarding that possibility at the moment). So once we're out of the station, she looks a bit confused, so I'm going to ask her again where she's going, but I decide to rephrase my question this time: "are you going to the university?" She says she is. So I tell her that Newcastle Uni is right in front of us, crossing the street and Northumbria Uni is walking down the right and then taking a right. She thanks me, but still looks a tad confused.

So, being the good person that I am, ask her in what accommodation she's staying. She says something like The Bridge Hotel (although it wasn't the Bridge Hotel). I don't know where that is, so I tell her that I don't know where it is, but it most likely is somewhere along the rest of the uni accommodations, and I point her in the right direction. She tells me that no, it's to the right. It makes me wonder, because I've never seen a hospitable place on the way to The Gate, but well, I tell her once again that I think it's in the other direction, but once again she rejects my advice and tells me it's on the right. How she knows I've got no clue, because not only did she not know how to get to the city centre, but she didn't know how to get to the university. But, of course, she'll know her way to this obscure place.

I didn't force her any further, I let her be as I didn't want her to think I was a rapist or something. I let her go her way and I went my way. I know I got to my flat safe, but I don't know if she made it to her place alive. There's no way of me knowing, but my guess is that she didn't. Newcastle is one of the safest cities in the UK, but when you see this foreigner walking the streets with a lot of luggage and clearly lost, knowing that they've got some dough on them, they've got to mug her. I mean, I didn't because I'm a half decent person, but I would expect anyone else to.

Anyway, I did feel good at that time (not because someone was on their way to getting mugged or whatever) because I was able to direct someone around Newcastle. It made me feel at home. Sure, she might not be in for the best of experiences, but that's not my fault. Had she followed my advice she would've at least been able to ask someone about where to go. Oh, well, life moves on.