DenverGuy111

I am good at finding my way around I would say 90% of the time. Several of us visited Chicago recently. I have a sister whose first impulse is to ask strangers on the street whenever there is a question regarding directions, a site, restaurant, etc.

When we need to determine where we were going, I'd pull out a map. A few seconds later I'd have the answer.

While I was doing that she would already be engaged in a discussion about it with a stranger. She talks to street bums. When someone has a dog she goes over and talks with the owner and talks to the dog using baby talk. When we're in a car she'll yell through the window to the next car, "Excuse me, do you know of a Thai restaurant around here???"

Maybe it's just me, but this kind of stuff makes me cringe.

Would this kind of thing annoy you?

suze

<Would this kind of thing annoy you?> YES

I'm not against asking someone a question (certainly not shouting it from a moving car!) but only after I made a legitimate attempt to figure it out myself, or ask someone whose job it is to assist (like a hotel front desk clerk).

LSky

The shouting from a car might but probably not much.

Talking to strangers on the street annoys my husband sometimes but I find out what I need to know.

HMMMM!!!?

Is this really your sister you're talking about here?
Are you my husband?!

LSky

I have to admit, I thought this would be about people like DH, who dislikes having to speak to people on the street.

Instead of ppl like me who are as likely to chat up a bum as an older woman.

BTW, I never ever talk baby talk to dogs or children. That would be embarrassing

cigalechanta

I always ask for directions, most men don't and keep driving to nowhere.

cynthia_booker

When did you start traveling with MY sister? Does she ever show some (French) person at the next table in Paris pictures of her grandchildren?

HKP

Two different issues: 1. asking directions, or not asking and finding your own way. 2. talking to strangers while traveling.

Am blessed with the orienteering gene, an internal compass, and also a love of maps and matching where I am with that map. Also decently handy with apps to find restaurants, etc. But have known many who cannot see any similarity between a map and the "real" earth, who practically have to be told at each street corner where to go next, and have no internal compass. Always feel sorry for those lost souls -- it's just something you either are born with or not -- and don't begrudge them the asking for help, although I'm always worried they'll ask exactly the wrong people.

As for talking to strangers? I pick and choose, but have had some wonderful conversations with ticket-takers, guides, other museum visitors, even taxi drivers (other than in big eastern cities) and people sitting alone reading in a cafe. One of the best conversations ever was with a gardener at Giverny. It's an art that takes caution and careful choice (and knowing when to back off), but most of the time very much worth it.

november_moon

I have watched a lot of the Amazing Race, and I think that there are basically 2 kinds of people - those who's first inclination is to answer a question by looking it up and those who's first inclination is to ask other people.

Sal9001

I'm a map person myself. I only ask strangers in extreme cases. While in Lisbon, we had a bad map and I couldn't find a place we wanted to go. I speak no Portuguese and the man I finally stopped spoke no English. We worked it out with sign language and pointing and a little Italian which we both spoke, sort of.

To answer your question, No it would not annoy me, but I sure wouldn't do it myself; and I might just pretend that I didn't know her.

Sal9001

I'm a map person myself. I only ask strangers in extreme cases. While in Lisbon, we had a bad map and I couldn't find a place we wanted to go. I speak no Portuguese and the man I finally stopped spoke no English. We worked it out with sign language and pointing and a little Italian which we both spoke, sort of.

To answer your question, No it would not annoy me, but I sure wouldn't do it myself; and I might just pretend that I didn't know her.

cat111719

I just can't read a map to save my life! In Avignon by myself, I wrote in French, "I am lost, please show me where I am on this map." I talked to tons of strangers. Led to some great moments and meeting some really nice people.

In Oxford when I was younger, my dad asked a man for directions and he ended up being the mayor or something similar, and gave us a tour of the council chambers.

I think talking to strangers is a must do, especially when traveling.

suze

No one's touched yet on one VERY crucial point... You don't know the accuracy of the directions you will receive.

As example, local people in Mexico typically are very friendly and will be happy to give you directions... even if they don't know the way!

VonVan

After a late concert in a large city, I knew the only way back to the hotel was by taxi.
My friend wanted to save money by taking a bus, but all the info I had (including the bus stop SIGNS) said buses stopped at midnight or whatever.

My friend then asks every passerby on the street what time the bus service ran and didn't stop until she found ONE who gave her the incorrect answer she wanted.

We waited a bit for the bus that was never to be, and then of course took a taxi.

LSky

Reading a map is not a problem for me and I always map out the way before starting off.

Talking to strangers is habitual. I've never showed pictures but I like a little chat with a stranger now and then.

Asking strangers can backfire though. Once my friend and I couldn't find our way back to our hotel in Seville. It was a little hole in the wall and we thought we knew the way. Finally, we took to asking strangers. My friend's Spanish was not great so she started showing people the hotel key. It dawned on both of us that this was the wrong approach when an older woman (My friend was in her 50's) grab her husband's arm to lead him away. I thought maybe it was because my friend looks like a gypsy.

Finally, this young woman, a shop owner's daughter saved us. They had been watching us. The young woman said, the other woman thought my friend was propositioning the man by showing him her key. Pretty energetic for a middle aged woman, I say.

thursdaysd

If you don't talk to strangers how will you meet new people?

ShelliDawn

<i>If you don't talk to strangers how will you meet new people?</i>

I agree whole-heartedly!!

I am good with a map and I generally plan how I need to get somewhere in advance. And I would never yell at someone (whether in a car or not). But sometimes you get turned around an a quick confirmation that you're headed in the right direction is useful.

Also, when travelling, I'm there to learn about the place I'm visiting and who better to learn from than the locals? I'll start chatting with people in lineups, on the bus etc. I recently had a conversation at the Natural History Museum in London with a young English couple who were having trouble pronouncing "sequoia" when we were all viewing slice of a 1300 year old tree trunk. We chatted for about 20 minutes.

If the person indicates they'd rather not chat (verbally or body language) I'm respectful of that. But, some of my best conversations and vacation memories are from speaking with strangers.

Jean

I talk to strangers who are traveling.

I live in a town and work in another town that both get lots of tourists, foreign and domestic. If I see someone puzzling over a map, I'll ask them if they need help. Just this afternoon, while gardening in front of my house, a guy driving by stopped to ask for directions. Helping visitors figure out the parking meters or pay stations is my other contribution to world peace.

Cowboy1968

I am often traveling with friends who have no sense of orientation, and cannot process directions given to them. The latter is even more annoying than the former.
If you told them that they had to walk half a mile down the street, to the square with the 6-storey-tall statue of a pink elephant, and that the store they were looking for was right next to the Starbucks in that square, they'd probably ask 5 times in between here and there.
Life is much easier now with smartphones with GPS and route finders, though..

cathies

We chat to people on trains or while standing in queues, no harm in that. One of our fond memories of Italy is on the train from Naples to Florence. An Italian chap on the train wanted to talk to us but we don't speak enough Italian to be able to chat. Before long we established that he and my husband both speak fluent French, so they talked happily together.

LSky

The best tips I've ever gotten were in a friendly chat with a stranger.

I'm much more likely to give someone a great tip if I am talking to them and have a sense of what they may like.

The only tip I'd never take or ask from a stranger in a city is what hotel to stay in. How would they know if they live there?

Although they might be able to direct you to a good area to start looking.