C

Unit 23 -C

1. My friend and I were driving around looking for our hotel in Seville, and it was really difficult because it’s a one-way system and there’s a very old pan of the city, with tiny narrow streets, and a traffic policeman on duty at the … at the sort of entrance to it.

And anyway, we asked him the way, and he gaily waved us in the direction he thought, but it was no good at all, and in twenty minutes we were back again in the same place. He seemed a bit surprised to see us, and he asked his friend for help. They gave us a few more directions, so we tried again. And guess what?

Ten minutes later we were there again, for the third time! The cops thought it was really funny, and we were all laughing like mad. Anyway, in the end one of them hopped on a motorbike and drove in front of us all the way to the hotel. Huh! We felt so important! I don’t know, I …

1. Well, this happened when I was in the States, years ago. I’d just arrived in some town. It was about midnight. I’d just got off the Greyhound bus I was on and asked the driver very politely, ‘Could you tell me the way to the Sunnyside Hostel?’ and he said, ‘It’s over there,’ pointing across a car park.

I could see the name lit up in the dark - it looked just a few minutes’ walk away. But he also said, ‘I don’t advise you to walk across there at this time of night. Could be dangerous.’ This worried me a bit, so I thanked him for his advice and went the long way round, out into the road.

The trouble was, I couldn’t see the hostel sign any more, and I didn’t have a map, so I got completely lost. I was standing on the kerb wondering what to do next, when a police car drew up and a big policeman said, ‘Hey, you shouldn’t be walking around here on your own at this time of night!’ I felt like adding, ‘Could be dangerous!’

But actually I was rather pleased to see a friendly face by then, and he very kindly gave me a lift to the hostel, so I never discovered how dangerous things really were in that little town. Just as well, really, because some of those …