There is an old saying that to really discover a city, you should let yourself get lost in everything it has to offer. It can definitely be true and we have had a couple of instances where we literally got lost while exploring the city. Needless to say, you still have to be cogniscent of your surroundings and make sure that you don’t put yourself in danger. These days it is a little harder to truly get lost since you can always pull up a map on your smart phone, but knowing where you are on a map doesn’t always mean that you actually know where you are. Getting lost can often lead to little surprises that make for incredible memories.

Walking the Streets of Paris – Not only was this the first time that we managed to get lost while walking the streets of a city, but it was actually our first trip to Europe many years ago and before the days of smart phones. It truly did make for some incredible memories, including finding a rare book store that had a first edition Don Quixote that we actually considered buying, but our common sense took over and kept us from making the purchase. There were little shops selling crepes and all sorts of different stores. We did end up buying a small porcelain statue of a boy and girl on a sled that always reminds of us of our time in Paris. We have been back to Paris since then, but this first trip was truly magical.

Getting Lost in Seville, Spain – We didn’t just get lost once when we visited Seville, but actually got lost a total of three times. The first was just driving into Seville and trying to find our hotel. There were roads closed due to a parade that made it difficult to find with all of the one way streets. The second was when we tried to go back to a shop that we had found earlier in the day, but couldn’t seem to find it again. It did allow us to enjoy all of the narrow streets in the Old Jewish Quarter. It was after finally getting back to the cathedral after being lost that we ate dinner and then decided to take a carriage ride. Little did we know that once again closed streets would cause our driver to get lost and we would end up having a wonderful time just enjoying the moments in the city, although our driver wasn’t particularly happy.

Getting lost in a city doesn’t guarantee you wonderful memories, but you might be surprised by what you see if let yourself get off of the beaten track. We also got lost in Lima, Peru, but as soon as we reached a part of the city where we didn’t feel comfortable, we quickly back tracked to a place that we recognized. Although it takes a leap of faith to do, you might just see some wonderful sights that aren’t talked about in the travel books that you might have read.