There’s a lyric from an old Depeche Mode song that says “It’s only when I lose myself with someone else
That I find myself” that eloquently sums up my experiences with Google Maps & my lust for exploration.
I find that traveling or living in a new place changes you forever and what changes you are the places you find, the people and culture you interact with and the food you eat. It’s that ability to allow yourself to get lost and be patient enough to find yourself again. Each trip I take even if it’s just a day trip out of town, changes me in some way and makes me richer for the experience. Google Maps is my treasure map for these experiences, when I read somewhere exciting like a haunted hotel in Scotland or a restaurant in Prague that is believed to be the cave entrance to where an ancient Basilisk (aka Dragon) used to live and eat the people of that fair city --these are X’s on a map that mark a treasure for me to experience and take me away from the monotony of life. If those X’s turn out to be true treasures or positive experiences, then I love to share that with others on Google Maps. I especially love to find places that are missing on Google Maps and submit them to have it posted. Those are like finding the rarest of Pokemons.
Sharing the thrill of discovering something unexpectedly valuable with others for the mere sake of sharing positivity is one of the cheapest, most uplifting activities you can do to connect you with others and be a part of a global community.
Being an archaeologist and a screenwriter, I love the high you get from discovery and digging deeper. I mostly love to use Google Maps to find historic places with rich histories that go back centuries or even thousands of years. The kind of places where you can literally vibe the thick energy of the souls that have passed through. The more down and out or remote, the better. For example: I read online in a chat room years ago that there was a small Arab village at the top of a narrow street underneath the shadow of the legendary Alhambra Palace of Granada where the Moors Spain ruled for hundreds of years. The village was called Albaicin and the worn cobblestone streets were so close together that you could walk underneath old ladies sitting on their balconies, chatting it up under a moonlit sky, inches away from each other. I ended up getting lost for hours in those winding streets and eventually discovered a plaza with all you can eat fresh seafood for about 10 bucks. It was a gem and it was full of only colorful and unique locals. I’ll never forget this one jovial, big guy resting his two small, giggling daughters on either side of his bodacious belly while he stuffed his face with curly calamaris poking out from under his twisted mustache. It was such a rich and beautiful scene that it has stuck with me more than anything else from that night. I ended up asking a local for the way back and arrived home exhausted but fulfilled in a way that no money could buy. Sadly, this was years before Google Maps and I will have to go back and get lost again to ever find it and submit a review.