US soccer fan forgets hotel location in six-hour ordeal

[tocqueville]

Fri Jun 23, 7:44 AM ET

BERLIN (Reuters) - German police rescued an American soccer fan lost in Hanover and unable to find his hotel again after helplessly wandering around the city for more than six hours after a match, federal police said Friday.

The 25-year-old Boston man had checked into his hotel in the afternoon before going to see a match between Poland and Costa Rica but could not remember his hotel's name, its address or anything else about it, police spokesman Holger Jureczko said.

"He came into the police station at 3 a.m. and asked for help," Jureczko said.

"The only thing he could remember was paying 10 euros for a taxi ride to the city center and that he went past a park and a Mercedes dealer. There are a lot of Mercedes dealers in Hanover but we were able to find the one in the vicinity of a park."

Police took the American to the area that matched his vague description in the city of 500,000 and spent an hour driving up and down streets in that quarter until he recognized his hotel just before dawn Wednesday.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060623/od_nm/world_odd_dc_1

[MADem]

1. How HUMILIATING...and a Bostonian, too!!

Wonder how many brewskis he had at the match???

[babylonsister]

2. Nah, it's a story to tell his grandkids, especially the part about

how great the beers were!

[sweettater]

3. and I think getting lost

in a Wal-mart parking lot is humiliating! on 2 counts.

[Kellanved]

4. A British fan made it to the headlines as well

If there were a contest for the title of "most stupid fans at the World Cup", two England supporters in Cologne who mislaid their car ahead of tonight's match against Sweden would certainly be in the running.

The fans parked their car in Cologne's old city and, before going off to have a drink, they wrote down what they thought was the German street name. When they returned several hours later, they could no longer find their car. According to this morning's German press, the unnamed England fans, who had driven to the Rhine city from Belgium, then approached two police officers and handed over a crumpled piece of paper with the street name on it. Unfortunately, however, it read - "Einbahnstrasse", the German for one-way street. German officers this morning said they had to carry out an "intensive search" before discovering the missing vehicle in a nearby side street.
...


http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/worldcup06/2006/06/20/driven_to_distraction.html

[BlueCollar]

5. alcohol involved? n/t

[tjwash]

6. Nice one. "It's by the Mercedes dealer"

:rofl: That's the equivilent of being lost in Tokyo and saying "It's by the Sushi restauraunt." :rofl:

[tridim]

7. I hate to admit it..

but the same thing happened to me once in Vegas. I never checked in to the hotel, just met friends and dumped my bags in their room. Later that night I hopped in a cab and had a big ol brain fart, I had no clue what hotel we were staying in. I didn't have a key either, so after hours of searching and finally finding the hotel, I didn't even know the room number or whose name the room was under. I think it was about 5am before I found my drunk friends with the key.

And then there was the time I forgot where I parked at the airport. It took three hours to find my damn car.

[elehhhhna]

8. I'd have called my credit card co for the info. duh.

[TahitiNut]

9. Someone ought to be applauding the police for their patience and

... hospitality. These stories match my experiences in Europe. While never having the kind of brain fart (just lucky timing) these visitors had, I've been quite comfortable with the 'authorities' in asking for directions and other minor assists.

[kittenpants]

10. Those are some pretty good natured police in Germany. n/t

[tocqueville]

11. England just qualified 1-0 against Ecuador nt