The ads for the H Street Festival said that free shuttle bus service would be available to the festival from the Eastern Market metro station, so I didn't bother looking up directions from the station to the festival. When I got to the Eastern Market station at around 3:15, I couldn't find any sort of sign that said anything about shuttles, so I decided to walk. I picked up a copy of a free newspaper, found an ad for H Street Festival and saw that the festival was taking place on H Street (logical, huh?) between 8th and 14th streets. I looked to the street sign; I was at 7th and D. This was easy to figure out. I started walking down 7th Street. It took me until I reached Independence Avenue to realize that I was walking down the alphabet, not up it, so I turned around and walked the other way on 7th Street. I walked and walked. As I passed G street, I began to wonder why I couldn't yet hear the festival; street festivals are supposed to be loud. I shrugged to myself and kept walking to the next Street: I street. I walked back a block again. G Street. Okay...no H Street.
I stopped and thought for a second before I realized that I was still on 7th street; the festival began at the intersection of 8th and H. Maybe H didn't extend to 7th street. I walked over to 8th street and looked around. I walked up until I saw I again. I walked down to G...still no sign of H Street. Starting to get very confused, I decided that maybe they had put H Street after I, so I walked all the way to K, crossing a highway in the process. Nope. The city planners weren't alphabetically challenged. I walked back to G Street, keeping my eyes peeled for the elusive H Street. Maybe the festival really only started at 10th or 11th street, I thought to myself. I walked down G Street until I reached 10th Street. I turned and walked toward where H should be. All of a sudden I heard the faint noise of music. I was getting close! I got to where H should be, but there was still no H to be found. I could hear the music now, though, so I followed the faint sounds down G Street, all the way to 12th. There at the corner, I found the source of the music: a car stereo.
By now, it was 4 o'clock. I had been looking for the H Street Festival for 45 minutes and couldn't care less about it anymore. I started my walk back to the metro station. I had thought many times over the past almost-hour of just asking someone where H Street was, but I hadn't done it for fear of looking silly. H Street is after G Street, duh. Finally, though, I decided that I'd rather look silly than leave the big H Street Festival mystery unsolved, so I asked a passing young man where I might find H Street. I expected him to laugh and tell me it didn't exist, to point over my shoulder at the general location around which I had just been searching, but he surprised me by pointing straight ahead in the direction I was already walking. "It's that way??" I asked him incredulously. He nodded in a I-can't-believe-tourists-are-so-dumb kind of way and kept walking. All of a sudden, something I had heard on several occasions came back to me; DC is on a quadrant system. I was looking for H Street NE in the SE quadrant. Happy to have solved the mystery I walked the 20-ish blocks to H Street NE in turbo speed. Here I could hear the music from at least five blocks away. The first thing I saw when I finally got to the festival was this sign. That's the same graphic that was on all of the ads.
I guess the NE on there isn't for decorational purposes...Oh well...as far as getting lost stories go, this one was relatively harmless. I turned the short 15-block walk from the metro into a nice 40-block walk, but that's it. I can handle that. Besides, I don't know how I can expect to go anywhere on my own without getting lost. Which reminds me! Last weekend, I did the navigating to the three festivals Lulit, Jordyn and I went to and not once did we get even a little bit lost. This all serves to substantiate my God-wants-me-to-be directionally challenged argument. He moves things around to confuse me when I'm on my own, but not when I'm with others. I get it.
hilarious. Loved it! Where is the gps when you need it ;)
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