About 5 years ago me and my (then) best friend spent a week or so in France
Mainly in Paris
One day we decided to take a day trip to Calais that almost ended in disaster
We had spent a lovely day at an art exhibition and exploring the city a bit before we finally made our way back to the station
As soon as we arrived we looked at the board and could see our train; then, about 5 minutes later, we noticed that it started flashing
Not knowing what this meant and also concerned that none of the others were flashing...
We finally decided to ask one of the station employees what this meant
The issue was that, unlike in Paris, most of the people in Calais didn't speak English
The train guard spoke very little English; so called over 2 of his colleagues
Between our broken French, their broken English and a lot of pointing to our tickets and the board, we were finally able to get them to understand that we wanted to go back to Paris but the train that we wanted was flashing and we needed to know why?
"Aaah," the original guy answered, "c'est supprimer!"
Me and my friend looked at each then back at him in confusion
"Supprimer?" We asked in unison
"oui, c'est supprimer" he repeated again
Sensing that we didn't understand, he turned to his 2 companions to see if they knew the English equivalent to "supprimer". One of them thought for a second and then said "cancelled". "Cancelled?!" We echoed aghast. "Oui, cancelled". He asserted again
I about passed out with visions of us being stranded in Calais. We were counting on that train to connect us to another. If we missed that one, how would we get back to Paris? We didn't have enough money for a hotel in Calais...
My spiral of panic was then interrupted by the guards pointing to the board and then to the map to show us another route that we could take back to Paris
We remained nervous about getting kicked off the train for being on the wrong route throughout the journey but, lo and behold, their instructions came in very handy and we didn't have to sleep in the street in a strange city where we didn't know the language.
Knowing where you want to go but not knowing how to get there has to be one of the most frustrating things ever! This is something that I remember feeling at the beginning of my content marketing journey as well
You see...