My immediate thought was "surely, if you talked to any police officer, if not at the station, they would help out? And if not, any library or other public service?"
If you're not aware, many people are assholes, and the story that you're reading is about an instance where someone was finding that everyone around them was being an asshole, that means it's less than likely that they would have stopped to give them directions.
Oh come on, most people are awesome. People LOVE to help, it empowers them, makes them feel good. When you look at books with advice about building relationships and friendships, you'll almost always find suggestions to ASK people you want to get closer to for help.
The world is full of many lovely, caring people, but that does little to help a person when they happen to run into a bunch of assholes.
It is very feasible that a person travelling to another country could have a negative experience with everyone they meet due to racism or xenophobia, or whatever and that this would lead to a situation where even people on the street show them nothing but scorn.
Imagine a Ukrainian asking for the nearest police station in Russia right now.
Or someone wearing a thin blue line asking for directions at a stereotypical leftist college campus.
> Or someone wearing a thin blue line asking for directions at a stereotypical leftist college campus.
I wouldn’t be surprised in the slightest if in either case the person who is lost gets the help they need.
The world is full of assholes, but they are the minority compared to the majority of helpful people, especially when it comes to simple things such as direction. Speak the local language helps of course.
Every single time?
Like you're saying that there's absolutely no chance that this could happen in these situations, or in any situations, which makes no sense given that statistically this kind of shit happens every day to someone.
At almost any given moment someone is being told to fuck off because the asked a stranger for directions.
Have you never had this happen to you?
Not sure what you expect to happen. There won't be any way to tell the difference, and even if there was nobody would care. In Moscow on a busy street, you'll probably be ignored for some time until someone helps you, not just because they are assholes there, but simply because most people aren't locals; in most sub-1M cities, there will be plenty of people willing to help.