The Map I Wasn’t Supposed to Follow

While on the bus during my last vacation, I found a map in the pocket of the seat in front of me. It was not neatly folded, it was crumpled and a place I had never heard of was circled in red. Normally I would have ignored it but travel has a way of bringing out the adventurer in me.

By sunrise the next day, instead of continuing to the city on my itinerary, I stepped off a tiny roadside town whose name barely fit on a bus station sign. The air smelled like rain. Chickens wandered like they owned the road and my phone signal disappeared. The red circle on the map pointed toward a narrow road leading uphill.

After walking for what seemed like an eternity, I was all sweaty and questioning my life choices, I reached a cliff overlooking a wide valley, at the edge stood a café with the sign: Freshly baked bread with tea or coffee.

The lady running the place smiled at me like she was expecting me. The tea tasted like the mountains. No music, no traffic, just the calming sound of wind moving through the valley, four other tourists sat nearby.

I wondered about the map, maybe someone lost it or left it on purpose. I circled the café in red again and slipped the map into the seat pocket of the bus I took on my way back. Because the best places aren’t always searched for, sometimes they’re passed along.