Robertson County is like this, too. No one--at least none of the natives--knows the names of the streets. Everything is by landmark: "Go to Old Widow Jenny's house, turn right. At the deadend by Crazy Frank's house, turn left. It's near the broken street lamp." When we first moved there, I learned the street names and when I used them in directions ("one block from the Mitchell/Railroad intersection, turn left on Pine") people would look at me like I was nuts.
So goes the directions in Doha. We live down Racetrack Road, right through Stinky Intersection, exiting left out of Scary Roundabout, then going right at Roundabout Marker 2. Or, an alternative route is to go Lights and Bumps Road and straight through Scary. These are not directions that I make up. Many, many other people understand these same names. Part of this comes from not being able to pronounce or remember the actual street names, and part of this comes from the sheer terror of driving. Who has time to read a sign, when sniffing and screaming are much more instinctual?
The best part is that these names then become "fact." The official map of Doha is littered with these: Tilt/Slant Roundabout, Burger King Roundabout, TV Roundabout. Even though these intersections have official names, no one knows them, again, because they are TOO BUSY DRIVING IN CIRCLES AT 40 MPH HOPING NOT TO FLIP THEIR SUVs or SLAM INTO ANYONE or POOP to stop and try to pronounce, in a thick Texas accent: "I'll Mawr Cob Ell Shaw Zah See Inn Ter Sex Shun. Whaaaa?"
So now I'm trying to collect evidence, and here are two beginning pieces. Like RPH (random photos from here), I need a short hand name for these as I post more in the future.
So goes the directions in Doha. We live down Racetrack Road, right through Stinky Intersection, exiting left out of Scary Roundabout, then going right at Roundabout Marker 2. Or, an alternative route is to go Lights and Bumps Road and straight through Scary. These are not directions that I make up. Many, many other people understand these same names. Part of this comes from not being able to pronounce or remember the actual street names, and part of this comes from the sheer terror of driving. Who has time to read a sign, when sniffing and screaming are much more instinctual?
The best part is that these names then become "fact." The official map of Doha is littered with these: Tilt/Slant Roundabout, Burger King Roundabout, TV Roundabout. Even though these intersections have official names, no one knows them, again, because they are TOO BUSY DRIVING IN CIRCLES AT 40 MPH HOPING NOT TO FLIP THEIR SUVs or SLAM INTO ANYONE or POOP to stop and try to pronounce, in a thick Texas accent: "I'll Mawr Cob Ell Shaw Zah See Inn Ter Sex Shun. Whaaaa?"
So now I'm trying to collect evidence, and here are two beginning pieces. Like RPH (random photos from here), I need a short hand name for these as I post more in the future.
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