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By Rachael O'Connor
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An American tourist has shared the mortifying moment she woke up in the entirely wrong place.
Maddi, 25, who gave her first name, lives in Charleston, South Carolina, and recently traveled to the United Kingdom for a work trip.
Ready to check out famous landmarks like Buckingham Palace, Oxford Street and Tower Bridge, Maddi got in an Uber from the airport—but, despite her excitement, the travel got to her, and she promptly fell asleep.
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"I was extremely tired, probably the most tired I’ve been in a few years," Maddi told Newsweek. "I didn’t sleep the night before, and I could not sleep on the plane because they had the airplane cabin so hot."
When she arrived at the airport, Maddi put her hotel name into Uber and got in the car, where she fell asleep for the entire journey.
But, when the Uber pulled up to her hotel, she immediately realized something was wrong.
Instead of palaces and skyscrapers, she was surrounded by water.
"When I saw the water, I did instantly think something was wrong because I knew I was supposed to be in London," Maddi said—but she thought it was possible the company put her up outside of the capital city and she was expected to commute in.
"I knew it was wrong for sure, but, to triple-check, I went inside the hotel and asked them if they had my reservation, and, when they said they didn’t have my name in the system at all, I knew how badly I messed up."
...
Maddi had, in fact, ended up in Eastbourne, a seaside town almost 80 miles outside of London—because there was a hotel with the same name in both areas. The airport she had arrived into, Gatwick, was in between both Eastbourne and London.
Her route to Eastbourne from the airport took an hour—in the wrong direction—and, because of traffic on the way to London, her journey to the right hotel took a painstaking three hours.
Not only that, but the Uber to Eastbourne cost £153 ($206), and from Eastbourne to London was another £257 ($347)—meaning her mistake cost a total of £410 ($553).
It wasn't all bad, however, as she was in London with Netflix for an interview with the stars of The Last House, and her travel was covered.
And Maddi revealed that, as her embarrassing story went viral, the Eastbourne hotel saw it—and "offered me a free stay for whenever I come back."
"Sometimes, funny, embarrassing mistakes can pay off," Maddi said.
She was, unfortunately, mocked for her mistake, both by commenters on the internet and by the seaside seagulls, who began squawking loudly while she was waiting for her second, three-hour-long Uber.
"I am telling you that they seriously were making fun of me," Maddi said.
As for how she made the mistake in the first place, she added: "I am directionally challenged, I literally use Apple Maps even if I’m going a minute down the road, I’m not even going to try and look at a zoomed-out Uber map!"
Maddi added: "Going viral isn’t necessarily new to me, but sometimes, when you go viral for something so stupid, you do feel the need to constantly defend your intelligence!"
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Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Rebecca Flood and James Debens
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