foreigner plays uk geoguessr

After eight years living in the UK, I still didn’t trust myself to find places on a map. That seemed like a good reason to try GeoGuessr on my own: the game dropped me somewhere, and I had to work out where I was from what I could see. I chose UK locations, gave myself no time limit and expected it to go badly.

I’d played with people on Twitch before, but they usually carried me. This time I had no help and no Google. A promising road sign was only half the job, because recognising a place name didn’t mean I could find it on the map, let alone locate the particular street where the round had started.

A castle helped me find the first town

The first street looked like an ordinary English suburb to me, until a Welsh sign made me reconsider. I had been to Wales, including Snowdonia, Conwy and Cardiff, but that didn’t make this particular neighbourhood familiar. I kept moving around, looking for something more useful than my impression of the houses.

Then I found a sign for Flint Castle. Excellent. I had a place name. Unfortunately, I couldn’t immediately find Flint on the map. I could see other Welsh towns, but the one I needed kept escaping me. Knowing what to search for and actually spotting it were turning out to be different skills.

Once I found Flint, I had to remember that the castle wasn’t my starting point. I went back to the original street and looked for details that would get me closer. A street name and the nearby Spar helped me compare what I was seeing with the map. I wasn’t just choosing the right town; I was trying to place the pin on the right bit of road.

I was delighted with how close I got. On my own! I’d never managed to pinpoint a location like that without the Twitch team helping. The round I expected to prove how little I knew had given me a reason to keep going.

Morningside had far too many similar names

The next location gave me a nursery sign with Morningside on it and a Sainsbury’s nearby. I thought I was in Scotland. Edinburgh was the Scottish city I’d visited, so it was the first place I considered, but that wasn’t much of a method by itself.

A sign for the Royal Edinburgh Hospital made the city a much stronger possibility. I kept finding Morningside on businesses and signs, then struggled with all the similar names on the map. There were roads, parks, drives and groves, and I couldn’t keep them straight. Every time I thought I’d worked it out, another junction made me doubt myself.

I had to return to where I’d started and compare the road shape, the supermarket and the nearby businesses again. The place could be correct while my pin was still wrong. Eventually I worked out where to put it, and I was buzzing. I hadn’t looked anything up or asked anyone. That mattered to me more than simply recognising Edinburgh.

Looking around those streets also made me think about living somewhere else. I loved Kent, but I’d ended up there because it was where my partner’s family lived. It wasn’t the only place I could imagine calling home. I’d had a similar feeling visiting Cheltenham, and the game gave me another little opportunity to wonder what living elsewhere might be like.

Reading Road was finally a familiar clue

The third round started with an Arborfield and Newland parish sign, Reading Road and a reference to Wokingham. I didn’t know Wokingham, but Reading meant something to me. I’d changed trains there while travelling to Cheltenham, so at least I had a place I could begin looking for.

That familiarity didn’t mean I knew the road numbers. I still had to search around the map, find Arborfield and compare the roads. Going back to the starting point helped again. A church and the junction of Church Lane and Reading Road gave me something specific to match, and I was pleased with the result.

By then, the video I’d imagined had changed shape. I’d expected a funny failure, and instead I was doing well. I decided to play four rounds rather than five because it was taking so long. I’d already had locations in Wales, Scotland and England, which made the little tour feel varied even without going anywhere myself.

Manchester took me a while

The last round started near a roundabout. Signs mentioned Trafford General Hospital, Liverpool, Leeds and the M60, but I didn’t immediately know what to do with them. Eccles didn’t help me much either. I could read the names without having a useful picture of how they fitted together.

Trafford eventually made me think of Manchester, and finding the Trafford Centre on the map gave me somewhere to search around. I was still struggling with the road numbers and directions. The hospital was the clue that finally helped me narrow the location down enough to make my guess.

I couldn’t believe how the challenge had gone. I’d started expecting to demonstrate that I knew almost nothing about UK geography. Instead, taking my time, following signs and repeatedly returning to the starting street got me much closer than I’d expected. I was still capable of getting lost among several versions of Morningside, but I had done all four rounds myself.

Watch me work out the four UK locations.