lost and found

There is a restaurant close to my hotel that the guidebook recommends that I think I'll try tonight. Not feeling up to a long trip to some distant restaurant tonight. Last night was a bit intimidating, although I'm happy to report I managed it. Found a taxi driver who spoke enough English to understand where I wanted to go, bargained with him, got there, went to the bookstore (priorities...) and then the first choice restaurant was closed up-as in out of business, so I had to go to Plan B, which fortunately was not far away, and miracle of all miracles, I found it with almost no street signs to help. Had a good dinner except for the bitchy rude lady at the next table, who gave the waiter the most awful time, then found a taxi back. The taxi dropped me off a half block from my hotel-and I STILL got lost!  It was dark, and there are a million little half streets.  And trust me, they look different in the dark.  Plus they were crowded with tables of men sitting and watching soccer and doing sheesha (sort of like a tobacco bong-they smoke flavored tobacco with them), so I felt foolish standing there looking lost.  Fortunately, as soon as I went a block, I realized where I was, and once I had my bearings I was ok.  I've been lost so many times in the past 3 days, I can't remember ever having this much trouble. I normally have a good sense of direction and I tend to memorize the crumb trail home-I look backwards periodically so I can recognize it going the other way-however, the streets are not square, there are a lot of irregularly spaced Midans, or squares (which are all odd shaped too, not a one is actually a square), off which streets go like spokes but when they intersect with other streets from other spokes, they do strange things.  And then there are the little Shariahs, or alleys.  I carry the little map from my guidebook with me all the time, haven't found any other maps here so far, and now I'm leaving tomorrow, so no point now.  And if I get desperately lost, I can find a taxi, anyplace, any hour of the day or night, which is a comforting back up plan.