There she was, after a remarkably uneventful flight, in the large hall marked 'Arrivals'. Anna was supposed to hold a speech at an international congress tomorrow. Her subject was 'Healthy or Rotten? Teenagers and their Teeth'. Her company had done all the necessary arrangements. They had even given her a map of the city and surroundings.

Anna had been late for her flight and had sort of jumped on her plane in a hurry. She was never able to really relax when flying, due to her nervousness. Her GP had given her some pills. They must have worked, because this time, she had fallen asleep almost immediately. She had been woken up by the flight hostess on arrival.

She tried to collect her thoughts, but the pills had left her somewhat dizzy. Even so, she was puzzled. Something was wrong, very wrong indeed. She was used to security being tight at airports, but since when did they make you fill in a questionnaire? And everybody had such an unexpected accent. Well, this was the airport, so maybe it wasn't that unusual after all. She looked around for a sign to indicate the bus stop, which she spotted almost immediately. She put her luggage on a trolley and made for the door.

She didn't have to wait long for her bus, which was marvellous. After she had taken her seat, Anna idly unfolded the map her company had provided her with last week. She had never been good at reading maps, and trying to find her location now reminded her of her Geography lessons in school. Suddenly, she was ten years old again, standing in front of the class. The teacher had called her, asking her to show them Seville. She had stood there as if frozen, just inches away from where the map of Spain was looming. She had looked out of the window at the Rock of Gibraltar, hoping for inspiration, but without success. She hadn't found inspiration, and she hadn't found Seville. The memory made Anna break into cold sweat, and she tried to shake it off.

She pulled herself together and started scanning the map, getting more and more puzzled. Manchester, Gloucester, Weymouth, Worcester, Cambridge, Exeter, Hampton, Marlborough, Portsmouth, Northampton, Plymouth, Warwick, Bristol, Chelmsford, Reading, Hull - all the familiar place names were there - together with a few unexpected ones, like Salem, Malden (wasn't that an actor?), Everett, Somerville...

Oh my goodness! Realization hit her like a ton of bricks, making her weak in the knee. She had just left Boston airport, Massachusetts! She was not in Belfast, on her way to Londonderry, UK, where she should have been. They had booked a journey to the wrong Londonderry. They had not only missed the correct country by a few thousand miles, but the correct continent, too. When she had read the Right name, wrong place article in the BBC News magazine the other week, it had made her snigger. She had been convinced such things only happened to fools. She had erred. She put aside the map and burst into fits of hysterics, which left her breathless. Tears ran down her cheeks.

'Are you allright, dear?' asked her seat neighbour, tugging at her sleeve.

Helpless, Anna shook her head, saying: 'I'm in Boston, Massachusetts!'

'Why, sure you're in Bah stun', said her neighbour, giving her a bewildered look. 'What's wrong with that, pray tell?'

'You'll never believe me where I thought I'd be', said Anna. 'I think I'll best start at the beginning'