One of the reasons my party ended up the quiet affair it did was that some of the invitees were unable to attend. I don't just mean that they had other obligations. I mean they couldn't attend because they couldn't find the place.
I had emailed everyone with the directions, but they were walking directions from the U-Bahn. Two of my friends have cars, and they were not car-centered directions. In fact, I would have no idea how to give driving directions because I have no idea what the streets are called. At least if you are walking you can use landmarks, but the drivers seemed to need to know where to turn off to find the building to park with a bit more precision (particularly when consulting their maps).
It also didn't help that my building is behind a small frontage road that is obscured from the main street by piles of construction equipment, or that the little side street next to it is an unmarked left turn completely invisible at night.
I do find, however some vindication in that even native Hamburgers, as my car-endowed friends both are, got lost (too). It says quite a bit about this city, and also why so many people seem to always need to ask me for directions. Or at least if it doesn't say anything about my directional expertise it does say something about their desperation...
(For those of you keeping score at home, it should be noted that it happened again. Last week, even though I was dazed and confused myself - my rear bike lamp suddenly broke off, and I was still reeling from the annoyed trauma - yet more people approached me to get directions to a place I couldn't find. I'm sure they regretted asking me once I started babbling ineffectually, but since they hadn't been deterred by my general aura of cluelessness, I guess it served them right.)