Date: 2008-11-02 11:52:02 Created: null
When a title like "Mr. Gordonsky's Budapest City Spy Map" jumps out at you from the stand of free information at the hostel, you're not quite sure what to expect from it. So far there are maps for a few European capitals available, and they all share a design with one side taken up by the map and the other packed full of small text informing you about various places on said map.
Lots of text there is, and the text itself very much gives the maps their character. I still can't decide how much of the writing style is intentional and how much is from writing in a non-native language but the style is something all of its own and consistent between all the maps. There's liberal use of &:s, U:s instead of you, sentences changing track and/or getting lost halfway through and other general strangeness. Check their website, it goes in just the same style. I could see myself getting really annoyed at things like this, but still it works in some strange way and I find myself liking it.
I didn't mention the smell yet, did I? I guess it has something to do with the inks used but I don't really care, the maps have this fresh-printed smell to them I remember from the Mutant Chronicles RPG rulebook and I love it.
But the real advantage of the City Spy Maps was less tangible. Somehow, they struck the perfect balance for me, pocket size, dimensions and folds, paper feel and the process of confirming location and heading. In other words, I felt they were just the right size and feel for whipping out of the pocket and checking just where it was we were heading. It is a fact that I always unfolded the maps with the text side facing me, so I always had to turn them over at least once to get my bearings, but they were still somehow easier and faster to use than other maps we tried.