How did you find your actual travel destination after arriving if Google Maps wasn't an option?

I have a relative who has a story about getting off the train in some European city decades ago, but it was a much bigger city than he had anticipated and he didn't have any real way to find his actual destination. Ultimately he hired a taxi driver to drive him to the address on his hotel reservation slip, and was relieved his hotel reservation was accurate. I think he was able to find the station in the first place by asking someone to write it out in the native language. But his whole scramble to reach his destination after that is beyond my comprehension. No Google Maps before. How did people do it??