This reminds me of the wanderings I used to do in my home city as a 10 year old. The city is on the long arc of a pretty big river so once I got lost and realized that if I just keep going in the direction of the river, I would never get lost because once you reach the shore, you can easy walk back. That free'd me to walk into alleys I have never been to and explore my city. It also made me feel quite proud (even though that was admittedly a mundane epiphany).

Granted things were simple then and law and order was not a big issue for this to happen but I am grateful for my parents to not interfere too much in my exploring time.