north of there

I'm not very good at determining directions.
Where is it, I ask the route planner.
Then it says something absurd like: go west and then cross at the end of the road, then east and then west again, then south and then it's north of there.
Where?
I don't understand it at all and I wonder why not just mention a street name or say: step out the door and go left and then at the end of the street...
A friend's TomTom isn't much better, it makes you circle around a mountain for hours and then Google maps, another idiotic start that nobody understands. You see someone turning around with his phone, a hundred meters in one direction and then turning around again to see where an arrow is pointing and then I wonder: how did we ever find our way without all that fuss?

_{1.5.25
Prompt: see title -provided by @daily.prompt}