Double-Oh-Seven

Traveling to different countries always puts me in secret agent mode.  Maybe it's the little boy in me or maybe it's my excitement over experiencing different cultures.  But I'm definitely a secret agent.  While dining at dinner in Lisbon, I turned to Susan and confessed my true identity.  I've been expecting all along that somewhere during this trip, in a little cafe or a backstreet, that my contact will identify himself with the secret code phrase and then pass the dossier detailing my next mission.  If I chose to accept it, he would once again fade into the crowd and I would be forced to abandon this romantic tryst with Susan to complete the important and nearly impossible mission.  But so far, I've been able to elude and confuse my handlers and no one has slipped a folder to me with "For Your Eyes Only" or "Classified" written in bold letters.  Because of this unexpected freedom, I explained to Susan, we've had the opportunity to continue this romantic adventure uninterrupted!

How do they do it?  I've seen almost every James Bond and Jason Bourne movie and in my memory I don't recall them carrying a huge backpack around on their backs.  How do they manage to have unwrinkled clothes?  How do they learn the new customs and languages?  When do they have time to appreciate the culture of the different places that they visit?  Most importantly, how do they manage finding their way around new cities?

As Map Man, I'm usually the one holding the map, strolling toward our next destination with great confidence:
I know where I am.
I know where I want to go to.
And occasionally I know how to get from here to there.

It's part of the travel adventure, to be sure, but I would like to know how these other secret agents keep an encyclopedic knowledge of where they're traveling and how they're going to get around.

There should be a movie where the secret agent man goes through the realistic obstacles that we all face when traveling.  Perhaps he has to stop and ask for directions.  Perhaps he misses the bus/train/last taxi cab and has to walk for kilometers in the blazing sun.  Perhaps the food that arrives doesn't match the expectations that he had while ordering.  Perhaps he doesn't have the right amount of cash and has to charge the bill.  Perhaps he gets on the wrong subway.  Perhaps his taxi gets stuck in traffic.  Perhaps his overhead baggage doesn't fit, the person sitting next to him is a bit too talkative or odorous, his luggage doesn't arrive in the same city.  Perhaps there are no rooms available.  Perhaps the exhibition is closed.  Perhaps the building is under construction.  Perhaps he catches a cold.  Perhaps he takes an all-inclusive package where one of the tourists always arrives late, carries too many suitcases, or has to use the bathroom at inconvenient times.

Now I realize that this would be as enthralling a secret agent movie as my cleaning-up-the-kitchen-after-the-cooking-show show... but it would make things a little realistic, don't you think?