Widebody Transport
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP); Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Multiengine
Confusion; Situational Awareness
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance; Ground Incursion Taxiway
Air Traffic Control Issued New Clearance; Flight Crew Became Reoriented; Flight Crew Requested ATC Assistance / Clarification
Airport; Company Policy; Human Factors
Upon short final to Runway XXR we were given landing clearance and instructed to exit 'Delta'. Aircraft holding short of runway was instructed to 'line up and wait behind landing traffic' (us). Upon touchdown we realized we were unable to make the high speed taxiway 'Delta' (without being unnecessarily hard on the aircraft) and I informed Tower we were unable to make 'Delta' to which Tower questioned could we make 'Charlie exit' which we agreed we could and with heavier than normal braking we complied. In his haste to clear traffic holding in position Tower cleared us to 'exit Charlie; Alpha contact ground [frequency]' which I read back exactly as I understood it 'Charlie; Alpha ground [frequency]'. Taxiing on Alpha and upon contact with Ground we were instructed to turn right on Romeo; after turning on Romeo we told to hold our position and after a long period I questioned why and was informed we were supposed to turn right on Alpha but we had turned left and this would now require us to be escorted by a follow me and wing watchers to taxi down the apron (the coordination of which took quite a while and caused delays to a couple aircraft ready for pushback). I apologized for the confusion and any inconvenience we may have caused to which Tower seemed very understanding and polite and replied 'no problem; this happens'. Upon querying the other crew members monitoring the frequency with me no one heard the instruction to turn right and all of us (being unfamiliar with the airport) assumed we would turn left this was probably due to the fact that during our briefing prior to descent we had planned on landing [Runway] XYL and briefed that after landing we would exit and turn left. However upon the arrival procedure we were given the runway change to XXR rather close in and quickly briefed the approach for Runway XXR. Also I believe the controller in his haste to clear us and issue takeoff clearance to the aircraft holding in position (and since this is a regular flight for [the company]) the controller probably assumed we knew where we parked and thus the lack of clarity and specifics in his instructions. Further in our haste to clear the runway (and after our 16+ hour duty day) our assumption of where we parked added to the lack of my clarifying exactly which direction to turn on Alpha.
[Report narrative contained no additional information.]
Air Carrier flight crew reported turning the wrong direction on a taxiway after arriving at a foreign airport.