Am I stuck out in the boondocks?

[Zpike]

I entered the game and all I have around me are extraction and refinery stations with the occasional agriculture station. No hi-tech at all.

It's really boring flying around doing trade with no way to upgrade my ship. I keep buying exploration data whenever possible but travel is really limited.

 

[Alt101]

You may have a free Eagle at a station in your area. If you look on the Galaxy Map there will be a ship icon at the system your owned ships are stored. It has a bigger jump range than the Sidewinder so you can escape and make your way to wherever you like

 

[Bog]

Wrong way around, Commander - find those uncharted systems (red marker in the Galaxy Map saying System Data Unavailable), use your Discovery Scanner and flog the data to Universal Cartographics!

 

[Zpike]

It's not that I can't get to anything, It's that there doesn't seem to be anything out there except mining and refinery stations. I've traveled all around my general area and have yet to find a single hi-tech station.

Note: I'm at some star called Eravate and am having trouble figuring out how to travel as the galaxy map is very busy and confusing. There does not seem to be any way to figure out where the population hubs are. I would think there would be a way to figure out where the large stations and hi-tech areas are. As it is I'm just wandering around and trading and it's getting really boring.