h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Ahem.

We all remember fondly the discussion (somewhere back during The Stretcher, I believe) of whether it was possible for people in the UK to board airplanes and end up on the wrong continent, due largely to their ancestors' habit of naming places for the towns they came from, such as, say, Washington...

For instance, there was the couple who wanted to go to Australia and ended up in British Columbia, that sort of thing - I even remember a case where somebody went to Costa Rica instead of Puerto Rico.

But this takes the cake.

Now the European TRAINS are going to the wrong countries.

Sunday night, about a hundred people got on a train for Milan - and ended up in Zurich.

I'll bet they were mad. I know they got their money back.

The Spanish and French seem to have engineered this fiasco.

What I want to know is: Is this just proof of the old German saying, 'Nomen est omen'? [This means, 'The name gives you an idea.']

You see, the train was called...

...wait for it...

...the Salvador Dali.

A triumph for Surrealism.

Read more here: http://uk.travel.yahoo.com/p-promo-3359588

http://www.theolivepress.es/2009/06/15/100000-british-arrive-at-wrong-destination/

double

You people are even worse with maps than we are.

At least, when Jimmy Carter was president, he told people his first official trip would be to Athens, Greece.

He said this because Athens is also the name of the capital of Georgia, of which he was previously governor.

In the 1970's when A.M. CB radio came over here,a few of us were going via cars to the next town for an "eyeball" after a while we noticed one car missing ?? and discovered he'd ended up in the wrong part of the town, in a outer housing estate - a straight road between both pubs/bars literally

Military folks of both major North American zones are nearly as clever. A 4-tonne shipment of radar equipment from California was destined for us. And it wasn't arriving ... Hmmmm, did they send it to Trenton, Nova Scotia perhaps? Nope, they chose the one in New Jersey. Atleast it wasn't the one in Jamaica.

Aha. It's a widespread phenomenon.

It would seem to be ... Maybe a good thing that I don't work in the travel industry. My knowledge of geography is really poor ... I was in the military nearly 5 years before I finally knew the sequence of our few provinces from east to west. And that was only because of working with folks from each. This site has made me learn a lot of European terrain

Another reason to be on Hootoo.

I get confused with all those square states in the middle, too - or I used to, before having to figure out how to apologise to students for all the ones we stole.

Ummm, if pressed, I might be able to point out 6 or 8 states by name and location. Mind, I have only visited 2 of them ... Florida for the summer of '85, and NY for a couple of weeks in '06. On this side of the border, there is only one province and two territories that I haven't been in yet.

Then you are well-travelled, anyway. You're in a very large country.

If you arrive to Venice (Italy) by train, make sure not to get off one station too early since the word 'Venezia' is part of that station's name.

Thanks to BBC I've learnt that besides being the capital of Sweden, there are also five cities named Stockholm in the US.

Reminds me of a time when I used to send out packages at work using a well-known courier service. (I won't embarrass them by naming them, but we used to call them "Documents Hopelessly Lost".) Among other things, they sent one critical package addressed to Perth, Scotland to Perth, Australia. They also confused Newcastle (UK) and Nice (France), because apparently they have the same airport code (no idea if this is true)

Hubby firm often loses deliveries which have been addressed to Willaston, Cheshire.

There is two of them. One near Nantwich, the other near Chester - Both are in Cheshire

This is??


Bad lil!!

This is amazing. Apparently, it is possible to be the victim of geographic discombobulation anywhere around the globe.

Except, of course, Germany, where everybody is thorough......we haven't heard from them yet...

Didn't anybody ever send a package meant for Frankfurt/Oder to Frankfurt/Main? Since Reunification?

Thanks for that great tip about Venice. A warning for visitors to the US:

Almost every state in the US has: Athens, Sparta, Troy, Burlington (???), Springfield...

There is even a PARIS, Maine. Don't go there. It's probably haunted by Stephen King characters.

There're lots of Salems, too.

How about Springfield. Almost every state has one. I have personally had car trouble in three of them. I am determined to drive in as few of them as possible.

Ah, Salem, yes.

Hypatia, you're a victim of one of those curses, then. The Curse of Springfield. Isn't that where Bart Simpson comes from?

For me, Valley Forge was a curse. I always ended up in front of George Washington's headquarters, no matter where I wanted to go.

I have never visited Valley Forge. I will try not to go there unless I specifically want to visit George Washington's headquarters.

The Simpson's are from Springfield, but I'm not sure which one.

I think that was the joke about Springfield. You could blame the Simpsons on anybody you didn't like.

Valley Forge is dangerous, particularly at sunset. Marauding hordes of deer, winding roads...but the view from the bluff there makes it a good place for watching lunar eclipses and such.