Friday, December 29, 2006

Geography is very important

Don't make a mistake like this German tourist.  He meant to visit his girlfriend in Sydney, Australia.  Instead he purchased a ticket on-line for Sidney, Montana (population 5,000).  The best part (and I'm assuming he speaks English, because his girlfriend lives in an English-speaking country) is that he didn't realize his mistake until after he landed in Portland, Oregon, flew to Bozeman, Montana, and was about to board a commuter plane for Sidney!  Compounding the problem was his packing--it was all for a four week trip Down Under in the middle of the Southern Hemisphere's summer.
 
This is why you should pay attention to geography.  I can understand how a typo could account for the initial mistake.  But I find it quite strange that he didn't notice the error until the point at which he noticed it.  I suppose he didn't know US geography very well and might have supposed that taking several flights through the US could be standard procedure before heading on to Australia.
 
"I did wonder but I didn't want to say anything," Gutt told the Bild newspaper. "I thought to myself, you can fly to Australia via the United States."
 
Still, this is sad.  I'd like to think that were I in that guy's shoes I would know when I'd arrived in Spain rather than Peru...
 
~Matt

--
"A room without books is as a body without a soul." -Cicero

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