This is how stunningly gorgeous my yesterday was...
Cinque Terre is stunningly gorgeous. Not to be confused with Terre Haute, which looks like a butt. My apologies to everyone that still lives there. Terre Haute's motto is "A Level Above". My response: above what?
But I digress. I think in order for you to understand how fantastic Cinque Terre is, I should share some more photos. Then I'll discuss how much I hate Italian workers' unions and their ability to turn a two and a half hour return trip into an almost seven hour fiasco...
As you can see, I was very mountainous and victorious, while the Terre were very beautiful and stuff.
But yes, we were hit by the strikes. It's a good thing Jamie and I decided to stop at the train station before attempting to explore for a second day. The lady told us (all in Italian, which - I would still like to stress - we understood perfectly) that there was a strike and the only guaranteed train out of Cinque Terre was leaving in 15 minutes. That train was going in the direction we wanted, but not to Firenze. She also told us there was no guarantee we'd get a train out of the town that the train finally stopped in.
To make it easy on y'all, we spent a total of 7 hours in transit, and got on and off about 3 trains before finding one that actually left the station for home. Apparently the strike was called by some syndicate called L'Orso, or The Bear. I'm convinced they all got tired and stayed home. Here's how I envision this strike to have started:
Bad News Bear #1: Dude. I'm tired. Not hibernation tired, but significantly tired enough that I don't think I want to conduct a train today. I'd rather stay home and eat lots of honey.
Bad News Bear #2: Me either. We could phone in sick?
Bad News Bear #1: Come on. Bears don't get sick. When's the last time you saw a bear sneeze?
Bad News Bear #2: Good point.... Strike?
Bad News Bear #1: Strike.
Bad News Bear #2: I'll go tell the guys.
Who hires bears to drive trains anyway? Dumb.
Ciao Bella!
Matteo "The Bear-er of Bad News" Yazge
hahahahahahahahahaha
ReplyDeletethat's all.
matthew. i love your "claim the land" photo..my favorite so far
ReplyDeleteum, just btw. at daddy's anniversary this weekend, my uncle was talking about how they met in terre haute. esther was there and she shouted when he brought up terre haute. then, my uncle replies, "is terre haute still open?"
ReplyDeleteahahahahaahahahahaahahah