civlized ku # 2686 ~ arrivederci (per la presente)
Saturday, March 29, 2014 at 03:38PM 
Giuliano on the 120m Olympic ski jump ~ Lake Placid, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenMy time as a tour guide and picture making opinionator / racontour for the Italian guy - truly a very swell fellow - are over. Giuliano left yesterday for NYC* where he met up with my good friend, Robert, who while he is tending to a good friend in Queens, has graciously let Giuliano stay in his NYC apartment for the few days he will be in NYC.
I bid Giuliano arrivederci, per la presente, since I be with him again as I will be heading on Monday to NYC to: 1)visit my good friend, 2)visit picture galleries in Chelsea with Guiliano, 3)strange as it might seem, take Giuliano to an excellent Italian restaurant, and last, but by no means lest, 4)to see this film (you can read the review, The Nanny as Sphinx, Weaving Enigmatic Magic on the Sly ~ 'Finding Vivian Maier' Explores a Mysterious Photographer here). The film was just released and I doubt it will be shown in my area any time soon, if ever.
*Giuliano left for NYC on a train. An experience which contrasted, for the worse (much worse), with his train experience in Italy where he can board a high-speed bullet train and get somewhere fast and easy. Here in the good ol' USofA, we don't cotton much to public / mass transportation. In our little corner of the country, Guiliano (as was I) was stunned to learn, when we arrived at the train station (a tiny little room in the basement of the grand building which formerly was the train station) that one can not purchase a ticket for the train
There was a sign indicating an 800 number to call to purchase a ticket which, on the face of it, didn't seem like a problem ... except .... the ticket purchase automated voice system had great difficulty understanding Giuliano's excellent English because of his Italian accent. So much so that he said "the hell with it" and decided to board the train without a reservation number.
I didn't think that was the best of ideas, so I called the wife and she got on the computer and did the transaction, forwarding the reservation number by texting it to me. I could have done the same with my cell phone but if I had experienced anything near the difficulty Giulano had, I would have hurled my phone into nearby Lake Champlain.
Giuliano was also amused and puzzled by the fact that, once the southbound train from Montreal to NYC crosses into the the good ol' USofA, there but one, count'em, one track on the line all the way to Albany. Inasmuch as freight trains have the ride-of-way on the single track, a passenger train must be shunted to a siding where it might sit for 45-60 minutes while waiting for the freight train to pass. Needless to state, passenger trains on this line do not have a very good track record (take that Jimmi Nuffin) of on-time arrivals.
What a joke. Except, it's not a joke - it's a national disgrace.
Reader Comments (3)
I saw the film review in the NYT the other day and investigated where it might be playing. Toronto seems little bit of a trip for me (although Toronto is always a good weekend trip). May Netflix will have it.
I agree that train travel in the US is pathetic other than the NY to DC corridor. I was so impressed with the Swiss trains but us Americans prefer our cars.
Quick update... the film IS listed on Netflix, although not available yet. It is in my queue now.
Ha!