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@ 29/05/2009 – 20:54:42
When Robert Louis Stevenson wrote "To travel hopefully is better than to arrive", I can only conclude that:
a) he booked a flight with Ryanair
b) he booked an apartment with a glorious view of a drive-in MacDonalds
c) his host left him a note advising that the nearest grocery story was the big Tesco down the street;
No wonder Eastern Europe takes the Eurovision Song Contest so seriously - its their attempt at revenge.
(ooh, it's awful but I do like it....)
QueeneMab
EllieGant
Sadly, it seems to be getting easier to have this experience no matter where you travel. Still, a holiday is a holiday is a holiday etc 
x
Did tickle....just puttig the two together...
EllieGant
Tis funny - not least cos I won't set foot in a Macdonalds even in the uk. It's a long way to come for an experience you want to avoid ...
menhir
Don't quite follow this one Ellie. When I went into Eastern Europe, hopefully to travel into the quaint lives of yesteryear, to observe a different way of life, what did I get; my ticket and direction on how to find "The Tesco, even the new bigger one".
EllieGant
Exactly, Menhir. I anticipated quaint lives of yesteryear, post communist architectural gems, trams and cheap travel ... but not Macdonalds or Tescos. Still, that's the thing about travel ... full of surprises. ,
menhir
Ah well, the quaint lives of yesteryear were still to be seen and enjoyed. Tesco's was a sweet little shop, that it had taken over as a social service to a small community. The shop had been owned by an American company gone bust. The stock was totally local, the shopping bags, if you needed one, were Tesco. T's did have a bigger centre on the other side of town, even that was a take over of a different standard of shopping and was not actually Tesco as you and I know it.
Elsewhere in Eastern Europe there are other well known high street names, which are ubiquitous and are as we see them on our own high streets.
menhir
PS most of the high street names called blotters, not just Tesco, are in Eastern Europe; they are ubiquitous.
Ive never travelled!! And as Ive said before .. I even get lost in Tesco's
EllieGant
BOL - but it is no longer necessary to travel, cos Tesco looks the same whereever you go
brokendownangel
Pro For Ryan AIr the hope is that the flight isn't a)cancelled, b)late or c)subject to yet another ridiculous charge by the time you check in (oh no, forgot he is doing away with check-in desks soon as well) x
EllieGant
My favourite Ryanair to date is changing the departure gate but only announcing it in English - despite the fact that the queue at the original gate was 90% Polish, and the odd french straggler destined for Marseille but couldn't find anyone to ask - you couldn't have asked for a better scrum to ensue if you'd tried
brokendownangel
Pro they really are the worst airline 
menhir
PS I was grateful for MacDonald's in St Petersburg, the best place for a pee on the move. Public chemical loos were worse than anything I had seen that was supposed to be sanitation.
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Not sure about Ryan air but I can see where you are going.
For me it would be
a) getting there on the Orient express and then staying
b) he booked an apartment with a glorious view of a drive-in MacDonalds
c) his host left him a note advising that the nearest grocery story was the big Tesco down the street;
I am sure we had a hol like that in Austria once in Kitbuhl in fact.
X