Munich's Italian name diverts tourists from Monaco

[ugly_boy]

Here's an interesting story from Reuters. It's short so I'll post the full text:
BERLIN (Reuters) - Two women led themselves on a wild goose chase from Italy to Munich after arranging to meet their niece in Monaco -- which in Italian can mean either the tiny principality on the French Riviera, or Bavaria's capital

Comments

[imluxionverdin]

Too funny.

It shows you how important languages are. They spoke Italian and Spanish, and perhaps the Munich police only spoke German and English, so it took awhile to figure out what went wrong.

But I don't think a 1.5 hour delay is a big deal considering how far these two ladies were from their niece. In fact considering the 14 year old had no mobile and was presumably hanging about alone in Monaco waiting for someone to pick her up, I think the police did well to realise the two women were idiots so quickly.

[ugly_boy]

It seems pretty strange that the aunts didn't have more information. Presuming that the niece speaks the same languages that they do, you'd think she would have specified which Monaco. Also, gate name and number and flight information is usually part of any arrangement to pick people up that I make.

[pne]

No gate name and number for a "Paris-Munich train", but a train number would probably have helped establish what went wrong.

[imluxionverdin]

Yeah, the whole story sounds strange. Of course, it could have been made up? Who could possibly ever check into whether this story wasn't just something a journalist invented over a few beers? Or something might have happened and then being twisted and exagerrated?

One wonders what the 14 year old did, on arriving at the Monaco train station and finding no-one was there? At 14 some children are still immature, others are very independant. I presume she found a call box and rang her relatives in Italy, who then rang their aunt's mobiles?

I wonder if the police actually did anything except try to make sense of these two women.

Even if it's only partly true, it's too funny.

[biteduringclass]

LoL! That's a hoot! ;~}

Mon

[champagnesheik]

Man, that blows.

[muckefuck]

When I was studying in Freiburg im Breisgau (Baden-Württemberg, Germany), some of my fellow students had packages diverted to Fribourg, Switzerland (German name: Freiburg im Üechtland). I assume they were misaddressed by their relatives (who, like many Americans, had difficulty with the fact that ei represents [ai] in German), but I don't know for sure.

[tako_to_ama]

A college recruiter from the University of Southern Maine (in Portland, Maine) about a business man who asked her for directions to Route 1, which she had to explain was on the west coast-- near Portland, Oregon. Not so much a linguistic issue as one of someone either being an idiot or that woman lying to me.

[ugly_boy]

I live on the west coast, north of Seattle, and I sometimes have to stop and think when I hear "Portland" mentioned in movies or TV. Even though the city in Oregon is much larger the one in Maine seems to get more mention, possibly because of so many movies/shows taking place on the east coast. Perhaps it just seems like Portland, Maine gets more mentions because it registers every time they're not talking about the city I'm familiar with. I don't think I've ever really heard the other Portlands mentioned in popular media.

[madcaptenor]

Huh? US Route 1 runs right through Portland, Maine.

[tako_to_ama]

I could swear that there was a really, really famous Route 1 that was on the West coast, but yeah, I guess I got the story wrong or she was a colossal idiot, though it's probably the former. Apologies.