Monday, April 28, 2008

Philly Part III - The Ugly


After a long day at the art museum and sightseeing in Philadelphia, a meal in the cozy confines of our hotel room seemed like a good idea. I had seen a brochure in our
room about a deli that was relatively close, so I placed an order for pickup. Since I had virtually no knowledge of the local area, I asked the lady at the front desk of the hotel how to get to the deli, and she gave me a little card showing directions to King of Prussia Mall. She said the deli was about a mile past the mall, and she gave me a landmark to look for that would help me find the restaurant. Well, I won't get into all the details about how far wrong she led me, but I am pretty sure that based on her directions, Magellan, armed with a GPS and a pair of bloodhounds trained exclusively with corned beef and sour pickles, could not have found this deli. (The photo above shows a map of Romania, which would have been just as useful as what the desk clerk told me.) I eventually located the place, no thanks to the directions, but I also had the pleasure of speaking with a gentleman working at a BP station in Norristown who, based on his command of the English language, had been in our country for about 20 minutes. In the old days, the guy running the local filling station could give you directions to pretty much anywhere within a 25-mile radius. These days, you might get a Slurpee, if you're lucky.

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3 Comments:

Blogger PRIguy said...

That guy at the filling station years ago probably would have washed your windshield while he explained where to go. And you'd be able to understand every single word - even if he was a lifelong Pittsburgh resident!

Now, you're lucky if you hear, "Thank you, come again."

April 29, 2008 at 1:30 PM  
Blogger Scott said...

Welcome to America. Hotel workers work long hours for low wages, and don't have the time or money to venture far from their jobs and homes.

April 29, 2008 at 11:14 PM  
Blogger Brant said...

It's not exactly slave labor working the front desk at a major hotel chain, and the place I was trying to locate was only about two miles away. She messed up. But we all make mistakes, so what the heck. I survived.

April 29, 2008 at 11:59 PM  

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