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A lost tourist who thought Maine was San Francisco

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Re: A lost tourist who thought Maine was San Francisco

#31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Saint John, New Brunswick and St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador must confuse people too. I never remember which one is which without Googling it.

Am from Saint John. Every time I tell someone from away where I'm from, I make sure to tell them "The one without the 's'."

Ain't John?

Re: A lost tourist who thought Maine was San Francisco

#32

I lived in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada (eh?) for 23 years and we have similar stories. There is an island that is part of Nova Scotia called Cape Breton with a city named Sydney (so Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada) with population of ~30K. Every few years we get a tourist that confuses that with Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. They generally realize something is wrong when they switch planes in Halifax from a Jet (B…

Saint John, New Brunswick and St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador must confuse people too. I never remember which one is which without Googling it.

There's also a St John, Virgin Islands.

Re: A lost tourist who thought Maine was San Francisco

#33
post #21

Had a friend come visit us in Padova who wanted to see Venice, but ended up getting off in Mestre, which is kind of a newer, more industrial, and not particularly nice place. I still feel bad about not being able to take the day and actually show him around Venice myself.

To be fair, it's a ten minute train ride from Mestre to Venice, so slightly easier to correct than Maine->SF.

But I don't understand why the station is sometimes(always?) called Venezia Mestre. Anyone going to Mestre on purpose knows where they are going, and no one going to Venice wants to get off at Mestre.

Re: A lost tourist who thought Maine was San Francisco

#34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Saint John, New Brunswick and St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador must confuse people too. I never remember which one is which without Googling it.

There's also a St John, Virgin Islands.

And St. John’s Antigua

Re: A lost tourist who thought Maine was San Francisco

#35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

New Mexico Magazine has a column every month where people tell their tales of people thinking that the U.S. state of New Mexico is in the nation of Mexico. Things like insurance and credit card companies cancelling their accounts because they moved out of the country. Apparently it happens all the time.

Wait, so insurance and CC companies are the ones making the mistake?

Not too surprising. When I worked at the US Naval Research Laboratory someone submitted the paperwork for travel orders to attend a physics meeting in New Mexico, and it came back refused because he didn’t allow the required lead time for approval of foreign travel.

Re: A lost tourist who thought Maine was San Francisco

#36
Kind of a sad story. On the first visit everyone is so happy. On the third visit no one cared. The rise and quick fall of vanishing fame can be hard to manage. The problem with fame is, it is never based on who you are it is based on an association to an idea.

His best hope was to move in 1977 hopefully extending the spotlight a little further.

Remember Greta Thunberg? Covid pushed her forever from the spotlight.

Re: A lost tourist who thought Maine was San Francisco

#38
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a similar classic (much less expensive) mistake between New York Penn Station and Newark Penn Station, which are consecutive stops on the Amtrak line NYC.

It can be a more expensive mistake than you think... I would sometimes see Chinese tourists get off at Newark station and always wondered if a) they made a mistake b) they ended up okay. Newark isn't a fun place to be at night.

Luckily, there's another train to the city in 10 mins.

Plus, these days the area around Newark Penn is nicer than the area around New York Penn.

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