Reflections on the journey...

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Good evening,

I made it to Milan, two-and-a-half hours late. Kelticheart and I must have missed each other. I'll try and get Kelti's number to call him and find a place to stay for the night. Beautiful scenery, though. Simply stunning!
 
Hi Rami!
Sorry to hear about your bad luck! What happened? As I said yesterday, the railroads in Austria usually do a very good job operating in winter...
Anyway, good that you made it to milan in the end. I hope you have a pleasant sray there nevertheless!

Cheers,

Wolfgang
 
Reply...

skylane said:
Hi Rami!

Sorry to hear about your bad luck! What happened? As I said yesterday, the railroads in Austria usually do a very good job operating in winter... Anyway, good that you made it to Milan in the end.

I hope you have a pleasant stay there nevertheless! Cheers, Wolfgang
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Wolfgang,

There was some sort of obstruction (avalanche, maybe) between Wogel and Innsbruck. So we had 85-90 people on a bus designed for about 55 on our way to Innsbruck. By the time we reached Innsbruck, it was about 13:20 hours. At any rate, I did not want to spend the night at the train station, so a kind Italian Police officer directed me to a hotel that was not quite so expensive, and I am about two minutes walking distance from the Milan train station. I hope all this effort is not in vain! I hope Kelti and I can connect (I will call in the morning) and meet tomorrow, and then I can return to Stuttgart sometime Sunday instead of Saturday. We'll have to see, but I'll keep those who need to know informed. At this point, I am going to leave the hotel and grab a late dinner...Mickey D's sounds about right after a trying day...I need some comfort food. :icon29:
 
At least you made it there safely!

MickeyD in Milan?!? I guess it will do in a pinch. But you are in Italy! Pasta, northern Italian cousine! BTW, northern Italian is different than what Americans think of when we think of Italian food.... Oh, and did I forget to mention Italian wine?

Be safe brother. I hope you and kelti are able to hook up today.
 
Rami in Pasta-Land......

D-Dawg, Drew is gonna try and tell us he's on a low carb diet, trying to maintain hiz slim sleek figure....

Feed Him Appropriately, Stefano ! :wiggle:
SC
:kilroy:
 
skylane said:
Rami,
have you been able to connect with Kelti? I hope you enjoy your stay in Italy,
Click to expand...

He must have made contact, ne'ery a word from him since he arrived in Milan. Either that, or the vodafone internet stick is not good in Italy and without Kelti he is internet blind and mute at the Italian hotel. I will await his telephone call from the Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof stating that he is here. Once back in Germany though, his internet stick should work again, even from the train.
 
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Lee,

I apologize for being scarce these past couple of days. Kelti and I missed each other by about thirty minutes at Milan on Friday evening after my delay, and so as I stated in the thread, I stayed at a hotel in Milan near the train station. Aside from the night in the hotel, there was little opportunity to use the internet!

Kelti and I met each other yesterday morning at Fidenza, and we had a fantastic time. I learned so much about geniune northern Italian food, as well as Celtic traditions and so much else. On this five-day journey, I must have taken over five hundred pictures...no joke!

Anyway, I am on a commuter train from Zurich to Stuttgart, and should arrive at the hauptbahnhof at just after 18:00 hours on track five. I would have called from Zurich, but the train from Milan was more than fifteen minutes late, and I had a scant seven minutes to run across ten platforms with a backpack and luggage in tow to catch the 15:10 to Stuttgart. If you do not recieve this message, I will call you upon my arrival in Stuttgart.

Thanks,
 
Not a problem on this end, Brother!

Just give me a call when you arrive in Stuttgart and I will come and get you. I'll pick you up right where I dropped you off.
 
Rami said:
Lee,

I apologize for being scarce these past couple of days. Kelti and I missed each other by about thirty minutes at Milan on Friday evening after my delay, and so as I stated in the thread, I stayed at a hotel in Milan near the train station. Aside from the night in the hotel, there was little opportunity to use the internet!

Kelti and I met each other yesterday morning at Fidenza, and we had a fantastic time. I learned so much about geniune northern Italian food, as well as Celtic traditions and so much else. On this five-day journey, I must have taken over five hundred pictures...no joke!

Anyway, I am on a commuter train from Zurich to Stuttgart, and should arrive at the hauptbahnhof at just after 18:00 hours on track five. I would have called from Zurich, but the train from Milan was more than fifteen minutes late, and I had a scant seven minutes to run across ten platforms with a backpack and luggage in tow to catch the 15:10 to Stuttgart. If you do not recieve this message, I will call you upon my arrival in Stuttgart.

Thanks,
Click to expand...

I am so glad everything went well because, after I watched six trains pulling into the Milano Centrale big station and no sign of a "black Boston Bruins jersey", I really did not what to do next. For some reason, Andrew did not get my cell. phone # and he could not warn me his trip was delayed by an avalanche that struck the railway somewhere in between Salzburg and Innsbruck.

We both knew the weather report had called for a serious blizzard on the other side of the Alps, I had figured Andrew could not cross the mountains, he decided to sleep somewhere in Austria and turned back to Stuttgart. We would have communicated through the net and I gave up, worried sick about Andrew's fate, returned to the subway station to grab the train that took me back to the commuter's parking lot outside of Milano. We were supposed to meet at 4:55 pm, I was in cold and drafty Milano Centrale since 4:15 pm and it was a little past 7:10 at that point.

When I walked back into my house at around 9:00 pm, a red light for a new message was blinking on my answering machine and my heart sank, I was not expecting any call, I knew it was Andrew even before I listened to the message. Even if he was able to call me again and let me know he was ok, he had found an hotel right next door to the station and he would have travelled down to Fidenza on the next morning, I spent the night feeling like s*** because I could have waited a little longer and we would have met.

Thank God everything fell in place, the next day we were endowed by a glorious sunny, bright and clear weather where, standing in Fidenza, almost at the foothills of the Northern Appennini it was possible to see very clearly the white snowy tops of the Alps shining in the sun.

Rami, the Gods decided you deserved magnificent weather as a refund for your travel hassles, as the possibility to see both Appennini and Alps so well is a rare, exceptional event here. Last time I remember it was so clear dates back to, at least, 2006!
Normally the haze hides either one mountain chain or the other and, had you arrived two weeks earlier, you would have been engulfed in such a foggy weather that beats London legendary fogs by any stretch of the imagination! Down here we have quite a few jokes saying that, when the British complain about their fog, they should take a look of what we get here in winter!

A peek at the rear red fog lights equipping my car, and it's standard equipment here, gave Rami a good idea of how bad fog can be here. We have those light factory installed because regular rear red lights are too weak to be visible when the fog is really bad!

I had a great time as well, it was an experience that left me with the warm feeling that making friends such as Andrew and all the other buddies I found here at SOH over the years, it's a great hope for a better worldwide future.

Besides, now Rami knows where "kelticheart" comes from........ :mixedsmi:

Cheers!
KH :ernae:
 
Reply...

Good evening,

After having dinner with Achim and Wolfi last night in Hamburg, I am now back in Stuttgart, preparing to go home after a wonderful two weeks. Everyone here, from Skylane to Kelticheart, and Wolfi and Achim to Devildog, have been so incredibly nice. As Kelti said, it provides me with a wonderful sense of how caring and genuine the people in our sim are, and how we form a community in the best sense of the word.

Thanks to all for a wonderful time, and I'm looking forward to coming home tomorrow to my wife and family! :ernae:
 
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Kelti,

I am home, my flight landed at 2pm, and my wife and I returned from dinner a few minutes ago! :ernae:
 
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Good morning,

Well, as promised, here come some pics!

Meet a few of your CFS2 brethren...from left to right...Devildog73, Kelticheart, Skylane, Achim27619, (on the left of the picture) and Wolfi. (on the right)

The last picture was Devildog73 taking me to his house. :ernae: (In his dreams...lol)

There are MANY more pics to come.

Note: The time stamp on the picture is behind by five hours...in other words, add five hours to the time.
 
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Hello again,

Here are some pictures of the "Minatur Wonderland" that Wolfi introduced me to in Hamburg. I was thinking of Talon and Devildog with these pictures, I could imagine both of them being amazed by this. I know I was... :ernae:

These pictures sadly just don't do it justice!
 
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