Ich bin ein brrrrliner.
Posted on 12/31/2006 4:41:34 AM PST by jsh3180
Confused Tourist Lands in U.S., Not Australia
BERLIN (Dec. 29) - A 21-year-old German tourist who wanted to visit his girlfriend in the Australian metropolis Sydney landed 13,000 kilometres away near Sidney, Montana, after mistyping his destination on a flight booking Web site.
Tobi Gutt planned on flying from Germany to sunny Sydney, Australia, left. He mistakenly booked a ticket to snowy Sidney, Montana. Big Sky, Montana, is shown at right.
Dressed for the Australian summer in t-shirt and shorts, Tobi Gutt left Germany Saturday for a four-week holiday.
Instead of arriving "down under," Gutt found himself on a different continent and bound for the chilly state of Montana.
"I did wonder but I didn't want to say anything," Gutt told the Bild newspaper. "I thought to myself, you can fly to Australia via the United States."
Gutt's airline ticket routed him via the U.S. city of Portland, Oregon, to Billings, Montana. Only as he was about to board a commuter flight to Sidney -- an oil town of about 5,000 people -- did he realize his mistake.
The hapless tourist, who had only a thin jacket to keep out the winter cold, spent three days in Billings airport before he was able to buy a new ticket to Australia with 600 euros in cash that his parents and friends sent over from Germany.
"I didn't notice the mistake as my son is usually good with computers," his mother, Sabine, told Reuters.
ping
Reminds me of the time I ended up in Berlin, NH instead of Berlin, Germany. I was wondering why everybody around me was speaking perfect English. At least the beer was still good so I decided to stay and make the best of things. But I was out of place with my sandals and socks (I was told that this is what they normally wear in Germany.)
Isn't alcohol a wonderful thing????
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year! NVA
I talk to people. I chat to others while waiting for a city bus and certainly I would do so on an exciting trip clear across the world. I cannot imagine being around other passengers at the airport concourse and sitting next to one on the plane and not yapping about have you been to Australia before? Are you going to Australia for vacation? Etc., etc., etc.
Ich bin ein brrrrliner.
A number of years ago a man boarded what he thought was his flight to Oakland. He wound up in Aukland NZ.
oops: Auckland
Thanks for the ping...I would have missed this story and the possible Melbourne connection.
Wonder if it has ever happened there?
Happy New Year. I will be glad to get back, cold here in Northern Virginia.
Could have been worse, you could have wound up in Berlin (pronounced BUR-lynn) Massachusetts, where there are no bars, or sidewalks, only a few dairy farms.
Ich bin ein brrrrliner.
Sidney vs. Sydney. Spelling really does matter.
I understand how that happened. Our step-granddaughter from Melbourne, Australia, came to visit for the holidays. We asked her about her trip and she said she had a short layover in "Oakland." It took a few beats for us to realize she meant Auckland: the pronunciation's the same.
If it hadn't been for that typo, I would have been Tasmania_Slim.
"I didn't notice the mistake as my son is usually good with computers," ...
You get that Gutt feeling something's wrong...
I predict that the islamofascists just figured out a way to get to the USA!
TYPOS!
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