Thoughts in Transit

The train bathrooms in Italy are in poor condition. On the one to Naples, there was just a hole and you pee on to the track. I assume this was a problem bathroom, because if it weren’t, all rails in Italy would be coated in the feces of travelers. Still, the improving/deteriorating conditions of public facilities is as good an indicator of border crossing as any, as the ones we used while criss-crossing the south of France were markedly better.

It makes me indignant that you have to pay to use public bathrooms. We’re on a budget! Every cloud has a silver lining: we now possess advanced capabilities for retention.

Perhaps they have to charge though. In Dijon, there was a free bathroom, and the seat presented itself like an over-frosted chocolate donut. Waste makes haste!

The new Ween album, ‘La Cucaracha,’ is the only music I have purchased on the road. It has not been a let down.

Finding the Firefox browser clunky and always conflicting with what I guess is Vista, I gave Opera a shot. If you’ve had the same thought, and are a Windows user, look no further than Firefox if you rely on Google. Opera cannot render a Gmail Inbox.

Read Dave Eggers’ What is the What. Way better than a HWSG, though they’re the same in being tragic, inspiring, and very memorable.

On a rainy day in Paris, across the cobblestone street from McDonald’s, you can visualize Europe’s almost imperceptible slide out of charm and into the 21^st-century. You can hear it in the pop music setting the ambience at sit-down restaurants, local or touristy. Irreversible, this trend is probably bad. It shouldn’t be in on that scene. It’s unbecoming, like an old man on a skateboard. It reminds you of what it doesn’t have at present, in spite of its dignified history.

A friend pointed out that it’s interesting to see all the different things McDonald’s offers across the continent. She’s right. In Nancy, we could get Niocese salad. In Florence, gelato. We’ve gotten wifi there, and a coffee.

People drive their motorcycles on sidewalks, usually to park. In Naples, a man was window-shopping on one.

“I’m blue, abu-di, abu-die, abu-di, abu-die, abu-di…” Europe is where songs from 1995-2005 go to not die.

We’ve heard Eric Clapton’s Tears in Heaven a couple times now. It must really suck to be the nanny responsible for that kid falling out a window. Wherever she goes in the world, throughout her life, there’ll be that Grammy-winning song dedicated to the horrible loss she wrought on others.

In Europe, the train operators strike with frequency over sooo much less than the CTA has at stake. I say this because there has been talk of a CTA strike. Unless I’m not up-enough on my other local news, I think they should, without a doubt, go for it.