08-07-2017, 12:58 AM
So I went on vacation to visit my step-daughter which now lives in Rochester, NY.
We stayed at a nice hotel 10 minutes away from Rochester (was a great deal and had amazing scenery) and it was enjoyable for the most part. I say most part because on the day before we left, they held a huge wedding...lol
When we saw the women arrive in separate vehicles than men, we figured we'd have to stick around and watch...yes, lol
See, these women were veiled from head to toe. They had a section of the hotel closed by curtains with signs that read 'No men passed this point'... I shit you not.
So, Louise and I went around and saw that the outdoors had a massive tent put up...for men.
We learned from one of the hotel guys that these people were from Yemen. It kinda explained it all after I saw the woman to be married, veiled in a massive wedding dress, from head to toe, just a little slit for her eyes, head for the women only area. JMO but she looked like a gigantic white bell. But hey, who's judging?
I couldn't believe that they were separated during a wedding. Hubby on one side, spouse on the other. Anyway, to each his own.
The tourists (like us) who were at this hotel, pretty much had the same face as us...a sort of mixture of wtf, yet, kinda funny at the same time.
The music outdoors started and I'm sure the community around the place must have taken notice. It wasn't loud. It was insanely loud.
Then arrived a nice carriage driven by two beautiful horses. And a nice gentleman dressed like the old days was driving it. He arrived at 4:00 to pick up both the newlyweds for a tour around the properties. Some foreign dude, whom I guess was the organizer of the thing, started arguing with him as soon as he saw him...
"You're too early..."
"No, they had me rush down here for 4:00..."
"Oh but they won't be ready for a while..."
"How long?"
"At least an hour and a half..."
"What???"
Cue me laughing in the smoking area and laughing my head off...
"Listen, I rushed down here to be here at 4:00...and now you're telling me that I have to wait another hour and a half?"
"It might be two..."
"I'm gonna have to call my boss..."
"OK...call your boss..."
Then this organizer guy takes his cell phone out and calls someone and starts yelling in jibberish into it lol
"OK...listen. I have to be at a funeral a half hour away from here at 7:00...so I'll wait for another hour and we'll see how much longer it takes after that. I might have to leave..."
"OK...how much for that extra hour?"
"$150.00"
And if you have to stay 2 more hours?"
"Errrr.....$300.00" the guy answers with a bit of a sarcastic smile. Cue me laughing again.
"You know that if they're two hours late, we're gonna have to cut the tour quite a bit, right?"
"OK. So you make me a deal on the whole package then..."
"Afraid I can't do that..."
"You call your boss and I'll speak with him..."
"Let's wait first and see how long we do have to wait..."
Me thinking...unbelievable...
The kids are running everywhere, no one watching them whatsoever. Tourists, like me, are having now of a wtf face now that before. Then some of the guests decide to invade the pools. One indoor, one outdoor...all hell is breaking loose. I see tourists leaving the pools. Some of them stay but don't seem to enjoy it that much anymore lol
Next morning, I see that hotel guy again and ask him how it went all evening, into the night...
"They trashed the place..." is his only answer.
True story. Didn't think I'd ever see something like this in the States. In Canada, I do see that happen more often then not. They get into one of our National Parks, a whole bunch of them, and destroy the area within minutes.
Think I'm judgemental? Yes, I am. Absolutely. No wonder they leave their own countries that end up looking like wall to wall garbage cans. Doesn't mean we have to tolerate the same shit on our own turf. But I wasn't on my turf...just a visitor. So I refrained from putting oil on the fire.
Disrespectful and careless of others and other's properties. Plain and simple.
Aside from that episode - right out of a fucking movie - we had a great time, which brings me to the subject I had in mind, when starting this thread.
30 years ago, I used to go every now and then to a gigantic mall, about two hours away from us, located right across the border in Massena, NY. That place was HUGE and had stores that you just couldn't find here in Canada. The place was packed with people and it was incredibly exciting every time we went there.
So, on our way back, we decided to stop there and see who things had evolved over the years.
Cue me in shock.
What the hell?
First, when we got there, we could see that the outdoors were pretty much not taken care of all that much anymore...when you see grass peeking from everywhere in the parking lot, it makes you wonder as to what happened...
Few cars. We parked and then walked through the main door of the St-Lawrence Center.
The place is deserted. Looks like you're walking into a ghost mall, I'm not kidding. A Bon Ton store, a JC Penny and a handfull of weird ass crappy looking little stores are all that's left. The place is empty. Creepy. Scary almost. No way in hell I'd leave a small kid in such a huge deserted place but we saw a few of them...
Today, I stumbled across a review from Tripadvisor, and it's from 2014...
Have a look and imagine this: It's way worse than that now.
https://www.tripadvisor.ca/ShowUserRevie..._York.html
So it got me wondering. What the hell happened?
30 years, from famous to ghost town. I find it sad to think of all those stores that collapsed over the years, all those people that lost their income, all those employees that lost their jobs.
As we were walking the deserted corridors, Louise said "You can thank Amazon and online orders for that..." and I think she has a point.
I asked a girl, politely, where people went shopping now, thinking that perhaps, there was another mall in the area that had popped up over the years...
"Oh we travel for the big stuff. For anything else, we still have Walmart. They have just about everything there now..."
True.
Gotta tell you though. Our malls here in Canada are no longer what they used to be either but NOWHERE close to what I saw there.
W have people from everywhere here on RN. How is it in your area?
It's very creepy. In my head, I remember that mall as exemplary, super big, filled with entertainment, packed with stores that make you curious to go in and see, packed with people. It's like I walked in space and time. From greatness to creepiness.
Amazon and online orders, perhaps. Walmart. Perhaps.
But is there a more profound answer than that?
Is the economy going down the drain?
Are people going down the drain?
Is the social media side of things - which to my opinion is the most anti social thing ever invented - killing the 'I need to go out" side of ourselves?
Is cocooning slowly destroying us?
Dunno. Just asking.
What is your opinion?
Curious mind would like to know : )
Sol.
P.S It's nice to be back. Missed y'all.
.
We stayed at a nice hotel 10 minutes away from Rochester (was a great deal and had amazing scenery) and it was enjoyable for the most part. I say most part because on the day before we left, they held a huge wedding...lol
When we saw the women arrive in separate vehicles than men, we figured we'd have to stick around and watch...yes, lol
See, these women were veiled from head to toe. They had a section of the hotel closed by curtains with signs that read 'No men passed this point'... I shit you not.
So, Louise and I went around and saw that the outdoors had a massive tent put up...for men.
We learned from one of the hotel guys that these people were from Yemen. It kinda explained it all after I saw the woman to be married, veiled in a massive wedding dress, from head to toe, just a little slit for her eyes, head for the women only area. JMO but she looked like a gigantic white bell. But hey, who's judging?
I couldn't believe that they were separated during a wedding. Hubby on one side, spouse on the other. Anyway, to each his own.
The tourists (like us) who were at this hotel, pretty much had the same face as us...a sort of mixture of wtf, yet, kinda funny at the same time.
The music outdoors started and I'm sure the community around the place must have taken notice. It wasn't loud. It was insanely loud.
Then arrived a nice carriage driven by two beautiful horses. And a nice gentleman dressed like the old days was driving it. He arrived at 4:00 to pick up both the newlyweds for a tour around the properties. Some foreign dude, whom I guess was the organizer of the thing, started arguing with him as soon as he saw him...
"You're too early..."
"No, they had me rush down here for 4:00..."
"Oh but they won't be ready for a while..."
"How long?"
"At least an hour and a half..."
"What???"
Cue me laughing in the smoking area and laughing my head off...
"Listen, I rushed down here to be here at 4:00...and now you're telling me that I have to wait another hour and a half?"
"It might be two..."
"I'm gonna have to call my boss..."
"OK...call your boss..."
Then this organizer guy takes his cell phone out and calls someone and starts yelling in jibberish into it lol
"OK...listen. I have to be at a funeral a half hour away from here at 7:00...so I'll wait for another hour and we'll see how much longer it takes after that. I might have to leave..."
"OK...how much for that extra hour?"
"$150.00"
And if you have to stay 2 more hours?"
"Errrr.....$300.00" the guy answers with a bit of a sarcastic smile. Cue me laughing again.
"You know that if they're two hours late, we're gonna have to cut the tour quite a bit, right?"
"OK. So you make me a deal on the whole package then..."
"Afraid I can't do that..."
"You call your boss and I'll speak with him..."
"Let's wait first and see how long we do have to wait..."
Me thinking...unbelievable...
The kids are running everywhere, no one watching them whatsoever. Tourists, like me, are having now of a wtf face now that before. Then some of the guests decide to invade the pools. One indoor, one outdoor...all hell is breaking loose. I see tourists leaving the pools. Some of them stay but don't seem to enjoy it that much anymore lol
Next morning, I see that hotel guy again and ask him how it went all evening, into the night...
"They trashed the place..." is his only answer.
True story. Didn't think I'd ever see something like this in the States. In Canada, I do see that happen more often then not. They get into one of our National Parks, a whole bunch of them, and destroy the area within minutes.
Think I'm judgemental? Yes, I am. Absolutely. No wonder they leave their own countries that end up looking like wall to wall garbage cans. Doesn't mean we have to tolerate the same shit on our own turf. But I wasn't on my turf...just a visitor. So I refrained from putting oil on the fire.
Disrespectful and careless of others and other's properties. Plain and simple.
Aside from that episode - right out of a fucking movie - we had a great time, which brings me to the subject I had in mind, when starting this thread.
30 years ago, I used to go every now and then to a gigantic mall, about two hours away from us, located right across the border in Massena, NY. That place was HUGE and had stores that you just couldn't find here in Canada. The place was packed with people and it was incredibly exciting every time we went there.
So, on our way back, we decided to stop there and see who things had evolved over the years.
Cue me in shock.
What the hell?
First, when we got there, we could see that the outdoors were pretty much not taken care of all that much anymore...when you see grass peeking from everywhere in the parking lot, it makes you wonder as to what happened...
Few cars. We parked and then walked through the main door of the St-Lawrence Center.
The place is deserted. Looks like you're walking into a ghost mall, I'm not kidding. A Bon Ton store, a JC Penny and a handfull of weird ass crappy looking little stores are all that's left. The place is empty. Creepy. Scary almost. No way in hell I'd leave a small kid in such a huge deserted place but we saw a few of them...
Today, I stumbled across a review from Tripadvisor, and it's from 2014...
Have a look and imagine this: It's way worse than that now.
https://www.tripadvisor.ca/ShowUserRevie..._York.html
So it got me wondering. What the hell happened?
30 years, from famous to ghost town. I find it sad to think of all those stores that collapsed over the years, all those people that lost their income, all those employees that lost their jobs.
As we were walking the deserted corridors, Louise said "You can thank Amazon and online orders for that..." and I think she has a point.
I asked a girl, politely, where people went shopping now, thinking that perhaps, there was another mall in the area that had popped up over the years...
"Oh we travel for the big stuff. For anything else, we still have Walmart. They have just about everything there now..."
True.
Gotta tell you though. Our malls here in Canada are no longer what they used to be either but NOWHERE close to what I saw there.
W have people from everywhere here on RN. How is it in your area?
It's very creepy. In my head, I remember that mall as exemplary, super big, filled with entertainment, packed with stores that make you curious to go in and see, packed with people. It's like I walked in space and time. From greatness to creepiness.
Amazon and online orders, perhaps. Walmart. Perhaps.
But is there a more profound answer than that?
Is the economy going down the drain?
Are people going down the drain?
Is the social media side of things - which to my opinion is the most anti social thing ever invented - killing the 'I need to go out" side of ourselves?
Is cocooning slowly destroying us?
Dunno. Just asking.
What is your opinion?
Curious mind would like to know : )
Sol.
P.S It's nice to be back. Missed y'all.
.
~ Today is the youngest you'll ever be again ~
