Traffic, but Worse

THIS MORNING I drove to Monaco for the first time on a weekday. Monaco is stunningly beautiful on a clear spring monring (see photo) but I hope I never have to do that again.

I had an appointment to meet someone at 9:00 so I left the house just after 7:30 thinking that 90 minutes would be more than enough time for the trip that normally takes no more than forty-five. Well, let's just say that 90 minutes wasn't nearly enough time. Almost immediately after I left the house I had a bad feeling because the traffic reports on the radio said that the Monaco Tunnel exit was closed due to 'high traffic volume.' (I don't even know why they broadcast that on the radio because it closes because of high traffic every damn day).

So I was forced to take the next exit which goes through the narrow streets of La Turbie, a small French village high on a hill and only about 3 km from Monaco. Those three kilometers took nearly one hour. But that's not the whole story. No, to make matters worse I was inching along the road to Monaco behind a black Lamborghini and in front of a white Bentley!! I promise, I'm not making this up. Do you have any idea how annoying it is to be in a traffic jam behind a €200,000 car and in front of a €300,000 car. For nearly an hour all I wanted to do was a) rear-end the guy in front of me, or b) reverse into the guy behind me.

The only saving grace for the morning was that I got a new Hi-Def HDMI Sony DVD player for €20 (got to love it when people who live in Monaco want to get rid of 'old' stuff); and I had downloaded quite a few episodes of PTI on my iPod.

If I didn't have to rush to class later in the morning, I would have taken the train.
CJS