A visit to the end of the world
Maciej Ceglowski visits the southern-most city in the world:
They realized they were not the first to pass that way, for the path that led around the left of the Great Plain was well-worn and dotted with booths. At one they bought a box of fudge, which had been baked in an oven in a cave in the mountain, which was heated by the fire of the letters that formed God’s Final Message to His Creation. At another they bought some postcards. The letters had been blurred with an airbrush, “so as not to spoil the Big Surprise!” it said on the reverse.
OK, so that wasn’t by Maciej Ceglowski, and it wasn’t about the southern-most city in the world. But this Douglas Adams quote shows that entrepeneurs are the same everywhere, whether they work at the end of the world, the end of time, or any of a dozen or so locations that are the end of the world. This is Maciej:
The only substantial city on Tierra del Fuego is Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the world. You will learn this interesting fact at the (southernmost!) airport and have it repeated it to you a dozen times before you can get to your southernmost hotel. Downtown, next to the Falklands Memorial, you will see an enormous sign reading “Welcome to the End of the World!”
[…]
Most of the visitors in Ushuaia don’t fly in, but arrive on one of the giant cruise ships that dock here during the summer, on the South American circuit. As a result, the city is an empire of steakhouses and porphyry penguin gift shops designed for people with five hours of shore leave. You can pretty much buy the southernmost anything you want, if you can stand the markup.
There’s more… Anyway, this is the third time I mentioned the Idle Words blog, you should be able to find your way there on your own now.
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