Surely I mean Erice on Sicily? I have indeed been to the picturesque hill town in Italy but no I absolutely mean a place called Eric, even though I have never actually set foot in the place. Let me explain…….
Whilst travelling east through Turkey on the Doğu Ekspresi train en route to a place called Erzurum just inside the Kurdish part of the country, we stopped at a number of small stations once the sun had come up.
As is my usual pleasure on such overnight journeys, I spent a few hours in the restaurant car having a leisurely breakfast and watching the country slip by as we sped on through.
Mirror Image
The train pulled into a small station with yellow buildings. Nothing remarkable about that. As we were about to pull out however I noticed the name of the place where a couple of passengers alighted. Delightfully it was named Eric, a name synonymous in the West as an old-fashioned male name, forever associated in the UK with the legendary comedian Eric Morecambe.
I just had time to grab my camera as we pulled away to take a rather dodgy photograph that at least recorded the fact that I had indeed ‘visited’ a place called Eric!
As I chuckled to myself, I sincerely hoped that the next station would be called Ernie in homage to the superb comedic double act of Morecambe & Wise. It was not of course, but to me anyway Erzincan will forever now be known as Ernie!
I’m not sure if my comment took (I hate how wordpress won’t allow you to post via blogger). But I like the interest of the places like this we find when traveling via train.
http://www.sagecoveredhills.blogspot.com
As an avid train traveler, it is interesting the little towns that we find ourselves in and in which we wonder about. Good post.
http://www.sagecoveredhills.blogspot.com
What a name Eric is. I had an uncle called Eric and I’ve worked with a couple. Eric Morcambe I agree, but what of Eric Sykes?
My favourite Eric of all, though, is Eric the Half a Bee, immortalised by the Monty Python team – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlrsqGal64w
Keith Channing A-Zing from http://keithkreates.com
The link didn’t work but I read the lyrics – barkingly funny as usual. Sykes was also a legend – used to love Sykes with him and Hattie plus of course The Plank….
Nice post. There is a place in California called Eric but apparently no one lives there!
My favourite Eric is from the TV series Bonanza. Not a lot of people know that Eric was the real name of Hoss Cartwright!