{"id":666,"date":"2018-02-22T23:15:26","date_gmt":"2018-02-23T04:15:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=666"},"modified":"2018-02-28T23:43:43","modified_gmt":"2018-03-01T04:43:43","slug":"eric-and-marjorie-europe-on-five-dollars-a-day-try-it-we-did","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=666","title":{"rendered":"Eric and Marjorie..EUROPE ON FIVE DOLLARS A DAY… TRY IT! WE DID!"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

EUROPE ON FIVE DOLLARS A DAY<\/p>\n

Eric, Marore and\u00a0 I decided to tour Europe in the summer of 1965.\u00a0 And do it cheaply.\u00a0 We read Mr. Frommer\u2019s travel\u00a0 book titled EUROPE ON\u00a0 FIVE DOLLARS A DAY.
\nWe\u00a0 believed\u00a0 it.<\/p>\n

Was that really possible?\u00a0\u00a0 Only if your living standards are really low.\u00a0 I bet you do not know what that means. The Homeless know.\u00a0 And we lived\u00a0 very near to that kind of\u00a0 existence..Let me tell you about our brief stay in Paris.\u00a0 You will get the idea\u2026Just two incidents will tell much:,<\/p>\n

\"\"
\n
\n1 ) COCKROACHES BY THE PILE AND WORSE:\u00a0 PARIS 1965<\/p>\n

\u201cHow did\u00a0 you sleep last night, Eric?\u201d
\n\u201cCome over to my room, I want to show you something\u201d
\n\u201cWhat?\u201d
\n\u201cRight here by the bed\u2026\u201d
\n\u201cNothing here.\u201d
\n\u201cMust be.\u00a0 I spent the night killing cockroaches.\u00a0 Piled them up for you to see.\u201d
\n\u201cNothing here.\u201d
\n\u201cLooks like the living\u00a0 ate the dead.\u201d
\n\u201cLet\u2019s get out of this hell hole.\u201d
\n\u201cMaybe we should give Paris\u00a0 a chance\u2026can\u2019t all be bad.\u201d
\n\u201cone more\u00a0 day\u2026then we\u2019re out of here.”<\/p>\n

\u201cDamnitall anyway\u2026the live\u00a0 ones must have eaten the dead ones\u2026carried them away\u2026most have\u00a0 been dozens\u2026big\u00a0 roaches.\u201d<\/p>\n

THE PARIS METRO INCIDENT:\u00a0 WAS IT TRAGIC OR\u00a0 FUNNY?<\/p>\n

\u201cMarjorie, I just read that Fromer travel\u00a0 book\u2026EUROPE\u00a0 ON $5 A DAY.\u00a0 Why don\u2019t we give it a try?\u201d
\n\u201cThat was written in 1957\u2026it\u2019s now 1965\u2026prices have risen.\u201d
\n\u201cOK, let\u2019s try to do Europe on $10 a day\u2026$70 a week\u2026Hell\u00a0 we could travel for a\u00a0 month.\u201d
\n\u201cI think he means $5 per person\u00a0 per day\u2026so that means $20 a day for two of us and $30 for three off us.\u201d
\n\u201cWe can do it.\u00a0 How about $400 for a month of travel.\u201d<\/p>\n

We lived\u00a0 a very Spartan life that summer. Ate cheese\u00a0 and bread and apple cider in the shadow of hay stacks.
\nUsed public transportation rather than touring buses.\u00a0 Rented room for three of us if price was lower.<\/p>\n

This was no grand tour.<\/p>\n

Paris stands out in my memory.<\/p>\n

Such as the cockroach adventure\u2026let me pick up the story from\u00a0 there:<\/p>\n

\u201cAlan, why don\u2019t we\u00a0 go to the Louvre today?\u201d
\n\u201cHow much does the cost?\u201d
\n\u201cNot sure.\u201d
\n\u201cWhy don\u2019t you go while Eric and I get a\u00a0 beer or two near here.?\u201d
\n\u201cis it safe to travel alone?\u201d
\n\u201cSure\u2026enjoy yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n

So Eric\u00a0 and I went for a beer and\u00a0 Marjorie took the Metro to be culturally uplifted\u00a0 at the Louvre.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwo beers.\u201d
\n\u201cThat will be\u2026”equivalent of $5.
\n\u201cYou must be\u00a0 kidding\u2026more expensive\u00a0 than\u00a0 Canada.\u201d
\n\u201cAnd look at the tiny glasses\u2026beer in champagne glasses.\u201d
\n\u201cMaybe the glasses are included.\u201d
\n\u201cRight\u2026slip them into the camera bag.\u201d<\/p>\n

We nursed the beer needless to say.\u00a0 And waited for Marjorie to return.\u00a0 Did not take long.\u00a0 She\u00a0 arrived in a panic.\u00a0 Breathless\u2026a\u00a0 little dishevelled\u2026scared.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlan, I ran all the way back here.\u201d
\n\u201cDidn\u2019t you take the Metro?\u201d
\n\u201cThat\u2019s why I ran.\u201d
\n\u201cWhat happened?\u201d
\n\u201cLet me catch\u00a0 my breath.\u00a0 It was terrible\u2026can\u2019t breathe\u2026give me a moment\u2026\u201d
\n\u201cBetter now?\u00a0 What happened?\u201d
\n\u201cI got on the Metro..\u00a0 Big\u00a0 crowd. Standing\u00a0 room only.\u00a0 Bodies pressed together.\u00a0 The man behind me was very close.\u00a0 Too close really but I thought that was common.\u00a0 Then I\u00a0 felt something in my back\u2026moving\u2026rubbing \u201c
\n\u201cOh, no\u2026it wasn\u2019t his thingamabob.\u201d
\n\u201cIt was\u2026he had it out\u2026\u201d
\n\u201cWhat did you do?\u201d
\n\u201cI jumped off the Metro at next stop and ran back\u00a0 here\u2026long way.\u201d
\n\u201cAre you all right?\u201d
\n\u201cNow maybe.\u201d
\n\u201cSort of funny don\u2019t you think?\u201d
\n\u201cNot funny at all.\u201d
\n\u201cWhy didn\u2019t you give his thingamabob a good slug with your purse?
\n\u201cThen what?\u201d
\nThen make a run for it\u2026he would\u00a0 be less likely to follow you\u2026\u201d
\n\u201cFeared he would follow me\u2026.\u201d
\n\u201cWhat did he look like?\u201d
\n\u201cNo idea, never saw his face\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

We looked at Marjorie but made no comment.<\/p>\n

Eric and\u00a0 I snickered which Marjorie didn\u2019t appreciate for a moment or two and then she began to laugh as well.<\/p>\n

Europe on $5 a day meant living on the lowest possible
\nedge of society.\u00a0\u00a0 Could not get any lower Marjorie thought.<\/p>\n

This picture brings it all\u00a0 back.\u00a0\u00a0 Like the taxi driver who would not let us out of his cab until we gave him a sizeable tip.\u00a0\u00a0 Or the salle de bain in our hotel that had no light and a single toilet down the hall for guests\u2026a toilet that did not flush …smelled really disgusting.\u00a0 But it was Marjorie\u2019s experience
\nthat topped them all\u2026even the pile\u00a0 of dead cockroaches could not beat her story.<\/p>\n

The rest of our European\u00a0 cultural tour was not much better.\u00a0 We nearly got arrested for vagrancy in\u00a0 Munich after too much celebrating at the Hofbrau House.\u00a0 All three of\u00a0 us fell asleep\u00a0 in a\u00a0 public park with all our earthly possession strew around including three pottery beer steins and two Parisian beer glasses.\u00a0 And Eric\u00a0 nearly got raped in Spain when some young women cornered him asleep on a train and called\u00a0 him :\u201dBlondie\u2026Blondie\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0 Good times. We were all in our low twenties\u2026Kids.<\/p>\n

Must see if I can find a picture of our flight home \u2026we had liberated Derbies sold to us by some thieves. Mine had Harold McMillan\u2019s initials\u00a0 in it.\u00a0\u00a0 God, I have to tell that story separate.<\/p>\n

alan skeoch
\nFeb. 2018<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EUROPE ON FIVE DOLLARS A DAY Eric, Marore and\u00a0 I decided to tour Europe in the summer of 1965.\u00a0 And do it cheaply.\u00a0 We read Mr. Frommer\u2019s travel\u00a0 book titled EUROPE ON\u00a0 FIVE DOLLARS A DAY. We\u00a0 believed\u00a0 it. Was that really possible?\u00a0\u00a0 Only if your living standards are really low.\u00a0 I bet you do […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=666"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":671,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666\/revisions\/671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}