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As
a younger man, I suffered the benefit of sometimes being able to take the
whole summer to travel about. Those were the days. The summer of
1972, I traveled about Europe, hitchhiking my way through the Netherlands,
down through Germany, Switzerland, Italy, finally into Greece and then
back up through the former Yugoslavia along the Dalmatian coast before
heading home out of Munich. Mostly I traveled with one or two friends
made along the way. We often introduced ourselves to each other via the
paperback books we were reading and carrying in our backpacks while
staying at hostels. Each of us generally carried three or four. It was
important to travel light. Usually, we had one or two within our
“library” we’d already finished and the exchange was made after, of
course, discussing the deep significance of our recently read tomes. As a
bonus, we’d usually travel with each other for a couple days, maybe even a
week or more.
Perhaps you think those were the days when young people could travel about
freely, hitchhiking and wandering about with little to concern
themselves. They said those kinds of things back then too. In 1970 when
I took the LSAT the prompt for the essay portion of the test centered on
what to do about terrorists. Are terrorists’ acts ever acceptable, they
asked? Terrorism did not seem like a good plan of action back then
either.
Having been about a bit in places such as Brazil, South Africa, and some
of the poorer parts of the Caribbean coupled with having conversed with
more than a few thousand folks over the years, my attitude has been
somewhat tempered. Having discerned the attitudes of some toward others
less fortunate, I have found myself thinking perhaps it is possible some
terrorists think they have no other choice. These days I like to say when
in a tight spot, there are many options for a good life. I have to remind
myself, though, not everyone has suffered the benefits I have to know just
that.
While in Greece, I hooked up with a larger than usual crowd of young
Americans, a Canadian, an Englishman, and a Dane. We bought tickets in
Corfu for the ferry and traveled to Crete. There we made our way to
Khania where we descended upon a local restaurant owner. His restaurant
was on a the beach and he kindly allowed us to spend the nights there on
the cool sands under the eucalyptuses trees while playing blackjack,
drinking Drambuie, and eating the infrequently purchased salad from his
business while occupying his tables during the day. This went on for a
week. A pretty good time was had by all.
The owner of the restaurant also had for rent those colorful change houses
you see along beaches. Being the ever budget minded travelers we were
(cheap), we decided to rent one of the change houses to use to store all
of our backpacks in the day while we drank and played cards. At a drachma
a day, the equivalent of twelve cents a day back then, it seemed a good
bargain to us to pool our resources and let the owner have change houses
to spare to rent to others.
We played cards, cut up and occupied one corner of the restaurant all
week. One day we went swimming. Being a rather naïve young man, I grabbed
a hold of an octopus and brought it onto the beach. The restaurant owner
came over and offered to prepare it for us to eat. He did. They prepare
it raw. We didn’t eat it. No amount of Drambuie helped.
At the week’s end we decided to move on. A few of us were going to Ios.
Some on to Rhodes. I was elected to pay the owner. Somewhere along the
line there was a misunderstanding. I gathered later the owner thought
that since we were staying on his beach, using his facilities, and as he
was so nice about all this, we were in turn, though being nice by using
only one change house, expected to pay for it seven times over per day
(the number of us using it).
I quickly did the math. I was better at it then, being a more recent
college graduate and all. That would be almost $6! No way. We expected
to pay only $.84. “Way” was his response, though it’d be impolite to
repeat that in Greek. We argued and discussed and after some time agreed
upon three days rental at the full price to his way of thinking. Just
over $2.50 we could swing.
After paying the Greek, he smiled. We’d come to an understanding. I smiled
back and as I turned to leave I gave him what is to our way of thinking
the “everything is A-OK” symbol with my thumb and fingers forming a little
O. Apparently, I learned later, that symbol means something different in
the Mediterranean. [Editor’s note: What Dave inadvertently did was
refer unflatteringly to one of the man’s orifices.] Fortunately, we’d
met up with some American military personnel earlier that day, with whom,
with the help of their jeep, we made our timely escape.
Traveling does not always provide us with such fun opportunities to
learn. Even so it does often provide us with more than something to talk
about later on. It helps us to understand the problems we face in a global
community come to little more than communication issues between
individuals. Get to know our neighbors, as most of us know, and often we
find they ain’t so bad after all. Just folks like you and me. I was in
Greece. It was my mistake. Armed with such knowledge, we stand a better
chance of negotiating peace than with stockpiles of weapons of mass
destruction and failing to admit when we were wrong. Just because you are
a five-hundred pound gorilla doesn’t mean you don’t have to say you are
sorry.
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The Global Forum |
A travel essay by
Dave
Van Mierlo
SCC Criminal Justice
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