Editor’s Note: This is the edition we must have had 1965-1966. I put it to novel use as you’ll see in this story. You’ll also see how humor saves many a day.
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I recently read in the New York Times that Arthur Frommer has died (November 18, 2024). I have a story to tell about his book “Europe on $5 a Day”.
In 1966 Susan, my sister, and I went to Europe. At the time I was living in Enugu, Nigeria with my parents, and she joined us for summer vacation from her veterinary medicine studies at Washington State University in Pullman, Washington. After her brief visit in Enugu, we planned a summer trip to Europe. We bought Eurail passes to travel by train; we each packed a small tote and a smaller Pan Am bag; and, even more importantly, we bought Arthur Frommer’s book “Europe on $5 a Day”.
After a “Bon Voyage” party at the International Hotel in Enugu hosted by our parents, we began our travels. We first had to get from Africa to Europe. We flew on Nigerian Airways from Enugu to Lagos, the capital of Nigeria. From there we flew KLM, the wonderful Dutch airlines to Tunis, Tunisia on the Mediterranean Sea for an overnight stay before we were to fly onto Rome.
The flight to Tunis presented a problem: our seatmate in a 3-seat row was a man who identified himself as a German and said he had been in “the war”. The war? The only war we thought he could be referring to was WWII and that made him — a Nazi? We had both read Leon Uris’s novel “Exodus” that chronicled the Holocaust. Were we sitting by a real life, living Nazi? We edged as far away from him as our tied-together seats would allow us.
The flight ended well as the plane flew over the blue-green Mediterranean Sea as we approached the Tunis shore line. We were taken to a hotel with lovely Tunisian architecture.
As it was mid-afternoon, we decided to venture out to see the city. We two naive Idaho girls took a taxi to the Old Town which was a maze of stalls filled with everything Middle Eastern: food, music, clothes, art, household and religious objects and more.
Somehow we made it safely back to the hotel and after freshening up, we went to dinner in the hotel restaurant. At the table we were first presented with a beautiful bowl of water. We did not know if it was to drink or to wash our hands in. With great embarrassment we consulted with our waiter. It was not soup.
The next day we continued on with KLM to Rome and started our two-month-plus European vacation traveling around Europe by train, most often staying in people’s homes and eating standing up in train station restaurants. After all, we were using Frommer’s “Europe on $5 a Day” so we were on the cheap.
In Rome, the beautiful city of Rome, a rather handsome young man attached himself to us, or rather, to my sister. With the few English words he knew, he escorted us on a walking tour around the city. I, unfortunately, all-of-a-sudden, started my period and I was totally without supplies! What to do!
He figured out I needed a bathroom NOW so he took us to the nearest possibility: a bar filled with guys all facing a television screen. What should be next to the TV but the bathroom door. I slinked into the bathroom with all the guys snickering. Once there, I discovered the toilet was a Turkish toilet: a hole in the floor with no toilet paper and, of course, no menstrual products. What to do? I reached into my bag and pulled out Frommer’s book “Europe on $5 a Day”. I ripped out the pages of cities we weren’t visiting. I fashioned them into a sanitary pad, stuffed it into my underpants, and slinked back out of the bathroom door to face once again the snickering guys in the bar.
We continued our walk around Rome with our Italian escort, including to the famous Tivoli Gardens. As I walked, the pad moved forwards and backwards. When it moved forwards, I would shove it backwards. When it moved backwards, my sister would come up behind me and give it a good shove forwards. You can imagine how hysterical my sister and I were, almost falling down laughing. Having put Frommer’s book “Europe on $5 a Day” to good use in Rome, we then embarked on seeing the rest of Europe on $5 a day.
Copyright © 2024 by Jane Iddings
Hi Jane! With this story, you have rewired my brain so that at the briefest mention of Frommer or “Europe on $5 a Day” I burst out laughing. You have so many amazing stories!
Resourceful indeed, relying on whatever was available at the time. For adventuresome young women these days, I wonder what doing Europe, “on the cheap,” would add up to. Would be fun to learn more about the different places you visited. Another essay, or two, perhaps.
Greatly enjoyed this memory of your young life. I didn’t expect to end reading it by laughing with you and your sister. How delightful!
Jane,
A punster might say that part of the book was well red.
HaHa! Thanks, Jim.
What a story! I was amazed at your courage at such a young age, jealous that I hadn’t done anything like it, mortified for you and your walk around Rome with the book closer at hand than you had planned. It was a good laugh and I’ll bet you will never forget that book.
OMG I never saw that coming! What a brilliant solution and how wonderful that you and your sister found humor in the situation. I hope you gave Fodor a good review. I became well-acquainted with squat toilets in India but if I used one now I would never get up again!