THE FRUGAL TRAVELER
Another NHT day. I thought I would have nothing to write about. I stayed in all day reading and writing and only ventured out at 5 to go to the place that I have discovered has ready made Greek meals at a reasonable price. To get there I have to a walk away from the beautiful checkerboard streets and flowering vines everywhere on white and blue sculptured houses and shops of Naousa and away from the seaside with the beautiful big houses of the rich with their views of the ocean and proprietary presence above beaches. In this other direction the buildings look more like the utilitarian buildings of Athens. This side of Paros is not on the tourist brochures and I haven’t been photographing it. It is not ugly, it is just ordinary and utilitarian. It is also, I think, where the ordinary inhabitants of Paros shop. Until now with Susie I have been delighting in the many beautiful shops and restaurants of every kind with white tablecloths and soft lighting and hovering waiters. We had a great time for a week and it wasn’t expensive, but it also wasn’t cheap.
But on the way to the carry out place along the highway out of town, the main highway around the island I discovered three things. Walking along the highway with no footpath or sidewalk I had to be careful. The road is not wide and when two cars pass at a rapid speed (no one seems to obey the speed limits) I felt that I had to step to the side in order to not risk getting hit. I didn’t feel unsafe. Greek drivers are used to pedestrians walking at the side of the road and I could hear the cars coming. But this road is not a tourist road and only people with cars are likely to be coming out this way, even though it is only a fifteen minute walk from the center of town. The carry out place, which I will photograph later, is clean and neat but not showy. The food is displayed nicely. The food is well prepared and while I was there car after car, not tourists, drove up for takeaway. The portions are huge, enough for two meals for me, and about $7 or $3.50 a meal with no tip asked for. I took fish and scalloped potatoes but there are all kinds of choices in take out containers.
But where the road from town joins the main highway there was a much larger grocery store. It was about a fifth the size of the local Ingles in Asheville, yet called itself a Super Market. And it did have most of the things that Ingles has including non foods such as soap and toilet paper and writing products and cleaning products of all kinds, just not the huge variety and as many of each thing. Car after car pulled up with people doing their perhaps daily shopping. I have the feeling people don’t shop once a week with huge refrigerators and freezers to store the week’s shopping in at home. They carry out one or two small plastic bags of the needs for the day. Paros has a small population and doesn’t need a huge Ingles. The store certainly has everything that I need while I am here. I didn’t buy much because I would have to carry it back in my computer bag. I also have a tiny refrigerator. I bought salt and pepper and Nescafé and soap and Japanese soup that needs to have only boiled water added.
And next to the grocery store, probably part of it, is a fast food gyro and souvlaki place where you can get Greek fast food to go. It has a small porch with stools along a narrow shelf where you can eat. The gyro was less expensive than the gyro restaurant with tables and paper table cloths that closed for the season that I was trying to go to last night. A pork gyro is 2.50 euros instead of 2.80 and the Coca Cola that I had with it was 1.50 instead of 2.00. So my meal was about $5 food and drink combined and quite filling.
So quite by accident I’ve discovered a way to eat for about $10 a day. Delicious boxed cereal with nuts and fruit with whole milk and Nescafé for breakfast, with store bought orange juice if I want it. A take out meal of fish and potatoes for two days for lunch, and a gyro with a coke, or without it, for supper. It also means that I am eating at my own time instead of shifting to the Greek timings of late breakfast, 2 p.m. lunch and 9 p.m. dinner without feeling as if I am out of step.
But this also leads to two more discoveries. It assures me that in Winsen next month, Morroco in February and Paris in April I will probably be able to do the same thing. I can eat cheaply, which along with cheap flights and cheap lodging is the key to continual travel.
And then finally, it occurs to me that the real key to continual travel is living the same way at home. If I can live comfortably out of a carry on bag, with half of the contents electronic, I can live comfortably at home with much less as well. When Susie is here to visit or anyone else, I’ll live it up. The same is true at home. I’ll go out to Heiwa’s or Taco Temple or 9 Mile or Chai Pani with others and have fun. But on my own I can cut out almost everything else and live simply and save money for the next trip. I can be as much the frugal traveler at home, a place as exotic as any other tourist destination that I plan to visit often, as I can here in Paros, and have a great time doing it.
BILLYBABA’S WANDERING 