...but it's only 5k as the crow walks
By diana on Apr 27, 2012 | In capricious bloviations
Before I launch into my planned ramble, I'd like to pause a moment to poo-poo the Hotel Europa in Latina, Italy. I stay in the Europa because, in my opinion, it is the only place fit to stay in this town. It is, however, twice the price of the "next best" hotel in town, about which I've heard various horror stories (about the need for an exterminator, a committed cleaning crew, room to lift your arm without hitting a wall, etc). The Europa is right at my per diem cap if not above it (depending on the exchange rate). In addition to this, they charge prices for drinks and food that would make Warren Buffett blanch.
No problem! Don't buy food or drink from them, right? Right, except when you need food and there are no restaurants open. Italian restaurants and shops keep a schedule I've not yet figured out. I used to think this schedule revolved around a siesta, but shouldn't the siesta be the same time every day? Sufficeth to say that all I know for certain is that places of business in Italy are closed when I want or need them most.
So I help myself to the hors d'oeuvres in the bar. This being a classy place and Italian (let's not forget), they put together some delicious munchies. A healthy meal can be made easily, particularly if you eat as little as I do. The munchies come with a price, of course: you are expected to purchase a beer or something. How much does that beer cost? One 12-ounce glass is 6 euro.
As you may imagine, guests aren't keen to have more than one drink in such a bar unless the company petty cash fund is paying, and the Europa is well aware of this. Thus, they use their wi-fi access to encourage people into the lobby. Here's how it works: if you ask for a wi-fi access code for your room, you pay 5 euro every 24 hours for it, but if you get a number to use it in the lobby, it's free. They know you will likely get the munchies and probably order a drink or more while you're surfing.
I discovered quickly (of course :) ) that a code acquired in the lobby worked just as well in my room, so I ask for the access code for the lobby, use it a few minutes, and then go to my room where I can continue to do my online thang without being price-gouged. The number is sometimes good for two or three days, and sometimes it's only good for a few hours.
Today, after I walked back here from the base, showered, opened my balcony door to let in the nice breeze, poured myself a beer (I happened across an open corner market on my way here where I bought 3 liters of my adored aqua frizzante and a beer), and got comfy in bed because I wanted to blog and...I couldn't get access. I had to go to the lobby.
:roll:
I dressed appropriately* except that I didn't bother with socks or shoes. I also didn't brush my hair. It's wet, and I avoid brushing it while it's wet if I possibly can.
* I put on a bra.
I went straight to the front desk and requested a number for the lobby wi-fi. The young lady helping me--she was dressed to the nines, which seems to be the Italian default--divided her time between getting the number I requested and looking at me oddly. A man in the lobby was staring at me, too. I stared back. He nodded hello and went self-consciously back to his iPhone. I walked over to a small table, relaxed in a chair, put my beer on the table and my feet in a neighboring chair, and here I am.
They can kiss my ass.
***
Anyhow, I was thinking yesterday about the differences between walkers and riders/drivers. This came about because we were finished with our course work very early in the afternoon, and the shuttle bus for students doesn't pick us up at the base until 1700. It was then 1500. I was in my BDUs and combat boots which (stop me if I'm wrong) were made for hikes, so I walked out the front gate and back to the hotel. Once in town, my directions were a teensy bit fuzzy, so I stopped to ask a storekeeper directions.
ME, gesturing: Hotel Europa?*
* I tried to pronounce it like they do, which is more like oorOHpa than YOURohpa. This pronunciation is the norm in Europe, which means that it's hard to understand people when they tell you something costs 6 OORohs.
HIM, after a moment of thought: Cosi.
He pointed, then said, "4...5 kilometers."
I smiled, said "Grazie. Bonjourno," then walked the remaining 1 kilometer to my hotel.
As a walker, I've grown accustomed to non-walkers' skewed estimation of distance. I regularly walk to work and back in Izmir. The distance is 2.25 miles from my front door to the building I work in, but drivers and riders routinely believe it to be at least 5 to 6 miles one way.
I'm also struck by how many people think 2.25 miles (or even 5 miles) is a long way to walk. I'm specifically talking about military people, Americans and otherwise, Army and Air Force. I've learned to stop them and say, "Don't you have to run 1.5 / 2 miles for your fitness test?" They usually stop and gaze at me thoughtfully at this point, like it never occurred to them that walking 2 or more miles is no problem.
I encountered this mentality again yesterday when I told my colleagues I was going to walk back to the hotel and would they like to join me. Their first remarks were something like, "Are you crazy?"
I explained that the distance was only about 5 kilometers. They said, "Is that all?"*
* And I'm not taking a shortcut.
They still opted not to, and that's ok. Maybe they are afraid of Italian drivers. I don't know. I will say this, though: Italian drivers have a worldwide reputation for being crazy and dangerous, but they are tame compared to Turkish drivers. I've not been to Naples, where I hear stories about the nutty drivers, but I have walked around Rome a couple of times (I would imagine it is a fair equivalent of Naples), and the drivers there are downright reasonable.
Then again, maybe everybody else would rather sit around for two hours waiting for a ride or pay through the nose for a taxi instead of walking for 45 minutes. Even when they are planning to go to the gym or run as soon as they get there.
To be fair, my choices and actions don't always make sense, either. Our contradictoriness is part of what makes us so interesting (and gives me stuff to blog about).
Y'all be good.
d
7 comments
As much as I love the continent I was born on, Italy has always demanded a love/hate relationship from someone abroad.
The people are chauvinistic, not annoyingly (and unwarranted) like the French, but in a sleek, mustaches-and-thick-black-oily-hair-and-smiles kind of way. The traffic is just madness, the prices off the scales, when it comes to a decent price/quality, but they *DO* have a pretty damn good idea on how to enjoy life. The food, the wine, the weather, the everlasting attitude of “I’ll do that later” and the few words you need no to know are “scuzie", “mille grazie” and …"pagare".
Most people in the Western-Western (as in: the colder, more boring end of Europe… ie: my corner of yurops) regard Italy as an ideal country for holidays.
For middle-aged people.
For a stay no longer than two weeks.
Kudos on lasting there for so long. I would’ve picked the south of Spain if I wanted some californication’esque experience and Finland if I wanted to feel like a I stranded on another planet.
Oh and, when pronouncing “Europa” to a native English speaker, everyone pretty much just says “Yourup", like you do. Unless they want to be dicks and insist on pronouncing it in their native tongue, which makes it a vast array or pronouncations. Uh’rop, uhroo(="eau")pah, Yuh’rooh’pah’, yuw’rooh’pah,…
BDUs and combat boots which (stop me if I’m wrong) were made for hikes
Diana,
I don’t know about being made for hikes. I’d say they’re more made to survive hikes. I saw an article earlier this week that the Australian military is switching from boots to sneakers because the recruits are getting ‘way more shin splints than they used to. The doctors say it’s because they grew up wearing sneaks instead of more substantial footwear like previous generations did.
That’s funny about the response to your offer of a 5 km walk. That’s only an hour even for me. But I think some people (me for one) aren’t intimidated by the distance or effort so much as the time. If I could walk the distance in the same time I can drive it, walking would be a no-brainer. (I’d also be an Olympic hero.) In your particular case I’d have probably accepted though, because walking for an hour is still faster that waiting 2 hours for the bus.
Dave
before I got my bike, I would walk to work and back every day. It’s about 5 km, and took an hour and ten minutes if you include stopping and waiting for pedestrian lights in the city centre to turn green.
the cycle takes about 15 minutes if you hit enough green lights in a row.
regardless, I think anything within like five miles or ten kilometres is “walking distance” and anything within like 40 km is “cycling distance". But people regularly baulk when I say I cycled 20 km to get somewhere, or that I walked for an hour to get somewhere. people are silly.
Interesting point about the combat boots, Dave. When I went through OTS, we got boots that were basically glorified tennis shoes. They were quite comfy for marching, but they wore out quickly. Also, they didn’t offer the ankle and leg protection needed with real combat boots. But for long hikes? They were still pretty brutal. I did the Bataan Memorial Death March in Las Cruces, New Mexico, in them. It’s marathon length. My feet were brutalized, as you might imagine. I chalk that up to the fact that I’m not a soldier; I don’t train with long marches and I don’t know the tricks to prep and protect my feet during them.
Didn’t know. Now I do. I talked with many soldiers during the march, and they passed on their wisdom. It was too late that time, but in the future, I know what to do.
And yeah…I understand not walking to get somewhere when driving is faster and easier. That so wasn’t the case here, though–as you noted–which is why I’m baffled. Also? I’d hope you’d walk with me just because we have so much to talk about. :)
Jamie, you and I have roughly the same notion of what distances are acceptable for walking/cycling. I might make my cycling distance longer, depending on the destination and the need for me to be presentable there, but yeah. 40k is just a good ride.
d
Diana,
An hour with you would be time well spent, no doubt about it. For one things I’d want to learn some of those tricks for long marches. I remember a few from being in Boy Scouts and a friend who was in Special Forces told me about one involving pantyhose, but I’ve never had to put them into practice. Especially the one with pantyhose.
(In case you’re wondering, you cut the legs off above the knees and wear them to prevent inner thigh chafing.)
Dave
HAHAHAHAHAHA. Really?!
I heard a pantyhose one, but it was just the opposite: wear them as a second skin under wool socks to drastically reduce chafing on the feet.
Do soldiers really have problems with inner thigh chafing?
I’ve also heard that if a soldier knows a long march is ahead, he’ll rub turpentine on his feet after he showers for a few days to help toughen up the skin. Me, I think there’s really no replacement for doing long hikes wearing the boots you’ll march in and toughing up the feet the natural way (which I did not do before that marathon hike, and I paid for it with burst and ripped off blisters around both heels, across the balls of both feet, and by losing three toenails. It was character-building.)
d
Do soldiers really have problems with inner thigh chafing?
Diana,
That’s what he claimed, but this guy was never one to let the truth stand in the way of a good story. (grin) But he was a Green Beret stationed in Germany, and there wasn’t a lot of soldiering to do except for what the chain of command could think of to keep them occupied. He turned into quite the adrenaline junkie (sez he) because of the skydiving and snow skiing exercises they’d go on.
When I was a Scout they taught us about using thin silk socks under the wool ones to reduce chafing and help keep your feet warmer. None of us could afford silk, but we found out men’s thin rayon or Lycra dress socks were a lot cheaper and worked just as well.
I agree with you about training in what you’ll wear on the long march. Whenever I’d get a new pair of leather hiking boots I’d go walk a hundred yards or so in a creek until they were drenched, then walk in them until the leather was dry. The leather would mold itself to my feet and fit perfectly after doing that a few times.
I did a 6 mile winter hike in hilly terrain in steel-toed work boots once. My calves were miserable for days afterwards.
Dave
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