It had been a perfect four-month sojourn in Europe – and almost two months in Athens – when one bright Saturday I decided to take a long walk and break up the days saddled at my desk with work, despite a magnificent view of the Acropolis. Stopping at a neighborhood coffee bar for late morning cappuccino and Spanakopita (spinach and cheese pie), I ventured northeast across Loef. Vasilisis Amalias, by tourist photo mecca Hadrian’s Gate and through the sprawling National Gardens behind Parliament. There I sat down in a tranquil opening (photo shows ancient ruins resting on ground nearby; ruins are all over the place, literally, in Athens) and pulled out a bottle of water. Inadvertently I must have pulled my wallet out of my shoulder bag at the same time. Because after an afternoon of walking through the upscale Kolonaki neighborhood and then back through Plaka, Athen’s oldest district and one I thought I had mastered – but getting hopelessly lost – I returned home, emptied my bag only to find no wallet. What?! How could this be? I searched every nook and cranny of my apartment and my shoulder bag an infinite number of times, but, again, no wallet. Hell! Where could I have lost it? Probably the coffee shop. I had wanted change for a 20 euro bill so I could leave a tip. Maybe I left it on the counter. Sure, that’s where it was! In said wallet were two credit cards, one debit card, driver’s license, registration and insurance, and the most treasured original laminated Quebec birth certificate, which the government doesn’t make anymore. Not to mention the leather wallet itself, a gift a few years ago from my Significant Other. Hardly any cash. I check online that night to see if anyone had put any charges on the card – nothing. Reassured, it must be lost and no one has committed fraud. First thing Sunday morning I check again, and there are several charges on one card and three on the other! I immediately call BMO and CIBC and have the cards cancelled and told I’ll probably not be charged. Then head back out to the coffee bar. No, the staff search but turn up nothing. So the next probability is I dropped it in the park. (All the perp’s charges were in one or two blocks of the Gardens.) I’m not good with park benches. Several years ago, in Newport RI, I sat on a bench on commercial Thames St. and my wallet dropped out of my pants. On that occasion a Good Samaritan found the wallet, tuned it into Newport police, phoned me, and I recovered it, all ID and cash intact. Then there was the time I first when to Europe in 1988 and walking in front of the Spanish Steps in Rome – tourist ground zero – I’m distracted by a Roma child holding up a newspaper while with his other hand, yanking out my money belt with any number of important dox (yes, I know you’re supposed to wear the belt but it was an unseasonably warm day at the end of several weeks of uneventful travel, and I was lulled into complacency). Generally, I find human nature to be benign and sided with the thought that whomever found my wallet would contact me. No luck this time. The perp – yes, I have hexed him a myriad times - went on a minor spending spree. But I miss the birth certificate and leather wallet itself the most, everything else was easily replaced. Also, thank god I kept my main Mastercard separate, in a zipped pant pocket or otherwise I would have been up the river big time. And no, unlike Roma in 1988, I did not lose my passport as it had been left at the apartment.
Other annoyances but more trivial: The Lufthansa flight from Athens to Frankfurt – more than two hours in length – offered no food or beverage, even for a price, except for small bottles of water handed out. This from Germany’s national carrier. Hell, even on the puddle jump turboprop from Toronto to Windsor Air Canada Jazz offers free beverages and a snack and paid booze….And on the Air Canada flight from Frankfurt to Toronto, after the seatback video screen security announcement, passengers were held captive by several advertisements; no way to turn off or skip. I complained to a flight attendant. “We’ve done it forever.” That’s backed up by Air Canada PR, whom I also contacted. News to me as well as air passenger rights advocate Gabor Lukacs, who said “wrong morally for sure, although I cannot pull a case that says that it is wrong legally too.”
- Ron Stang, Windsor Ontario Canada, a frequent traveller
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