When Ignorance was Bliss

Me, France, 2011

When I backpacked through Europe for a year back in the day, I never gave a thought to any of the things you need today.  I never gave any thought to health and safety.  I took it for granted.

I never once considered travel medical insurance or any other kind of insurance.  I don't recall getting any vaccinations before hand but I could have forgotten.  Likewise, an international driver's license wasn't required although we did have a rental car in the USSR.

We needed a passport, but got all other visas along the way (except for Russia, which was definitely another story in 1973). Iron curtain countries required a minimum amount of money to be changed at the border but it was only a few dollars.

We did get a Youth Hostel membership and a gauze travel sheet (much heavier than the lovely silk ones we have now).  Other than booking a cabin on the P & O liner to Southhampton via the Panama Canal and the complex advance arrangements with Russian Intourist, we made no advance bookings.

Credit cards and debit cards didn't exist.  ATMs didn't exist. Every country had a different currency and a border check-point. British currency hadn't changed to metric.   We changed currency at each border. We carried a letter of credit and a list of correspondent banks, which made getting cash extremely cumbersome.  

I never ever checked any travel advisories.  There was no internet to check anything on.  You could seek out Canadian embassies, but we never did.  While we travelled, all kinds of unrest occurred, and we just dodged and ducked.  Greece had 4 different governments, including a bloody coup, tanks in the streets, a tourist shot in Omonia Square, a 24-hour curfew in Athens (and they meant business), and night-time curfew on Crete.  So we flew to Israel a few weeks after the October war.  Nothing like a 100% armed population and war wreckage strewn everywhere to give a person perspective.

We wrote letters and received letters addressed to Poste Restante at the main post office in cities and towns along the way.  We never made a phone call.  Cell phones didn't exist.  Call boxes did exist but were too complicated.  We never needed a phone.

We  heard no news along the way, other than what other travellers told us. All information was exchanged from person to person.  You always talked to everyone coming from where you were going to get tips on places to stay, border crossing, whatever you needed to know, and hopefully traded maps and reading material.  You talked to people who just came over to find out news from home.

We never watched TV along the way.  We read books, which we traded with other travellers along the way.

Cameras required film and flash bulbs. We carried film rolls with us until we got home.  

We carried no electronic appliances, and needed no plug adaptors or dual voltage chargers.

I don't recall bottled water being common, and we never considered paying for water.  We didn't have water bottles.

Wheeled luggage did not exist.  We carried everything in backpacks. 

We hitchhiked everywhere, camped in summer, stayed in hostels and cheap hotels in winter.  Some people bought vans (usually VW) and drove around Europe camping.  We had sleeping bags, a small tent, a tiny one burner stove, and one pot.

Hardly any guidebooks existed and maps could only be obtained in Europe.  No travel stores existed.  People on the road exchanged parts of guidebooks and there was free information and maps at all .  We had Europe on $5 a Day.  We relied on my memory, the sun, and instinct to find our way through Russia and Eastern Europe (no maps at all).

Our budget was $6,000, and we did the whole trip on $5,000.  That was for 2 people and included a ship from Vancouver to Southhampton, a rental car in Russia, and flights to and from Greece, Israel, and Tureky.  We were lucky enough to get work as movie extras in Israel, which was lucrative in those days.  Travel was so cheap then.  We were the rich people then. The Europeans were poor. 

Most people did not speak English.  You had to speak enough of the language of each country to get along.

Turkey was more secular than it is now. 

All of Eastern Europe and East Germany were behind the Iron Curtain and it was serious. I could tell you stories you would never believe.

Travelling is easier now, and I don't regret the changes.  But I am sorry the world is more and more the same everywhere.