Sock It to Me

By Jay

This came to me in the middle of the night, while I was playing back the events of yesterday. It was one of those crummy days of mixed weather where we abandoned our visit to the beach and took the bus to the old town to wander around the port, have a Cappuccino and watch the world go by. The “crummy” turned into a light rain and we decided to cut short our shopping and wanderings and hustled back up to the bus station just in time to catch the hourly schedule. There is a small kiosk right there and I decided it would be a good time to break a twenty Euro note. You can pay on the bus but they really want exact change, certainly not happy to make change for a large bill. Now the fare is € 1.80 per and Jain is standing about fifty feet away at the open door to the bus, giving me that, “hurry up” look as the bus is leaving in six minutes. 

Now here is the catch…

In our book, “Your Passport to Independent Travel” we devote an entire chapter on methods locals use to separate tourists from their money and you would probably think that after traveling for over a million air miles, in forty years and visiting ninety plus countries that I would be immune to a common scam. I’m laughing now! Thinking about how many times must we learn by doing the same dumb things. This is almost an exact replay of an experience I had in Sicily not too long ago.

Follow me closely here….

The vendor is sitting in this little booth having a casual conversation with another local man leaning to the side of the window and there is room enough for me to approach the window. This situation screams, “Pick Pocket Alert” in spades, but I am wise to the world and have already removed my Twenty Euro note from my purse which is in my hidden zipped pocket and I hand it to the man in the booth, “Two for Ornos Beach, please”, I say. He peels off two tickets and puts my twenty in the drawer, counts out a Ten Euro note, three Two Euro coins and shows me a Fifty Euro Cents coin and asks, “Do you have a Ten Cents?” He owes me Sixteen Forty… “Of course”, says I, and quickly show the whole world where my money is by withdrawing my purse and spilling a hand full of coins into my other hand. Now both of my hands are occupied (are you getting the picture?). 

The vendor is holding my tickets and change in his right hand and with his left index finger is sorting through the coins in my hand, discovers that I have plenty of change for the fare and says, “Oh, let’s do it this way” and extracts three One Euro coins and three Twenty cent coins, the exact amount of € 3.60 for the two tickets. He hands me the two tickets and the Ten Euro note and I hustle off to board the bus just in time.

I think I will go back there today, give him a wink, shake his hand and say, “Well done”.