Saturday, October 26, 2002
The Star Tribune
Minneapolis, MN
Catching up: Polly Letofsky finds
cultures change with borders.
By Chuck Haga
Polly Letofsky, the world-walking campaigner against breast cancer, has taken her crusade to France.
"It still amazes me how the culture changes with a single step over the border," she wrote in a recent e-mail. "I mean, this morning I was saying 'guten tag' to every person walking by, and the moment I stepped over the Rhine I said 'bonjour' and was looking at people in berets and cafes full of croissants."
She expects to reach England by mid-November.
"We should all pity the fools in Dover who have the misfortune of coming in my vocal path," she wrote. "I will talk to anyone and anything."
Letofsky, 40, who grew up in Minneapolis, is trying to walk around the world to raise awareness of breast cancer and boost support for research. She started her walk Aug. 1, 1999, near her home in Vail, Colo. After walking to the West Coast, she walked through New Zealand and Australia, then started walking west through Asia.
She reached Europe in July and will close out her 18,000-mile trek next year in the final leg from the East Coast to her home in Vail. She plans to walk through the Twin cities and visit relatives and friends.
Letofsky's e-mails and online journal entries offer warnings to the traveler who wants to Europe on the cheap.
Introduction of the Euro, the new currency shared by many European countries, has had a sharp impact on prices of some necessities--such as pizza.
"A pizza with mushrooms costs (the equivalent) of $7," or twice what it cost before the Euro, she wrote from Italy, "A pizza with no mushrooms costs $5.50. That means if I get mushrooms on my pizza every day in Italy, that's an extra $45 a month. Mushrooms are no longer in the budget.
"When a cup of cappuccino in Greece went from $1.25 to $3, southern Europeans were so outraged they revolted with a cappuccino boycott. An older New Zealand couple told me that after a week in Italy they had decided to go back to Turkey, where their money would last months longer."
With help from local Lions International clubs and organizations dedicated to raising awareness of breast cancer, Letofsky has used her world-walker celebrity to talk everywhere about screening, treatment and research. Sponsors cover many of her expenses and well-wishers often put her up for a night or two, but she sometimes must negotiate for cheap accommodations.
"The man at the youth hostel tells me it's $16 a night but he's sorry, they only accept youth," she writes from Germany. "I turned around to see who he was talking to.
"He says they're not his rules, he just works there. None of the youth hostels in Bavaria take people over the age of 26. 'It's nothing personal, we have to turn away old people like you every day'."
"How do you know I'm not 26?" He laughs. I throw myself on the mercy of the court. Me and all my wrinkles look their most pathetic and he gives in.
"'That'll be $28, please.'
"'It was $16 a minute ago. Do you charge by the wrinkle?'
"'Ha.ha. That's $16 for the night, plus personal tax, plus environmental tax.'
"'And an additional $3.50 for sheets.'
"'I have my own
sheets.'
"'We charge for the sheets even if you have your own. Then there's
the additional $2 for the one-night surcharge which we'll forgo if you stay two
nights, but then we have to add resort tax.'
"'And if you want a shower, that'll be 50 cents, which gives you three minutes of water, but if you want hot water that'll be an additional 50 cents. Do you need any change?'"
Letofsky asked for directions to the nearest campground.
Check in with Letofsky by email at pollyswalking@yahoo.com or at her Web site, http://www.globalwalk.org.
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