My Adventure with Sunglasses Abroad.      Growing up I had a small problem. I found every singly way imaginable to destroy sunglasses. I sat on them. I dropped them down mountainsides. I scratched up the lenses. I'd loose them river rafting. By the time I was 20 I had found just about every single way conceivable to destroy a pair of sunglasses. However, I never lost them, except for the ones I lost to the American river. But I count that as a destroyed.     As a result of this, I never got expensive sunglasses. Or when I did, it was the kind for hiking in the high sierras so I would never be seen in public with them. When I went off to college, I was a little less harsh on sunglasses. I guess because I stopped doing extremely foolish things, like going down steep hills on a bike with no breaks. (A fence stopped me!) So I started to venture towards more and more expensive glasses.     Sometime in 1999 I had bought a pair of Ray Bans. I guess they were in at the time. I think they were the most expensive pair of sunglasses I had ever bought. Eighty dollars or so. They were good sunglasses. They kept the U.V. rays out and they looked stylish. Since they were my only pair, I took them on a quick trip to Europe. Seeing Portugal ,Spain , France , Italy, and Greece . The kind of quick trip that takes all summer. Now this wouldn't be a very interesting story if I just broke them. I'm sure someone has broken a pair of 80 dollar glasses before. I made the destruction of sunglasses an art form during this trip.     I started my trip in Portugal. Portugal is a beautiful country. It is also at the same latitude as San Francisco and shares much the same weather. A marine Layer from the nice warm Atlantic Ocean. So I didn't get much chance to wear my glasses. I think I left them at the hotel half of the time. So my glasses managed to survive Portugal. When I left Portugal I went to Seville , Spain. A lot of my first day I was exploring the old Jewish Quarter so I had my sunglasses safely in belt pouch, or so I thought. There was a little pocket in the front that had a flap close over it. I thought they would be secure in it. They wouldn't fall right out. Well, I have no idea when it happened but at about 9 that night when I went to get something out of my pouch I noticed they were missing. I checked the hotel lounge and my room. I checked the restaurant where I ate. No luck. Somewhere along the line they managed to slide out of the pocket I thought they were safe in. After all I kept glasses in the same pocket the previous year and they were safe.     So I was out an eighty dollar pair of sunglasses and I had just arrived in my second country. Oh well. It was no big deal. You can get sunglasses in any town in southern Europe. I spent a couple more days in Seville, and did without them. I was not going out of my way looking for sunglasses. When I got to Granada it was unbearable. It was extremely bright. Perhaps because it is up in the mountains with less atmosphere to block out U.V. rays. So I did go out of my way. Not by much. A characteristic of Italy, Southern France, Spain and even Greece are African Immigrants selling "souvenirs" These are normally items that are fairly cheap. Some sell "Figurines" (African wooden sculptures). Some sell wallets and belts. Some sell toys. Some sell rings. And some sell glasses. One thing I knew about these peddlers is that they have a tendency to run away from police because they are not suppose to be selling things. Because of the combination of these two things, I figured that the quality of anything I bought would be poor.     I bought a pair of sunglasses that looked like my Ray Bans but he made no pretence that they were. They were a little tight but I figured that my big head would loosen them or at least the sun would. No such luck. Two weeks later they still hurt when I wore them. Its not like I spent that much on them. Perhaps five dollars. I was very tempted to "forget" them someplace. But I needed glasses so I kept them. I did keep them in my belt pouch a lot. Hoping they would get lost.     They managed to survive the rest of Spain with nothing much happening to them other than a wish or two that they would vanish. I bid a fond farewell to Spain and made a sortie into southern France. At the time I was traveling with all my personal belongings in a backpack. I love my backpack because it has a large internal volume. That means I can get a lot into it. The one drawback is I have to walk (run) around with it on. My first stop is France was Carcassone. I couldn't get reservations at the hostel but the person told me if I hurried I could get a room. I took her literally. I put my glasses in my belt pouch, put on my huge pack and ran across a public square to where I would catch the "blue buss" to the castle and youth hostel. Those of you that are not familiar with the back packs "backpackers" use, there is a hip belt. It is designed to take the weight off of your shoulders by going around your waist. If you run, the belt will rub against your waist. It will also rub against your hip pouch if you have one on. Needless to say, by the time I got to the buss stop my glasses were gone. There was no way I was going back to get them. You could say I deliberately tried to loose them but that's not entirely true. If it was they would have been sitting at the Barcelona Youth Hostel. No I didn't try to loose them, however I didn't care if I did.     I needed a new pair of glasses so I bought one in a back alley shop. That's not to say it was a bad shop or one selling black market goods. Carcassone is a very touristy town and it sells over priced items for to tourists. There is a theory that the stores on the main pathways sell the most expensive things and those that are off the beaten path reduce their prices slightly because of less foot traffic. I did learn not to get thick framed glasses because the last pair were too inflexible. So I got some very thin, metal framed glasses that would fit into a zippered pocket. They would even get caught in the mesh of the pocket. That would ensure they did not fall out. There wasn't anything extraordinary about shop except that I said "Gracias" before remembering which country I was in. I got a dirty look for that.     These glasses managed to survive France. They had better have. I only visited three towns in three days. I guess you could call it a blitz but I think the French are a bit sensitive about that word still. MY next stop was the Italian Rivera and Cinque Terre . As I mentioned before the frames would get caught in the mesh of my pouch. Taking them out would bend the metal. I would of course bend them back together, thus weakening it more. This went on for my three days in France and my first three days in Italy. When I think about it, they did survive a lot of abuse in my pouch and by my hands. I think it was when I went to Pisa that they finally broke. They just had too much bending. Try to bend a copper wire a few billion times and see what happens. And these glasses were similar to copper wires. Well I was right on cue. Three countries, three pairs of glasses down the tube.     I am fairly sure I bought the new pair of sunglasses in Italy. I figured I would get a better price than on Corfu. I forget which town I got them in. It's not important. What is when I went to Greece, I had a new pair of glasses that I bought in the previous country. These glasses survived a long time. A long time compared to the other glasses. They survived the Ionian Islands, the Peloponnese and the Argo Saronic islands. They even survived Athens. In fact they survived for about a month. About a week before I returned to the United States, I went to Halkinda to visit my Thea. After visiting her I went back to stay with my other aunt's cousin for the remaining week. . For some reason I was lazy and wore my real glasses. Yes I had a pair of prescription glasses that out survived three pairs of sunglasses. Mainly because they stayed in my backpack. For some reason I put my sunglasses in the outside pocket of my backpack. I am not sure why. By the time I got to Ermioni I had shattered glass and smashed plastic in my backpack. My pack was a most unfortunate victim on the return journey. I took a hydrofoil from Athens to Ermioni as the last part of my journey. These are essentially commuter busses of the sea. If you have a bag, you have to leave it by the door. It's actually very safe. Greeks for the most part are respectful of other people's property. So I put my bag in the luggage cubby. At I think at the first or second stop a group of school children got on. About thirty of them. With luggage. My poor backpack ended up underneath all of their belongings. My glasses didn't stand a chance.     Ermioni is a resort for Greeks. Prices are reasonable. There is even a farmers market once a week. One year I bought a belt for 3 bucks I saw for as much as 20 on the islands. So I bought a pair of sunglasses at the farmers market. The person who sold them tried to tell me they were Ray Bans. I even got a case/bag that said Ray Ban. However, if you looked very carefully at the label on the glasses it said "Rey Bans." I thought it was cute. They also were only like five dollars or so.     So do I still have the ray ben's glasses? Of course not. A couple months latter they were innocently sitting on my passenger seat in my car when I threw a bag with some science books and a laptop on top of them Yep they broke. I thought about sending them to Ray Ban to see if they would replace them but never did. Oh well.     The moral of the story. I now buy cheep sunglasses. I am still breaking or loosing them. In fact on my last trip to Hawaii I stepped on my current pair of glasses. For my next trip to Greece I also bought a semi-indestructible padded glasses case for my prescription glasses. Guide Books |  FAQs |  Photos for Sale |  Travel Essays |  Links Contact info: