Say what you want about my people, but we do love us some tourists.
Leon Logothetis travels the world on a shoestring, crossing the United States, for instance, on $5 a day. In this interview, he talks about relying on the kindness of strangers.
What’s the most stunning act of generosity you’ve received?
I arrived in Indianapolis. I’d met an old lady on the train with her husband, and they put me up in a hotel. But that wasn’t the act. I woke up the next morning and I was chatting with this younger lady who had a 1-year-old son, and it turns out that she lived in Chicago. And she said to me — and this was within the first five minutes, I’m not exaggerating — she said to me, “If you can find your way to Chicago, I will give you the only set of keys to my house. You can stay in my house. I will be back the next day. Leave the keys in the flowerpot, and you can stay in my house. There’s chili in the fridge.” At the end, when she gave me her keys, she then said to me, “So, sorry, what’s your name?”
Do you find you get more help from tourists or from locals?
In America, it was primarily locals. And in England. In Europe, it was primarily tourists. American tourists, believe it or not, they saved me so many times, to the point that I would wake up in the morning and I’d be like, “O.K. guys, we’ve gotta find some Americans.”
Have you ever been on the giving/receiving end of travel-related kindness?
P.S. Kindness, Sart-style.
Photograph via We Heart It.
