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| Ria & Me at Pezamania 6 |
Never in a million years prior to 1994 would I have thought the next 11 years of my life possible. This kind of thing only happens for other people or on TV. Looking back I still find my 11 years traveling around the world buying n selling Pez to be a bit unreal.
For a few years I lived beyond my wildest dreams. Went from an average of $30,000/$40,000 a year to almost a million one year. My ride was mind blowing. I went from not really having left Michigan to traveling to Australia, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, Paris n Hungary. My fall was no less of mind blower, followed by an over 10 year deep depression.
I started my Pez adventure with under $4,000.00 cash, a tax return n what I could scrape together at the time. Over the next 11 years I turned that $4,000.00 into 4.5 million dollar gross sales. In 1998 Pez Corporation committed Fraud through Breach Of Implied Contract which eventually led to my near Bankruptcy. The only reason I did not file Bankruptcy was a mixture of stupidity and pride.
Countries covered in this chapter are Canada, Austria, Australia, Sweden, South Africa, Spain, France, Germany, Czech Republic, Slovak Republic & Switzerland.
Yes I traveled to all these countries, a few many times. Hungary over 70 times. The only TV show that even comes close is The Amazing Race.
When you click one of the advert on this page, that is how I earn money for writing this.
The lifeblood of any hobby is the new collector. New
collectors bring that steady shot of adrenaline to a hobby with there
enthusiasm. New collectors are crucial to a hobby or it stagnates
then contracts. Hardcore collectors are fine & great, but they
know what they know, have what they have & what they need is
smaller. You can not maintain a vibrant hobby with a group of people
whose collections are closer to completion. You need excited people
who need & want almost everything.
Collectors like a good story that comes with a pez dispenser. A story they can retell when showing people there collection. Ideally each dispenser has a story, something interesting about it that makes owning it interesting. If what a collector collects is interesting it makes them interesting to there friends. When each dispenser has a story it brings a collection to life & gives it meaning.
Collectors who bought from me got that story. My story. The story of this crazy guy who traveled the world buying pez. What he looks like, How he acts, the paper towel always in his left hand, the beard, the pony tail, the Hawaiian shirts & the pink bunny slipper. That's who these came from.
As a bonus while pointing at there Pez they could relate the adventures of this crazy guy. How he traveled to Europe every month. His experiences buying pez in the black-market there. The crazy jams he got himself into. All the crazy people he did business with. The absurd amounts of money that change hands on a handshake. All these stories represented by these items in there collection. Plus the individual stories each Pez Dispenser had. It makes a collection exciting.
So yes every dispenser I sold had a story.
On that note, here's the story.
Collectors like a good story that comes with a pez dispenser. A story they can retell when showing people there collection. Ideally each dispenser has a story, something interesting about it that makes owning it interesting. If what a collector collects is interesting it makes them interesting to there friends. When each dispenser has a story it brings a collection to life & gives it meaning.
Collectors who bought from me got that story. My story. The story of this crazy guy who traveled the world buying pez. What he looks like, How he acts, the paper towel always in his left hand, the beard, the pony tail, the Hawaiian shirts & the pink bunny slipper. That's who these came from.
As a bonus while pointing at there Pez they could relate the adventures of this crazy guy. How he traveled to Europe every month. His experiences buying pez in the black-market there. The crazy jams he got himself into. All the crazy people he did business with. The absurd amounts of money that change hands on a handshake. All these stories represented by these items in there collection. Plus the individual stories each Pez Dispenser had. It makes a collection exciting.
So yes every dispenser I sold had a story.
On that note, here's the story.
Canada, Where it all started.
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| picture courtesy of Rudi |
The clown Pez Racks pictured at the left were in my experience unique to Canada. I must have bought & sold about 18 of them. The Pez distributor for Canada had a heck of a time getting the stores to hang on to them. Stores would throw them away, give them away or sell them
After that first trip to Canada I attended my first Pez convention in Cleveland. Not to sell, strictly as an observer, to see what was going on. I became aware that these pez conventions even existed because of the little classified adds run by some guy called "John the Cool Pez Man Devlin". I had notice his little classified add of 2 lines trying to buy pez for about a year. I up to then thought "this guy is some kind of weirdo". Who calls himself "the cool pez man"? This guy has to be some kind of geeky nut. After that first trip to Canada I notice another add under his for the Cleveland Pez Convention. At the time there were maybe 3 advertisements in Toy Shop Classifieds concerning Pez on a regular basis & that was it for Pez. John the cool pez man, John Laspina & Dave Welch. I always noticed The cool pez man, I mean how do you not notice a guy calling himself the cool pez man, But this month there was a classified for a pez convention.
I decided to drive down for the Saturday part of the Pez Convention. When I arrived the first thing I noticed was that it was a very small affair. The main sellers or tables were David Welch, John Laspina, Sue Sterfeld & I believe this is where I first met the guy with the freaky name "John The Cool Pez Man Devlin". There were other pez dealers but these are the people who stood out to me.
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| From left to right. Me, Mary Anne Kennedy, John "The Cool Pez Man" Devlin and sorry I can't remember. |
My intention was to just observe then leave, which is what I did. Dave Welch appeared to be the big deal, the guy everybody wanted to be a friend of. The Coolest Kid in Class. Dave is a good friend, but I have to admit I'm never quite sure where he is coming from, until recently when I received a very nice email where he opened up a little & gave me the advice of a friend. (On a personal note: Dave unlike your experience, with me a verbal & faxed agreement/contact was broken. Things didn't just go south as things sometimes do. People took direct actions in direct conflict with known agreements, with the intent of ruining my investment. In other words Scott & Gunther directly & consciously reproduced the Colors with the intent of causing my investment to suffer from there actions. I will probably never think those actions were acceptable.) John Laspina seemed to be the guy who wanted everybody to like him, which turns out fine because everybody indeed likes him. Sue Sternfeld was the show, the person who commanded attention & was completely on her game. That freaky guy who called himself "the Cool Pez Man" Him I remembered. He was the most genuinely nice person I met in my entire involvement in Pez & a friend for 10 years. Through him I met & grew to care a great deal for Marryann Kennedy who for me was the mother of the hobby of collecting Pez. When I decided to put on the first California convention the cool pez man was there & helped in any way he could, asking for nothing in return. Thank you "John the Cool Pez Man Devlin" the hobby has always benefited from your involvement.
At that convention I did buy 1 thing, a box of Smurf Pez dispensers from Sue Sternfeld. Today I don't remember why, but I was so mad about something concerning this purchase that I drove 1 hour past my turn north back to Michigan. I never bought from Sue again, though I did sell a bunch of Pez dispensers to her, including I think a thousand dollar pez bubble man. So in the end all worked out fine.
After my first trip to Canada, my first pez convention and my first advertisement containing pez, I realized a couple things. There was a demand for pez dispensers not available here in the US and that this product was readily available just across the border in Canada. What followed was my Pez Outlaw primer for the European trips. For about a year and a half I traveled to Canada every month to buy Pez dispensers at Zellers stores. I went to every store in the Ontario Province (many multiple times), I know this because I had a list of all the stores. Before I was done searching for pez in Canada, I had traveled from Toronto to Saskatoon and later even British Columbia by way of Seattle.
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| These multiple piece head Tom & Jerry Pez Dispensers were common on the racks up in Canada at the time. Picture Courtesy of Rudi. |
This is where my life as a Pez Outlaw began. For one simple reason. You are not supposed to bring Pez Dispensers licensed to sell in Canada into the US for resale. Bringing them in required a great deal of preplanning. Where to cross borders, how to refer to them and how to refer to what you were doing. Different Pez Dealers handled the border different ways. Some hid the pez and flat out smuggled them in. Some shipped them in. I even heard of one dealer who used a drop site, though I never quite understood that one. I always preferred to hide my pez in plain sight, using friendly border crossing points. Using the the outward appearance of some crazy guy doing a nutty thing. Becoming that guy, the pez guy.
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| Merry Melody Pez Dispensers were aqlso common in Canada at the time. Picture courtesy of Rudi. |
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| The Rhino Pez Dispenser in this picture is the one that got me thinking about going up to Canada. Dealers at toy shows were selling them for $25.00 each, back in 1992. This got me thinking, "I bet I could sell a few hundreds of these at $10.00 each." I actually sold a few thousand. I purchase probably 500 cases of the eight different Melody Makers pictured here. Picture courtesy of Rudi. |
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| Some of the carded Pez I brought back from Canada. I was always accused of just being a dealer. Fact is I had a huge collection. Walls and walls covered in Pez. Plus about 10 Plexiglas Cabinets FULL of Pez dispensers. Which was separate from my massive inventory. |
It was at toy shows While selling Pez in the early days that I started hearing stories about Europe & Pez Warehouses. I met a lady, I think her name was Maria, she whispered a story about a place called Kolinska in Slovenia. She said it was a warehouse, that had a store also, where you could buy pez. I also was told by Dwayne D. about the train trip he and his girlfriend took in Eastern Europe & how they brought back Silver Glow Pez dispensers. Feeling like I had enough info, Josh & I planned my first trip to Europe to buy Pez dispensers. I scraped together just under $3,000.00 & we were off. I really can't remember today if the first trip was Kolinska or the crazy drive through Eastern Europe of 4 countries in 2 days. Either way the game was afoot, shoe factories, border guards, crazy driving and pretty bad food.
Shortly After My Trips To Canada Started. I came out with the first Pez Handbook. These were always fun.
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| sorry I have no images of Pez Handbook 8, 9 or 10 |
The Pez Handbooks were always printed in Black and White. Each Pez Handbook was approximately 30 pages in length. Handbooks were meant to be promotional material and a sales tool. Even though I had a $3.00 price tag on them. I gave away almost every one with in person or by mail sales. For most issues I printed 300 to 500 copies. The handbooks had stories, convention promotion and a price guide. The last 2 pages were always items I had for sale. Plus as many pictures of Pez Dispensers as I could jam in it.
The Pez Handbooks were alway the most popular Pez item I had for collectors. I was always being asked to include the latest issue.
Austria, Traun.
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| Pez Haas factory in Traun Austria. picture courtesy of Rudi |
I left the US and arrived
in Budapest on Malev Airlines on Sunday morning. Picked up my car
($900.00 for a Chevy Corsica) & left town. Setting out to meet
my contact. As usual, half of the Pez dispensers I was promised was
there. Had to come back on Monday to for the rest. I now had the last
of the Monkey Pez dispensers & Dog Melody Maker Pez dispensers.
It appears that the last of existing inventory of Pez dispensers from
Austria was gathered together in Hungary to be used in the old
eastern block countries. Most of it having been produced in 1991
& 1992. The second infusion of older Pez dispensers for
Russia came 2 or 3 years later when all production of pez was halted
in Slovenia & existing Pez dispensers were shipped to
Hungary.
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| more pics from Pez Haas factory in Traun Austria. |
I
smuggled approximately 700,000 Pez Dispensers into the USA from Europe.
Get yours signed and authenticated as a Pez Outlaw Pez Dispenser.
When I had finished in Hungary I left for Austria. As I passed through Vienna I stopped by to visit The King of Austria. This visit covered in another area. After visiting The King, I drove to Linz. Arrived in Linz, well actually Traun. The main headquarters & worldwide headquarters for Pez corporation is located in Linz/Traun. On the few times I stayed in Traun it always made everyone very nervous, especially since I missed Scotts visit to the same area only by a day or two.
When I had finished in Hungary I left for Austria. As I passed through Vienna I stopped by to visit The King of Austria. This visit covered in another area. After visiting The King, I drove to Linz. Arrived in Linz, well actually Traun. The main headquarters & worldwide headquarters for Pez corporation is located in Linz/Traun. On the few times I stayed in Traun it always made everyone very nervous, especially since I missed Scotts visit to the same area only by a day or two.
I
stayed at the Hotel
Traunerhof (phone 07229/3323) at $45.00 a night. While there as it was
summer I visited a large flea market in downtown Linz hunting for Pez
dispensers. Saturday & Sunday between 8:00 am. & 1:00
pm. For directions ask for the Flo Market in Zentrum Linz. I found a
gray pez space gun for $2.50. You can also visit a shopping center near
Traun called Uno. On sundays between 6:00 am. & 12:00 pm.
there is a flea market there also.
Australia.
I
had heard that the company distributing Pez dispensers in Australia
had some older inventory. So I planned a trip. Kathy who had never
shown much interest in my travels, decided she wanted to go. You see my
trips consisted of long flights, lots of driving & hotels. If
you could see it from the road, that was what sight seeing was.
Except Gyor where I relaxed & got away from it all, but even
there it was mostly the Raba & centrum. Downtown in Europe is
referred to as centrum or zentrum in most countries I visited. Candy
is zukor in Hungary, show a pez dispenser & say zukor in a
store & you are directed to where Pez dispensers are.
So
Kathy decided she was going & I never saw anybody get a
passport so fast. We flew to California, then took I believe it was
Quantis airlines to Australia. The flight from California to Sydney was
over 20 hours. Arriving in Sydney we picked up our car &
drove to the hotel. This was the first country I had been in where
they drove on the wrong side of the road. The drive to the hotel was
insane. Once at the hotel we parked the car & did not drive it
again until we drove back to the airport to leave. For the entire
week we were there we took cabs. Kathy who had come to sight see used
public transport quite a bit, she was off in one direction or another
most every day. She had agreed not to rope me into her travels as she
understood I had no interest. Though she did con me into some zoo or
something & some hole in the ground called the Two Sisters.
Point
of interest, this trip took place the week Princess Diana died. I
remember this because on the way home that is all that was on the
airport TVs.
The first company I visited JNH Toys had
Pez dispenser inventory but had recently lost the distribution rights
for Pez in Australia. I often wonder if they sold all those Pez
dispensers. What I remember that they had were Melody Makers Pez
dispensers & Duck Tales Pez dispensers. They told me Millers
distributing now had the pez distribution rights. At Millers I found 4
cases of older pez dispensers, but the rest was fairly current for the
time. The good new was the guy who ran the place would ship pallets
anywhere for cash. We set up a purchase of just under $10,000.00
& my business was done. My business had taken about 3 days
& I was hoping to just relax & walk around the city.
Which I did but I also ended up on a couple of Kathy's adventures.
Customs on the trip home in California was surprisingly no problem
& the pallets arrived just fine. Though I did have to use my
broker in Grand Rapids to clear customs. I really liked Australia
& would visit again, Though next time I would lay over midway in
Hawaii for 4 or 5 days.
The name of the company
where I bought the pez was Millers Distributing Co. from John E. This
company also handled all the arrangements to ship the majority of what
I bought via freight.
Sweden.
The
trip to Sweden was one of the neetest trips I went on buying pez.
Gary Doss informed me that the Pez Pal Mariner had been released
& was available only in Sweden. Gary sent me a photo image of
the back of the Pez Playworld card. From that information I planned
the trip.
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| Mariner with body parts approx $10.00 |
I arrived in Sweden, Booked my car & Found a hotel. My stay was in Stockholm, a very interesting & nice place. Next morning I went to Toysrus. Here's something you may not know, most of the bigger cities in Western Europe, Australia & Sweden have Toysrus. Even Linz/Traun had one. Toysrus is a good place to find Pez dispensers & ask about who the distributor is. In worst case scenarios it is printed on the back of the cards & you can hire a taxi, point at the address & follow him.
After gaining/confirming the distributor address, also realizing the Pez Pal Mariner was not available at Toysrus. I set off for the distributor, he informed me this Pez dispensers was only available on the Ferry from Stockholm to Helsinki. As this trip was only about the Pez Pal Mariner I didn't buy anything from the distributor. Besides they really didn't have much, it was a pretty small operation.
Photos of the Ferry Boat I booked passage on with Silja Ferry Lines in Sweden.
I arrived at Silja Ferry lines & was allowed to board the ferry & go to the gift shop on board the ship. There I met this really wonderful lady who ran things named Tuula. She said we have about 60 or so Pez Pal Mariner available but you have to be on board as a passenger & at sea before I can sell you any. I told her I really needed a lot of them so she checked & said she had 2 pallets of pez pal mariner at the other port. Off I went to buy a ticket. I booked a round trip, in a Tax deductible high end room. It was a room with an exterior window, so a view of the whole trip. This room even had a shower & a TV. Until this trip the idea of being on a large boat out in the middle of a big body of water left me a little uneasy. After this trip I realized it was more like being in a small city that happened to be a boat.
We left port & the first group of Pez dispensers was delivered to the room, where I began tearing them down to just pez dispensers & pez body parts. So they could be bagged for my luggage. I planned to carry half the pez in my luggage & airfreight the rest. Once we arrived in Helsinki, I met with Tuula & used my credit card to pay for the pallets of Pez Pal Mariners that were being loaded. She & I had to call the US credit card company to clear the purchase as it was about $10,000.00. Once all the paperwork was done she had ships personnel, dolly cart it all up to my room. I got a lot of puzzled looks because even though this was one of the good rooms/cabins, the 2 pallets of pez pretty much filled the room. I spent the entire night in the cabin tearing down half of the Pez dispensers into my luggage & down packing the other pez cases. If you down pack pez playworlds correctly 3 cases become 2 cases easy. After down packing, pez cases had to be taped together into 8 cases per for airfreight. When completed I had 3 duffel bags full of loose Pez dispensers & 6 or 8 large packs of pez for airfreight. In the morning we arrived back at Stockholm & I had not even left the boat. Aside from meals, a shower, looking out the window & packing Pez dispensers. I had no time left, including no time for sleep. I left a really good tip for the destroyed cabin & left with the small army of guys with dollies.
Once we arrived at my car, I gave the guys there tip & off they went. I found a cab driver & we discussed the airport & what I needed to accomplish. He decided Cathe (I think it was) was the freight airline I needed. He also decided we needed a total of 2 cabs plus my car to carry all the pez to the airport. Once the 3 cars were loaded he led the way to the airport, where he helped arrange everything with the freight company. He had been very helpful & got a really good tip. After they left & the freight was completed I was left with my pez luggage & one night remaining before my flight.
I booked a room in a hotel near the airport & got a well deserved nights sleep. The trip home was easy peasy. The freight arrived no problem, thanks to my broker in Grand Rapids. The trip was a big success. Then a year later the Pez Pal Mariners showed up in Hungary for liquidation into Russia. Oh well it had been a pretty cool adventure. Bragging rights, great scenery & a boat ride.
South Africa.
This was one of 2 very disappointing Pez trips. I flew from the US to Switzerland & from there to Johannesburg/Joburg South Africa. The flight was on Swiss Air a terrific airline though if I remember correct from Switzerland to Joburg took 18 hours, a very long flight. The plan was to spend 3 days each in Jogurg searching for pez & then fly down to Cape Town for a 3 day pez search.
Things went South immediately upon arrival in Joburg. The atmosphere at the airport was troubling, jittery is the only way I can describe it. Apartheid had ended but what I sensed at the airport, was made obvious to me later. After getting my bags I was approached by a driver, he said where are you staying? I told him I hadn't actually made a reservation but figured on staying in Joburg. He immediately began shaking his head & saying no no no, you don't want to stay in Joburg & recommended a Hilton on the outskirts of Joburg. So he drove me over to the brand new Hilton in Sandy. On that drive & a few others I got the picture. White communities with 5 foot brick walls topped by razor wire & broken glass. Trucks with workers in the back driven by white people.
Even at the hotel it was apparent. The cleaning lady applied for a job, with no idea who I was or what I did. She pressed for a job based only on the fact that I was American. In the mid 90s Apartheid had ended but things were still pretty bleak.
My driver helped me accomplish everything I wanted to check on within a day & 1/2, he was amazing. The answer was nobody who had any involvement with pez would even take a meeting. No pez was bought. Even though that Hilton was the best hotel I ever stayed in & I was scheduled to fly to Capetown in a day. I got the h... out of South Africa. I had the concierge book me on the soonest flight to Hungary. Where I surprised my contact by just appearing at his home out of nowhere. He quickly put together a load of pez for me. That done, I spent the next 4 days at the Raba, just decompressing from the experience of South Africa.
Spain.
Open letter to anyone in Spain who wants to earn money.
Last night I had a large number of Views from Spain, which got me thinking about that old Pez Factory in Pamplona called DULCES UNZUE.
For a period of time there was a Pez Factory in Pamplona called DULCES UNZUE. This Pez Factory made Pez dispensers & other Pez Toys, Pez planes for sure. Not stenciled planes but planes with the word PEZ molded in the toy. I mention this to anyone in Spain who might want to get out & make some money.
Spain your unemployment rate is 25% & your economy is teetering on the brink of potential collapse. Here is where that old Pamplona called DULCES UNZUE comes in. Go to Pamplona Find the factory. Find the people who owned it. Find the workers who worked there. Find the people who did home assembly of Pez Dispensers. Among this group of people are some who have old Pez dispensers from when the worked there.
You want everything they have, complete Pez Dispensers & components. It is all worth money here in America. Do not spend a lot of money get the Pez items as cheap as possible.
En español
Carta abierta a cualquier persona en España que quiere ganar dinero.
Anoche tuve un gran número de puntos de vista de España, que me hizo pensar en que la antigua fábrica de Pez en Pamplona llama DULCES UNZUE.
Durante un período de tiempo no había una fábrica de Pez en Pamplona llama DULCES UNZUE. Esta fábrica se dispensadores de Pez Pez y otros juguetes, aviones Pez Pez con seguridad. No estarcidos planos de aviones, pero con la palabra PEZ moldeados en el juguete. Menciono esto para que nadie en España que quieran salir y hacer algo de dinero.
España la tasa de desempleo es del 25% y su economía se tambalea al borde del colapso potencial. Aquí es donde, Pamplona viejo llamado DULCES UNZUE entra en juego ir a Pamplona Encontrar la fábrica. Encuentra las personas que lo poseen. Encontrar a los trabajadores que trabajaban allí. Encuentra las personas que hicieron la asamblea casera de dispensadores de caramelos Pez. Entre este grupo de personas son algunos de los que tienen viejos dispensadores de Pez desde que el trabajaba allí.
Usted quiere que todo lo que han, complete dispensadores de caramelos Pez y componentes. Es todo el dinero que vale la pena aquí en Estados Unidos. No gaste mucho dinero obtener los artículos Pez lo más barato posible.
Now for my trip to Spain.
The trip to Spain held a lot of promise. Not since the Mariner did I have so much information ahead of time. A pez plastic molding facility had been operated outside Pamplona called Dulce Unzuay (this is from memory as I don't seem to have any written records on this trip.). I knew this from some mint in cello molded Pez planes & a package from a pez dispenser. Josh hadn't been traveling with me since the early days but he had some Spanish speaking ability so we planned this trip together.
After arriving in Barcelona we picked up our car & drove to Pamplona. We found a hotel & got a little more local info. The next day we drove over to the local Pez distributor. This info can usually be found on the back of carded pez at the bottom. As always if you are confused about directions in a foreign country, hire a cab & point to the address. When we got to the distributor we found that like most countries product was now imported complete. Used to be say like the case in Spain & Slovenia. They had there own injection molding facility & a confectionery facility that created the candy & package the final product. Now though the old confectionery facility just imported carded Pez dispensers ready for distribution.
Realizing they only imported now & all the unpackaged old pez dispensers were gone we asked about Dulce Unzuay. We were told they no longer made pez dispensers at the plastic molding facility. Well can we call & go over anyway. The call was made. We were told no we could not visit & all old pez inventory was gone. Heartbroken we left & left Spain returning home the next day. Josh had to get back to school & I had other fish to fry.
Mistakes were made on the pez trip to Spain. We never should have asked to visit the pez plastics plant, we should have just shown up. I learned early on with toys & Mickey Ds, never ask the question over the phone. Any company worth its salt is to busy to want to fool with some idiot on the phone. So being busy a fast no is always given so they can get back to what they were doing. Better to just show up and force companies to be people. On the phone a person can be a company. In person they can't. People always feel some need to be hospitable no matter who they are, if you have traveled several thousand miles to see them. Never ask an important question over the phone.
Mistake #2, I did not follow up. Knowing that home assembly was used to assemble the Pez dispensers made at Dulce Unzuay. It always has bothered me that I never planned a second trip focused on canvasing the community surrounding the pez injection molding plant for components in garages. There is no doubt in my mind that the homes or garages of the people who did the home assembly have parts for Pez dispensers still. My guess judging from the time period this would have been done in, is that no feet dispensers is what was being assembled.
The way to do this is. Locate yourself at a hotel in the immediate community surrounding Dulce Unzuay. Have the people at the hotel direct you to a local print shop that speaks English. Have that print shop create a flier in Spanish stating you are at that hotel & that you want to buy components of pez dispensers from when they did the home assembly. Walk around the neighborhood where the plastic plant was or is handing out your fliers. Put them in mail boxes & on car windshields. Let the hotel know what you are doing so people who respond can be directed to you. Plan on spending 7 to 10 days at the hotel. Have about $9,000.00 in Euros in the hotel safe to draw on as opportunities arise. Pay as little as possible for Pez dispensers that shows up.
France
Kicked to the curb in France. Quite often flying in & out of Europe, flights were missed due to late arrivals. In many cases you would be booked next day same flight which meant you stayed overnight in whatever city your delay occurred in. Frankfurt, somewhere in Switzerland, New York (an ice storm) & Paris were a few of the layovers.
France was the worst. Arriving from Vienna on my way home the flight arrived late. Here's a tip, if you don't have 2 hours for a connecting flight in Paris things get dicey real fast. Degaul airport is a sprawling facility with very old & very new sections thrown together in a very disorganized manner. Before you can check in you need to pass back through a huge funnel like areas to clear customs for international flights. At any given time 1/2 of the customs people are on break & the rest are slow. Very often you are at the back of a mass of people waiting forever, knowing your flight is boarding.
On this occasion resulting in a missed flight. We were all sent down to baggage claim to rebook. Every other missed flight I was allowed to leave my checked bags, checked in. Not this time. For normal people this is not a real problem, one or 2 large suitcases on rollers & they were all off to the hotel. In my case though it was 5 huge duffel bags & by the time I gave up arguing over the absurdity of try to take them to the hotel all the shuttles had departed. To make matters worse I had to pay someone to help me move the bags to where he said I could catch a shuttle. When I got to that location, he quickly scurried off. Leaving me to realize I was now at an isolated area outside the airport under an overpass, with 5 huge pieces of luggage full of Pez dispensers & no means of transportation. The only people around were military with machine guns. I thought here we go again.
A little background here. For the first 5 years of my travels Delta had been partnered with Lufthansa which meant the European hub was Frankfurt. Let me tell you that is one really nice airport, modern, easy to move through, nice people & all the good food joints. So nice that I almost counted the Frankfurt airport as a travel destination itself. It is hands down, my favorite airport. So it was quite a comedown when they changed & partnered with Airfrance which is the opposite in every way. Slow, mostly old, very difficult getting from a to b (if you don't have 1 hour between flights, you are in trouble), mostly rude & confusing food
The military though was a huge surprise they too were opposite of every other military in Europe I had encountered. These guys were nice, helpful & generous. The French military whose job was to guard the airport, approached & asked me what I was doing. Expecting the worst I explained. They grabbed my bags, carried them to a better location, where they had a cab waiting & loaded them in. They had even told the driver where I needed to go & haggled the price he could charge me. So France not so much, but the military in France a good friend if you ever need one.
Once in the cab I realized the guys had screened him also. The cabby was Indian & a really nice person. He offered to drive by the Eiffel tower if I wanted, so I could at least see it. Though still being in a very sour mood I declined, I just wanted to get to the hotel & go to bed, as it had been a very long day already. At the hotel he gave me his card in case I change my mind. Now I wish I had, it was a chance of a lifetime to see something very special. I checked my luggage in & headed to my room. Turns out this was a terrific hotel, great food & a terrific feather bed. I slept like a baby caught my flight the next day & made it home fine.
This trip is where I learned my airport manners. Here's what I mean. From the moment you leave home till you are again home, you are in a mechanism of travel. To fight with it or get upset is a waste of time. You will depart then return & all that really matters is how you behaved in between. When you reflect on the adventure it is better not to have memories of going crazy on people. After that trip, I quite often watched as people went nuts on airport staff at the different malfunctions that always occur. Then when they got to me I was patient, polite & understanding. Which usually amazed them because by now they were wore to a nubb.
This is even more true now. Ten years later. I don't have to think back about bad behavior at airports. I was the guy who said don't worry about it. These things happen. I'm here, all that happened, Happened. Yet I got there, I got home & it is all history now.
Germany, Czech Republic, Slovak Republic & Switzerland.
I actually traveled extensively through most of these countries. Even though I never really stayed in them. Land in Germany drive the Autobahn to Austria. Czech & Slovak were both parts of big searches for Pez in the early days. Most trips involved a lot of driving from somewhere to somewhere else to get stuff.
Switzerland was a hub in some of my travels. The layovers were so long sometimes that I count them as a visit.
Other Books By Pez Outlaw/sj glew
The Cereal Box Price Guide
Princess Puddy n The Golden Bowl
The Barrel Book
Used Dogs
My home may have arrived on wheels, but we took them off.
If you take the wheels off your house, that makes you a high class Redneck.
Sometimes when you are poor, it's not the content that has value, it's the box.
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