World Roamer

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 468, 25 September 1928, Page 15

World Roamer

Pleasure-Seeker Returns FOUND ROMANCE IN TRAVEL For three years Mr. Norman F. Perrier, of Melbourne, has roamed the earth from its most southern town. Terra del Fuego, South America, to the far northern settlement in Spit;"-; bergent, from to New York, 1 and seeking pleasure and knowledge throughout Europe, from Constants i nople to Leningrad. He has sun-baked by the Black Sea.! where neither men nor women wear any costumes, threaded his way through thousand of destitude children and adults asleep on the pave- ; ments of Chinese cities, attended cock fights in Peru and Chile, bought a ticket in Buenos Aires in the million peso lottery, been taken for a Turk in Constantinople, ordered out of Russia by Soviet police, has resisted all the efforts of “high pressure’’ land salesmen in Florida, has seen Niagara Fails in the United States and Victoria Falls in South Africa. He has watched the magic shadow show of this world ipove in fascinating procession, and found it not all good, but absorbingly interesting—and now ruefully faces the task of getting back to work again in Melbourne. Spoke Only English Mr. Perrier went alone, making friends as he went. He travelled a lot in Europe with a chance-met American, and later visited him at his home in Los Angeles, and went across the Mexican border -with him. He could speak no other language than English, but picked up phrases here and there. It was the best fun of all, he said, to go into a new coulitry, knowing nothing of the language, and order a meal in a restaurant. In Sofia he found that our affirmative nod meant ‘‘No’’ to them, and our "No” meant “Yes.” So when the waiter pointed to a meal on an adjoining table, and Mr. Perrier nodded" agreement, the waiter did not bring it! So he went out into the kitchen, lifted the lids from the pots, and picked his dinner. “They didn’t like it as first,” he says, “but a tip soon fixed it.” Afterwards he often pursued that method. The Balkan States

Much of the romance has gone from Turkey and other Balkan States because of the standardisation of dress, and it is difficult to tell people’s'nationality. Mr. Perrier says that often he was asked to direct people, but could not help because of the language problem. He was taken for a Turk in Constantinople, a Serbian in Serbia and a German tn Berlin, and in Palestine he was taken for a fool! The guides showed him the “very manger in which Christ was born,” and bottles which they said contained the wine made in the first miracle. He sojourned in Egypt, lingered a while in Italy, passed on to Switzerland.

He tells of the neatness of the Germans, who would not throw boxes, matches or other- rubbish into the street any more than on to their floor of their own living rooms. Thenstreets are in striking contrast to those of Melbourne, he says. He roamed for many weeks through Germany and idled in nearly every Balkan State.