‘Amazing Adventures of a Nobody’: Seeing America On $5 a Day
Travel Blog • Michael Yessis • 09.20.05 | 4:21 AM ET
Two days ago, Leon Logothetis set out from New York City to travel across the United States on a mere $5 a day. He’s being followed by a film crew, which is tormenting Logothetis by staying in luxury hotels and eating gourmet food. Logothetis calls himself a “nobody,” and is counting on the goodness of strangers to help him find food and places to sleep. I don’t think he’s going to have much of a problem. As Ramon Stoppelenburg proved a couple years back, people will bend over backwards to help out a traveler on an extremely limited budget, particularly one with a gimmick and a well-crafted Web site.
Stoppelenburg, a Dutch twentysomething, traveled for more than two years without spending a Euro, a journey he chronicled on LetMeStayForADay and in a subsequent book of the same name. Ramon was the subject of the first-ever World Hum blog item, and he sat for a Q&A in May 2002. “People are good,” he said. “Am I impressed by all this goodness? No, absolutely not! If this human goodwill would impress me something is very wrong with the world we live in. It should be very normal! Sometimes I am more impressed with the fact that others are so amazed by it. It opens eyes and I am very happy with that. One of the things I have realized during my travels is how people are so much attached to whatever they see on TV or read in the newspapers. Some people believe anything. I believe that more people should know just a little bit more about the world we live in and the people who inhabit it. We are all the same. We all live life, work and go shopping—only sometimes you have different cultures. Some are very advanced and have the shopping mall around the corner, others make their food themselves, but it doesn’t make anybody any different.”
In the coming days we’ll see if Logothetis comes to share Stoppelenburg’s outlook. He’s writing a blog and podcasting as he goes, and it looks like the blogosphere and local media are on his trail, too. He made it to Philadelphia yesterday. Blinq and Philebrity have reports.
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Michael Yessis is the cofounder and coeditor-in-chief of World Hum.
Terry 02.02.06 | 1:59 PM ET
I really enjoy watching Leon on his adventures around the UK and the States, shame it was just a trailer, if it was full lenght and on TV I think allot of people would watch it.
anna 02.02.06 | 6:27 PM ET
I agree terry…I really want to see what he has put together. and…he is cute too. :)
Greg C. 07.17.07 | 11:28 AM ET
You should see the crazy mischief Leon gets into in the U.S.
Tedd 01.18.08 | 7:15 PM ET
Welcome to America, good luck on your journey. You always have a place to stay, and a meal in New Jersey, as I myself have traveled the U.S. in a similar fassion with great success due to the good nature of others.
Your friend in N.J.
Tedd