expense of Paris overrated

Paris is often mentioned and ranked as among the most expensive cities in the world. And I can’t argue with the number-crunchers, I guess. But I’ve just never felt that financially burdened here compared with some other places. Maybe it’s that I always have so much fun in Paris that it has a sort of numbing effect and I don’t notice that the city is bleeding my dry. But really, I don’t ever think of it as that horribly expensive.

Other places overrated as to expense:

*Malta. Everyone says “it’s so expensive!” And they even give the perfectly logical rationale that it’s a tiny island nation (you can see the whole country, literally, while coming in to land at the airport) that must import a lot of its goods. Nonetheless, I didn’t think it was too expensive at all.

*Tokyo. A controversial choice, because obviously the housing is horrendously expensive. But I was there for a week with a very lucky hotel deal, and didn’t have to worry about this. Yes, there were a few shockers, such as the price of a plate of simple spaghetti with tomato sauce (I think it was $14 or so). But I didn’t feel financially hammered there, after all the years of screams from others.

It is said that Moscow is the worst of all, but I’ve never been. Of the places I’ve been, the biggest cripplers were:

*London! Good God, how do people afford to live there? It’s better for foreigners there now that the Pound Sterling has dropped, but when you look at the prices for something such as one ride on the Tube, please, it’s just ridiculous. How can real humans afford to live in London? I still don’t understand. Every time I went for an extended period of time, it was a flirtation with bankruptcy.

*Reykjavik. Nearly as bad as London. I was in Iceland for somewhere around two weeks, I think, a full week of it in the capital city. And the expense of the place was indeed absurd. I suppose it’s probably gotten cheaper since the big economic crash there.

Cheapest place I ever visited? Hands down: Syria. You can hardly spend your money there. I exchanged a mere pittance upon entering, and never managed to spend it all.

As for Europe, Poland always used to be the best deal I knew of. They say that’s no longer the case, but my hosts were too generous this time ever to let me try to pay for anything myself, so I really don’t know.