Laudator Temporis Acti

Lawrence Durrell (1912-1990), The Greek Islands (London: Faber and Faber, 1980), p. 173:

It is quite a good idea to do what Greek holidaymakers so often do, get yourself 'marooned' for a day or a weekend. Start by borrowing a sack and filling it with a couple of blocks of ice upon which to put your beer, wine, butter, and anything else which might turn with the heat. Strike a price with your boatman to carry you to the bathing beach of your choice and Crusoe you. But if you do this, do not forget to take an umbrella or parasol — even several of them. The stretch of heat from midday to sundown can turn a Nordic skin to roast pork and cost the unwary person a couple of days in bed with fever; it's a fine way to ruin a holiday. Your boatman will return at evening to get you, and carry you home to harbour at sundown, exhausted and happy and burning (in several senses) for a cold shower and an ouzo with ice, plus a slice of delicious cold octopus. There is nothing to compare with the sense of well-being after such a day — and it is all quarried out of frugality. Greece is a wonderful school for hoggish nations; you suddenly realize that you don't need all the clobber of so-called civilization to achieve happiness and physical well-being. Just to think of a Paris menu, or a Los Angeles dustbin, fills one with shame, makes one queasy. How did we get to be this way — we pigs?