Was it expensive or inexpensive to stay in Europe?

Europe was expensive, thus, Ansary chose not to linger..... the costs were eating up his money.

"I had planned to linger in parts of Europe, but I changed my mind once I got there and just hurried from Paris to Madrid to Algeciras, hardly stopping to eat, or even to sleep, because I could see that European restaurants and hotels would drain the money out of me like yogurt out of a cheesecloth bag.