The Hidden Europe What Eastern Europeans Can Teach Us WanderLearn Series Book 2 eBook Francis Tapon
Download As PDF : The Hidden Europe What Eastern Europeans Can Teach Us WanderLearn Series Book 2 eBook Francis Tapon 
Francis Tapon yearned for a European adventure, but Western Europe seemed too tame and passé. So he traveled for 3 years visiting every Eastern European country—all 25 of them.
The Hidden Europe cleverly mixes insightful facts with hilarious personal anecdotes. It's profound, yet light. Francis Tapon is a sharp observer who helps you distinguish a Latvian from a Lithuanian, while not confusing Slovenia with Slovakia.
You'll also learn
- Why Baltic people are human squirrels.
- When and why Poland disappeared from Europe.
- Why Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia broke up.
- Why Hungarians are really Martians.
- How Slovenians learn languages so quickly.
- Why the Balkans is so screwed up.
- Why there's much more to Romania than Dracula.
- Which Moldovan tradition saves marriages.
- What the future holds for Belarus, Ukraine, Russia.
- Why communism was a dream . . . and a nightmare.
You'll understand a side of Europe that is still mysterious and misunderstood even 20 years after the fall of the Soviet Union. Francis Tapon is an ideal guide in a book that will become a classic travel narrative.
SUMMARY
When people say that they're "going to Europe," they're usually referring to Western Europe. But what about Eastern Europe? You don’t really know Europe until you visit its mysterious eastern side.
Francis Tapon’s quest was simple explore every country in Eastern Europe from the Gulf of Finland to the Black Sea. He saw them all in 2004 and then returned in 2008 to revisit them to see what had changed. He finally left in 2011 to share a side of Europe that few know.
Starting in the Baltic, you'll move through Belarus, Poland, Slovakia and get as far west as Slovenia before heading south into the thrilling Balkans. Then you'll head northeast through Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova, Ukraine, and Russia. It's a 25-country adventure spanning several years!
The Hidden Europe is an entertaining travelogue that also shares practical lessons that will impact your day-to-day life. You’ll learn about today's Eastern Europe along with understanding the complex history of this fascinating region.
You’ll also see how the locals live and realize that they do some things better than most of the world. You’ll understand why smart money and groundbreaking tourists are flocking to this undiscovered territory. Best of all, you won’t have to deal with the grumpy train ticket vendors.
REVIEWS
“Francis Tapon is a modern incarnate of the spirit of Solon or Pericles he travels to foreign countries to watch things, for the sake of contemplation. And he does it with an extremely sharp eye and lot of wit. The Hidden Europe What Eastern Europeans Can Teach Us is not only the book of the year; it also sets the twenty-first century’s standard for travelogues.” — Flórián Farkas, Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Eurasian Studies
“The Hidden Europe is a brilliant and insightful book. Francis Tapon travels for years visiting every Eastern European at least twice. What emerges is a travelogue on steroids. It’s profound, but has a light tone. You’ll learn much and laugh often.” — Amar Bhidé, Professor at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University
“Francis Tapon analyzes Eastern European economies, politics, and history on the one hand, and then he’ll share his linguistics woes and truly unusual escapades on the other. Somehow it all works, like a carefully (and often funny!) assembled jigsaw puzzle.” — Adrian Mihai Cioroianu, Ph.D., former Romanian Minister of Foreign Affairs
“Francis Tapon is the master of taking highly complex issues about Eastern Europe and making them easy to understand and enjoyable to read. The Hidden Europe is a competition between profound insights and devilish humor. Either way, the reader wins.” — Marco Iansiti, Harvard Business School professor
The Hidden Europe What Eastern Europeans Can Teach Us WanderLearn Series Book 2 eBook Francis Tapon
I learned a lot from this book, in more ways than one.First, the book is, truly, a great achievement, being a vast volume comprised mostly of firsthand experiences in Eastern Europe. There was much valuable information in this sense alone, in a purely travelogue-type way. Also, there were many informative historical briefs for each country and its people, which I also found valuable (insofar as brief historical treatments can be valued, anyway). Second, the author offered many intelligent, sound analyses based on these experiences, along with what he felt they could teach us. Usually, his logic and conclusions were above-average and reasonable, respectively. The author impressed me as genuinely enamored with the world, and concerned for its well-being. The book was often funny, to boot, with a steady sprinkling of clever wisecracks -- never a bad thing, humor.
One negative, however, was the scathing, insulting tone used throughout the text (or so I perceived the tone; perhaps hearing these things spoken aloud would've clarified my perceptions). People and practices were regularly judged as "stupid," "retarded," or "crazy," along with lots of generalizing and conclusion-jumping thrown in the mix. While these things wouldn't normally have bothered me, the fact that, in the book's preface, the author himself denounced all such shallow thinking, lent an annoying, double-minded dimension to it all, making the book a bit hard to read. It would be like me saying "Francis Tapon is a stupid idiot for calling people stupid idiots." In this sense, the book had a third dimension, presenting a study of how even a seemingly intelligent and self-analyzing person can blatantly contradict themselves. (But then, who of us are without our contradictions and mental blindspots?)
All in all, I enjoyed this book very much, and benefited from it. So, a big thank-you to the author and the book's subjects.
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The Hidden Europe What Eastern Europeans Can Teach Us WanderLearn Series Book 2 eBook Francis Tapon Reviews
I enjoyed the stories and the author has a good conversational tone. As the premise is seeing what changed from an original on '05, to a revisting of the same areas in '09, I'd be interested in an 3rd visit update. The last almost-decade has seen a lot of changes in that region, and it'd be an interesting perspective. However, the world is a very large place, with lots to explore, so I can understand the author striking out into new territory, instead of re-revisting this particular one. Thumbs up as a travel journal, vs a more guide style
The name of this book, “The Hidden Europe What Eastern Europe Can Teach Us” gives us the broad description of what we can see inside. The book is about Eastern European countries, their history, traditions and culture. Unlike many other travel books, this one goes into ethnography in a superior way.
Francis Tapon dedicated a part of his life to travel and describe the world. His first book “Hike Your Own Hike” is for those who like to get travel experiences by foot. As a consequence, it would have been loved by a small circle of readers, but “The Hidden Europe“ is dense with information which is full of action and humor. His work is a result of about 3 years travelling in 25 Eastern European countries.
Because the name “Eastern Europe” is stigmatized, from the first part of the book Francis gives the reason why he included particular counties in that region. There are many definitions of Eastern Europe, and most identities are spatial. For that reason, the chapter with introduction takes up many pages explaining geographical reasons for the selection of lands. In the same chapter, he advocates himself for using generalization. Many conclusions in this book are brought up from the process of generalization. As a result, a number of readers from these countries might disagree with the opinion of the author. But generalization on the other hand gives us the way to judge. Stereotypes are just side effects of generalization.
To fill this book with unique information Francis tried to immerse into a local life as much as possible. He stayed in private apartments using his account in Couchsurfing, he got to know locals and visited different cities, dealt with weather, homesick and local authorities. As a result, he not only expressed the full characterization of each country and its brief history, but he also conveyed national moods. In other words, he did a terrific job. Hats off to him.
What we should know is that the book is not an insult for particular traditions or habits. It shows full picture of how things are going on specific countries.
I look forward to his next book about Africa.
As someone who studies EE, I was glad to see him talk about numerous little-known things, such as the Russian minorities in the Baltics and the aversion of the label "Eastern Europe" by citizens of those countries that sometimes/most times are labeled so. Especially the fact that this is written from an American perspective, it helps guide readers who go into it cold, with whimsical and multi-faceted yet simple to consume explanation of historical backgrounds. I'm only a few chapters in at this point and the only negative is I wish he would've left out the sexual encounters part. It distracts from the story and gives potential for a misperception that EE is primarily full of beautiful women looking for sex, and doesn't reflect well on himself. Sure, some readers might enjoy this and may've had similar experiences, but all of my experiences in EE centered around so much more to life and culture that are worth expounding upon...and not all sauna experiences are sexually-charged temptations with strangers asking to give you a massage... But he clearly buffers himself from internalizing any negative feedback, as articulated in his Introduction section, so I guess there's no point in mentioning that any further. Overall, it's as could be expected - a good book but not one to take too seriously
I learned a lot from this book, in more ways than one.
First, the book is, truly, a great achievement, being a vast volume comprised mostly of firsthand experiences in Eastern Europe. There was much valuable information in this sense alone, in a purely travelogue-type way. Also, there were many informative historical briefs for each country and its people, which I also found valuable (insofar as brief historical treatments can be valued, anyway). Second, the author offered many intelligent, sound analyses based on these experiences, along with what he felt they could teach us. Usually, his logic and conclusions were above-average and reasonable, respectively. The author impressed me as genuinely enamored with the world, and concerned for its well-being. The book was often funny, to boot, with a steady sprinkling of clever wisecracks -- never a bad thing, humor.
One negative, however, was the scathing, insulting tone used throughout the text (or so I perceived the tone; perhaps hearing these things spoken aloud would've clarified my perceptions). People and practices were regularly judged as "stupid," "retarded," or "crazy," along with lots of generalizing and conclusion-jumping thrown in the mix. While these things wouldn't normally have bothered me, the fact that, in the book's preface, the author himself denounced all such shallow thinking, lent an annoying, double-minded dimension to it all, making the book a bit hard to read. It would be like me saying "Francis Tapon is a stupid idiot for calling people stupid idiots." In this sense, the book had a third dimension, presenting a study of how even a seemingly intelligent and self-analyzing person can blatantly contradict themselves. (But then, who of us are without our contradictions and mental blindspots?)
All in all, I enjoyed this book very much, and benefited from it. So, a big thank-you to the author and the book's subjects.
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