NetGalley review
If I'd have ever gone from Kaunas to Dubrovnik it'd have been by (highly implausible) organised coach trip and not required a dogleg via Moscow. I haven't done that non-existent holiday, however, nor anything like it, but have popped into a few of the places en route, making this a welcome retread of old ground and visit to places new. And I leave the author in the unique position of needing the train guard to evict someone from his bunk on an overnight train to Budapest, seemingly leaving himself with the lad's girlfriend and the quandary of undressing for the night. This surprisingly slender volume actually managed to convey what I felt it should. I mean it's fine, while it's being slight. I would mention it's a 2021 book discussing 2013 events and sights, having been written in 2017, but someone's already slated me for saying travel books go out of date (er, yeah they do age, much like the best of us, and when the places are as accessible as this, at least). The whole has a friendly mien, meaning it's what you'd make notes of to tell your buddies, a mixture of what you did and where what is. The style has no pretensions to being great travel literature, it's just a common response to some fabulous locations. I couldn't get anything of Vilnius from the recap here, but my visit was decades ago. It certainly was a long time since I'd thought of Budapest's Memento Park, where all the ex-communicated Soviet statues (ex-Commie-cated?) lie for perusal. I've not been back to Yugoslavia since its dispersal, and the writing here certainly made me think about joining a few dots, even if it did have the slight touch of being less than thoroughly discerning. That said, pretty much anywhere in Europe is a safe bet for a nice time, and it's likewise hard to fail at presenting a diary of your travels round the place. There're no failures here. Original review: https://www.netgalley.co.uk/book/239389/review/168653
