LAURENCE MACKINreviews Through Another Europe: An Anthology of Travel Writing on the Balkansand the BulgariaRough Guide
Through Another Europe: An Anthology of Travel Writing on the Balkans
Edited by Andrew Hammond
Signal Books, £14.99
Few regions of Europe still seem properly and excitingly foreign; the Balkans, though, still seems challenging. The idea of the region is vague in most people’s minds, and leads to images of war, poverty and sharp intakes of breath.
Reading this collection, it is easy to see why. Ed Vulliamy's excerpt is utterly horrifying; Mark Thompson's cut from A Paper Houseis gently menacing; and Dave Rimmer's account of a Romanian road trip is hilarious in its desperation.
It’s not all blood and bother, though. Will Myer’s account of a night in the company of Macedonian dervishes is thrilling, and many of the earlier accounts are shot through with the irrepressible romanticism of the intrepid traveller on the road.
This is a robust anthology that is a pleasure to dip into randomly, and it goes some way to demonstrating just how culturally diverse and delightfully different some European regions remain.
Bulgaria
Rough Guide, £14.99
For many years Bulgaria was one of communism’s best-kept secrets, the resort of choice of apparatchiks in the know. Away from the gorgeous Black Sea coast, the countryside offers stunning scenery, including the stupendous Trigrad Gorge and the opulent Aleksandar Nevski Church.
This is a reassuringly comprehensive guide, with good breakout sections on rituals and customs and Bulgaria’s great outdoors, as well as the Bulgarian secret to (almost) eternal youth: yogurt.