About this title: From Scandinavia to Turkey, Bryson retraces his youthful, solo backpacking expedition that eventually landed him in England for 20 years. His experience lends wit to this slightly ethnocentric tour of greater Europe.
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Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Black Swan
Date Published: 1998
ISBN-13:9780552998062ISBN:0552998060
Description: Good. A decent reading copy which shows signs of its use. Our books are dispatched from Bridgend, South Wales. Your Satisfaction Guarenteed. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: William Morror and Co, New York
Date Published: 1992
ISBN-13:9780688103118ISBN:0688103111
Description: Very Good in Good jacket. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. 25% of the proceeds from this book will be donated to charity. small tears and rubbing to d/w. previous owners details sticker inside. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: William Morrow
Date Published: 1992
ISBN-13:9780688103118ISBN:0688103111
Description: Good. All orders are dispatched from our UK warehouse within one working day. Established in 2004. No quibble refund if not completely satisfied. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Black Swan
Date Published: 1998
ISBN-13:9780552998062ISBN:0552998060
Description: Good. Book cover-The cover of this book is creased or has markings in accordance with the book's age. Previous owner's name written in the book. **SHIPPED FROM UK** We believe you will be completely satisfied with our quick and reliable service. All orders are dispatched as swiftly as possible! Buy with confidence! read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Black Swan
Date Published: 1998
ISBN-13:9780552998062ISBN:0552998060
Description: Good. This book is in GOOD overall condition. It shows signs of having been read and has general light wear to the cover, spine and pages. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Black Swan
Date Published: 1998
ISBN-13:9780552998062ISBN:0552998060
Description: Good. **SHIPPED FROM UK** We believe you will be completely satisfied with our quick and reliable service. All orders are dispatched as swiftly as possible! Buy with confidence! read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Black Swan
Date Published: 1998
ISBN-13:9780552998062ISBN:0552998060
Description: Good. * BOOKS DISPATCHED WITHIN 24 HOURS * SATISFACTION GUARANTEED * ALL QUESTIONS ANSWERED PROMPTLY * SHIPPED FROM UK * USA DELIVERY IN 3-5 DAYS * SHIPPED FROM UK: USA & EUROPE SPECIALISTS DELIVERY IN 3-5 DAYS. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Black Swan
Date Published: 1998
ISBN-13:9780552998062ISBN:0552998060
Description: Good. Our aim is to create value for our customers through the provision of low cost, affordable products and an overall satisfying buying experience. read more
Description: Very good. Hardback. May contain minor creasing/scuffing to dust cover and mild tanning to pages. But otherwise will be of exceptional quality. FAST DISPATCH. read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: BLACK SWAN
Date Published: 1998
ISBN-13:9780552998062ISBN:0552998060
Description: Published by Black Swan in 1998. Paperback. Number of pages: 304. Condition: Acceptable. Reading copy ONLY Ex-library book (usual stamps and marks). Hinges cracked internally. Shipped from UK. Delivery is usually 2-3 working days from order by Royal Mail, International Delivery is by Airmail. read more
"This is the second Bill Bryson book that I read. The first about his travels in Britain and this a tale of him retracing a European vacation he took as a youth. Not much of interest here. All most every hotel Bryson chooses to stay in are dumps or modern dumps. He has no luck in picking restaurants either. He seems to whinge about most places and only really seems to enjoy Italy and there he was robbed by a street urchin who picked his pocket of all his traveller's checks. Being unable to speak with anyone as apparently he is a monoglot, he becomes bored with his own company and by the time he gets to Turkey he has had enough and the book abruptly ends."
"Sometimes I really wish you could give 1/2 stars on this website because I would probably give this book three and a half stars. On a positive note, the book was very humorous in parts and made me laugh out loud several times (luckily no one was around). On the negative side though, the book especially towards the end seems to get very repetitive. He talks about going to each town, finding a hotel, going immediately out to explore the town, which to him seems to consist of walking around and drinking coffee at the cafes. I have nothing against walking around or drinking coffee, but I guess I expected him to tell more about the historical sights, the museums, the different and exotic places. I really expected him to visit places like the Eiffel tower but his travels seems to be strangely lacking this type of travel. Also, again especially toward the end of the book he seems to be a bit snobbish, complaining about the train not having a buffet cart, or how much they charge him for certain things when he obviously has plenty of money. It can just get a bit tiresome and repetitive, but it was very funny in parts. I wouldn't exactly recommend it though, I picked up one of his other books at the library and after reading this one I think I am going to skip it."
"If you like traveling, you will love this book. Nothing brings more nostalgia of your wanderlust than reading this book.
Reading Bryson, I found myself transported back to those cities, those streets, those sights, those moments, where I had myself been earlier; and could remember the things that my mind had carelessly observed, but never really captured in words or picture...
I couldn't help wondering that it be great to go on a trip WITH Bill Bryson !! That would be quite an experience !
Even traffic, trash and tramps sound funny when Bill talks about it...
When I picked up the book, I thought I will get a balanced view of whats good and whats bad in these cities. But the author's purpose is simply to mock each place and the people therein, which he is quite successful at. At times the key points that the author makes become repetitive and annoying, but mostly its a fun read due to the way he writes."
"Bill Bryson describes his three month journey through Europe with self-deprecating humor and obvious affection for his source material.
I didn't enjoy this one as much as other Bryson works, though I think that's probably because I just wanted to read about his travels through Italy, as I've just been there myself. Those were, in fact, my favorite chapters of the book. Perhaps if I'd been to the other cities he visited, I'd have been more entertained.
As it was, I felt myself experiencing--as Bryson does himself--travel fatigue toward the end of the book.
QUOTES:
on Hammerfest: "It seemed an egreeable enough town in a thank-you-God-for-not-making-me-live=here sort of way."
on not being multi-lingual: "I can't think of anything that excites a greater sense of childlike wonder than to be in a country where you are ignorant of almost everything. Suddenly you are five years old again. You can't read anything, you have only the most rudimentary sense of how things work, you can't even reliably cross a street without endangering your life. Your whole existence becomes a series of interesting guesses."
on French "service": "The sluglike creature would stare at you in patent disbelieft, then turn to the other customers and address them in French at much too high a speed for you to follow, but the drift of which clearly was that this person here, this American tourist, had come in and asked for a dead beaver adn she had given him a dead beaver and now he was saying that he didn't want a dead beaver at all, he wanted a loaf of bread. The other customers would look at you as if you had just tried to fart in their handbags ..."
on walking in Paris: "The problem is that the pedestrian crossing lights have been designed with the clear purpose of leaving the foreign visitor confused, humiliated, and, if all goes according to plan, dead."
on Bruges: "I ... never once saw a street I wouldn't want to live on, a bar I wouldn't like to get to know, a view I wouldn't wish to call my own. It was hard to accept that the place was real--that people came home to these houses every night and shopped in these shops and walked their dogs on these streets and went through life thinking that this is the way of the world."
on German music: "It should have been written into the armistice treaty that the Germans would be required to lay down their accordions along with their arms."
on the modernization of the Danish countryside: "It struck me as odd and sad that man could for centuries have so effortlessly graced the landscape with structures that seemed made for it--little arched bridges and stone farmhouses, churches, windmills, winding roads, hedgerows--and now appeared quite unable to do anything to the countryside that wasn't like a slap across the face."
on Scandinavian food: "Eating in Sweden is really just a series of heartbreaks."
on a change in schedule: "Traveling is more fun--hell, life is more fun--if you can treat it as a series of impulses."
on parking cars in Rome: "You turn any street corner in Rome and it looks as if you've just missed a parking competition for blind people."
on the gloomy atmosphere in Geneva: "It was spring on the streets, but February on people's faces.""
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