The Hidden Europe hardcover book

For an extra 99 cents, you can have this book autographed to you or someone special. Francis will autograph it to your name unless you specify otherwise in the "Add Comments About Your Order" box when you order.

The official release date is April 28, 2012, so you will get it well before everyone else! 

The hardcover book is 750-pages long and has one color map along with a ribbon bookmark. To learn more about the book, visit The Hidden Europe webpage.

Back of Book

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.

The ebook has 60 color photos!

Dust Jacket flaps

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. 

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