The Hidden Europe

The Hidden Europe: What Eastern Europeans Can Teach Us is a travel narrative based on Francis Tapon's trips to Eastern Europe. Watch the book trailer!

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Background

For many Westerners, Eastern Europe is about as appealing as a deodorant-free French armpit. That didn't scare Francis Tapon because not only did he learn how to rough it by walking across America four times, but he is also half French, so he kind of smells too.

Francis spent nearly 3 years traveling and backpacking in 25 Eastern European countries. It started with a 5-month trip in 2004. He returned in 2008 to spend 3 years exploring all the countries again. The Hidden Europe is Book Two of the WanderLearn Series.

There are 25 chapters (one for each country). Each chapter:

Examines an Eastern European country's history, food, language, sites, stereotypes, and drinking habits.
Covers Francis Tapon's adventures in that country.
Ends with a summary of what practical things you can learn from that country.

The Hidden Europe book trailer and tour

Read about how I define Eastern Europe.
The hardcover book is 736-pages long (330,000 words) and has one color map of Eastern Europe along with a ribbon bookmark.
It has already received many positive endorsements and reviews, including...

"The Hidden Europe is an invigorating narrative packed with useful tips and colorful stories. . . . It's an entertaining summary of his observations on spending time in each of the 25 different countries in the eastern half of the continent. . . . I had so much fun reading through this book. And it covers every country and every corner of Eastern Europe with a beautiful breezy style, with a fun, intimate report on how Francis enjoyed 3 years exploring Eastern Europe." — Rick Steves, Travel Expert

“Francis Tapon provides us with a wide-ranging personal and historical travelogue. . . . The result is one of the world's most personal, idiosyncratic, and unorthodox cultural and historical travel guide. It's really an impressive and ambitious book.” — Michael Krasny, Host on KQED's Forum

“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

Dust Jacket

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.

The book has 16 pages of color photos and a color map!

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 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.

About the author

Francis Tapon is a public speaker, world traveler, and life coach. Author of Hike Your Own Hike: 7 Life Lessons from Backpacking Across America, he has traveled to over 75 countries. He was born and raised in San Francisco. He is a first-generation American, born of a French father and a Chilean mother. He has a degree in Religion from Amherst College and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Where to buy

The best place to buy the hardcover is at the WanderLearn Shop because:

The books are the same price everywhere else.
100% of your money goes to the author (instead of the retailer).
You get three DRM-free electronic versions to choose from (ePub, PDF, mobi-Kindle).
30-day money-back guarantee!

However, if you prefer the ebook, then buy The Hidden Europe ebook at Amazon. Amazon has the exclusive right to sell the ebook. What if you don't have a Kindle ebook reader? Just download the Kindle App on your preferred ebook reader and see it there.

About the book creation

Readers like you helped design The Hidden Europe. For example, there was a $1,000 Book Cover Contest that got 80 submissions. The top 10% went through a playoff round, and you can check out the results. There was even a vote on which author photo to use. Francis had about 100 Beta Readers giving him feedback on the early book drafts. In short, The Hidden Europe is the result of substantial input from all over the planet, especially the US and Eastern Europe.

Discuss The Hidden Europe

Do you want to comment on The Hidden Europe? It's certainly a controversial book that will stir debates about Eastern Europe. Share your thoughts or read what others are saying in The Hidden Europe Forum.

The book's hardcover ISBN # is 9780976581222. The ebook ISBN # is 9780976581239.