In Another Europe: A Journey Across Hungary and Romania

by Georgina Harding

In 1988 Georgina Harding rode her bike from Vienna to Istanbul, through Hungary, greeting its own form of Glasnost with caution, then into Stalinist Romania, which she considers the most repressive and backward regime in Europe. The result is an exploration of the whole European identity.

Genres: Romania, Travel, Nonfiction, Hungary

240 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 1990

About the author

Georgina Harding is an English author of fiction. Published works include her novels Painter of Silence (shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction 2012), The Spy Game (shortlisted for The Encore Award 2011), and The Solitude of Thomas Cave.

She has also written two works of non-fiction: Tranquebar: A Season in South India and In Another Europe. She lives in London and the Stour Valley, Essex.

Reviews

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am the first person to rate/review this. Only because it is out of print. It is a great read, essential if you have an interest in the changes to Europe in the late 80s, more from a human point of view than the politics.

I had arranged to meet Sandor the next day outside a cafe in a little square in the old Hungarian part of town. He was late, came running at six. 'I am sorry, I came straight from the factory. There is some crazy production plan so we never finish work. And I could not change. Please forgive the workclothes. Is the coffee real?'
It wasn't. But they had stopped serving coffee anyway; he came back from the counter with two bowls of sage-green ice cream. 'Have you tried Romanian ice cream?'
I had seen it, always the same colour. It was more ice than cream but cool on the tongue. 'What flavour is it?'
'Who knows.' he said. 'Green.'

[Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is wonderful travel writing. Despite being small, this book captures a lost world, that of Ceausescu's Romania during the last couple of years before the dictator's death at the hands of his people.

Ms Harding decided to cycle across Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria to Istanbul in 1988. Her descriptions of the people, landscape, and conditions, that she encountered are both vivid and highly evocative. Her observations about the then prevailing social and political scene are perceptive. Her writing is economical, but effective. She transports the reader's mind right into the lands through which she travelled ... brilliantly.

This is one of the best travelogues that I have read for a long time.

[Jo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not only à stark and almost astonishing account of a journey that speaks of a vastly different world but beautifully written. Definitely recommend.

[Chris Wares · Rating 4 out of 5]

This short book was written in 1989, just before the revolution and a year or so before Dervla Murphy's trip. The fact is was written before Ceaucescu fell gives it a rare perspective but she is just on holiday. She paints a picture of a warm rural country that is even handed in her judgements.

Harding takes a similar route to Murphy entering the country from Ordea on the northern border with Hungary and then cycling across Transylvania down to Bulgaria.

I liked Harding and was happy to keep her company