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Title: On Foot to the Golden Horn: A Walk to Istanbul by Jason Goodwin ISBN: 0-312-42067-6 Publisher: Picador USA Pub. Date: 01 January, 2003 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00

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Average Customer Rating: 3.6 (5 reviews)

Rating: 5
Summary: Intriguing, gritty portrait of Central Europe
Comment: Jason Goodwin has produced a wonderfully inventive travel book, one in which Istanbul is the ultimate goal. Wanting to have some sort of experience of what was it was like to visit such a distant goal in the past, as well as to tour Central Europe, he and two friends walk there! They journey on foot (only very rarely accepting short rides) from the northern Polish port city of Gdansk all the way through the rest of Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria into Turkey. An incredible journey, he describes it vividly, with worries about bandits, wolves, bears, the weather, hostile customs officials, dogs, and most of all finding food and a place to sleep at night. They meet an interesting and diverse group of people along the road, many of whom befriend them, taking them into their homes, sharing part of their lives with the travelers.

Perhaps somewhat dated, published as it was in the early 1990s, Goodwin does provide an interesting portrait of Central Europe. The book spends quite a bit of time in Poland, a land shaped by the rise and fall of empires, shaped by the northern crusades of the Teutonic Knights, the Hanseatic League, of various powers that had over the centuries coveted and eventually gobbled sections or all of Poland, the broad flat plains of the country providing little obstacle to invading armies. Indeed Goodwin finds that the Poles often go to great pains to make it clear that they are distinctly Polish; though often that is simply making it clear that they are not German. As part of the country was once part of Germany, their concern is perhaps understandable.

Though Goodwin's journey never takes him into Germany, he often encountered German cultural influence and odd outposts of Germans, even well into Romania. German settlers had been invited by many rulers in Central Europe, and for centuries German merchants, craftsmen, and guilds dominated town life, the towns in essence becoming German, the main language in Gdansk or Cracow or Buda German. Many of these Germans though Goodwin finds have left, those few remaining either thinking of leaving, stubbornly clinging to old ways in isolated Saxon settlements, or slowly assimilating with the larger majority.

Hungary Goodwin finds is seemingly more stable and prosperous than the others he went through on his trip, particularly when contrasted with Romania. Though a third the size of Poland, its people took pride in regional names and differences, making the country seem larger than it was. One area that was interesting was Silvasvarod, noted for the famed Lippizaner horses it supplies to the Viennese Riding School.

Much of the book is spent in Romania, particularly in the region of Transylvania, an area once part of Hungary, its loss still keenly felt by many in Hungary as well as the substantial Hungarian minority in Transylvania itself. Goodwin found a number of people who held strong opinions on the matter, and it appears to remain a bone of contention with many. The only undisputed inhabitants of Transylvania are the once nomadic Szekely, Hungarian speakers, though not Hungarian. Famed for fighting on horseback, noted for their light cavalry even after they ended their nomadic ways, once proudly cherished by the Hungarians as defenders of the realm, they are still found in eastern Transylvania, a region known as Szekelyfold, where Goodwin observed their nearly pagan "totem poles" that marked graves and the massive palisade gates they erect at the entrance to their farms.

Gypsies Goodwin found played a major role in the life and economy of Central Europe, particularly in Romania. Sometimes feared (many warned Goodwin that they were thieves and cutthroats), sometimes hated (they were very poorly treated by Ceausescu in Romania), sometimes even admired (Goodwin did find some who pointed out that they fulfilled a vital economic function in many areas), he found them more diverse and interesting than he imagined, a people who are not tied down to cities and have more in common with their ancestral Indian homeland than Europe.

Goodwin did not like Romania, feeling it more like the Third World than Europe. He found it a land that had suffered greatly under Ceausescu, his legacy still looming large in everyday life. Romania seemed alone in Central Europe in lagging behind economically and in pursuing democracy, even in basic services. Goodwin visited an orphanage in Romania, making for heartbreaking reading, children barely cared for, virtually unable to speak as they haven't had enough human contact, having to be shown how to play with toys! What disgusted Goodwin the most though was the "gang mentality of ordinary Romanians," how the days of mob rule from the past still existed, present everywhere from the unfriendly "leering beer-garden swillers" that were present in many Romanian bars to the rioting peasant farmers that had recently fought ugly street battles in Tirgu Mures. When leaving Romania, Goodwin suffers from food poisoning, the poison of which he compares to his trip through the country, which had been administered "from the moment we crossed its border," beginning in the border town of Oradea, where the "first black depression" settled upon him, abating only upon leaving.

Goodwin was glad to enter Bulgaria, a land he found far different, a land perhaps of opposites. Country homes he found were often surrounded by trash, rather than extremely clean as they were often elsewhere in Central Europe, a holdover from traditions of not displaying wealth to Turkish overlords. In Bulgaria they nodded to show no, shook their heads to say yes, again legacies of confusing Ottoman rule perhaps. Drier and emptier than any of the previous lands, Goodwin was glad to enter it; clearly feeling his next stop was in Istanbul.

If I had any complaint to offer about the book, it was that we never get to see Istanbul; the book is all about the journey, and really about Central Europe. Having said that though, it was still great to read.

Rating: 4
Summary: A focus on rarely traveled areas
Comment: In this day and age when everything has been discovered, and every person on this small world has been touched by the conquests of another country or the speed of technology, there comes a long the travel log of Jason Goodwin.

The written details are enough to put you on the path with Goodwin and his two close friends. From the lands they visit, to the hardships they encounter, you really feel as if you're on the path to Instanbul with them! And yet somehow, he still has room to focus on the people of these regions, during a hard and confusing time in eastern Europe. While people struggle to find their identites and find the freedoms they may have missed, these three British travelers are welcomed in to their homes and barns, as if they were long lost friends. Goodwin notes all aspects of these people they visit, and doesn't sugar coat a thing!

The sheer amazement of walking from Poland to Turkey, in a time when they could easily fly over it without so much of a glance or concern, truely opens the history of the iron curtain to all of us.

Again, these countries Goodwin and his companions walked through, no longer exsist as he saw them. But with this novel, the split second time of change for the Eastern Block, is immortalized.

Rating: 3
Summary: Interesting Topic, Shallow and Biased Analysis
Comment: There is no doubt that Goodwin's walk must have been an interesting. Walking the length of Eastern Europe in early 1990 must have been a daring and exhillarating experience.

However, it is perhaps because of the high expectations that I had for this book that I was so thoroughly dissapointed by it. Having read much about the Balkans in particular, and having lived and traveled extensively throughout the region, I was rather dissapointed in Goodwin's approach. Very early in the book, one notices how Goodwin sees all the countries he walks through with a very Northern European viewpoint.

Despite his implicit acknowledgement that he really has not spent much time with Romanians, Goodwin is quick to denounce the nation's claims to Transylvania and everything else. Goodwin makes it clear that in his view, Romanians are the scum of the earth -- a people without culture, class, or civilization. Staying throughout with Hungarians and Saxons, Goodwin makes very little effort to interact with Romanians, and thus shows the prejudices of his hosts in his writing. Even in the titles of his chapters, he uses Hungarian and German names -- names not commonly used anymore -- instead of Romanian names for various towns he visits. Most disturbing is Goodwin's complete disregard for Romania's third great region, Moldavia -- a region many consider to be the cultural heart of Romania; a land of immesnse beauty, world-class wine, and hospitable -- Romanian -- people. While Goodwin understandably did not make a detour in this region, his utter contempt for Romanians -- blaming the people themselves for the brutality of Ceausescu -- is reprehensible.

This book had a lot of potential, and could have been a wonderful read. However, it is clear from reading it that Goodwin made his journey with a closed and prejudiced mind -- something that denied both him and the reader a true picture of a very rich and beautiful region. The one reedeeming factor is that despite all his biases, Goodwin's descriptive powers are immense. Many of the spots where both he and I stood are depicted with great authenticity in the book. All in all, a book worth reading -- albeit with a large grain of salt.