Next time you are passing through Frankfurt or CDG, do spare a thought for East Europe and take a connecting flight to Prague, Budapest or any other city you can get a flight to. Once you are there, hire a car and start driving - no, do not use a GPS or any of the modern navigational tools. Just get into a car and drive. And get lost. And enjoy getting lost in a new country! While expressways are as good as they come in Europe, it is the B-roads that will take you to magnificent villages, postcard settings and fantastic people. Last I drove in East Europe was ten years back and I got to say things are changing fast. It is important that you visit these countries before there is a Mac D around every corner, right?

This time around my route was Budapest to Prague through bits of Slovakia and lots of Poland. I loved the city centres, architecture in general, the occassional Polsky Fiats and pre-VW era Skodas and great food from the truck-stops where we stopped. People, thank god, didn’t speak English and it felt like I was driving in a foregin land for a change. But I hear Polish and Czech schools are teaching English these days. So go before these children leave school, go before the old Fiat 500s rust away, go before the abandoned housing blocks are re-built and go before another American chain start operating in Slovakia.  

Bijoy