In 1983, a 21 year old student loses his travel virginity by making a 10,000 mile journey overland to Japan through Soviet Russia.
This rite of passage account whistles across the North Sea, via Scandinavia on a richly observed tour that goes on to capture Russia in the last decade of its Soviet era. On the way we encounter a myriad of colourful characters including a crazed cashier from Clacton, a Glasgow-kissing Scotsman, Danish smugglers and a close encounter with Peter the Great.
The cacophony of occurrences feature a bravely foolish attempt to speak Danish, a painfully embarrassing initiation with a sauna, and the hairpieces of Siberian railway attendants that will have you clutching at body parts you never knew would shake.
Loud laughs on a long journey will warm the cockles of everyone’s heart: this account of an historic, historical and (sometimes hysterical) journey is for anyone who has ever travelled anywhere.