Incidents of Travel in Greece, Turkey, Russia, and Poland, Vol. 2 (of 2)

In the mid-19th century, crossing Russia meant weeks of jolting through trackless steppes in a rickety carriage, sleeping in fleas beds, and bargaining with officials who spoke no English. John L. Stephens undertook just such a journey, nearly two thousand miles of wilderness separating him from civilization, and he recorded every miserable, magnificent mile. This second volume follows his passage through Greece and Turkey into the wild heart of Russia and Poland, where the landscape stretches vast and strange, where every new town brings fresh customs and fresh complications. He travels with a companion whose presence seems to generate more heat than help, a troublesome servant who may be stealing from him, and a Jewish postmaster whose cooperation must be won through means both clever and frustrating. Stephens writes with the sharp eye of a man who has seen much and the wry humor of one who knows his reader will relish his tribulations. For anyone who dreams of travel when travel meant genuine peril, when reaching Warsaw required surviving mud, boredom, bureaucratic absurdity, and your own unreliable entourage, this narrative offers armchair adventure of the highest order.