Any Souvenirs?
Central Europe Revisited
George Mikes
192 pages
published in 1971

George Mikes is an Hungarian born journalist and writer who migrated accidently to the UK in 1938. Any Souvenirs? is the story of a slightly nostalgic journey through Bavaria, Austria, Czechoslovakia Yugoslavia and Hungary, in search of Central Europe. As the book was published in 1971 and hence written somewhat earlier, it is outdated but still interesting.

Central Europe disappeared with the coming of the Iron Curtain after World War II, which split Europe neatly in East and West. Not that central Europe was ever defined properly, as Mikes touches upon on in his preface. He defines it more or less as the countries through which the Danube flows, though excluding Romania and Bulgaria as being in the Balkans, yet including Yugoslavia, which is also a Balkan country.

Mikes' journey starts in prosperous Bavaria in what was then called West Germany and travels via Austria, Yugoslavia to Hungary; Czechoslovakia refused him entry. Each succesive country he visits is a little less prosperous then its neighbour, a little more eastern. For each country he notes down the specific character of its people, their place in the history of central Europe and how their country is now. not unsurprising, he devotes the most pages to his homeland Hungary, with Yugoslavia a close runner up. Austria and Bavaria both have considerably fewer pages dedicated to them.

Not that this book is a dry summing up of facts; throughout George Mikes treats the matter slightly tongue in cheek, with an undercooled sort of humour. Especially so once he arrives in Hungary. the small chapter about statues, how his friends of before the war now have become streets, statues and boulevards is especially wry:

With a largish square you once had a drunken fight at three a.m. in the City Park and that statue there -- so majestic on his pedestal -- used to go to bed with one of your girl-friends. It hurt very much at the time -- it was certainly not the behaviour you expect from a statue.

I found interesting and entertaining, even if it's now outdated. It's a look at a now just as bygone era as prewar central Europe was, which makes for a pleasant irony.