Thanks to a bicycle, Uzhgorod became closer to the UK

July 10, in an Uzhgorod bookstore they launched the second edition of the book "The Ukraine Carpathians: Europe’s last great wilderness". It is based on observations of a British Alexander Stamp, who lives in Hungary and travels the world on a bicycle. His impressions of travelling in the Carpathians developed into the book which Alexander published in a small print shop in Cambridge at his own expense. The first edition was immediately sold out in the UK, USA, Australia and New Zealand: "I first came to Transcarpathia in 2006. Everything was interesting to me, I had not heard anything about it before. So I visited all the places of interest in your region. However, during my first trip I did not manage to get to Uzhgorod. But I enjoyed the atmosphere in Transcarpathia so much, that I decided to give something back to people who live here. They are friendly and welcoming, always ready to help. The only barrier is that very few people here speak English."

The first edition was written in 2011 based on fresh emotions, and the second one – after the trip to our city, traveling on a rented bike, getting to know Transcarpathia closer. In the book, Alex Stamp compared Uzhgorod with the Serbian city of Nis, and even suggested that they could be twin cities.

In his view, we have many disadvantages, however, Europeans are no longer paying attention to that. They are interested in what is at eye level.

In general, he wants to break the stereotype that Ukraine is bad and maybe help to raise the level of our country. The author even sent a copy of the book to Prince Charles, but the answer has not come yet.

So far, the book is sold in Ukraine in English language, but in the future it will be translated into Ukrainian.