ninme

I’m screwed, I tell ya.

So, below, I said, Buy Albanian!, bouncing off Chrenkoff’s post. Now he has up a guest blog entry by Dan Foty, who’s often being hat-tipped:

Chrenkoff - Guest blogger: Eastern Europe is worth your penny

It’s everything you ever wanted to know about Albania, but didn’t know to ask, because the education system sucks in this country. But then! He lets the cat out of the bag!

n that count, I’ll just close with a broader piece of experienced advice. I’m in eastern Europe on business several times a year, and can tell you a good story. Many Americans (and other like-minded westerners) would like to visit Europe, but are irked at the idea of engaging in any commerce with the “weasel countries” of western Europe. The general good news is that you can basically find any of the “European” things (things that Americans go to Europe to visit) that you “traditionally” find in western Europe over in eastern Europe - and generally at about a quarter of the price! Medieval charm? You can find that aplenty in Tallinn (one of the best-kept secrets on the planet) and Krakow. Spectacular seacoast? You can skip the French Riviera and head to the Dalmatian coast of Croatia. Spectacular mountains? The Carpathians aren’t quite the Alps, but they are close, particularly in their highest regions; the Tatra mountains on the border of Poland and Slovakia are wonderful and not nearly as “overrun” as the Alps. History? Eastern European history is an order of magnitude more complicated than western European history; for example, last month I was in a corner of Ukraine which, over the past 100 years, has belonged to Austria (Habsburgs), Czechoslovakia, Hungary, the USSR, and now Ukraine. Arthur can probably regale us with numerous stories of the glory days when Poland was the largest and most powerful country in Europe. Food and drink? Wonderful and unique cuisine from the Baltic to the Adriatic, and if you want a good drink there are spectacular beers, wines and vodkas all along the way. My personal favorites are Estonian vodka, Polish and Ukrainian beer, Slovakian and Bulgarian wine (the Bulgarian wines are marginal now but wait another 10 - 20 years and they will be excellent), and Croatian raki (pending the arrival of Albanian raki as good as my grandfather used to make).

It’s quite a deal. You can have a wonderful “European” experience at low prices while supporting our allies. Right Arthur?

(Yes I realize by posting this I am too, but I don’t have Arthur’s readership)

Now, I’ve known this since I was about 14, and all these years I’ve been quietly biding my time, waiting for my ship to come in so I can sneak off and have a lovely time, and here I am, still broke, and now everyone in the universe is going to go!

But, he directs us to invest our money in an Albanian sort of cognac, called “raki,” which sounds intriguingly yummy.