Customer Reviews

Vagabonding in Europe and North Africa

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I read this book in 1972.I had dropped out of college and was working the midnight to 6 am shift at Dunkin Donuts and selling Christmas trees during one of the coldest Wisconsin winters in history. I held on to this book and read and reread it until it fell apart. It gave me the dream and courage to save up enough money to shed that pink Dunkin Donuts dress, hitch over Europe for 5 months -alone as a single female. Definitely a formative book for me.I loved it. Thanks again Ed!

I read this (at least some of it) in 1973 before traveling with a friend to Europe, Middle East, Far East. It gave me great comfort then that I (we) could do so cheaply and quickly.

Now Ed's book is more of a history of 60s vagabonding than a practical guide for today's traveller, but fun reading and don't let that stop you from buying it and getting the Vagabonding Bug... Travel On!

A wonderful read if you're going to Europe or New Jersey!

I was a kid living at home, read the book at Los Alamitos library in 1973, and got the vision to do Europe in this way. Went alone in June 74 for 3 1/2 months. The book is a philosophy and attitude that the people of Europe are the key--if you can open yourself up to them. I was adopted, in a way, by different people throughout Europe as I traveled (part of it was probably that they sorry for me--dumb kid who really didn't know what he was doing). But what I remember well 27 years later is those people. I would not have been inspired to do the trip if it wasn't for the book. I passed the book on to someone at work after my trip--and remember the gratitude of the guy I gave it to. The philosophy that is this book IS a gift!

This wonderful book reveals the secret of how to be a good traveler. "Vagabonding" is the right word. And you don't have to be a low-budget traveler to vagabond. It's a way of thinking, a way of looking and hearing, and a way of being.

I read the book in 1972. Ed Buryn put my head in the right place to make my 9 month trip in Europe and North Africa, (of all places), an extremely enjoyable experience. I went alone but constantly met up with others who I traveled with for a day or months.

Today I do a lot of business travel. But even though its nice restaurants and first class hotels there are still the hassles - long days on the road, not sleeping well, changes in schedule. It's times like those that I use the wisdom brought out in this book. It should be required reading for "Life 101".

The title of this review is the eponymous opening quotation by Ed, who clearly found that combining roots and rootlessness were the central reason for joie de vivre. The sections on Ed meeting his relatives in Poland are priceless. Ed Buryn inspired, cajoled, wheedled and pushed, I would imagine, hundreds -- perhaps thousands -- of couch-bound and comfortable middle class youth into the wilds of Western and Eastern Europe. I was one of them -- and did it as an active duty Naval officer. Buryn had been a hero of one of my itinerant college roommates at University of Florida -- you know, the guy who sleeps on the couch and who has no visible means of support...except for the couch -- and, as my roommate (livingroommate, that is) extolled his virtues, I grew more and more enchanted with Buryn, and more and more disenchanted with my roommate, who never actually went anywhere. I bought a copy of Buryn's book, read it, and vicariously lived it for SIX YEARS...until I finally went twice to Europe (once on Uncle Sam's dime to fight the cold war, once on my own), living Buryn-tilt-boogie and still retaining my civility (a Buryn hallmark, by the way, for those parents who find their children reading Ed: they'll be much better kids, later on). Go to Europe. Go with Ed.

I read this classic book in 1974. It was responsible for a hitchiking trip to Europe that I took in 1975. This book is one of those rare works that can truly excite and motivate. And it is for that reason, not for the useful travel information it also containes, that I highly recommend it, even in 1997.

I have enjoyed reading the reviews on this page very much as I too found the inspiration in the pages of Ed Buryn's modest book to fly off to Europe with no return ticket when I was in my twenties in the early 80's. I traveled alone as a young woman for six months through Spain, Portugal, France and Italy, but just as this book predicted, I never feared for my safety and I was never without friends. I met so many wonderful people, both fellow travelers and welcoming locals with whom I shared stories and meals and traincars.

My trip was the first really adventurous thing I had ever done, but my life since has been full of adventure as a result. Would I have gone if I had never discovered this wonderful, confidence-building, anxiety-soothing book? I like to think so. But I would have been far less prepared for, and open to, the kindness and generosity I experienced every step of the way... I'm so glad I had the chance to see for myself the world that Ed Buryn described in his book. It's nice to be able to share this gratitude with other fellow travelers who, like me, followed Mr. Buryn's call and took to the road, if even for a short while.

As a college student in 1979 I found a copy of this book at the Maple Street Bookstore in New Orleans, La. Despite the fact that my trip to Europe in the summer of 1980 is long over, I will take out this book whenever I am about to take a trip to a new place. It is a celebration of travel and I hope to give my own well-used copy to my son when he is ready to hit the road.

Outdated and long out of print, this is still one of the best budget travel books ever written. Keruoac got me off my butt and out onto the great American highways and byways. Ed Buryn got me off my butt and into the wonders of Europe and North Africa. I sometimes forget how much I owe this book. Written at the height of hippie adventurism of the late sixties and early seventies, I read it as a young and rudderless kid of those times and, smitten with wanderlust, found myself just a few years later hiking through the back alleys of Lisbon, Paris, Marrakesh, and Athens. Buryn fired my spirit and imagination and today, as my adventure on the road continues, his book is a continuous inspiration. And by "outdated" I only mean that most of the references mentioned in the book are no longer valid. In spirit, the book is a timeless evocation of the human spirit to discover and rejoice in exotic new worlds. Where are you Ed Buryn? Time to get off your butt and revise your budget travel masterpiece!

The book was published in the 70's and for a 40-year old book this is fantastic. It's a new old book!