Who Was Slogging the Slavs?

An interview with Eastern Europe fanatic and author Angus Bell

Feb 11, 2007

Few travel narratives covering Eastern Europe exist, but Angus Bell's written one with an interesting twist: he played cricket with the Slavs.

Angus Bell is a travel writer with some great ideas. And, importantly for us, a love for Eastern Europe. For some reason he decided to travel around Eastern Europe with a cricket bat, and he’s written a travel narrative about this adventure, Slogging the Slavs: A Paranormal Cricket Tour From The Baltic To The Bosphorus.

Using this gentlemanly British game as a tool for meeting all kinds of interesting people, Angus describes his travels through countries like Estonia, Ukraine, the Czech Republic and Croatia with great humor. We interviewed him recently to get his take on tips for traveling in Eastern Europe (and to try to educate the world a little more on the game of cricket).

Angus: can you explain the sport of cricket in just two sentences?

It is a game with tea breaks and cucumber sandwiches at intervals, where players wear white, and chase a red ball around a field. Of course, Eastern European cricket didn't follow the conventions. (Slovenian customs thought it involved horses. Estonia played on ice, and a Croatian island, beside an ex-minefield).

What most impressed you about Eastern Europe?

I’m a big fan of headscarved babushkas and donkeys and carts – especially ones with number plates. It’s a culture that's fast disappearing. That, and the ease with which police officers accepted bribes.

Tell us which parts of Eastern Europe rate as your favorites, and why.

Ukraine is a highlight – raw, crumbling, wearing on patience, but filled with gold domes and gold teeth. A psychic reckons I may have been Ukrainian in a previous life. I’m a huge fan of the Slovenian Alps and the Adriatic coast, too. Driving there, you couldn’t feel further way from a desk job.

Where would you NOT visit again?

And finally, what did you learn from your Slogging the Slavs adventures: who are the best cricket players in Eastern Europe?

The Austrians were fierce. They even chopped someone’s thumb off over a run out disagreement. The Nepalese medical students of Belarus were also extremely talented – in fact, unplayable on a disused car park among head-high weeds.

The copyright of the article Who Was Slogging the Slavs? in E Europe Travel is owned by Amanda Kendle. Permission to republish Who Was Slogging the Slavs? in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.