Vagabond: A horseback adventure from Bulgaria to Berlin

The journey starts when author and long-rider Jeremy James buys two horses from gypsies at a fair in southern Bulgaria. He and his long-suffering friend Chumpie then set off on horseback winding northwards to Berlin and on the way encounter a marvellous array of local characters from all walks of life as they ride from Bulgaria to Berlin, via Romania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Poland. On a low budget, they are sustained by local fire-water, indigestible food and the forceful personalities of their horses who steal, run away, misbehave or suddenly comply at will and add a whole new dimension to the experience of travel. As Jeremy says, ‘If you go by train or car, the world rushes past you, and you don’t even get to smell it. But if you travel on a horse, you feel the world as you move through it, every step, every scent, every breeze, every dimple in the ground, and it’s always fresh. The horse carries you into village life: he’s a point of reference, something to focus on.’ After five long months, they finally reach their destination. It has taken Jeremy through an Eastern Europe full of surprises, which, with the collapse of communism, has almost disappeared today.