Tony believes the task will be relatively easy and has a cunning plan to use the adventure as material for a next book. However, upon arriving in the former Soviet Republic of Moldova, he discovers the task will be more challenging than expected, as he encounters uncooperative football managers, gangsters, corruption and poverty. It gives you some interesting first hand views on Moldova – for instance when he is in the bar savouring a beer and the people are looking at him strangely as they down a vodka in seconds and leave – there is no social drinking just something to ease the pain. pare însă că acest lucru este adevărat. „Prima dată când am devenit vulnerabil și avem mare nevoie de ajutor. La așa ceva moldovenii reacționează!”

Playing the Moldovans at Tennis (2012) - IMDb

Of course I am not telling you here if Tony was successful and was really able to beat all players. You have to read it by yourself, and I can assure you, it is a very entertaining book. And since there not many books about Moldova, it is still a must-read for anyone who travels there. It’s an entirely new challenge to going to Ireland and wandering around with a fridge. For one thing, Tony isn’t even sure where Moldova is, much less what language they speak there. And for another, even getting to Moldova is quite a process and one that, in Tony’s case, involves going to Liverpool to meet a Beatles tribute band. Not quite how you’d expect a Moldovan odyssey to start, but that’s how things had to be done. Tony, a successful and somewhat complacent writer, makes a bizarre bet with a friend that he can play and beat the entire Moldovan national football team at tennis, one by one.

If you’ve enjoyed either of Tony Hawks’ other books, this is definitely one to read. Whilst not being “travel” in any real sense of the word, it’s certainly about a journey, and one worth following. If you like people who do silly things, it’s worth a look and if you’ve ever wondered how people in other cultures, particularly in Eastern Europe live their lives, then this is something that’s going to be of great interest. For those looking for barrels of laughs, then other books would be more to your tastes.

Playing the Moldovans at Tennis - Softcover - AbeBooks Playing the Moldovans at Tennis - Softcover - AbeBooks

Dar e bine că măcar ceva s-a schimbat. „Mi se părea că întunericul era mai întunecat aici, în Moldova”. Sau nu? Perhaps thankfully so, the genre recently seems to have abated in popularity, perhaps because the world is now so interconnected, there is less and less tourism possible to be guerilla about. So, to fill the time in trying to find Moldovan footballers and force them to play tennis against him, Tony sees some of the country. He visits some gypsies and presents their King, Arthur, with a somewhat predictable gift. He meets who he believes to be the Chief of Police and gets to know the Moldovan family he is staying with a little better, even if he does have to resort to some unfortunate miming to get an important point across.

The ensuing unpredictable and often hilarious adventure sees him being taken in by Moldovan gypsies and narrowly avoid kidnap in Transnistria. It sees him smuggle his way on to the Moldovan National Team coach in Coleraine and witness (almost) divine intervention in the Holy Land.