Not Cool

Veteran travel writer Jules Brown sets out to recapture the cheap rail trips of his youth with an ambitious plan: nine cities in nine countries over nine days. The plan turns out to be the least of his errors.

His route takes him by train through Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Bratislava, Ljubljana, Zagreb, Liechtenstein, Zürich and Milan. Instead of a relaxing trip past famous monuments and guidebook highlights, the journey becomes a sweaty, unpredictable crossing of the continent, and the author's composure steadily slips away.

The result is a light, unconventional travel story told in a comic voice, aimed at readers who enjoy funny travel writing or an off-the-beaten-track trip.