Published: Dec. 15, 2010
Words: 178,500 (approximate)
Language: English
ISBN: 9781458088055

Short description

The BBC said: "Most of us would think twice about trying to get to the end of our street, without cash in our pockets. But what about going a little bit further....with no money, no food and no way of getting home? Meet Kris Mole. He's the 24 year old brains behind the Great Euro Freebie Challenge in aid of Cancer Research." After reading please rate and review. Unless you didn't like it. Hmmmm.

Extended description

24-year-old Kris Mole from Brighton was lost. Not literally. No, he knew his way around Brighton. But he was lost in life. A compulsive gambler since childhood, Kris’ philosophy for life boiled down to: "The greater the risk, the greater the reward." Sensible decisions were not part of his being. And then one drunken night on the pebbles of Brighton beach a heart to heart with an old friend saw a financially crippled Kris proclaiming, “I am going to go and see Europe. And I am going to do it without any money. Who needs cash anyway?”

And so the Great Euro Freebie Challenge was dreamt up.

Kris would leave England, not to return before having visited every capital city in the European Union mainland and he would do it without so much as handling a penny. (Read more) 24-year-old Kris Mole from Brighton was lost. Not literally. No, he knew his way around Brighton. But he was lost in life. A compulsive gambler since childhood, Kris’ philosophy for life boiled down to: "The greater the risk, the greater the reward." Sensible decisions were not part of his being. And then one drunken night on the pebbles of Brighton beach a heart to heart with an old friend saw a financially crippled Kris proclaiming, “I am going to go and see Europe. And I am going to do it without any money. Who needs cash anyway?”

And so the Great Euro Freebie Challenge was dreamt up.

Kris would leave England, not to return before having visited every capital city in the European Union mainland and he would do it without so much as handling a penny.

Hitchhiking, dodging train fares, sleeping rough, bedding down with newly acquired friends, walking alongside motorways, scrounging leftovers, battling the elements; Kris would do whatever it took to complete his mission. And he would dedicate it to his aunt Susan, who was bravely fighting a battle of her own against cancer.

And so, on the 1st of November 2007 Kris set off for Stockholm, armed with nothing more than a rucksack full of clothes and a sleeping bag. The sleeping bag arrived in Sweden torn to shreds and was disposed of there and then.

The Great Euro Freebie Challenge was off to a flying start.

Over the next five months, Kris travelled the length and breadth of the continent, interacting along the way with a whole host of colourful characters from a multitude of different backgrounds. He accidentally flashed a woman in Sweden; got poisoned by a middle aged Indian man wearing nothing but a pair of pants and a turban in Poland; got stuck to a statue in Serbia; was attacked by a pack of stray dogs in Bulgaria; blagged his way in to a press conference at Barcelona Football Club; left his coat in Spain before venturing into the peak of winter in the Baltic states; got thrown off of trains in almost every country imaginable; almost got raped in Luxembourg; helped a stranger lose a lot of money in an Estonian casino; and made sure to record all of these plus a hundred more which he has now brought together in the book Capital Punishment, recounting the story right from day one through to the very end.

Kris brings Europe and its citizens to life in this book, and he does so with an honesty that will leave you either loving or hating him. Or liking him a little bit. Or not really having an opinion either way.

If you enjoyed this, check out Ocean Boulevard, by David Baboulene; it's a classic piece of humorous travel, and one that inspired Kris to write Capital Punishment in the first place. David's books are available on Smashwords.
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Tags

travel, prague, backpacking, rome, brussels, europe, barcelona, paris, vienna, berlin, mole, bucharest, amsterdam, warsaw, lisbon, madrid, oslo, luxembourg, stockholm, vilnius, tallinn, athens, budapest, ljubljana, belgrade, sofia, kris, copenhagen, bratislava, bern, riga

Available ebook reading formats

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Plain Text (view) (viewable as web page)	Buy	No sample available

Reviews

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Review by: Miroslav Stricevic on Sep. 09, 2011 : (no rating)
I'm glad there are such adventurous people in the world to write such interesting books. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
(reviewed long after purchase)

Review by: Adree Ana on March 30, 2011 :
Go on this adventure with Kris!
Even if you (like most of us) don't have the courage to let yourself completely in the hands of chance or strangers, reading this book will get you as close as it gets!
Relaxed reading, funny bits everywhere and craziness!
(reviewed within a month of purchase)

Review by: Wildcat on March 02, 2011 :
A truly stunning book, the best £3 whatever I've spent in years. It's one of those you will find almost impossible to put down. How Kris found the mental fortitude to complete it is truly astounding.

I've known him through a blog link for a while, before you are much of the way through many will feel as if they know him too.

Once you've finished it, tell everyone you know to get a copy, they will thank you for it. This deserves as wide an audience as possible.
(reviewed long after purchase)

Review by: David Baboulene on Feb. 22, 2011 :
How Kris managed this is beyond belief. This is terrific travel writing - proper, humbling work. This book will have you laughing one minute, scared the next, utterly absorbed throughout and absolutely unable to put it down.
(reviewed the day of purchase)

Review by: Kieran McCullagh on Feb. 18, 2011 :
Having stumbled upon this book while browsing the site, I was pleasantly surprised at how interesting and enjoyable I found it. I read quite a lot of travel books to fuel the dream I have of one day making my way around the world and I felt this one was right up there with the best. The stories were intriguing, the situations the author found himself were enjoyable to read and I felt myself flicking through the pages at a very fast rate eager to find out how the author got out of his latest tight spot.

I've already recommended this book to several of my friends who share my interest in books. I’ve also mentioned it to others who don't read travel books but enjoy a fun read with lots of laughs.

Hope you enjoy…
(reviewed within a month of purchase)

Review by: Christie Gordon on Feb. 02, 2011 :
To be honest, I am not sure what I expected when my friend first told me about his friend's new book. I thoroughly enjoyed reading "Capital Punishment." For me, it was one of those so good I can't put it down so I will choose to read instead of doing necessary things, such as laundry, books. 8~}

Kris is very open about both his physical and personal experiences throughout this journey. As I read the book it made me think and wonder how I would react and handle some of those experiences were I in the situation.

I laughed so many times as I read, and I definitely recommend this book to anyone and everyone.
(reviewed within a month of purchase)

Review by: Emily M on Dec. 31, 2010 :
24-year-old Kris Mole from Brighton was lost. Not literally. No, he knew his way around Brighton. But he was lost in life. A compulsive gambler since childhood, Kris’ philosophy for life boiled down to: "The greater the risk, the greater the reward." Sensible decisions were not part of his being. And then one drunken night on the pebbles of Brighton beach a heart to heart with an old friend saw a financially crippled Kris proclaiming, “I am going to go and see Europe. And I am going to do it without any money. Who needs cash anyway?”

And so the Great Euro Freebie Challenge was dreamt up.

Kris would leave England, not to return before having visited every capital city in the European Union mainland and he would do it without so much as handling a penny.

Hitchhiking, dodging train fares, sleeping rough, bedding down with newly acquired friends, walking alongside motorways, scrounging leftovers, battling the elements; Kris would do whatever it took to complete his mission. And he would dedicate it to his aunt Susan, who was bravely fighting a battle of her own against cancer.

And so, on the 1st of November 2007 Kris set off for Stockholm, armed with nothing more than a rucksack full of clothes and a sleeping bag. The sleeping bag arrived in Sweden torn to shreds and was disposed of there and then.

The Great Euro Freebie Challenge was off to a flying start.

Over the next five months, Kris travelled the length and breadth of the continent, interacting along the way with a whole host of colourful characters from a multitude of different backgrounds. He accidentally flashed a woman in Sweden; got poisoned by a middle aged Indian man wearing nothing but a pair of pants and a turban in Poland; got stuck to a statue in Serbia; was attacked by a pack of stray dogs in Bulgaria; blagged his way in to a press conference at Barcelona Football Club; left his coat in Spain before venturing into the peak of winter in the Baltic states; got thrown off of trains in almost every country imaginable; almost got raped in Luxembourg; helped a stranger lose a lot of money in an Estonian casino; and made sure to record all of these plus a hundred more which he has now brought together in the book Capital Punishment, recounting the story right from day one through to the very end.

Kris brings Europe and its citizens to life in this book, and he does so with an honesty that will leave you either loving or hating him. Or liking him a little bit. Or not really having an opinion either way.

I would lay my neck on the line and say this will be the funniest book you read in 2011. It is certainly the funniest I have read in 2010.
(reviewed within a month of purchase)

Review by: Radu Radu on Dec. 20, 2010 :
The book presents the adventures of a young English man crossing every capital of Europe's mainland without a penny in the pocket.

The book has something that kept me reading it, something almost addictive. I would recommend it to anybody willing to make a trip across Europe, with or without a penny in the pocket. As a Romanian I am proud that the author was helped and treated well by my compatriots in several parts of Europe, but in the same time, I was a bit disappointed that Kris did not have the chance to know better Portuguese and Czech people.

The book is not just an easy reading, you will also learn something. You will learn not only the history, traditions, of the places visited by the author, or how to travel with no money, but you will also learn more about how to write, after all Kris Mole was and remains a teacher.

If you didn't read his blog, I recommend you to read the final version of the book, the one with pictures.

I hope you will enjoy it as much as I did.
(reviewed within a week of purchase)

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