molvania

over the years i've accumulated a small library of guide books. after i finished my weekly meeting with my arabic tutor tonight i happened to walk by the "new releases" table in a local book store. the cover of the new guidebook to molvania caught my eye. as i flipped through the book i was completely captivated by this exotic yet obscure eastern european land. (there is an online travel molvania site here). i'm still leaning towards a trip to syria, but maybe i should ditch that and go to a land where the national language has four genders.

actually, i'm surprised i never heard of the place before today. it seems that molvania was recently involved in a minor controvery when the country's first ever entry in the eurovision song contest was disqualified:

The tiny Eastern European republic of Molvania was disqualified from the Eurovision Song Contest this year.

Zladko "Zlad" Vladcik was to perform his very popular techno-ballad, 'Elektronik Supersonik" - described as a 'melodic fusion combining hot disco rhythms with cold war rhetoric.'

However, the 23-year-old singer was arrested at Istanbul's Ataturk International Airport and immediately deported. While Eurovision does not normally test for recreational drugs, unfortunately for Vladcik, Turkish Customs do.

On his return, "Zlad" apologised to everyone in Molvania for letting them down, especially his family, his friends and his dealer.

you can see and hear what those eurovision judges are missing here