Dziwaczne Odkrycia: Backpacking in San Escobar, Another Country That Doesn’t Really Exist, But is Recognised By Witold Waszczykowski

How do you “go backpacking” in a country that doesn’t exist? And anyway who, what, where, why, how is San Escobar? Is it a country? I mean it has a flag, an Embassy, a Bar, a Wikipedia Page and a Facebook Page for starters…and this week on the 10th January 2018, the country SAN ESCOBAR celebrated its FIRST birthday! It’s now a year old and I visited it!

 

Introducing San Escobar
San Escobar is a non-existent country, a blunder of Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs Witold Waszczykowski. This is quite simply brilliant!! On 10 January 2017, Waszczykowski told reporters that, in a bid for a non-permanent seat for Poland on the UN Security Council, he had meetings with officials from various countries, including some Caribbean nations, with some of them “for the first time in the history of our diplomacy. For example with countries such as Belize or San Escobar”. Yes he claimed he was organising meetings with diplomats from San Escobar. Which led us all into shock!

 

Journalists and the public were baffled immediately turning to their atlases, maps and globes to find out where exactly San Escobar is.

I researched it and couldn’t find an answer. What it meant was probably either San Cristobal, El Salvador, San Salvador or San….something else or a relation to Colombian drug lord and narcoterrorist Pablo Escobar. Escobar died in 1993 though. Waszczykowski said this in 2017! Since his blunder, many Polish comedians and people with a sense of humour started pages and photos relating to this fake and invented country. There is now a national flag, t-shirts, hashtags. San Escobar is pretty huge now. So how can I claim to have been there???

How to Backpack to San Escobar?

The answer is simple. In the aftermath of Waszczykowski’s invention of this country, some local entrepreneur in Warsaw has opened a BAR, pub and restaurant called San Esco BAR!!! There is also a San Escobar Embassy in the old town square in the Polish city of Świdnica! So off I went with my passport. I’m claiming it as a new country to have backpacked and I added it to my list of real countries visited and my list of ultimate countries!

The restaurant San EscoBAR

Top Sights in San Escobar

A burger and a beer and that’s it. And posing by the National flag. My friend Rafal Kowalczyk joined me in San Esco BAR so I have proof I have been there. I also met popular Mexican blogger David Beltran in here – David is Poland based and runs the Chido Fajny blog – check it out. Here are some photos of my trip to San Escobar. I didn’t need a visa, to change money or even a passport stamp. I wasn’t checked on the way in or out. But I know I was there 😉

Website Links About San Escobar

San Escobar on Facebook
San Escobar on Wikipedia

The restaurant San EscoBAR in Warsaw

The Twitter Feed of San Escobar

Polish news report on San Escobar

BBC (British) news report on San Escobar

And finally…Witold Waszczykowski wasn’t the only politician to invent a country, Donald Trump, in September 2017 was in Africa and mentioned an unknown country called NAMBIA!! Nambia is obviously Trump confusing Namibia with Zambia or the Gambia!! Absolutely brilliant work Witold and Donald – keep up the good work – keep inventing fake countries, I love it!

Donald Trump invents Nambia

And the famous video by Witold Waszczykowski – if it’s a country to Poland’s Foreign Secretary, it’s a country to me!!:

Here is the video of the national anthem of San Escobar: