Two countries, three trains, two trams, and two buses later and I’ve arrived at my final destination on this tour: Budapest.

From the tiny town of Tatranska Lomnica, I made my way to Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia. It’s not the best place for photos, though there are several palaces that are camera worthy, and the main square, which is surrounded by embassies, is a nice place to start your shopping.

Bratislava is fairly cosmopolitan, though. There are plenty of international businesses, like Ernst and Young (Private). It’s also home to the stock exchange, the BSSE.

And, like Krakow, there’s a lot of construction going on. As I told you last time, growth has not been checked so you’ve got unusual buildings thrown up side by side with historical sites. Take a look at the panoramic photo of the city.

Lots of concrete…

And cranes.

The city has quite a ways to go, though, but it’s getting a lot of influence from its surrounding countries. Bratislava is a mere three hours from Vienna, and is right on the border with the Czech Republic, too. It’s also 200 kilometers (124 miles) from Budapest, which is by far the largest city on my trip.

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Anyone in favor of going down with the ship, raise your hand.

That’s what I thought.

So I suggest you read this excerpt from Fareed Zakaria’s new book called “Rise of the Rest.” You can find it here. And if you’d like to learn more about Fareed in general, his web site is here.

Now before we continue with Fareed, I’d like to draw another piece of news to your attention. It’s about Toyota’s slowdown of U.S. sales — causing the auto giant’s first annual profit decline in nine years.

As you’ll see in a moment, the message shared by Fareed and Toyota will have a profound impact on where you’re going to invest next.

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