BUDAPEST, HUNGARY

Tuesday 6 October

The day is fine although very misty when we get up and we think it will take some time for the mist to lift.  We head down to the bus stop after getting bus tickets from Marta as we have no forints at this stage.  Our stop is actually the last stop of this bus’s journey and also the start of the next trip so the bus is empty when we get on.  As we travel the next 20 minutes of our journey the bus fills and we pass numerous road works locations.  It seems they are doing major works all over this part of the city known as Buda – the part on the hill.  The whole market square has been dug up at Csaba utca (we pronounce it chubba utza) our get off stop and is a huge mess.  It is always a little difficult when arriving in a new city to start getting the feel of where things are and today is no different.  We wander off to where we think is towards the large castle area on the map but feel like we are getting lost so we end up heading towards the river(after we have had a coffee & treat as we now know that it is better that way) which is always a great central point to get your bearings on.  We finally arrive at the focal point of the Buda side ( the other side of the river is the Pest side) and wander around the old castle and environs. Luckily there are not too many tourists and so it is easy to look around and wonder at the beautiful architecture and views. However we find that some of the best views you have to pay to get onto, mainly the walled walkways, but in some places kiwi ingenuity comes to the fore and we just climb over the rope and have the vista to ourselves. This is near restaurants and they are not open yet. As we move on we see that other tourists are following suit but they will get told to move on not us.

It is up here that you realise that Budapest is very large and spread out and unlike the other cities we have visited there is no way that we can walk round and see enough. Unlike Paris, in our  experience, where it is enough to explore around the main centre to see most of the important sites here they are widespread. The panorama is fantastic and unfortunatly even at midday the fog is low and though erringly beautiful does restrict the view a bit. We continue our meanderings as really up here the whole area is the attraction and though there are mainly spectacular churches and cathedrals there are still interesting buildings and consulates. We are now on the opposite side of the Pest vista (towards the modern city) and not as interesting so we walk back down the side roads and looked at the shops. We arrive at the end of the castle hill area and there are remnant foundations of the old church maybe 11th century so we really feel we are stepping around ancient history. This end, as we approach it seems to have been rebuilt with staircases, battlements and walkways in the old style but with modern touches such as rusted iron walls that enclose stairs and even elevators. Very well done and, along with new stone stairs & features, trees and hanging vines matches the old original work.

There are amazing statues, both old and modern but somehow they all seem to blend in and complement each other. We continued walking around the bottom of the hill area and spied the Hop On Hop Off buses that are in all major cities. These are great for being able to see the sights and attractions with the added bonus of getting off and looking around then getting back on half an hour later and continuing the sequence. There is a red & yellow route which goes different places but do meet so you can swap. We haven’t needed to do this in other cities as they have been small enough to wander for a day or two but as it is vast here in comparison we decided to get a 48 hour pass, and given we get it late afternoon it is good value at $30aud. Plus we know the weather is going to be wet so seems a good option. We got on the red line to have a look over the river to the Pest side, and got off where the yellow line intersects so it was quicker to get our bus back to the camp. The Last yellow bus was 5.35 so off we got and the lady says you have 2 minutes to get it over there, wherever ‘over there’ was as there were roads & tramlines everywhere we couldn’t find a way under the road till we were further along. We found the stop but 15 minutes later we realised that was it for the day so had to walk the 4kms back to our not yet known bus stop. But lady luck was on our side and we literally got to the stop as the bus turned up. As we didn’t know we had to punch our tickets we got to use them again. I have to mention here I am constantly amazed at Vicki’s sense of direction as I get hopelessly lost (yes even in the camping ground!) and time and time again she finds our way. I have never had any sense of direction ever, so find this a godsend. Needless to say I have learned not to argue about where we are as the 1-100 time I am correct it is not worth it. We get home tired and find that we are not alone as a young Dutch couple have arrived and we say hello but too late now to chat so we have tea (tofu and veges with left-over chicken casserole.

Happy birthday to me, Happy Birthday to me 56 today Born 7/10/1959

I wake up to the beautiful sound of light rain on the roof of the van (Morrison) and the call of the local robin in the tree outside. Apparently the other robins have gone but this one has remained, probably to protect the territory and wait for spring when his mates return. Vicki makes me breakfast in bed which although I have breakfast in bed every morning and it is toast with honey and banana I feel privileged to be here at this time of my life with such a wonderful wife. Unfortunately  time is of the essence and there is no time to wallow in Libra pig heaven so up and showered and on to the bus to get the first hop on bus(yellow line) which will take us part way around the city for the ultimate destination of the Gellert Thermal Spa for a soak and hopefully a Thai massage for my birthday present. We arrive at what we think is the stop but too hard to find with all the road works so walk to the next stop. Unfortunatly this is by the famous chain bridge so packed with bloody tourists but we have no choice so get on right at the back of the bus. Some of the buses are double deckers which is great when the weather is fine (it is raining) but this one is one level. We have headphones in your language so you can listen to a commentary as you go along explaining the buildings and history. Or if no commentary, classical music which, given the heat in the full bus with no ventilation will put you to sleep anyway. The stifling atmosphere is too much so we get off close to the bridge we need to cross to get to the baths. This is along from the castle hill from yesterday but is too far to walk from our get off bus from camp hence the HOHO bus. We stop for a welcome coffee and cake then off to relax. It is crazy how we pass so many neat bars, cafes and restaurants in the morning when they are un-needed then later on bugger if we can find anything. That bloody Murphy has a lot to answer to.  We walk up towards the thermal baths but decide to have a look around the food market which is just across the bridge before we have our afternoon of relaxation.  We wander around the market looking at all the stalls which are a little like Tallinn food market but very much smaller.  They have fresh foods, mostly fruit and veges with a little fish and meat and dried fruits and nuts, plus lots of dried chillies.  Upstairs we were told they have cooked food, so we head up to have a bite to eat.  It is completely packed and we try to suss out the food.  It is expensive as you would expect as the only people eating here we think are tourists.  We choose this strange looking pizza style bread but it looks more like a donut bread and top it with sour cream, cheese, tomato and mozzarella.  It’s very different but ok.  We finish up here and head over the bridge towards the baths.

The Gellert Thermal Baths have been around for over a hundred years and are a bit like the Rotorua pools in New Zealand without the sulphur smell. They were partly bombed and destroyed during WW2 but been rebuilt. They are very ornate and feature a swimming pool and 4 hot pools from 36-40c along with a steam room, plunge pool and large outdoor wave pool and sauna. It is part of a hotel so quite large and beautifully laid out. I can imagine the rich and famous here (which we were for a short time).  I am sure by the looks I got in my speedos they thought I was George Clooney. It wasn’t hard to look trim for an oldie(remember 56 now) but compared to a lot there I was pretty buff! We had a great soak, they have a stem room where it is 45c and so hot that you walk in and it takes your breath away and you sweat profusely. Then it is in the 18c plunge pool that feels like 4c then back into the 40c hot pool so your whole body tingles. Fantastic. Then up to the top outside deck for a beer as the sun is out then back for another hour soak and a dozen lengths in the swim pool though I am not feeling the least energetic by now. But I need this to loosen up the muscles in my shoulders that have been pummelled by the massage from a not so good Thai but have helped a little. What I would give for my physio Scott in Brissie right now.  The other people frequenting the spa are interesting and varied.  There are old and young (but not under 14 as this isn’t recommended) and there are very large girls in very small bikinis with g-string pants and the old and wrinklies including elderly males with shorts that let it all hang out.  Sometimes it is better to not look too closely at the other visitors as you never know what might hit you in the face.  Apparently if you choose to change and use a locker although there are male and female ones the areas are not cordoned off and it is easy to lose your direction and wander into the other area of naked or semi naked males/females.

We reluctantly leave paradise and walked back across the bridge to find a nice place to eat. As mentioned earlier we always struggle to find a nice place to dine and get disappointed. We went to the restaurant district we saw the day before but with limited knowledge of the area we are attacked by restaurant staff trying to drag you into their establishment when all we are trying to do is read the menu. At one stage Vicki told the chap to leave us alone so we could read the menu but he wouldn’t stop so when she explained that we do not like being hassled he huffed off quite rudely.

Stuff him.

So we got out of that area (you will recognise it, it is where they have photos of all their dishes  yuk) big money for crap. We finally went into a place on the river after being sort of railroaded again but by now it was getting late, we are mindful of not missing our last bus, we are weary from 5 hours in hot pools and have what feel like 30kg backpacks with wet towels on our shoulders so give in and go in. The menu is pretty boring and she is pressuring us what we want to drink as I think they think once you get a drink you are committed to stay. In the past my kiwi nature would make me stay but I said to Vicki I am not doing this for my BIRTHDAY!!! So we politely say there is nothing on the menu that we fancy and leave. Easy really.

Just down the road we spot a spanking smart restaurant with amazing views of the castle all lit up. We see it is a Marriot but look at the menu anyway. The menu is what I would call exquisite and I would have any of it unlike the one we had just been in where there might have been one dish. Vicki says bugger it it’s your birthday and we are going in and really if price is an issue it is only a bit more than the other restaurant we have just left.  We feel a bit daggy in our walking clothes not suits( well it is our business suit) and are taken to a table. Straight away the difference is palpable. We are made to feel special and order drinks, beer for me and a Hungarian sparkly for Vicki. I have ribeye & Vicki Salmon. This is literally the first steak I have had for months and it is the best I have ever had. We shared sides of mashed potato, creamed spinach and mushrooms.  Absolutely delicious. The manager came and said hello and was happy to be part of my birthday and was intrigued to hear about our trip.  We had a good chat then we had another drink so very full that only a top meal can give. Then the manager came over with a special complimentary desert with candle in it for my birthday and along with the waiter wished me a happy birthday. What a surprise! Vicki had gone over earlier on the pretence of finding where the toilette was but when she enquired of the chance of something small for me cake wise he said it was already under control.

Out it came, the chefs signature dish, a crepe with warm custard and a tasty plum conserve. To die for and on the house. What a wonderful gesture and greatly appreciated as we can’t do this option on our budget often. We were so full when we left as we waddled down the street and appreciative that we felt fulfilled and not underwhelmed if we had not stood firm and moved on to the correct destination.

Again we passed some cute little bars on the way to the bus but definitely tomorrow nite as we are knackered and want to get home. Again the bus arrives just as we get to the stop-thank you lady luck- and we finally walk the last 250m up hill to the camp to a well earned sleep. This is not a birthday I will ever forget and so happy to spend it with the love of my life.

DAY AFTER MY BIRTHDAY 8 October

Back to normality but hey I still get to have breakfast in bed though I have to make it myself for another year (He mostly has his tea made by me though…V).  Again we get the early bus to get on the yellow bus to see more of the Pest side and hoping for lunch at the restaurant/café where we had coffee yesterday morning as their menu looked good. The bus was pretty empty though I can’t see why the rain should keep the tourists away when there are buses to transport you around.  Maybe Thursday is not Tourist Bus Day. Happily along with the emptyish bus there is less fug in the atmosphere and a little more enjoyable as the windows don’t fog up as much and you can still take some photos. Even though not ideal it is better than walking miles in the rain though it is light and not really troublesome. Anyway there are less Asians on the bus today(now on the red bus) and because the headphones are on the required language you can see where the other tourists are from. Mind you they might be confused if they are doing the same and I have decided to listen to the French commentary cos I am bored. Boy you can really f**k with people’s heads. We get off at the Hero’s Square which I assume worships their hero’s. No Richie McCaw or Sir Richard Hadlee here just past real He Men. The monuments are very grand and one won an award at the 1900 Paris Exhibition. Beautiful bronze work which makes you wonder where the artisans are these days as the modern ones are a lot less impressive. After standing in the rain for 20 minutes it is back on the red bus and off at 3 stops later to have lunch. You would not want to be colour blind here otherwise you would get on the wrong bus!  It is actually good to get off the bus as you hear people sneezing and coughing and with people wearing the same headphones and they don’t get cleaned, you get the feeling you could easily pick up tourist germs that will result in flu or a virus.

We haven’t had coffee yet today so we walk along and check out the cafes.  We find one that doesn’t seem too bad and have a coffee and cake to share.  Only small cups of coffee though and not very hot.  That seems to be a bit of a trend here and we prefer our larger cups of coffee that we are lucky to get from time to time.  We have a wander around and decide to head in a different direction where we haven’t been on this Pest side.  We pass by a hair dresser that is touting 1490huf (about Aud$8) for a haircut so we go in and Scot decides to have his haircut.  Even though it is cheap you think they should still be trained hairdressers.  20 minutes later Scot’s hair is done and looks great, why can’t all hairdressers be this cheap!  We do give the lady a tip as we have often done in Hungary as they are quite poor people and even a small tip from us may be quite a bit to them.  Scot is now feeling the cool air on his head and although glad to have had a cut feels he should have his beanie on to keep his head warmer.

It is getting on to lunch time so we walk around trying to find a café for lunch – we didn’t bring our sandwiches today as I reckon Scot should have some goulash before we leave here.  We end up walking down that dreaded tourist café street and ignore the multitude of hasslers vying for our custom.  We find the café we had coffee at yesterday and decide to try the one next door for lunch.  Scot does have his goulash and I have pasta.  They give him a big pot of chilli salsa to add to the goulash as Hungarian food is generally very spicy.  After lunch (which is actually quite late – like about 3.30pm) we decide to get back on the yellow bus to do the last of the stops we have missed and get off where we saw some raspberries for sale as I need some more for my breakfast.  I have managed to find fresh raspberries now for over 6 months and am not looking forward to the day that I can’t find any.  The bus picks us up and as it’s raining it is damp inside.  The windows overhead are not in good shape and tend to leak and those in the passenger seats get dripped on, so Scot sits on the other side of the aisle from me so we both stay relatively dry.  I get my raspberries and we head off towards our bus home.  We get very tired after doing cities and it is getting dark so home sounds good.  Scot wants to have a beer at one of the little bars we passed yesterday but we aren’t walking that street tonight so we try to find another one on the way.  As per usual we can’t find a single place to have a drink so head to the bus stop.  I tell Scot to check around the corner from the bus and voila there is a lovely Galleria wine bar which we head into.  We have a drink and the guy makes us a little cheese nibble platter to have with it.  Really nice and a fitting end to our Hungary stay.  We get the bus back and later that night another camper turns up.  In the morning we find out they are Brazilian and they are touring the world for 2 years.  Yes you heard right.  We thought we were doing a lot, but they shipped their 4wd from Brazil over to America, toured there and then shipped it to Germany where they commenced doing Europe.  They have one of those unusual tents that they put on top of their car.  It sounds funny but it obviously has a hard floor and a ladder to get down.  They are a lovely young couple and we have a chat before they head off into the city and we pack up to leave. They give us a sticker they have had made which has website on it so we can hopefully catch up down the track, possibly Croatia. It has been a lovely stay and we are very grateful to Marta who has done our washing for us and hung it up inside her house to dry as she doesn’t have a dryer.  I am grateful as I was virtually out of undies and I wasn’t prepared to re-use or turn inside out to get another wear out of them as Scot does.

 

 

SLOVAKIA

Friday 2 October

In the morning we revel in the panoramic view of the Tatras and know that in a few hours we will be right on the other side of those mountains in Slovakia. We debated whether to stop for a few groceries but decided to push on and do that down the track. Vicki was driving so it was a great opportunity to sit back and watch the scenery change as we passed another border crossing. We stopped at a truck stop so we could check the internet as we would soon lose it when we entered Slovakia. We crossed the border and stopped at the first fuel station to buy a vignette for the tolls. Instead of having toll stops they just scan the sticker. This cost $10 euro for 10 days and covers all road user costs which is hassle free as we don’t have to worry about where they are or which roads to avoid. The landscape is really quite different from Poland, other than near Zakopane, as it is hilly and surrounded by mountains and is spectacular. I think I will have to come up with more words to describe the scenery so not to bore anyone. The forests are devoid of pine trees for the most part so the contrast is noticeable. And with autumn in full swing the colours are worth painting. We do notice that the villages and towns seem a little bit more rustic, and with respect a bit ‘poorby’ but then I am a foreigner and shouldn’t judge but compared to the Czech rep seems the poorer cousin. I hope that the next few days prove me wrong that the place does not reflect the people. The one thing I notice is they all have large vege gardens and are preparing them for winter. As it was close to 11am it was coffee time so stopped at a ritzy hotel with a sunny deck which is the first thing I spotted. The coffee and cappuccino was excellent along with the cake all for the grand sum of $3.10 euro, about $5.00aud so hopefully this is a sign that Slovakia with the euro is not expensive.

We stopped off at a small town where it looked quite nice and thought we may be able to get a sim card here, so parked up in a very rugged terrain carpark with massive potholes and walked into the town and looked for a T-mobile shop as they are often the cheapest.  We found one quite quickly and one lady tried to serve us we realised she didn’t really understand us and she didn’t speak much English.  In every other country we have bought a sim we have walked in and 5 mins later walked out after paying for a sim and putting it into the tablet.  After quite some time – like 45 minutes we ended up getting the sim but we had to provide passport details, address plus sign two pieces of paper, all for a 9euro sim that will last us maybe 3 or 4 days.  We can’t understand why the security but we aren’t able to ask what the big deal is as they don’t understand and nor do we.  This kind of information would be for a contract but since we haven’t supplied a credit card or anything we know that isn’t what we have signed up for.  I can only think that Slovakia still has some kind of suspicious Russian influence where they monitor everything everyone browses on the internet and they use this info to trace who you are if they don’t like what you are looking at.  Anyway we were happy just to get out and back to the van to continue our drive.

After a 2 hour drive we came to Liptovski Mikulas where Vicki had sussed out a campground. But as fate has it the reception is closed and the place looks empty even though it is meant to be open until the end of October so we move on to plan B. Mind you it is miles out of town and nowhere near an Irish bar where I have hopes that we will be a short hop to see some of Saturdays nites games or at least get reception on tv. So we drive to the hotel that has a camp ground that on one camping website it was closed but another said that it was open. This is open so after talking to reception we find the power point and basically we are the only ones here. It is getting cold quicker and we are surrounded by high hills so the sun has gone early.  The hotel shuts down at 9pm the same time as the New Zealand/Georgia clash but there is no guarantees the stations here have it on anyway. Funny there was a group of people staying somewhere and they were partying, sort of, in the camp kitchen playing guitars and having fun but we were not sure where they were camping. It turned out that they stayed awake all nite, not sure what they were doing. They were older people so we thought that they may have been a church group or something but they weren’t rowdy. We woke up at 3 in the morning and they were still going then 6 and still talking. Then they were all having a big brekky. Weird.

Vicki had done her usual searching for local area attractions and one of the best around here is the cave walks. The short drive winds up a valley past the ice cave attraction which we would visit if we were here longer (but where is the ice in the summer??  One of many conundrums when on the road with not much to think about).  As an attraction the caves must draw lots of tourists and there is a hotel near. Indeed the drive out here has hotels, villas and short stays as I would say it is a mecca for hikers and fishing in the summer and a wide range of winter sports and activities in the winter very much like Zakopane on the other side of the Tatras.

There is a very steep 400m walk up the mountain to the cave entrance and we get an English printout describing the 7 main parts of the cave system. The cost was only 8euro each which really is very reasonable. Plus 5euro for parking which we don’t mind as has a bit of security. Along with about a hundred people we descended into the caverns. The caves were discovered in 1921 and opened to the public in 1924 and is what they call a Karst system which is largely limestone based with water running through over thousands of years. I won’t go into details but it was great 1 ½ hour natural wonder journey and it blew it our minds away and words really just can’t describe it adequately. It was truly spectacular and had differing features, from one of huge dome cavern to emerald lakes to winding cathedral like hallways. One of the columns which is basically a stalagmite and a stalactite joining and growing is estimated at 300,000 years old. One part was called the sufferers corridor as it took the miners a long time and considerable misery to hack the stone to create 40m of walkway without damaging the terrain. This for me was the most spectacular like walking through a fairy wonderland surrounded by stalactites/mites, crystal quartz and limestone waterfalls. The surreal feeling was of motion and movement from a form that probably moves an inch in a millennium. The walk goes for 1.2ks and goes up around 800m with 900 odd stairs so a bit of an effort. I can’t believe that this area is not mentioned in our lonely planet book as a Slovakian tourist destination. After the valley walk in Zakopane we feel we have just carried on this beautiful journey except it was below ground not above it. It cost extra to take photos but our cameras didn’t work inside anyway so will try and post some from the web. Unfortunately I have never experienced the Waitomo cave in the Waikato of NZ but Vicki has and she says there is really no comparison as they are totally different cave systems and whereas Waitomo is known for its glow worm magic and this was not evident at the Demanovska Cave of Liberty as it is a limestone cave. Overall a fantastic visit which we would highly recommend.

We drove out the way we came and proceeded to our next destination at further south to a small town of Piestany 40km past Trencin where there is a very famous castle ruins and environs that date back to the 11th century. It amazes us that these castles dot the high landscape everywhere and are built on uncompromising rock buttresses overlooking the countryside. Slovakia seems to have more than any country we have visited to date. Each has their own history which with the magic of modern technology (the internet for the initiated few) we can study before we explore so get a feel for the time and era. However it is around 4pm when we drive into the old town to be immediately confronted by more bloody weddings and bridal cars which in small cobbled alleys and laneways on a Saturday do not go down well with a 6m campervan with a tired driver. We decide that prudence is greater than valour so do a u turn and get out of Dodge and to our next camp.

The camp is just outside of town on the river near a marina and yacht club. We drive into the camp and the reception is closed but my god the place is packed!! Whereas we have experienced nobody in camps now and campervan highway is empty but now we are back 3 months. Seems there is the final meeting of the Caravan & Camper Association of Slovakia and we are gate crashing the party. They have live music and reverie and we are quickly invited to come along but it seems a little cliquey, they don’t seem to speak English and they are playing Abba so we will see how we feel as there is a function in the hotel next door as well.  Just our luck to have two at once.

I am bummed that it is getting too late and we won’t be able to see the crucial Wallabies/England clash as I can’t replicate the TV reception of last week and there is no way we are going to the Irish bar when they may not have it on anyway so take consolation that next to the camp is a local BREWERY!!! So I am mollified to some extent. We have found out that tonite they are having a Slovakian folklore nite with plenty of local beer, spirits and music. We decide to have dinner first as we don’t want to party on an empty stomach. The rugby is soon forgotten and any way tragic as we are the world cup, the All blacks aren’t playing so what is more important than local beer, spirits & music!

We have a chat to the two girls at the entrance who give us a shot of schnapps which is home made and packs a mighty punch.  We are given lucky door tickets for a draw later on and buy a drink.

They have a couple who are teaching everyone the steps of traditional Poprad dance which is a region in the middle of Slovakia.  Some are wearing costumes and others try hard to look the part.  The band starts the music which is very different from anything I have heard before but it has a beat that they dance to.  They don’t have to encourage anyone, as they all get up and stand around waiting for the dance instructions to begin.  We both join in for most of the lessons but our legs are a bit sore from the cave walk this morning so we don’t quite get the vim and energy to give our all as we normally would but do our best.  We have a lot of fun trying to keep up with all the younger ones.  Once they have taught all the steps they show us a video from 1913 of the traditional dance and the costumes.  Then they just play the music for everyone to dance as they wish since everyone now knows the steps.  As the night wears on they decide to draw the lucky door prizes.  I had wondered how we would know if our ticket was called since we don’t know the numbers in Slovakian but one of the girls we were chatting to at the start knows our numbers so she will grab us if ours comes up.  A few prizes go and next minute Ludka comes racing over and says my number is called so I go up to collect my prize which is a t-shirt from the folklore club with Piestany on it.  I was wrapped and felt our hard dancing was all justified, when next minute Ludka comes over again, our other number is called and Scot goes up to collect a cool decorated bottle of milk which comes direct from the farm – none of that pasteurised stuff!  We are both thrilled and amazed that we have both won a prize. Scot gets to have a couple more shots of Schnapps before we head out for the night.

During the night we talked to a Korean guy who works for Kia who along with Hyundai have huge factories here in Slovakia which probably supplies the European market and takes advantage of inexpensive labour.  He wants to stay in the country but can only do so if he stays at his job.  He can’t yet speak Slovak despite being in the country for 8 years.  He loves to travel to go to the folklore dances – but prefers the east to the west as he feels they are friendlier.  We also had a great conversation with Ludka who wants to study Japanese at University perhaps in Czech Rep as it is a better qualification there.  She also wants to go to NZ as we have heard another here say that.  One fellow from the camps said NZ turned down his visa because they have enough chefs in NZ and don’t need any more.  We find that sad that different cultures are turned down for short stays to learn a different culture and get the opportunity to live on the other side of the world especially when so many people get let in to NZ when they don’t deserve to be there.

It is a slightly later get up than normal due to the late night, but we suss out the showers which look like they are from the 1940’s and something out of a prison.  At least there is hot water and plenty of it but you don’t want to touch the walls and wearing jandals so as not to touch the floor is a must.

We have decided to spend today back in Trencin looking at the Trencin castle and surrounds since it was too busy yesterday afternoon.  Being Sunday most things will be closed so there will be fewer people around.  There is another castle ruin just south of Trencin castle but we end up not having the time to see it.  We spend the end of the morning and most of the afternoon walking around the castle grounds and decide not to do the tour as they do not speak any English so what would be the point.  The castle was from the 1100’s and had a well that had taken 40 years to chip out 79m of stone just so that the castle owner could marry Fatima.  He never did because she died before the well was finished – no shit – so was all in vain really as they never reached a spring.  The well did fill with water from somewhere apparently as the tale goes though.

We had a look at the exhibition and artifacts that had been found at the castle.  We had a wine and non-alc beer at Fatima’s restaurant because Scot was driving and Slovakia has a zero alcohol policy same as Czech Rep and Hungary.  You can’t even push bike and ride home after one beer here.  Lucky we have a brewery at the entrance to the campsite.

After a short walk around the town we head back to camp and of course head for a drink at the brewery and an entrée of duck pate with toast and some potato pancakes.  We watch as the last of the camp club leave the camp ground and we are once again left on our own in a huge campsite just like every other night.  It’s quite eerie really after having a huge amount of people here and now its just us.  There are walnut trees all around this campsite – must be a Slovakian thing – and we had seen people throwing timber at the trees to try and make them fall off.

ZAKOPANE, POLAND

Tuesday 29 September

We get up and pack up before going in to pay for our stay.  They tell us we can only pay with cash, but we don’t have very much and we are cranky they didn’t bother to tell us this when we arrived.  So we get our bikes back out of the van and head down the road in search of an atm.  Right beside where we found one is a bakery so maybe not so bad after all as we buy some bread for todays lunch and breakfasts.  We head back to the camp, pay and then head out of Krakow.  The Polish are nice people and more speak English (a little) than I thought would, but as it showed this morning, they may be able to speak a bit but don’t always understand what you are saying back to them – a bit like my French really.

It is a cold day and it takes a while to warm up this morning.  The temp is only about 11 degrees as we head south.  The last couple of nights have been much cooler – heading around 6 degrees.  It doesn’t take us long before we are close to Zakopane.  We stop at a McDonalds again for a coffee as the Polish ones all have a McCafe and their coffees are always good. Unfortunately there has been a bus load of teenagers pull up just before we did and it is crammed with them.  We head away south – with only 20 or so minutes to go.  The countryside here is interesting, obviously more mountainous than we have driven for a while and the houses are far larger and look more ski chalet type of places.  It is obviously a very popular place to either live or stay as there are a lot of places along the road as we drive in.  Poland has the most obtrusive advertising I have seen in any of all the countries we have been in so far.  You are absolutely bombarded by billboards and advertising everywhere.  There were quite a lot of countries where we never say any advertising at all, even McDonalds weren’t allowed to put up their big M showing where they were in a couple we were in.  Not so here, the bigger and brighter the better.

We missed the campground on the way in so decided to park in the centre and have a look around before finding it on our way back out.  We found a large carpark where the guy told us we could park all day for 15zlotys.  We asked if we could stay all night for that too and he said yes.  So we thought about what we would do as we strolled the town.

The Tatras behind Zakopane have a light smattering of snow on them at the moment which is why the temperature is very cool and on checking it is only about 8 degrees, but is getting down to 2 degrees tonight and 1 degree tomorrow night.  We don’t really want to wild camp without electricity as this means not having the heater on (I don’t like it on gas) and it is way too cold for that here.  The town reminds me a bit of Queenstown or maybe more of Arrowtown but is a much nicer place.  Queenstown has gotten too chintzy and has far too much Asian influence and commercialism which destroys the Kiwi uniqueness of it.  The town centre although still commercialised here with souvenirs all around and hiking shops a dime a dozen it still very cool and a great place to have a look around.  A lot of the food places are selling mulled wine – my absolute favourite so we have to sit and have a couple of them to see how good they are.  I think my Jamie Oliver recipe is better but it is still rather nice to have on such a cool afternoon.  I manage to find a pair of inexpensive water proof hiking boots (I had to leave mine at home) which are made in Italy supposedly which I must check on and see if the truth prevailed.  We decided that if we can get electricity then we will stay in the carpark we are in for the night and save a bit of money, and we find an electrical point outside a business, so this is it for the night.  We just have to have our power out well before 9am and move the van over a bit so no one knows we camped here the night, not that I think anyone would care really.

Tomorrow the weather isn’t supposed to be good, but we will see.  If it isn’t so good we may not go for the hike up the valley, but may stay an extra day and do it Thursday when it is supposed to be a very sunny day. At 10pm we were fortunate enough to time a quick call to Nedra & Kev in NZ as we have skype where we can call landlines for 3 cents a minute and it was early morning. . So as we can we will call family over the next few days but time difference and connectivity will have to be taken in to account.  We were chatting to Gina our niece when somewhere in Zakopane there was a huge boom like a bomb going off but have no idea what it was and no sirens so we are still guessing. Even Gina heard it over the phone and said what the heck was that!  Anyway we managed to get to sleep but as is usual sleeping in a non camping area you never truly settle.

Wednesday

It was very cold when we woke up and probably near 0c. We moved the van away from our power source so we don’t upset any apple carts and head into the village after brekky. It only managed to reach 4c today so well and truly rugged up-gloves and beanies. Because of the inclement weather we decide to do the hike tomorrow but decide to ride the cable car up the mountain (but a small one) and then walk a couple of ks and come down the ski lift. After a satisfying coffee and cake at a very warm café we get some bread buns to make lunch for today and tomorrow and a couple of beers for later. The trip up the slope was quite quick and I suppose we could have walked it if we had known but we want to save our energy for tomorrow anyway. Out of the cable car and the temp seems to have dropped a bit so we walk down another road of vendors selling the same wares and food as in the village, bloody hell a hard sell today. The funny thing is we are noticing that though it is cold and coming on to winter they are all selling these pastry/doughnut/roll type thing that you eat cold and supposably don’t have any filling. There are literally dozens of the stalls but no one really eating them. The potato pancakes however in town are doing a roaring trade  I had some in Stegna which were divine, these are ok but not as good) Boy what I would give for a Redcliffe Banjos meat pie!! Which reminds me that I haven’t had any lamb or beef for about 3 months you just cant get it. We were in a Tesco shopping mall, and remembering all the export lamb we sent there when I worked at the meat works, surely I could find a lamb chop? Nothing, not even a sausage. Oh well chicken and fish, thank god Vicki likes these. I live in hope but reckon I will just have to have more smallgoods which I must say Europeans excel at. Anyway as we were walking it started to lightly snow which was so cool especially for someone like me from Whanganui probably not so much for Vicki from Dunedin( even though adores the snow) but though light it was a wonderful experience. From up here the view was incredible and it really is a beautiful and natural valley so we can appreciate why it is very popular all year round. We stopped at what we thought was our ski lift down and had our bread rolls while mesmerised by the vista below us that had similarities with parts of the NZ south island. As the temp bit even though the sun came out it was time for a hot wine so went into a little kiosk and indulged. This has become a slight routine as cold beer or wine doesn’t quite cut it. We went to put our tickets to go on the ski lift down but told our one was a km up the road so off we went. There are lots of new buildings going up here, chalet types that are quite large so maybe business ventures and holiday homes most in the traditional log cabin style but far from rustic. We stopped and chatted to a few woolly local sheep (with horns) and tried to entice them with some luscious side road grass but maybe they suspected we were kiwis and our advances were suspicious. No you aussies I did not spot Baaaarbara!( though the funniest thing I saw a beer from Poland with an emu and kangaroo crest on it but didn’t buy it cos I figured it was a Fosters copy) Our ski lift happened to be the old style open chairs not the previous 4 berth covered Rolls Royce type so jumped on but surprisingly it was nice slow journey down the ‘mountain’ through and over people’s back yards which took probably 3 x longer than the ‘rich man’s lift’ so in the end it was great as we got to see for miles around. We trekked back into town via the main road in and turned off to find the old town but not quite what we were expecting to find so went back to the main area. We picked up some fresh tomatoes and raspberries ( they sell forest mushrooms which we are tempted to try them but look funny though probably ok we just cant get over the fear of ‘tripping off’ somewhere though they do sell them on the side of the road in the forests. Even when we were going through Birkenau there were mushrooms in the paddocks but at least they looked like the ones in NZ.) and took them back to the van as everything here is quite close then went in search of our favourite hot wine seller. Two hot wines each($2aud for 300ml) and the night air was approaching 0 so thought best to get the van warm and have some green curry for tea for a change. Funny though we add to it and it just gets tastier.

We arrived back to our van and as it is after 6 we backed the van back into last nite’s position and hook up the electricity. We tend to keep the lights low so as not to draw any attention to us till it settles down but tonite a large van parked right next to us. Fortunately I spot stickers in the side window its ok just another fellow traveller. We are neighbourly so say hello as safety & solidarity in numbers. They are Hungarians and speak a little English but they are off for some dinner so we will catch in the morning as they are off to Krakow so maybe we will be able to swap info if we can understand each other. Vicki is tallying receipts, seems you can take the accountant out of Australia but…. Haha.  Will sleep easier tonite with our new neighbours flying shotgun.

Thursday 1 October

No strange happenings overnight but we need to get up earlyish so we can get to the bus to take us to Kiry and a day of hiking.  The buses here are all private and they are mostly mini buses.  You can take them wherever you need to go but you need to be careful because you never know exactly where they are going to take you in the town.  Looking out of the van the cars around us have thick frost on them and it is really cold outside, but a beautiful clear sky.  I check the temperature on the internet and it says it is -1 and it is 8 o’clock, so I figure it was probably -2 or -3 overnight.  No wonder it got cold out of bed in the van.  The Hungarian couple who parked up beside us came and said goodbye and I was quite humbled by Robert who gave us his phone number and that of his daughters in Budapest and said his was an open home and we were very welcome at any time.  And they have a festival in his home town in a few weeks that he said we should come for.  How lovely.  We say it often about the lovely people we have met on our journey.  I said to Scot I reckoned it was because I told him to go out and say hello and find out who our neighbours were when they pulled up, which a lot of people don’t do, but I like to know where they are from and chat to them about their country.

It costs 10zloty to get to Kiry – about $4 for the two of us.  Before we left, I had asked a tourist office lady if the track was easy to follow (thinking of NZ or Aust wilderness hikes) and she said yes.  I then wondered whether I should tell someone we are out hiking so if anything happens and we don’t return they will send out someone to look for us.  I had thought of the guy at the car park where the van is, but in the end I don’t do anything about it.  And I thought I was being reasonable.  However when we get off the mini bus in Kiry, it is a major stop for those hiking and there are souvenir places all around and as we look down the path we are going on down the valley between the Tatras we see a couple of hundred people already heading down on the path.  Also the path is not the track I had envisioned, it is a stony road wide enough for a good sized vehicle – so much for my theory on getting lost and the wilderness!  There are horse and carts waiting to take those who feel that the 12-14km hike is too far for them to walk.

We head off passing a couple of large school student groups which we are pleased to leave behind so we may get a little bit of peace and quiet and the sound of the wilderness as we walk the track.  The road takes us along the side of a river and it is very peaceful with only the odd couple of hikers passing us or us them from either direction.  As we look up, the rocky faces of the outer Tatras loom out of the trees and they are a sight to behold.  It is very cool though even though the sky is cloudless, it would be about 4 degrees in the shade.  There is frost on the grass and the puddles are frozen along the side of the road.  There are many different paths you can take along this route, but we have decided on the easier one that will take about 2 hours each way.  Some of the paths take you up along the rocky ridges where you can look down along the valley which would be a beautiful sight but we will save that for another day perhaps.

I am disappointed (but my knee is probably grateful) that the path isn’t more rugged and not so civilised but that’s ok.  It is probably the best day we have spent in Europe getting back to nature and we love it.  It would be nice to do more of this when we get to Austria and Switzerland.  We reach the half way point and it seems like it was a short walk.  We had a few horse and carts trot past us.  The second part has a bit of up hill and we are getting a little higher into the hills.  We both joke about having a nice coffee at the end of the track but when we arrive there, there are already 30 odd people there and in the middle of nowhere there is a large café and a hostel kind of place.  So a coffee it is – even if it is a primitive old fashioned one.  I don’t know if I would like the job of any of the workers having to walk in and out each day but I guess it would keep you fit –unless they have a motorbike.

Next to arrive are the big groups of students and the little peace there was, is completely gone.  The path heads away from this spot onto another 4hour hike and although we aren’t doing that one we walk a little way to see if we can see further into the valley.  This track gets a little back to a wilderness style of track as I doubt many continue on this path.

We head back to Kiry, trying to stay away from the large groups so we can again capture that peaceful nature sound and stop occasionally along the river side.  We stop for a seat at the halfway mark and eat our bread rolls Scot made that morning.  As we sit there he sees some people partway up a rocky ridge quite high up.  Looks like a bit of a harrowing pathway.

When we get back to Kiry we look for the bus we need to take.  There are several there with Zakopane signs on and a couple that drive past.  We have no idea which one to take so we just get on one of them.  We know it is going somewhere near where we want to go, but we don’t know just exactly where.  It drives via a different route we got there on and we start to wonder if it going where we want to go – and no its not.  It is going to the other end of the town which is a 20 minute walk that we hadn’t intended to do.  It’s not all bad as we now get to walk past the shop with the bread rolls and can buy some more and we walk past the better of the mulled wine cafes and stop for 2 drinks each.  It was difficult to get up and leave as we were tired, but we have to find a camp for the night which we know is on the outskirts of town – or find a porta toilet to empty ours into and go back to the carpark.  We had seen a sign in the town for a campsite closer in but when we investigated there was nothing there.  I wish they would remove signs when they were no longer relevant.  In Poland you are totally and completely bombarded with advertising billboards.  They are just incredible and I am wondering whether they just get left up even when they are no longer applicable.  We head out of town to the campsite we know is still open.  It is about 4kms out and we were going to have tea in town but it will be too far now.  We arrive at the camp and after we had paid a Dutch couple pull up.  Its always funny when this happens and we get chatting and the owners of the camp are standing by patiently waiting for them to check in so they can get on with their business.  It was very worthwhile talking to this couple though as it often is, since they are also driving into Slovakia tomorrow and on to Austria.  We have asked them which way they are going as it is by the mountains and I think one way is good and the other not so good.  They stop by in the morning before leaving and tell us the best way to go which is great.  Now I am not so afraid of getting the bad mountainous road.  We eat out as a treat at a nearby restaurant and have pizza and Greek salad.  They don’t have wine which I am peeved about so I have to have a beer.  After I am nearly falling asleep so it is a very early night for us – all that fresh air has tuckered both of us out.  Tomorrow off to Slovakia our 15th country.

 

KRAKOW and AUSCHWITZ

With the rain coming down we leave the camp but checked the toilet/water dump from last nite to check for floaters but all ok. It is a 2-3 hour trip so not too far and careful in the rain. We found the camp quite easily which is new and sort of part of the Hotel complex. It was still raining so quickly set up after checking and watching a wedding reception going in for their celebrations. We are pretty much the only ones here. I have checked out the bar so am going to see if polish tv has the rugby on as unfortunately the van reception is nil. I made a green Thai curry but got a bit heavy handed so quite hot which Vicki can’t handle so now I am cooking extra veges and adding coconut milk to ‘cool’ it down. Now we have enough for 3 nites. I walk over to see if the game is on at 6pm but only volleyball but have a beer anyway. Then back to the van for tea and a beer. Then at 9pm back to the bar and see if the other game is on but no luck but what the heck better have another quality Polish beer and had a nice chat to the young bar lady. She is studying Theology so quite fascinating trying to find out what job comes at the end of study. Vicki is still sick so a quiet nite for her.

Next morning the weather was sunny and reasonably warm so started walking the 3ks into Krakow but a little bit down the road we went back and got the bikes as it is much quicker but until you start walking it is hard to judge if biking is feasible. Oh for bikeways like Belgium & Holland where bike is king. However the bike lane here quite quickly went down to the Danube for a picturesque ride into the city. We locked up the bikes, again not bike friendly, very little racks. We wandered the streets but priority was an ATM and a place to get a sim card as our first Polish one only lasted 5 days and it ran out while we were in Czech rep. We had to go to the new shopping plaza which is so out of place in the old town. We got what we wanted and did some exploring of this old town which is similar to the others but has a green park surrounding the whole city which is quite unique. Around 2.30 we sussed out a bar that had the rugby on(you can see a pattern here of my priorities) and though the Wallaby game was on it was the next game we were going to watch. Trouble was it was live streamed so not a great picture. We walked around a bit more and sat in the square in the sun and I had a Polish sausage & beer and Vicki had a hot mulled wine. We started to chat to a Polish lady(her grandmother survived the war as even though she was on the list to go to the camps the grandfather, being a cobbler, persuaded the person to take her off the list in exchange for making shoes for them as of course they were in very short supply. Such a fine line between life & death) and asked her a few questions about what we should see and she recommended Zakopane which is south nestled under the Tatra Mountains and is meant to be very stunning with lots of walks and sightseeing. We were not sure whether to take the van or bus or train for a day trip so had to do some research. We said our goodbyes and made our way back to the bar but did stop on the way to see some very clever young men busking a great break dance and singing routine which was entertaining. We got to the bar but they had moved the game to the back room tv where a bunch of Scots and one pom were watching. The picture was really poor so everybody decided to do to the English Football pub down the road for the second half. We were invited along so went into this amazing underground cellar like catacombs with about 6 rooms for different viewing. We ended up watching the first half again as they couldn’t find the 2nd half live on the telly then found out there was no 2nd half for that channel. What a balls up but we had a great time chatting to the guys. They were over on a bucks nite as one of the guys was marrying a German. The poor pommy was getting hell from the Scots for losing to Wales so of course we were digging in that the Aussies will beat them as well and they will be out of the cup. We could have stayed longer but they were going for pizza and Vicki has a long memory regarding the last time I started drinking with Brits in Riga so prudent that we left.  It was getting a bit dark so went home and had an early nite as we had to be up early the next morning to be collected to go to Auschwitz & Birkenau for our tour. Not sure what to expect tomorrow but sort of looking forward to it but how can you ‘look forward’ to something as horrible as this.

We were collected on time, 20 of us in a minibus for the 1/1/2 hour trip to first Auschwitz then a short drive to Birkenau. We had only just got underway when the guy (about 35-40) next to Vicki (they were in the back row) said to the chap next to me one row ahead that he was going to be sick and pass him a bag! The guy next to me who happened to be his dad sort of ignored him so he asked again then took some food and fruit out of a plastic back and proceeded to vomit into the bag, Great way to start the day, needless to say dad was not impressed. I ended up getting the bus driver to stop and the guy ended up sitting with the driver up the front. He blamed it on being bounced around in the back but I get the feeling it was alcohol related from the nite before as dad was not impressed.

We parked at Auschwitz amongst other vans and buses and met our guide. It is all pretty rushed as there are lots of groups all having to follow each other in sequence so they can’t stuff around. Well Murphy’s law stepped in and they wouldn’t let Vicki’s bag through.  They do advise you that you can only take a small bag 30x20x10 in but we determined that Vicki’s handbag was no larger than that.  The lady on the metal detector (yes they put you through one, although we have absolutely no idea why) took a dislike to Vicki and she had to take her bag back out to the bus driver and get him to lock it back up in the van.  Not a good thing as it had our passports and important documents in.  They did let my bag in which was actually the same size or slightly bigger – go figure.  The tour group hardly waited for Vicki to come back before they had taken off.  We all got headphones and a receiver box to hear our guide.  He had a hilarious way of talking – a bit like the guy off Believe it or not where he would almost whisper his final word in each sentence.  Auschwitz is a sombre and hard to describe place but it was a bit like walking around an old prison with the razor wire and brick buildings. Everything is pretty much unchanged but you only get to see through a few places and not a lot of time as the other groups are behind you all the time. There were rooms with items collected from Jews by the Nazis as they were delivered to the camp. They were told to bring all they could as they were going to be rehoused in other places. Unfortunately the showers were gas chambers and so all their belongings were warehoused and sent to be reused. For example their hair was all shaved off before they were murdered and made into textiles and goods for the war effort. However in one room there was enclosed two ton of hair that hadn’t been used (out of 8 ton still there) just huge mounds of hair. There were also rooms with thousands of children’s shoes and another with thousands of adults shoes. There were Combs and brushes, shoe polish and even suitcases with names still on them. Words can’t describe the feeling looking at them but have a look at the attached pics. There was one area in the basement where 4 people would be put in  a 1 x 1m cell with no windows where they had to crawl in through a little hatch and live for weeks or until they died as a punishment.  Just unbelievable.  And yet these activities took an amazing lot of clever planning and money raising. We saw where they shot people and also where they hung them up by  their arms that were tied behind their backs till their shoulders dislocated. There was a reconstructed crematorium that still had the original equipment plus the gas chamber where they dropped the pellets through the roof and could take hours to die. The problem was they couldn’t burn them quick enough. The area was declared a monument in 1947 and has been open to visitors since.

Whereas the enclosed area of Auschwitz is small, Birkenau is around 200 hectares and though a lot of the long huts are gone the remains of a number of the brick buildings are standing but unfortunately they are sinking into the ground due to the high water table but these are being restored. The government own the area but admission is free (but you pay to go on a guided tour) but upkeep is by funding methods. The remains of the two huge crematoriums are still there after the Nazis tried to remove the evidence by burning and blowing them up but they ran out of time. It still amazes me how the Nazis were so dumb to think they could get rid of the evidence. It would have been hard enough to physically remove things but they were fastidious documenters and wrote everything down. However some were clever enough to remove themselves to other countries before the collapse or just after but many were tried and executed.

As you enter the site you can follow the railway line where all the jews and other prisoners were bought in then unloaded and with the whim of one nazi it was to the left if you were old, infirm, disabled, pregnant, a child or unfit to work which meant a walk straight to the gas chambers or to the right if you were fit to work. The hut living quarters were primitive to say the least and I would hate to know what it was like in the winter. This part of the tour wasn’t as depressing as Auschwitz but probably due to the openness and size of Birkenau it is hard to gauge how it must have been. I can see why this has become a pilgrimage for so many to witness the greatest extermination in the known world history. Supposedly it is to make sure it never happens again but what I see in the world today I don’t have much hope.  The guide said that Auschwitz was the better camp and it was considered a punishment if you were to be sent to Birkenau.  When you see the difference between the two you can understand why.  The bunk rooms in Auschwitz were inside brick buildings and the Birkenau bunk rooms were unlined timber with cobbled floors and rooves.  Nothing would have been air tight and I can’t begin to imagine what it would have been like in winter.  They housed many hundreds of people in each building that should reasonably only hold maybe a hundred at the most.  The soldiers looking after the prisoners also had to live in the same conditions the prisoners did at Birkenau.

We got back to camp around midday, had a small nap-Vicki still had a migraine that she just can’t seem to shake- & rolls that we had made in the morning but didn’t  have, somehow didn’t feel like eating, and biked into town to have a look around the main feature here the large castle and church that is surrounded by high walls. It is a great view over the Danube over to the new city so after a look around we sat and had a drink and fruit tart at one of the restaurants and enjoyed the vista. Prices are very good here so you feel you are getting value for money. We wandered back into the old town to see if we had missed anything but not really so had a mulled wine in the square, somehow managed to get a free beer yeehaa, then biked back to camp. Altogether quite a busy two days and a bit emotional at times. We will look back at Krakow as a quite a nice place but I think the feeling is that it was too close to us being in Prague and that has spoilt the experience a bit as Prague was awesome on many levels. Plus, for me, I have always thought of Krakow in a negative sort of light because of the camps and war history but really I would say it is well worth the visit especially as we didn’t go to Warsaw.

We have decided not to stay a third day as we thought and we are going to drive south  to Zakopane a popular holiday, winter sport and hiking destination. We hope to do a small excursion up the valley and get a hike in but we will be a bit limited to distance as we hear it can be challenging but still want to experience the wild mountain scenery. It is on the way to Slovakia which is on the other side of the Tatra Mountains, which like the Czech Rep, seems to be a friendly & peaceful country that punches above it’s weight and also has beautiful scenery and is small enough to experience a lot in a short time. We are aware of the weather starting to cool and still have Hungary, Austria, Switzerland and Liechtenstein to see before heading to the slightly warmer climes of Greece hopefully seeing a bit of Italy and Croatia on the way.

CESKY KRUMLOV, CZECH REPUBLIC

Wednesday 23rd September

We head down though all the lovely little towns towards Cesky Krumlov which we had heard was a great place to see.  The Czech Republic is a really lovely country scenery wise.  We love driving off the highways here as the roads aren’t too bad and the towns are great to drive through. This proved the case when we spotted a large castle in the hills and when I saw the sign for it plus a motorcycle museum we quickly turned off as often we hesitate and miss out. After forking out 150K to park- rogueing buggers- we walked up the hill to the castle, no mean feat for Vicki as the cup of concrete hadn’t worked much but she is one to soldier on. It was a grey day rain holding off but we decided not to pay up to $40aud to look inside so walked around it instead. We came upon an enclosure in the moat where a rare black bear resides. It was really a horrible place and filthy with a water pond that was nearly empty and green. No trees or grass. The pictures near it showed what it was like probably ages ago but nothing like it now. The bear was in his little hideaway and we heard a comment from a guide that she hadn’t seen it move out for weeks. It is so cruel and we were both really sickened. Other tourists were going on how ‘cute’ it all was and we were saying it was disgusting and the castle should be ashamed of themselves. Not sure what they thought of that. Anyway we took photos and am seriously considering sending them to WWF or similar.

I couldn’t wait to leave so headed down to the bike museum. After thinking it was closed we went around to the hotel entrance and a young girl let us in so I had a look around the bikes on my own. This is one of the best Jawa (they are Czech built) collections around and had some really neat bikes including speedway solos and legends of the sport including NZ’s own Barry Briggs & Ivan Mauger. As I had read Barry Briggs Autobiograpy when we had to fly back to NZ in June I found it very interesting.  We were chatting to the girl about travelling etc when the owner arrived and of course he wanted to show me around and we chatted about speedway and bikes & NZ & Aussie racing which was a treat. In hindsight I wish I had asked him more questions and learnt more even with his limited English. And we didn’t get charged so bonus there. We had a coffee before taking off to Cesky Krumlov. But I didn’t buy a bikeT shirt he had for sale as they were in red which is not really a colour I wear. Bugger.

We were a little late arriving in town here since we had left Prague a bit late and it is quite a distance to drive, along with the stop.  There were a couple of places we could park up which we checked out.  Both looked quite dreadful and rundown derelict places so we decided we weren’t staying there.  We went out of town a bit to a campsite called Camping Paradijs – and we though yeah right sure it is.  It was 6km out of town and on a little river in the middle of nowhere really.  When we pulled in, they had the most beautiful gardens and what a lovely place it was.  They were entitled to call it what they did.

We chatted to the owner who understood a little English and with a few handsignals we parked in a secluded garden area on our own. The owners are very friendly which makes a nice change from some as you get the impression that they don’t want to help. Again we got great tv reception and we watched NZ play Namibia. Also there is a great retro channel playing music videos. So a few beers and a turkey meal in bed watching tv –heaven after reading a thousand books.

The camp is in a valley surrounded by forests with a river running through and it is indeed paradise. There are heaps of apple trees, raspberry vines and colourful flower beds. We reluctantly drove into the town next morning all packed up in case we do not decide to go back to Camp Paradijse (6 kms to far for us to bike on very busy & hilly roads) and start to explore this quaint and obviously busy tourist stopover. After our obligatory stop at practically the first café we see for a coffee and apple strudel (which reminded us of Holland) we explored another fantastic old town with architecture we just can’t get enough of so old and sometimes derelict but functional and full of charm. Vicki bought a bright orange T shirt and I am still on the lookout for a bike or beer one.

We had to go back to put more $$ in the parking for the van and sometimes you do not know how much to put in as it is a foreign language so better to side on less to start. We quickly made a sandwich on the run then headed back to town this time heading to the castle. We meandered our way through the enclosed walls dodging bloody tourists ( we never cease to be amazed how the guides just stop in the middle of the main thoroughfare to deliver their spiel and stuff everybody else) Again we saw an enclosure with two bears this time that seemed a hell of a lot better off than the lone one from the day before but still very sad and listless but at least these ones had fresh water and a bit of green. I would love to put the powers that be in their place for a week and see what they thought! The view from up here was brilliant and I have some great views to kick-start my art career. I had a quick ale costing a $ and then walked back down. I was keen on visiting the Eggenburg brewery but couldn’t find the map to it so walked around the river (which is a little like a small scale Brisy) only to find it closed for renovation. Duhh!  I wanted a refreshing ale but since we had done extra miles for nothing best to be prudent and not. Then we were running out of time and we still hadn’t seen the last bit of the old town but due to the extended walk etc  etc had to get back the van. Vicki was feeling pretty low by now so we headed back to camp early doing a shop on the way. I felt a bit bad as there was a bit of crossed wires but it allowed us to get our washing done and relax down by the river so peace was restored. As we reflected we toasted some canoeists floating down the river and thought how lucky are we. The camp lady washed and dried our washing for us which was lovely and the owners sister Maria who looks after the garden let Vicki pick a large bowl of fresh raspberries and didn’t want anything for them. Along with a handful of gooseberries and fallen apples we felt very privileged and it definitely lived up to the title of Camp Paradisje.

As we left at 10.30 which is quite good for us (read Scot) we decided to push on and make a good fist of getting close to Krakow as we had booked in for a day tour of Auschwitz. Our first stop was a small picturesque village called Telc which after parking found the obligatory market square where, even though we wanted coffee but ended up with soup where my Goulash was ok but Vicki’s chicken soup was ordinary. It was a shame as we walked around the square there were some quaint cafes. Just goes to show when will we learn not to go to the first one you see.

On the road again and a long drive today but finally ended up (7pm) at a very clean and quiet camp and we think they didn’t charge correct but we weren’t complaining. The drive was a mix of highways and country roads. It is funny but no matter how much you plan, and the tablet is a crucial navigating device, just when you need direction the most , yes that road is closed off and quickly please find an alternative route before the truck runs us off the road. But again the countryside is so unique and we love not being on the motorway. Luckily the roads are in great order and we cruise through small villages and wonder at the life they lead and what they do. Much too soon we are back on the main road  but as it is getting dark , beats cruising, and it is dark as Vicki miraculously finds our stop. The lady speaks English at the camp but not enough to find out where to empty the toilet, so I go and ask and she says ‘I think it is here’. It is dark and raining and we really have to empty it if we want to use it so I empty it into the sink where I figure it is(no signs anywhere) and wonder why it is not going anywhere except on my feet.  Then I see the hole in the ground and have a Homer moment. Shit I have emptied it in the fresh water fill up. So I quickly go back to the van and get a paper coffee cup and empty out the sink hoping the toilet paper has dissolved enough. Thank god no one crapped in it and I had to dig out a turd. However next morning all looked ok. Lesson 101 leave this stuff till daylight and thank god men do it and stuff it up.

 

PRAGUE/PRAHA, CZECH REPUBLIC

It is late Saturday afternoon and we know that the rugby world cup has started today so once we sort the van out; take the bikes out, plug the electricity in, set up the bathroom, set up the tv, take all the stuff off the bed and put in it’s appropriate place; Scot then figures he will see if we can get tv reception so he may be able to see the games.  So he turns on the tv, tunes it in and Voila! He gets the start of the South Africa vs Japan game and he is stoked.  I am sure everyone would have heard him In Aus and NZ he was so happy (and rightly so after 5 months with none).  So we watched that game, or at least Scot did, I watched the first half and then got chatting to the next door GB neighbours and didn’t get to see the last part.  That was an amazing game – Japan won which was the hugest upset of all time.  Unfortunately the channel we were watching didn’t play the second game.  We had a great tea and had an earlyish night so we could get into the city early in the morning.  The camp we are staying at is on an island in the middle of the river just a short ferry ride away from the city. We could hear music booming reminiscent of Stockholm and it got louder and louder, it turned out to be a large party boat full of revellers with a disco full on lights and all. And then we were treated to a cool fireworks display.

The next morning we get up and head off to the ferry.  It is a very small boat that can take only about 9 people.  The last ferry goes at 8.09pm which is a tad too early but if you want to get home the easy way you make sure you are there.  Apparently though if there are more people than seats, you get left behind.

So we get off the ferry (and yes we did pay him but wish we hadn’t paid him until he had got us home again – more later) and started walking into the old town.  We needed money – Czech krowns, a sim card and a city map, well a better one than we had.  We are walking along one street and we come across a Cat Café.  So me being me, we had to go in and check it out.  They charged one flat rate for the first hour which included as much coffee, tea and bikkies that you wanted and free wifi which was a good deal as it was only aud5 equivalent each.  There weren’t enough cats though which means they don’t come near you very much since they are probably already sick of people.  Never mind we stayed for a bit and left to get our list sorted.  We were actually quite a bit out of the old town but didn’t realise it as all the buildings are amazing.  They ornate architecture is just amazing and is everywhere.  After a lot of searching we eventually found the avenue where Wenceslas square was and then found an information place.  No wonder we weren’t in the right place, where we had been was very quiet and where we arrived at was packed.  We found a place for a data sim and money so we were set.  After walking a bit we found a lovely quiet island on the river where we could sit and eat our sandwiches.  Whilst sitting there a couple came and asked us if we knew where the pink tank was.  Huh??  We had no idea so we researched it and as it turns out it isn’t even in Prague.  It is a tank from the war that was coloured from green to pink and back again many times – it’s a long story and I won’t go into it here.

We leave the little island garden and then walk up the esplanade and find the most walked over bridge I have ever come across. It is absolutely packed and they are all tourists.  Holy crap where did they come from???  Anyway we make our way through them and have a look at the stalls on the side of the bridge as we walk across.  At each end of the bridge are great archways – I never got to learn about their history but they are obviously very old and at the far end you can walk up the stairs to the top which we did.  Great views over the old town and around the other side of the bridge.

We walked around the other side of town for a bit and eventually decided to go and find a bar that would be playing the All Blacks game that night.  We figured that any of the Irish bars would be playing the game so we found one on the other side so got our seats ready.  The game kicked off at 5.45pm and we needed it to be finished by 7.30 so we could get the ferry home.  A great game was enjoyed with a few other Kiwis that were in Prague.  One couple sat with us and they were from Auckland but lived in Sydney.  They were travelling around for a couple of months.  Not a good idea to get chatting really as when the game ended we finished up our chat with them but by this time it was 7.45.   So we had to make a very fast exit.  We ran most of the way, but it was a really good couple of kms away.  Scot ran ahead of me but when I got there the ferry wasn’t in sight.  We were on time – it was only 8.05 and it wasn’t supposed to leave until 8.09, however we figured that being Sunday night the ferryman must have wanted to get home so trusting him was not a good thing.  We could see his ferry light on the other side but when it went out we realised he had gone.  We had to face the 4+km walk back to the camp in an area I would rather not have walked really.  It wasn’t late though so was ok.  The island didn’t have any street lights so was very black walking trying to avoid the pot holes on the road.

The next morning we decided we would bike into the town and not worry about the ferry.  That way it wouldn’t matter about getting home.  We biked along until we came to a part we thought it was ok to leave the bikes.  We stopped for our morning coffee at a lovely place on the river.  Then we went in search of the John Lennon wall.  It was more difficult to find than we thought it would be, but it is a piece of a friary wall that  people had started to put up Lennons message of peace etc around the 80’s and the friars kept on painting over the graffiti.  But the people persisted until eventually the friars gave up and now there is all sorts of graffiti on the wall, but some of the John Lennon stuff remains.  There is a lot of crap there as well now, but does make for a colourful photo.

We spotted a lot of cars that were convertibles that you could hire for touring the city.  They were obviously stretch replicas of old looking cars. Although not the real mccoy they were still cool looking cars. A bit too expensive for us though.  We decided to buy our lunch today and as per usual we found it difficult to find an appropriate place, but settled on a goulash type soup in a bread bowl.  We then walked up the hill opposite the old town to find The Strahov Monastry which was up a huge hill past a whole lot of beautiful buildings and souvenir shops etc.  It was quite a walk but the view from the top was great.  We didn’t go into the Strahov Library even though it was supposed to be amazing, but it was expensive and you couldn’t actually go in, you could only look from the doorway, so I didn’t see the point.  We did go into the monastery and have a look at the paintings and painted ceiling there.  Quite cool really.  We went to the brewery up at the top and Scot had a beer of course.  Then we went back down again and had stopped on the square to have another drink. By this time I was starting to feel chilled and unwell.  I just thought is was from having a big day and it cooling down early but how wrong was I. After the drink we decided it was time to find the bikes and bike home before it got too dark.  We had remembered our lights though.  Prague or Praha as it should be called is quite a big city and the normal 2 days just wasn’t going to cut it.  We still had seen hardly any of the old town so we decided we had to spend another day there since all the buildings here are just so beautiful.  I had to stop taking photos as there are just too many buildings with amazing architecture.  We both just love this city and we can understand why there is a massive amount of tourists here still at this time of the year.  It would be amazing to come back when it snows.

The next day I was sick.  I had picked up some kind of flu and was horridly achy and I had the start of an inflamed throat which I believe turned out to be strep throat (something I don’t reckon I’ve had for over 20-30 years).  So I took my double cup of concrete, many drugs and we put our bikes on the ferry as this was the only way I was going to get anywhere today.  We got off the ferry and biked along to the old town.  We wanted to find some art supplies for Scot and then there were a few things in the old town we hadn’t yet seen.  So we went right up to Wenceslas square this time, found the art supply shop and then found the Astronomical clock that was very widely painted all over.  The clock was amazing and on the hour it plays a tune and has a little characters coming in and out above the clock.  We got there just before the hour and wondered why there were so many people just standing staring at it.  Then we realised it did it’s little ‘thing’ on the hour and then everyone moved on.  This must be the most photographed and painted feature in Prague.  We did quite a bit of walking, visited a soup kitchen for lunch which was fabulous – 94 krowns 6aud for a plate of soup, a piece of quiche, a glass of juice and a sweet pastry for desert plus all the bread you wanted to have with your soup.

My cup of concrete was wearing off so we decided we had to get home so I could go to bed.  It is so difficult being sick on holiday.  You can’t not do anything because you know you want to see everything and time is marching on, it really is crappy.  We rode back to the ferryman who didn’t leave without us this time – only because we were well before the last ferry.

The next morning, I didn’t feel like going anywhere, but I got myself up, drugs taken, cup of concrete etc.  The showers weren’t working – no water – so my wake up shower wasn’t going to happen.  My throat today was so swollen I didn’t feel like swallowing anything.  I started wondering whether I should see a doctor but really didn’t want to be bothered, although you just never know what kind of germs are hanging around a huge tourist city like this.  I had been taking our colloidal silver which I make here to try and kill any bacteria but it seems it wasn’t working enough, so I decided to step up my dose in a huge way and really attack that bacteria.  We got ourselves packed up and headed out of Prague down south towards a place called Cesky Krumlov.

Note: Prague was such a full experience that it was impossible for us to remember everything we did especially since we couldn’t get to write about it straight away, but it is a measure of the city that there is so much happening and to see.  I took more photos than any other city but it would be ridiculous for me to put them all on the blog, so what you will see is only a handful.  If you want to see more – get off your butts and come and see for yourself – it would be one of the best cities in the world for sure!

PANERIAI AND ONTO POLAND

Monday 14 September

We pack up the van and switch the fridge to battery, of which there is little power left, but we hope there is enough to keep the food cool until we get to a campsite to power up again.

We head out of Vilnius city.  A lovely place and was absolutely worth visiting.

We head south to a little village called Paneriai which is where the Nazi’s did most of their killing of the Lithuanian jews plus some Russians and others they wanted to exterminate numbers around the 100,000 but no one really knows exactly how many people died.  This village is only about 10kms out of the city centre and when you stop here you can understand why they used this place.  It is on the train line, far enough from the city, but in the middle of a large wooded area.  We had to park at the train station and walk about 1km to the memorial. There are about 5 pits that they used to kill the people and a pit for burning the bodies when eventually they decided they needed to hide the evidence.

We hadn’t realised but the museum here was closed on a Monday, but that was ok as we could walk around the pits without any other tourists there, it was just us and that made it very real.  It had that same eerie feeling where you felt like you had to look behind you just in case you were the next one to go into the pit.  Sounds weird, but although I want to see these places as they represent what happened and the history that I am interested in learning about, I feel I want to run away from this place when we arrive.  In a forest like this you would normally hear birds or other noises, but this place was silent.  There were no birds or other animals and there was no beauty.  Fear, horror, terror is what I feel here.

As we head south out of Lithuania, I think of all the little things we observed in the Baltic countries that were different.  Cows are not enclosed in paddocks they are chained to spikes in the ground like we do to dogs at picnics, quite funny really.  Lithuanians are particularly keen gardeners and you see their little gardens often in a community area away from the houses and then you see them on the side of the roads selling their produce to make a few bucks.  Cats rule here, they are everywhere and dogs would be scared.  The Baltic cities are all amazing and well worth the trip to see them.  Lithuania would be my favourite for countryside.  Farming is huge in Lithuania and people try to keep their yards looking nice even if their houses are quite run down on the outside.  We think the freedom that people feel here since the occupation finished is very palpable and shows in all that they do.  In the whole of the Baltic countries we didn’t experience road rage in a huge way nor that many problematic drivers as we had been lead to believe.  We would come back here in a heartbeat.

We drive south over the border into Poland and see similar little plots of peoples gardens they are tending to and it looks like a neat country similar to Lithuania.  We know we aren’t going to be able to get too far so we stop in a town called Augustow which is on a lake.  We pull into the marina and talk to the guy.  We didn’t have any Polish zlotys and we had not known what the exchange rate was so the guy wanted to charge us 60zlotys but he said he would take 25euro.  What we didn’t know was the exchange rate between the two currencies meant he charged us double euro which we paid as we didn’t have anything else….bastard taking advantage like that.

Anyway as per normal we were the only ones at the marina staying and they had to give us our own key to the handicapped toilet and shower.  Although they told us they had wifi it wouldn’t work for us – so what’s new.

In the morning before we took off I had made the decision that we needed to go into the town and find the information centre and buy a sim for Poland so that at least we could find places to stay – freebies preferably and of course some zlotys.  So we biked into the town and what a lovely town it was – the small kind that I really like as they are more personal.  We found an ATM, got money and then found a T-Mobile.  5 zloty it cost for a sim for the tablet for 1GB – $2aud, so cheap.  We had a bit of a look around and then had a coffee at a lovely café recommended by the information place staff.  We biked back to the marina and packed up the van and headed out of town.  Driving out confirmed what a lovely place it was – the kind you just want to spend a bit more time having a look around but unfortunately we don’t have the time.  Whilst we had been parked in the marina we had looked at the front tyres and they didn’t seem to be wearing well and one front tyre was ridged and worn badly so we determined that once we got to Gdansk we would find a tyre place and replace both front tyres.  In Belgium they reckoned we would get another 10-15,000 miles out of them and we had already done 8,000 miles – 13,000 kms so it was worth getting them done.

We hit the road – we had about 390kms of highway to drive before we got to Gdansk so it would be a long drive.  We arrived in a little settlement out of Gdansk called Stegna which is right on the beach but also surrounded by forest.  The forest goes right up to the beach dunes.  The campground was lovely and the owner couldn’t have been more helpful to us.  We stayed two nights and we did our washing and went to the beach and Scot had a swim – of course (in the Baltic sea).  The beach, unlike Scandinavia was very clean and there were lots of birds and shells showing an abundance of sea life.  There were a few people around on the beach sun bathing but no one was swimming as the sea was a bit cold.  We had a coffee and then biked into the little town of Stegna which was very small.  We got some fresh berries and vowed to come back and get some of the farm veges on our way out.  We got the lady of the camp to phone the tyre place 45 minutes drive away to see if they could fit us in the following day on our way out which was fine by them.  There were a lot of stray cats at this camp which seemed to get their food from the campers who felt sorry for them.  They were quite skittish and didn’t want patting but were happy to receive any scraps we had.  Washing finished, bed remade, ironing done (yes I bought a travel iron and I iron my pillow slips and hankies)  we had tea and an early night.

We got up quite early and had a walk along the beach which was so nice.  This is our last seaside walk for a while as we will be inland for a while.  We headed off for the tyre place just outside of Gdansk.  When we got out of the van when we pulled up our tyres were pointing outward and I saw the inside of one side and metal threads were all sticking out of the inside of the tyre.  I nearly died of fright.  Here we were travelling at highway speed for 390kms two days ago and had that tyre blown we would not have survived.  My god we have some amazing angel looking over us.  The other tyre was just as dreadful.  They guy in the tyre place was a bit shocked I think, but they had worn where we couldn’t see them and we had done the right thing by making a decision to replace them when we thought they weren’t that bad.  Anyway we sat for about 3 hours whilst they put new tyres on, did an alignment and we also got them to change the oil and filter since it was nearly at 10,000 miles.

It was late when we got back on the road so we didn’t make it very far and stopped for the night at Znin.  We went to a campground – empty as usual – but it was such a half star place.  The kitchen was out of the 60’s and the showers and toilets were unbelievable, but you deal with what they have and it’s only one night.  The surrounds were old and quite run down as well.

The next day we decided we would drive over to Germany and find a camper store and see if they had a van hinge to replace our broken one.  I had found a store that looked quite good, so we headed over west to Frandfurt an der Oder.  It took most of the day as the roads are quite slow.  Poland is a very pretty country with lovely treed countryside and cute villages.  A little run down in a lot of places but still a lovely country.  We found out that the road rules in Poland aren’t followed too well.  On roads with a single lane each way and a small side area for pulling over vehicles are expected to drive in the pull over lane so others can pass when cars are coming towards them.  And if the car passing can’t fit in their own lane the vehicle coming towards them has to pull right over in their side lane so all 3 vehicles can fit side by side.  We watched as huge trucks would overtake someone not caring if cars were coming the other way or not.  Hilarious for us watching, but not so when all of a sudden you are confronted with a truck coming toward you and you are expected to pull over as far as you can out of their way, but that is how they drive and you either play the game or lose!  On the highways heading out of Poland there were heaps of young girls in skimpy gear standing on the side of the road either near truck stops or in areas that trucks could pull over.  We called them the truck roots on the truck routes.  There were heaps of them and I guess because there are literally thousands of trucks that pass each day they are bound to make enough money to live on.  You can tell that Europe moves most of it’s products by truck rather than train as there are just so many of them.

We arrived at the German camper shop in the late afternoon and asked about hinges.  The guy really wasn’t’ interested in helping us, it was late Friday afternoon and he really couldn’t be bothered with us which was a pity as we had travelled a long way, but they had nothing at all.  We left feeling very disappointed.

We then had to find somewhere for the night so we travelled down a bit further south in Germany.

We needed to stop at a supermarket and as we drove through this small town I commented to Scot that it looked very ethnic, quite unlike Germany. We saw a supermarket beside a McDonalds so we pulled into the car park and had a look around us.  We realised that in the small wooded area beside this shopping centre there was a group of maybe 40 refugees living there.  They were sitting and walking all through the car park and were looking very ominous.  In amongst the pristine countryside of Germany these refugees had accumulated the most disgusting pile of rubbish strewn everywhere in the wood (There were rubbish bins not being used).  I was horrified.  Here these people are wanting to be given a new life in a new country and they treat it with such disrespect and contempt.  A lot of the guys had phones, were smoking and drinking and obviously were having McDonalds.  If they are so hard done by then how come they can afford these things I ask.  For me they deserve everything they get if this is how they are going to treat Europe for trying to help them.  I would march along with all the others that have around Europe in protest about them coming into Europe.  I think they should send them back, the bunch of complete ungrateful assholes!!   28 European states are looking at housing 120,000 refugees yet this is only 20 days worth of immigrants.  Funny enough, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania and one other don’t want to help because they have no muslim population.  They can only see problems.  Several of the countries have already put in border controls and Hungary has built a fence.  It is not good and as we get nearer the problem areas we aren’t sure what we will be confronted with.  There has been rioting etc, so is definitely a concern for us.

We drove straight out of this carpark after locking our doors and drove onto a camp ground.  They were closed for the night and the gate was closed so we camped outside in the car park for the night for free.

Saturday 19 September

We were up the next morning and headed out early before anyone in the camp ground woke up.  They couldn’t do anything about us anyway as we had arrived late and it wasn’t our fault we had to stay outside for the night.  We were undecided where we should go next and initially decided we would drive towards Krakow.  We got on this road that took us into Poland but the surface was so dreadful we thought it would shake the van to pieces.  There was no other road to travel on and we went probably 60kms on this horrendous road – see pictures below.  We stopped about midday at McDonalds McCafe for a coffee and at that point we decided we wouldn’t go to Krakow – we would go into Czech Republic first and then go back up into Poland after doing this country.  Poland is so big we can’t do all of it.  So we headed slightly back the way we came and down into the Czech Republic.

It is a lot hillier in this country and for the first time we headed up and down windy hills.  It is very pretty countryside here.  We had to buy a vignette on the way in.  This is a sticker for your windscreen which pays for the road tax/tolls for the period of time you are in the country.  We bought one for 10 days.  The police are very active here in checking for them and if you get caught without one the fines can be quite severe.

We decided to camp at the marina on a little island in the middle of the river near Prague city or Praha as the Czechs call it.  We arrived at the camp about 4pm.

VILNIUS MARATHON

Sunday 13 September

Marathon day!

We got up in time to see the events before the marathon took off at 9am.  There was the marathon and the half marathon that took off at 9am and there were thousands competing.  It was great to be there like we were a part of it.  They paraded the flags of all the nationalities taking part and they read out all the countries and there was a NZ flag for Scot – we believe he was the only one from the other side of the world because there wasn’t an Aussie flag.  After the marathon started we walked up Gedimino ave for a coffee and when we were finished some of the runners were coming down this part of the course so we started cheering them on.  After having competed ourselves, there is nothing nicer than people cheering you on especially if you are feeling like you are struggling, so we did a lot of this but others just stood and stared at the runners.

We went down to the square then to watch the winners come through.  The first guy was a Kenyan who ran the marathon in 2 hours 25 minutes – which was 40 minutes faster than the first female over the line and about 10 minutes ahead of the second male, absolutely amazing and he didn’t even look puffed.  We went back to the van for a bite for lunch and then went back to watch the start of the 10km run of which there were thousands competing as well.  We took back our NZ flag with us and it was quite hilarious because whilst waiting for the 10km race to run there were lots of photographers taking pot shots of the crowd and runners etc.  When they saw our flag they started taking photos of us standing at the barrier.  Then one of them came over and said are you really from New Zealand or is your flag a Joke.   So funny – they really didn’t believe anyone would be there from the other side of the world.

Then Scots run came up – the 4.2km run and again there were thousands running in it which was just great to see.  They gave everyone participating a medal at the end which was so cool as a momento.  I know Scot could have run more but I didn’t want him to push it as he has had problems with his archilies from running previously and he hasn’t been training.  I cheered on from the side line whilst fighting to keep my front line spot on the barrier.

Scot’s feeling during the run – when he started to feel a bit of pain, that his was voluntary whereas the pain of the Lithuanians during the occupation was anything but and this spurred him on.  Also thinking that only 5 months ago he had had part of his body removed and how awesome to be able to be participating in something like this.

They gave away free beer ( non alcoholic) at the finish which Scot snavelled a few.  Once all the events were completed we went and had dinner out before heading back to the van.  We tried to read as it was quite early but our power was nearly dead so it was too difficult.  It will be a buggar on the road tomorrow as we will have no power in our batteries to keep the fridge cool and you can’t drive with the gas on.  Our loo also is almost full so tomorrow we must find a camp ground.

VILNIUS, LITHUANIA

Friday 11 September

Vilnius was only 30kms away from Trakai so we arrived there about lunchtime.  We parked in a car park that was a few minutes walk to the old town.  The car park allowed motorhomes to park for 24hrs at a time but had no facilities.  Rob and Sue had told us about it.  It was a great place, even though it was quite isolated, no one much came into the car park and it had security cameras all around and the police patrolled the roadway in each night (don’t know why – and they didn’t either when I asked).

We walked into the town and started to walk around some of the tourist sights.  We passed a few weddings about to start and one church we went into they were about to start the ceremony so we left feeling like we were intruding a bit.  It is obviously a very popular place for weddings and Friday was a popular day.  We got harassed by a few beggars – these guys though were funny as they had legs bandaged up and we thought possibly fake makeup on to look like injuries and they often faked bad walking postures for the sympathy effect.   They were ok though as they just left when we shook our heads.  We sat at the information place to try and get emails, but it’s difficult to sit for very long at these places so after a short time we left.  We went to an area called Uzupis which is an arty farty area.  We stopped for a drink and a cheese platter at a hotel there – for our wedding anniversary – and they refused to tell us their WIFI code even though they had given it to some others who were sitting close by, so we left.  Uzupis has it’s own constitution and rules and pleads to be it’s own republic, not sure how that works though.

We went to find a cat café but it wasn’t there which was a shame as it was a bit out of the old town and we wasted some precious time. We were a bit tired so after we had a walk through the lovely gardens near the cathedral square and a short walk up Gedimino avenue we went back to the van before dark (which is getting earlier every day unfortunately) and Scot cooked dinner.

The next day we walked up to the top of the hill beside the car park where there was a castle and some ruins and got a great view over Vilnius.  They have kept a lot of greenery and it makes it look like a very small city indeed.  They have a lot of parkland which featured fountains, very pretty flower gardens and wide pathways.  We watched in the cathedral square as they were putting up a whole lot of tents and wondered what was happening.  We discovered there was a marathon on in Vilnius tomorrow and because of this we made the decision to stay an extra day.  I convinced Scot he would be fine to do a short run and how awesome to be involved in something on this side of the world along with something like 20,000 other people, so he went and registered to seal his fate.

We then walked along Gedimino avenue to find a second cat café which we knew was still operating but they hadn’t opened for the morning when we arrived so we went down the road for a coffee.  Just as we were crossing the road I spotted the Japanese man we had spoken to in Trakai, so we went up and spoke to him and invited him to have a coffee with us since he was on his own.  He thought we were hassling him until he recognised us with surprise but declined as he was heading to the airport to go home.

We headed back to the cat café when it was open.  They have 13 cats here but have a licence for 15.  They don’t rehome them, this is their full time home and they are simply there for people to come and have a pat of them whilst having a cuppa or a meal.  The cats are generally friendly but I felt they just get too much attention and they really wanted to just be left to their own devices.  It was cool though.  There are many such cafes right around the world particularly in places like Tokyo or New York where it is difficult for people to have their own cats.

We then went in search of the campsite we thought was nearby here because our van was running out of power and we also were close to needing the loo emptied, but we couldn’t find it.  We did however find multiple weddings happening.  One church we walked past had 3 brides virtually lining up to get married.  When one came out of the church, the next one and their guests filed into the church and the next one moved up in line to wait.  Even though Scot was dying to tell them it was a great day to get married as it was our Wedding Anniversary but he didn’t.  I doubt they would have spoken English anyway.

Next we went into the KGB Museum also called the Museum of Genocide Victims.  It was in the actual building that the Nazis and the KGB used when each of them occupied Lithuania.  The base of the building has the names engraved of those they know were murdered in this building.  They brought people here who were deemed to be collaborators, resistance members, political agitators or those who helped the resistance.  Any who had been previously in power when they took over as political figures were considered a threat as well as many others for various reasons – but since when did the Nazi’s or the KGB need reasons?

We wandered around reading about the plight of Lithuania and how dreadful l they were treated from the time of the Russian occupation before and after WWII and during the Nazi occupation. They had various photos along with spiel in each of the rooms and one particularly graphic room had photographs of murdered people as they had lain when killed.  Very graphic and quite upsetting. The basement of this building had been used to house the people that either occupier had arrested and in one small cell they could have up to 24 people – really just enough room to sit with cramped legs.  From the moment I walked down the stairs I could feel this oppressive energy like I have never felt in my life.  They murdered too many people to even mention the numbers here in these cells and you could feel it.  I can barely describe what I felt in the cells as we walked along looking, until I walked into one particular one.  There was nothing different about this cell compared to others but as I went inside I thought I was going to vomit.  The feeling I got was so strong and felt so dreadful, like a huge weight, I had to get out and thankfully there were exercise yards opposite where I could get some fresh air.  I don’t know if others can feel the same thing, but as I said I have never felt anything like this, but I guess when you have thousands of people murdered in these confines it must leave some spiritual energy behind.  When we went into the torture chamber – I was surprised they didn’t have any torture implements or anything.  They were just showing a video re-enacting how some of the murders were done.  But like that one other cell, although there was little in this room, I couldn’t handle the feeling and I had to leave.  I couldn’t look at the rest of the museum as I felt so sick from the oppressive energy so we left.  I would go back to that museum in a heartbeat as it has taught us so much of what happened in this part of the world that we never knew about.

We walked around more of the town and then went back over to Uzupis to look for the other campground where we may park up the next night.  The campsite was a shit hole and was fine for the hostel people who were staying there, but not a pleasant place to park the van so we decided we wouldn’t waste our money here, we would have to deal with the lack of power in the van as best we could.  The refrigerator was being powered on gas so it was fine, it was just the reading lights we would lose only too soon.  We walked back around the town and it was starting to get dark.  It was actually nice for a change to be in a city when it was dark and see it in a different light.  We felt very comfortable in this city and never once felt threatened.  We stopped at an Italian restaurant to have a pizza and beer/wine before heading back to the van.  Scot needed his sleep for his big run the next day!  As we got back to the car park we could hear a band playing and lots of people walking up the hill to where the 3 crosses were.  We asked someone coming down what was going on and they said it was a rock/music festival.  The coppers we had asked at the entrance to the street had no idea.  We decided we didn’t need to walk all the way to the top and went to bed.

TRAKAI, LITHUANIA

Wednesday 9 September

We headed out of Siauliai in the morning after a pitch black night at the campsite as it’s sole occupants.  We headed for Kaunas where I had a campsite picked out.  The weather had turned a little ordinary.  We drove via Panevezys and then down to Kaunas.  When we arrived at the campsite, you had to enter a paid parking area before you could go into the campground.  We drove through the boom gate and then sat and looked at the camp and wondered if we really wanted to stay.  The day was miserable and I didn’t feel like seeing a big city and nor did Scot.  After half an hour – we made and ate lunch in the car park while we decided that we didn’t want to stay there after all.  I had read that Trakai was meant to be the most beautiful spot in Lithuania (We think that is what the American students that we had met in Tallinn had visited and recommended we see) and so we had to get them to open the gate without paying the carpark fee and we took off for Trakai.  This little town is about 30kms from Vilnius so it took us another hour or so to reach it.

Trakai is on Lake Galve and is a very pretty area.  We found a campsite close to the town – again we were the only ones there – and settled in for the night.  A camp ‘cat’ came over to greet us and then proceeded to follow us around the campsite as we explored.  The whole camp was deserted and we went and sat on the steps leading from the restaurant down to the lake front where there were numerous sun loungers all sitting unused for the autumn and winter.  The restaurant was also closed as well the supposed ‘spa’ with treatments etc.  This place would have been stunning in the Russian days and we thought it had seen better days.  It was such a shame as It has so much potential.  Scot went and got a beer and cider and chips whilst I patted the cat and we sat on the stairs watching out over the lakes happenings.  We had 4 hot air balloons go past us and many yachts.  We could see Trakai in the distance with the castle standing out quite clearly.  It was a beautiful serene view and one we wished we could be part of – particularly sailing in one of the yachts on the lake or Scot has a balloon ride on his bucket list so that would also have been appropriate.

With our anniversary on Friday we came up with the idea that maybe we could stay in a nice hotel on the Thursday night as a treat.  So we headed up to the reception area to get wifi access to check out the hotels and guest houses in Trakai.  We came across this lovely hotel that said they had massage specials that comprised of 15 minute steam bath, 15minute body scrub, 45 minute massage and 15 minute tea relax at the end.  All this was for 40Euro each and they also touted an amazing Turkish bath room we could hire and sit in and relax for an hour or two for 20 euro.  We got so excited, an afternoon of pampering followed by a night in a normal bed and room and they had a car park for the van.  So the next morning we drove into Trakai and sought out our perfect retreat.  We went to park in a local car park when a local called out to us to come park in his yard all day for the same money which we did (he didn’t speak English – this was all done with hand signals which I actually got wrong).

We went into the hotel and suddenly realised that the pictures on the internet were likely about 20+ years old and the place had dated badly and was not what we had expected.  They spoke very bad English which I was surprised about since this was the major tourist destination in Lithuania aside from the capital Vilnius.  They said the steam room/Turkish bath was booked out and I thought they said the hotel was booked out as well, until another lady came in and we established there was a room available and they could organise someone to do a massage if required.  We said we would be back after check in time of 2pm.  After some discussion and thought we realised that this seemingly lovely hotel was in very bad shape and if we stayed there we would have been bitterly disappointed and cranky that we wasted so much money so we never went back.  It would have been like déjà vu of the dreadful honeymoon resort we stayed at in the Maldives!  We decided to walk around the town and check out any other potential places, but one look at the majority of the buildings told us that no one here had any money to spend on anything and it was not the place to get a comfortable hotel room for the night.  We stopped at a little traditional cuisine café and had Kibinas (I think this is how it’s spelt) for lunch.  They were a little ordinary, but we accepted that they are most likely very nice, but this was a tourist trap and maybe the quality wasn’t quite what it should be.  A ginger cat adopted me in the café and I had the pleasure of him sitting on my knee for quite some time.  The town is overrun with cats actually.  They are everywhere you look.  I am guessing that people can’t afford to have their cats fixed so they breed prolifically.  We spoke to a Japanese man from New York in the café who was upset about the poor service in the place and we had a brief chat before we paid the bill and headed off.

We went back to the van as I had realised I had underpaid the man for staying in his yard and we wanted to park there for the night so had to check if it was ok.  As we arrived back at the van I spotted Sue and Robs Jabiru van over the road (We had met them in Riga – NZ couple) so I headed over to say Hi – what a small world really).  They parked up in the next door yard beside us.  We then headed over to the castle to have a look as it is really quite a lovely looking building.  We didn’t pay to go through though as they were charging too much I thought and we have seen some amazing castles so far.  It was very peaceful there and after the castle we took a walk along the lake front where we hadn’t walked before.  We came across a lovely restaurant and guest house which were quite new and maybe might have been ok to stay if we had have found it earlier.  We sat and had a drink and a cheese platter before heading back towards the castle.  We bumped back into Rob and Sue who invited us to join them in their van for an easy tea of chicken and salad.  That was really lovely – it isn’t something we get to do very often.  As I have mentioned before we are heading in the same general direction so we may even bump into each other again in another country on the way which would be really lovely.  Sue and Rob gave us a parking location we can stay in, in Vilnius that is right near the city and is only a few euro a night which is great as the campground in the city actually closed for the winter today.

Friday 11 September

Happy Anniversary my husband whispered in my ear when we woke this morning in our van parked up in someone’s yard in the middle of Trakai – but overlooking the lake so the view was quite lovely to wake up to and was of mist drifting over the top of the water with clear blue skies above.

We had breakfast and said goodbye to Rob and Sue whom we will keep in touch with via email as we both travel south.  We gave the man whose yard we were in 5 euro as we hadn’t paid anyone any money so far.  He was trying to drain the water that had built up in the middle of his yard due to a clogged drain.

We were off to Vilnius and we figured that if we got there early enough we would have a good deal of time to check out the city for half a day at least.