Budapest & Early Romania

Saturday 27th September

We managed to park up in Tesco’s for 2 nights without any problems, which was handy because we would have struggled to park anywhere else in Budapest (legally) as it was constantly extremely busy both with vehicles and pedestrians. It was a 2 kilometre walk into the town centre down the “Kossuth” which took us past the Budapest National Stadium and the very grand train Station. My first impressions of Budapest were very favourable indeed, and we walked all the way past the town until we reached the swift river Danube, where we took a leisurely stroll along the riverside to the neo-Gothic Houses of Parliament building on the bank (pictured). It’s an extremely impressive structure; one which we gazed at for a number of minutes, but it certainly isn’t alone in terms of beautiful buildings in Budapest. The other one of note - which actually took my breath away upon the first sighting - was the Bazilika (pictured). It’s housed in a large square which makes it unnoticeable from afar, so it crept up on us somewhat when we suddenly saw it though a gap in the shops.

Budapest was certainly impressive, and due to its immense size could have been explored for a few more days, but we got itchy feet and made the short drive north to Ezstergom the “Medieval Capital of Hungary” on the Slovakian border. After a quite a while looking, we couldn’t find any evidence for this dramatic title, but we did manage to find Hungary’s largest Bazilika (Church) on a hill overlooking the Danube and across into Slovakia. The views were impressive and the Church was also, but not quite as memorable as the one in Budapest.

We were running low on all things electrical as we hadn’t had hook up since Slovenia, but what with their being no campsites and certainly no Aires in Hungary we had no choice but hope to stumble across an electric point somewhere. We first looked in a Tesco’s car park, then a Lidl’s (which I have to add are absolutely everywhere in Europe) but had no joy. After driving around for a few hours I had to idea to go and ask at a Petrol Station - they surely would allow us to cheekily hook up for a few hours if we asked nicely. It was very late, probably around midnight, so not many people were around so I thought if you don’t ask you don’t get and went in all smiley and polite and used my best sign language to indicate what we wanted. The female attendee was very pleasant but had no idea what I was asking, so she rang a friend who spoke English and put me onto him and after a while she understood and allowed us to connect for 3 hours! This allowed us to have a few cups of well needed tea and re-charge things like mobiles and the digital camera. We were very grateful of course and this perhaps is a good tip for Motorhomer’s who decide to venture into the unknown, or Eastern Europe as it’s sometimes called.

A few days later and we find ourselves in our next country, Romania. They’re coming around quick, these countries. The border crossing was non eventful, which made a nice change. Unlike most crossings, there was only one set of police, and they were friendly and let us through after checking our passports - no funny looks, no searching the Motorhome (as happened when we travelled into Hungary), no Green Card, no “illegal stuff” accusations, just a smile and a wave. One of them even said “Goohd Bay” which I thought was nice of him. The first city we drove through was Oradea although we didn’t make a stop. It was a pretty rough town. At each set of traffic lights there were small children who ran up to the Motorhome and begged for money which was very sad indeed. There were hundreds of hitchhikers all trying to flag down each car that passed, trying to get wherever they could - presumably anywhere other than here. Along the E60 which takes us into the Centre of Romania, and eventually on towards Bucharest, were even more children begging next to run down old houses, most of which were just shells of houses that used to be.

Romania has certainly been the poorest country we’ve visited so far - hopefully this sort of poverty isn’t a common sight across the whole of the country.

Our first port of call was the city of Cluj-Napoca, which is much more developed than Oradea but still hundreds of desperate hitchhikers and beggars lined the streets. We saw a VW van pull up along a bunch of around 10-15 hitchhikers, and as soon as it came to a halt they all ran towards the van pushing and shoving trying to get onboard. It was an odd experience, and we wandered why these people were so desperate to leave, not seeming to care where the driver was heading to. We are heading via a few cities towards Bran Castle near Brasov where Count Dracula was known to reside, Mike tells me he was just fictional but I’m still hoping to meet him myself so will keep my fingers crossed.

Cluj-Napoca, away from the Highstreet

Budapest

From Luzern to Budapest

Tuesday 23rd September

My last blog started with the fact that time appeared to be standing still, but I certainly cannot accuse it of that now. Since the 5th of September on that rainy day in Luzern, we’ve made visits to Germany, Austria, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia Herzegovina, and to where we are today: Hungary. Some of those countries were just passing visits, where we will return later on this year and the others we shall not see again during this trip. It has been a hectic few weeks and we’ve seen a lot, but it hasn’t felt rushed which is the main thing.

We headed towards the German town of Fussen - on the Austrian border - after leaving Switzerland (which for the most part was dull and rainy, but otherwise a very pleasant country indeed) where we visited the ‘Schloss Neuschwanstein’ which I’ve been told was the setting for one of the scenes in the film “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”. It’s a fairytale castle with a superb mountainous setting, making for some excellent postcards - however, it’s not quite as impressive in person as you cannot really see the castle properly until making the 40minute trek up the mountain, and when you do reach it you’re too close to take it all in. There is though a bridge a few minutes walk away where you can get some good photos and take in the views and the scenery.

We would only spend a few days in Germany (one night in Konstanz, one in Ravensburg and the other in a campsite near Fussen) before crossing the border into Austria. Germany shall be explored in much greater depth this winter. Our first of only two stop-offs was the riverside city of Innsbruck, one of the host cities for this summers European Football Championships. We managed to find a parking space in an industrial estate (classy, I know) which was only a few minutes walk from the town centre. There are no official places for Motorhomes to park in Innsbruck (as with many other major cities also) so we didn’t have a choice but to park where we did. This was no problem for us, but one English couple we met at an Aire in Ravensburg told us they would “never dream of wild camping”, which we can fully understand, but it does seem a shame as you’d miss out on so many places which you wouldn’t see had it not been for parking up wherever you could.

We found a few Irish Bars in Innsbruck (The Galway Bay and Limerick Bills), which pleased us as it enabled us to get a few pints of Strongbow and Guiness which is one thing we both sorely miss about England! Innsbruck is a very favourable town. It’s quiet, not too busy and it’s quite noticeably very clean. Unfortunately, the weather didn’t seem to improve since our time in Switzerland and we got caught out once in just a t-shirt and got drenched whilst walking back towards the Motorhome. We spent a long weekend in Innsbruck, leaving on the night of Sunday the 14th when we drove a short distance up the 171 to an aire in a nearby village called Schwaz. It was completely full so we had to park just outside the aire but we weren’t alone in doing so, so we didn’t worry about breaking any rules! There were Motorhomes from all over; The Netherlands, France, Germany, Slovenia, even Slovakia, but no other British.

Our time in Austria had come to an end as we drove on the Monday through northern Italy towards Ljubljana, Slovenia’s capital, making one stopover in the Italian town of San Candido (Austria being one of the countries we will see more of in the winter months). Slovenia has definitely been the cheapest country we have experienced so far and this was most noticeable in the supermarkets, so we stocked up on a few essentials in a “Mercator” before arriving in Ljubljana. We found another wild camping spot in the car park of a sports centre, a short walk through a wonderful large park, about the size of Southampton Common, filled with dog walkers and quite strangely hundreds and hundreds of runners, as if a race was about to start. I half expected (perhaps naively) that Slovenia would be quite a run down, poorly developed country but that was not visible to us at all. Slovenia seemed to be doing very well - perhaps adopting the Euro and losing their currency the Tolar in 2007 has helped boost it’s economy, because despite the cheap shops the parts of Slovenia we visited appeared healthy and strong.

Before reaching the capital we spent a day in Bled, if only to visit the fantastic lake which houses the pretty St Martin church on a small mid-lake Island. It is the very definition of the word picturesque! We took the time we wander around the whole of the lake which was a very pleasant few hours spent indeed. The lake is very beautiful and by this time the weather has improved somewhat, so we were joined on our walk by tourists by the coach load but that didn’t spoil the relaxed atmosphere around the lakeside pathways.

After a few days in the capital we travelled South down the 409 towards Postojna, home to some extremely impressive caves, unfortunately though they cost 19 Euros each to enter, so was way over our budget. There is however a good secure spot for Motorhomes to park overnight directly at the cave for anyone wanting to visit. It costs 11 Euros for 24 Hours which includes unlimited Electricity and water and we were joined by 5 other Motorhomes who told us the caves were quite stunning, if only you can afford the entrance fee!

After 5 days in Slovenia we were making our way towards Croatia, and we crossed the border at Oragonja, only a few kilometres from the Italian town of Trieste! After 3 months of travelling around, going over many borders, this was the first time we’ve had to show our passports, so when arriving at the barrier we weren’t really expecting it. We put the window down and smiled at the waiting Police officer. “Hello” we said. “Err.. This is the border.” he replied, and then looked at us, shrugged and said “So…?”. For a minute I thought he was waiting for us to bribe him, but in fact all he wanted was our passports so we duly obliged and were let through without issue.

We spent a few pleasant days travelling down the coast of Croatia, making stops in Porec, Rovinje and Rijecka. The weather increased dramatically and after a few weeks of nothing but cloud and rain, we found the sunshine again. As Brits this obviously meant shorts and t-shirts time, much to the amusement of the locals who still thought coats and hats were necessary! Apart from a power cut which sent the town of Porec into complete darkness during busy evening trading hours, everything went swimmingly in northern Croatia, and after a few days we headed down the coastal A8 road towards Split. In all the places I’ve mentioned we were forced to wild camp as there are no official Motorhome parking spaces apart from official campsites - this sounds daunting for Motorhomer’s planning to visit these countries but there are lots of places to park if you are brave enough and obviously don’t break any laws. We have found that most places are quite relaxed about Motorhomes parking freely in their towns and most of the time you’ll get away with it, as we have so far. We have still only been asked to move on once, which was in Benidorm, but even then it was the same policeman who asked us to move 3 times so he clearly just had a personal issue with Motorhomes!

Split was aswarn with activity and was very different from the other places we’d visited in Croatia. It obviously benefits greatly from tourism and we saw many tour groups and Americans dotted around taking photos and buying souvenirs from the vast amount of small outlets scattered here and there. The 4th century palace of Roman Emperor Diocletian is worth a visit, and parts of the great building are incorporated into the streets and buildings of the town itself, which gives the surrounding roads a great deal of character. The palace and the main market square is set just yards away from the port which makes a very nice backdrop for the city. (Pictured: Parked up in the centre of Split)

We didn’t make any stops in Bosnia Herzegovina, in fact at one point it didn’t even look like we were going to be allowed in as the Bosnian Police didn’t like the look of us at all and made us pull over into a lay-by whilst they tried to talk to us and look at all our documents. One of the officers spoke a little English, and after a while of trying to understand each other, what was actually the problem was our missing Green Card insurance, or as they called it “Border Insurance” which we were forced to buy for 65 Euros for 7 days. It was a cost we weren’t expecting, but I suppose if we’d have done our research we’d have known we needed to buy this. After dilly-dallying around for about half an hour trying to sort out the purchase of a green card, we went back to present the card to the officers who were standing by Eric who came and said to us “Okay. Fine. Err… you have some illegal stuff in your van”. We were shocked when he said this and we though he was trying to con us into giving him some money or similar, but in fact he was only trying to ask us if we had anything illegal. I guess he wouldn’t have asked the same question to everyone, only two young lads with a Motorhome isn’t a sight you see everyday, so we forgave him that. (Pictured: The 4th century palace of Roman Emperor Diocletian)

We hadn’t planned to go to Bosnia at all on this trip but it made it easier to get towards Hungary from Split rather than travelling right up through Croatia again, so we had a 7 hour road trip until we reached the border at ‘Bosanska Gradiska’ where thankfully we didn’t have any issues getting through border control. From here we travelled north into Hungary (our 13th country) making stop over’s in Okucani (Croatia) and Pecs (Hungary) to where we find ourselves today, the capital Budapest. We arrived late into Budapest and we will explore the town in the day light hours, but for now we are parked in the most unlikely of places: A Tesco car park! It seems Eric, Mike and I aren’t the only British thing in Eastern Europe at the moment!

A castle in the hill nearby the Postojna Caves.

(Pictured at top: Standing in the middle of nowhere in Bosnia)

Central Switzerland

Friday 5th September 2008

Time appears to be standing still at the moment. For the past few weeks at least it seems as if that - although we’ve progressed geographically - we haven’t made any progress time wise. It’s like we’re constantly saying we’ve been away for 2 months, time just doesn’t seem to be moving at all! It seems an age away from reaching the half way point at the end of September. This, I suppose, is a good thing; our time isn’t just flying away from us and we’re not wasting days.

As for the here and now though, after leaving Grimentz we decided to head to the Swiss Capital Bern - which has a mere population of 120,500, which we figured would make for an un-crowded, well looked after City. We weren’t too far off. Bern is indeed well maintained (as is everywhere we’ve travelled so far in Switzerland actually) but it was hardly un-crowded. We arrived on a Friday evening and the city was buzzing, mainly with youngsters who all seemed to be drinking and chatting on the streets as if all waiting for some kind of event to begin. That doesn’t sound particularly appealing really does it, but although there was lots of public drinking there was no hostility at all and we felt more than comfortable walking the streets at night.

We did struggle to find parking though, all the surrounding roads leading up to Bern were packed with parked cars and there aren’t any Aires available either. After about an hour of frustration we decided to cut our losses and park in a Pay and Display car park right in the centre next to the station. After inspection though it didn’t seem like anyone else had bought a ticket, so we took our chance and got away with it.

Nearby to where we’d parked was the large Aare river which we took a dip in later that evening, as many others were doing. On a warm evening after a busy days driving it was extremely refreshing and we both needed a clean to be honest after a little while without showering! As we were walking bare footed (and in nothing else but Speedo’s) through the busy town centre back to the Motor Home, two policeman strolled up for a chat. We were expecting a ticking off for indecent exposure or some other crime, but in fact they wanted to warn us about walking around without shoes in this area for fear of walking on needles left by drug users - which apparently are everywhere in Bern! We were a little shocked, not just because of what they told us about the huge amount of drugs which were about in Bern, but because some policemen actually wanted to speak to us to be friendly and offer kind advice. They spoke perfect English, of course, and even told us to ‘take care’ when we left. My experience (very little, granted) of the Police back in the UK has been nothing like that of those in Bern.

After a few days in the capital we headed north to a small Village called Lamboing, near Biel. I’d known of this place as until recently I had cousins Michael and Nadine living there, and had visited them on a few occasions. Unfortunately they moved to China a few weeks earlier so we could not visit them, but I still wanted to see Lamboing if only to retrace steps and relive memories. I remember me and my Mum having a superb day walking in the area, especially down the stunning gorge which runs from Lamboing itself down to the village of Twann, situated on the ‘Bielesee Lake’. This was at least 7 years ago, but the gorge was still just as beautiful as I’d remembered (formally known as the “Twannbachschlucht”, give or take a few c’s and h’s possibly). We ambled down joyfully in around 40 minutes, then remembered that we somehow had to get back up. When last here my cousin Nadine came down the mountain to collect us in her car, but this time we had no such luck. It took us around three times as long to get back up than it did down. We slept well that night.

A fantastic night was spent in an Aire (pictured) following on from Lamboing. It’s a must for all Motor Homers in that area, not only because it doesn't cost anything, but also because it has free (there’s that word again) unlimited water and electric! It’s located in Neuchatel, a short drive West of Lamboing. The Aire is situated on the Number 5 main road and is on the left hand side just before entering the town. We were joined by a Dutch family who also made good use of facilities.

The next morning we were drawn South to the Swiss Alps again, and spent 3 pleasant days in the village of Grindelwald, described in our guidebook as “the land of permanent snow”. This was a large attraction for us, so as you can imagine upon arrival the only sight of anything ‘snow like’ was on the top of a distant mountain. We were excited though by the prospect of taking the train up to the highest station in Europe - some 4000ft - to the top of the Jungfrau. We didn’t expect the fare to be much, as we were half way up the mountain already and it’s only a small train - how wrong were we. If I said it was 50 Francs each you’d be a bit taken back wouldn’t you? If I then said 100 Francs each you’d tell me to stop drinking, but I kid you not when I tell you that the fare was 158 Francs EACH. “How long is the trip, a week?” we asked in shock. Needless to say, we didn’t make the journey. I’m sure it’s lovely up there though. (Our parking spot in Grindlewald, pictured)

Currently we’re in the lakeside city of Luzern. We only arrived a few hours ago, but after a quick stroll around the main streets we can tell it’s a very pretty place indeed. Situated on the ‘Vierwald Stattersee’ lake, the town is clean and attractive, scattered with busy restaurants and posh hotels. It’s a green and comfortable walk into the centre from where we’ve parked, and all along the pathway little games of bowls can be found, attracting small but interested crowds - a brass band plays jolly tunes, and couples aimlessly walk hand in hand into the distance. All very agreeable.

It’s Friday night, getting quite late and tomorrow we probably won’t do a great deal apart from wandering and exploring a little - which shouldn’t be too strenuous. Switzerland is certainly treating us well so far.

(A mini fesival in Lamboing)