It was another 3-country day as we drove into Luxembourg starting in Germany and going via France (this will never get old for the little Kiwi in me). Luxembourg had been on Dani’s list since she had discussed a homelands tour with 2 friends at university that had never happened and with my new found interest in micro-nations it was a must go. Like all other micro-nations on this trip, Luxembourg is very pretty and pretty dull. The campground (Kockelscheuer €15.35/$22.90/18 USD) was another very nice campground but did lack in food facilities. It did however have an easy access bus stop to get into the city and although we’re not really sure why, we were told we did not have to pay any fare to get there. Luxembourg City is a strange mix between really old and ultra modern. More targeted at those who like high end shopping than those interested in a historical city although the museum is free and Mel said it was fantastic (we decided to wander instead). After 2 nights we were ready to push on but did face the problem of where to go next. Already ahead of schedule we weren’t sure where to use our extra time. We had wanted to go to Brussels but there were no viable camping options and Ghent had a massive summer festival going on so we settled on driving straight through to Holland. There was a town near to the Dutch/Belgian border that belongs to Belgium. This town is unique as it is entirely surrounded by Dutch territory and has 22 separate parcels of Belgian land. This means neighbours on the same street may have different taxes/laws to abide by and you can cross multiple borders just walking down the street. This greatly amused us and we posed for all the typical tourist pictures. Our problem began when we tried to find a campsite. None of the 3 we arrived at had anyone manning reception and we were then informed that no one would be coming until the following morning. This was seriously suboptimal and induced mild panic in the 3 of us, but luckily someone helped us contact the caretaker who agreed to let us in and register in the morning. The campground (Parc de Kievit €17.70/$26.35 AUD/20.70 USD) was surprisingly lovely and we decided to use the opportunity to break into the Alispacher keg that we had purchased to reward ourselves for finding somewhere to stay. Having examined the map and knowing the ultimate goal in Holland for Mel was Amsterdam we decided our next stop would be Gouda. This turned out to be a great decision for all of us as not only was it gorgeous but the cheese tasting locations throughout the town were out of this world. Armed with over €40 ($60.20 AUD/46.90 USD) worth of cheese we headed off towards the first campground. Here we stumbled across yet another problem…it was full. The woman at reception kindly gave us the name of another place and so we continued on towards it. Luck was on our side this time when we arrived (Boerderijcaming De Mulderije €13.77/$20.55/16.15 USD) to not only space but also a wonderful campground with a fantastic owner. Set in a field you have a small canal next to the field and it even has a windmill in the background. We could have stayed there forever but the debauchery of Amsterdam was calling. The campground we had booked in Amsterdam has a fantastic location. Less than 2km to walk to the free ferry that takes you over to the city centre and is really well equipped. Camping Vliegenbos (€19.35/$28.85 AUD/22.65 USD) caters generally to a younger crowd but is still nicely set up. We arrived and checked in before heading off to into the city to find a pint. We had booked the Heineken brewery tour for our second day, so Dani and I walked into town (Mel likes a sleep in so she caught the bus) wandering through all the canals. The Heineken Experience (€25/$37.65 AUD/29.40 USD) is a lot of fun despite the high tourist hype and we had a great day learning about the Dutch national beer. The tour included a canal ride, which we enjoyed and then we wandered back to the campground. Dani and I had been to Amsterdam before so were happy just ambling around and bopping from place to place. After a few heavy days it was time to make our way back towards France as our road trip was coming to an end. We had several options, however we had all loved Gouda so much we agreed to head back and do a Stoopwaffel making course (worth it for a foodie with a sweet tooth even though it’s in Dutch). Another wonderful night at one of our favourite campgrounds on the trip set us up to head down to Maastricht for one final stop. The campground there was sensational. Right by the river, it had a little beach for kids to play in and it’s own bar. Although 7km out of the city it was a beautiful walk along the river to get there (there is a bus should you want to catch one). We decided to do the walk and it was my misfortune on the walk to discover stinging nettles. Who on earth thought that wouldn’t be something you’d be warned about?! Trying to reach some blackberries growing along the path I pulled back my leg to find 2 large welts. Thankfully having an English wife meant she new what to do and asked me to find some dock leaves (for those of you who don’t know, dock leaves can be rubbed on the welts to soothe the sting). Unfortunately for me, my wife had yet to point out to me what stinging nettles actually looked like so while reaching for said dock leaves I managed to sting my arm! This was not a positive sequence of events. Maastricht is another beautiful historic town and we immediately stumbled into the main square to check out their wonderful antique market. While perusing miniature steins my other arm started to burn and I discovered that a bee was caught between my bracelet and my arm. I was seriously not having a good day! The only thing to cure this was the wonderful looking chip shop/restaurant on the corner of the square. It turned out to be a great choice as we had a delicious meal and soon my stings started to settle down.
This was a fabulous last stop and it was with sadness that we packed up for the final time to head to Dunkirk to catch our ferry back to the UK. We had decided to stay in a F1 motel (which seemed fitting since we had started the trip in one) close to the ferry port, as it was booked for very early the next morning. Now, Mel is not a morning person and we had tried to be accommodating of this despite both being really early risers which had resulted in more than a few mornings waiting for Mel to emerge from her tent like some sort of baby dinosaur. This had been causing us both some concern as we had to be up at 5.30am to get to the ferry on time. At 4.30am, Mel needed to get up to go to the bathroom and upon discovering it was so close to when we all needed to be up decided to stay awake…great in theory until she decided that we’d actually set the alarm for 5am. At 6 minutes past she panicked and decided to wake us up! So typical that the one time she’s up early we miss out on sleep because she got the time wrong! Drowsy and a little under caffeinated we piled on to the boat and set sail for the UK. A little sad to be saying goodbye to Hamster who had been our home for 2 and a half months we drove back into London. It was time for friends and family before setting off on the next adventure…see you soon Central America!
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The border from Serbia to Croatia has a bad reputation among the campers we’ve talked to, but just like our friends the Avery’s we had no problems. The Serbian border officer even winked at me as he handed me back my passport and we were on our way! We drove what felt like forever on the highway and then had to make our complicated turn to reach the highway-side campground, which was on the opposite side. Pulling up to the motel it definitely had seen better days (sort of in keeping with a few other destinations we had encountered in the previous stops!) but it turned out that the attached campground (Motel Plitvice) was far better equipped than expected. Nice shady pitches (yes it was still roasting) and modern amenities including electricity for both types of plug points (see our camping essentials post). Having found our nice shady spot we headed over to the restaurant and decided we were going to splurge on a nice meal as we had been working down our food supplies in preparation for our camping holiday with Dani’s Mum (aka Mama G). The restaurant was relatively nice looking and as soon as we started working our way through the menu we started salivating. They had my new favourite (breaded deep fried mushrooms), pickles and many more vegetarian delights as well as a fish dish that had Dani drooling. All ready to order the waiter came over and dashed all my food dreams. None of the vegetarian delights were unavailable. What I ended up with was a plate of vegetables and a side of fries. Thankfully as the tired and more deserved driver Dani’s fish dish was still available. They also didn’t have the beer we wanted but we were able to settle for 2 large Turbourgs and were satisfied enough. This would have been totally fine had the waiter not yelled at us twice and then proceed to mock us in Croatian (funnily enough we do still understand the word tourist, combined with idiotic body language and laughter) and we are still flummoxed as to why not understanding what wasn’t available was such an offense to him. We did however have an incredible night’s sleep and were ready to push through to our next stop in Ljubljana, Slovenia. It was a non-eventful border crossing and drive through to Ljubljana and as we had arrived early enough we thought we’d check out where the accommodation we had booked for the following few nights was. After finding a car park near to the centre we walked towards the meeting point for our standard introduction to a new city…the free walking tour. Ljubljana is a beautiful city with a great vibe and we enjoyed exploring it. Watching the dark clouds roll in we felt it would be best to continue the exploration when Dani’s Mum arrived the next day. Back in the car we headed out to Ljubljana’s only city campground (Camper Stop Vrbinc €25/$37.30 AUD/29.30 USD) …or so we thought. It turned out that this was actually a car park with toilet facilities and electricity, but it would do for the night. The only issue was that as soon as we had settled down at the restaurant next door the heavens opened and we mean seriously opened! Using the break in the rain to get back to the car we settled in to watch some CSI as the lightning cracked right over our heads. I’m not great in storms so it was a rough night in the van and I was grateful to think the next night we would be sleeping in a real bed again. The AirBnB we booked for the 3 of us was wonderful. It was designed as a beer cellar complete with beer barrel bed and could not have been closer to the historic centre. We spent the next few days eating all the delights Ljubljana had to offer and taking slow ambles through the cobbled streets. There was a fantastic food market and lots of lovely little bars by the river. Our next stop was Lake Bled, which is only a 45-minute drive out of Ljubljana. This AirBnB was also amazing and the owner was so friendly. She even made us a jar of raspberry jam from the berries in her garden. The lake is gorgeous and taking out one of the little boats to the island is well worth it. We also spent our days here slowly ambling and eating more incredible food before dropping off Dani’s Mum and bidding farewell to Slovenia. We were to make only one stop in Austria before meeting our friend Mel in Germany so we decided on Salzburg. What a great decision this turned out to be. It lived up to all my Von Trapp fantasies and I was able to indulge in all my ‘Sound of Music Dreams’ (much to Dani’s disgust). Neither of us are really city people but we loved Salzburg. We were even treated to an impromptu acapella performance in the church from a visiting American choir. Unfortunately we were only able to stay for one night because there was a music festival near the campground (Panaramacamping Stadtblick €17.50/$26.25 AUD/20.60 USD) and they only had space for the day we arrived. Pushing on to Munich where we were meeting Mel we found a strange little campground (Campingplatz Seehammer See €24/$34.82 AUD/27.35 USD) just off the main highway. It overlooked a very pretty lake and was predominantly set up as a permanent holiday park but despite having plenty of room down by the facilities the owner made us park at the back of the campsite, which was mildly annoying. We had arranged to pick Mel up from the bus station in Munich the following morning and then we were to drive to a campground (Camping Landsberg €15.33/$22.90 AUD/18 USD) just out of Munich heading towards Liechtenstein, which was our first real destination for the 3 of us as a group. I’m not going to lie, the only reason I picked this particular campground was because it had a schnitzel house. This holds no interest to me but I knew that my wife was going to have a field day when she saw it so I plugged the address into the sat nav and off we went. It turns out that all campgrounds in Germany shut for a long lunch period every day and as ‘luck’ would have it, we had chosen the middle of this to arrive, but in true German style the minute the office was due to reopen the man from reception arrived. We set up camp then headed to the schnitzel house. Dani and Mel managed to demolish the “Everest Platter” which was 8 schnitzels and a mountain if chips. I had to roll them both back to the car and we promptly passed out just after dark. I was excited about the next stop because ever since I had discovered the location of tiny little Liechtenstein 4 years earlier I had been begging to get Dani to take me. I’m not sure what drew me to this micro-nation but I did know it needed to be explored! Liechtenstein is on the border of Switzerland and Austria. If it takes an hour to drive through it, it’s a heavy traffic day and it is expensive, but it is also stunning. Right on the southern border was an amazing campground called Camping Mittagsspitze that looked out over the Swiss Alps. Because Liechtenstein is expensive we could only afford to stay the night (€31/$46.25 AUD/36.30 USD). This meant taking a walk through its capital (read ONLY) city before settling in for the night. Now I can’t say that this was the highlight of our road trip but I am glad I have finally been to this intriguing micro-nation.
The Black Forest in Germany was where we were heading next so we bid farewell to Liechtenstein and drove through Austria to get back to Germany (avoiding Switzerland and it has a huge road tax). What was supposed to be a quick journey was extended by a series of road works and detours but we finally arrived just in time for the pub to open at the next campground (Breisgau-Camping am Silbersee €19.65/$29.35 AUD/23.05 USD) and for Dani and Mel to tuck in to yet another meat feast (I was just happy for the large stein placed in front of me). This campsite was huge and not only had a lovely lake next to it but it was also covered in blackberry bushes just asking to be picked. Having originally said just 1 night here we decided to extend it and take a day off to play cards and relax. Having originally decided to self cater Dani and I took off into Freiburg before Mel woke up to get some food… this was definitely a mistake as it turns out everything is shut on a Sunday. After driving round to 3 separate supermarkets we gave up and headed back, agreeing to eat at the pub again that night. It was no real surprise when Dani and Mel heartily tucked into the third giant meat platter in 4 days. In theory, the following days journey was supposed to be an easy one and I had scouted out a few campgrounds for us to stay at in Triberg. It turns out that you really have to do your research in this area as there are a lot of hiker-only campsites that you cannot get to by car. Having driven up the side of a sheer mountain and reached the dead end that described itself as a campground we decided to reroute to Schiltach instead. We did however make our stop at the home of the Black Forest Gateaux only to discover that we prefer the bastardised versions back home (pretty sure cake shouldn’t burn when you eat it). On the way to Schiltach we drove past a beautiful log farmhouse with a sign for camping but knowing that Schiltach’s campground was in the centre (allowing Dani to take some time off driving) I had encouraged her to ignore campgrounds on the way. The look in her eyes told me that this isolated farmhouse was really where she wanted to be, so I spent the next 20 minutes telling her to turn round if she really wanted to stay there. I already knew as we drove into the campground that Dani wasn’t going to want to stay there but she insisted we check it out. It resulted in the predicted “no” and a 20-minute drive back to the farmhouse (Schwarzwald Trendcamping Familie Blum €28.93/$43.15/33.90 USD). This did turn out to be a great decision and we managed to secure a beautiful spot overlooking the rolling hills of the Black Forest. This place was expensive but all accommodation in the Black Forest comes with a tourist card that entitles you to free travel in the area. This meant that we could catch the train to not only Schiltach, which is beautiful but also Alpirsbach. Alpirsbach has a great brewery that used to be run by monks. It also has a great tour (if you speak German) and very reasonably priced beer to purchase in the gift shop. We also stumbled across another meat feast for Dani and Mel across the road from the train station. We had one last stop in Germany before we were heading to Luxembourg with the sole purpose of being able to pop over to Strasbourg. Kehl is the town that borders Strasbourg on the German side and this had a much more reasonably priced camping option (DCC Campingpark Kehl-Strassburg€19.25/$28.75 AUD/22.60 USD). Strasbourg was really easy to get to from this campsite that is right next to the Rhine. Strasbourg is an easy walking city and it really is worth the stop. Great architecture, lovely people and plenty to do to pass a relaxing sunny day! Very sad to know that we were unlikely to cross paths with the Avery's any time soon we said goodbye and ambled up the much better road to get on our way. No sooner had we driven 3km up the road than that terrifying warning message popped up on our dashboard again. This time not the engine light the message read...You have lost pressure in your right tyre! Finding the nearest gas station we pull over and although there is nothing visibly wrong with the tyre it did look a little flat so the helpful attendant pumped up our tyres and after 5 tense minutes of reading the manual we are able to recalibrate the pressure system so that the warning light disappeared. Disaster averted we set back off towards the Serbian border. We were about 2km away from the border when the light started flashing again and the dreaded message pops back up. Umming and ahhing about what to do we decide the best course of action was to get through the border then pull over. We proceed to the most run down border Dani and I had come across in Europe. We pass our passports over to the Hungarian officials as I need to be stamped out of the Schengen zone (Dani holds an EU passport so this isn't necessary) and we were waved through. We then drove through no-man’s-land to the Serbian checkpoint past old derelict buildings that seemingly once housed duty free stores and got to the next set of officials. This time we both needed stamps as Serbia is not EU and were pleasantly surprised by how nice they were. Quickly stamped and waved on we were suddenly asked to stop…as we'd been told that at the quieter crossing they can go through your whole car just because they have a lot of time on their hands. Not that we had anything to hide but our car was so carefully organised that it would be a nightmare to unpack and repack. The officer sternly asked where we were going and I informed him that we were heading to Subotica at which point with a flick of his hand we were dismissed! (I've never been so relieved) Just in view of the checkpoint we pulled over to look at the tyre. This time we could see a visible slash facilitating the leak. Thankfully we were both armed with the knowledge of how to change a tyre yet neither of us have actually done this...(Thanks Dad). I should probably mention at this point that the temperature gauge on the car read 37.5 degrees and it was burning hot. We rang Spaceship to locate the jack and the spare wheel as neither of us had been paying much attention at that point in our car tour and were told how to remove the spare from under the car. It took us an hour and a half to work out all the logistics of this particular car but hot and sweaty we finally get there! We could start our Serbian adventure. Having spent far longer doing the hour-long drive than necessary we decided the best course of action was to find our campground rather than explore Subotica. I knew there were 2 campgrounds located close to the lake so we set off in that direction hoping to spot the familiar camping sign. This is another failing of Google maps as they never give you the address only the township. Not seeing anything like a camping sign driving round the lake seemed our only option. About 500m down the road we spotted the tent symbol on a board of lake amenities and followed it. Another 200m down presented us with a sign that said "Kamping reception 500m" with an arrow pointing through a gate. Inside, there were 2 old caravans that looked like they hadn't moved since 1989 and one tent pitched up, as well as a very much abandoned reception. There was also one electricity box and a block of toilets that have also seen better days…at least a decade previously! We drove up to the restaurant on the lake where they told us we could park anywhere and that there was no charge. So despite the lack of usable facilities free is free...we were staying. This didn't seem so bad when a group of young Hungarians drove up and started pitching tents. I thought “this can't be so bad if others are here”. That seemed like a reasonable attitude until I heard a rustle outside the car and saw that there was a man sitting in a creepy party train complete with halogen lights just outside our window. He got out and walked around the back of the car and then got back in his train and rode off to park. We slept surprisingly well after the creepy man and the incredible heat inside the car. As we headed full throttle into European summer we sensed this was going to be more and more of a problem. The plan was to go and explore Subotica the next morning, however we still hadn't sorted out our spare tyre and the last thing we wanted was to get another flat and not be able to use our newly cemented skill of tyre changing. This meant finding the Volkswagen dealership in Subotica and asking their advice. They were very helpful and sent us in the direction of a tyre workshop to see if our original could be repaired. In broken English, Serbian and sign language we managed to agree that this very friendly man would fix our tyre as well as put our current tyre back on the VW rims. We were to come back in 2 hours and it would cost us €30. Although this was more than the man in VW had told us it should cost it wasn't much more and this man genuinely seemed to want to help us. We drove into Subotica and at last we would be able to wander around this Art Nouveau haven. Subotica is beautiful and well worth the stop if you have a thing for either Hungarian (yes I am aware that Subotica is in Serbia) or Art Nouveau architecture. The synagogue is one of the most beautiful buildings I have ever seen and although it's not currently open to the public, the promised refurbishments that have been on hold for years are finally happening. It's actually so beautiful that we would come back to Subotica when it's open just to see inside. We returned to the tyre workshop just before it closed and the man we had dealt with earlier had left his brother with instructions. He artfully slid the wheel back under the car and secured it so that we could head off into the sunset. Now, electronic maps are notorious for sending you in the wrong direction or making odd choices about where you should go but our app had been pretty good so far. Not this time! In the 37 degree heat. This time it decided we were going to take a highway that had clearly been out of action for the better part of a half a century. The road mapped out was a series of unconnected bridges that led to a sheer drop. This was not going to be our route so we had to turn around and drive for the 3 time that day, past the tyre workshop and back to Subotica. This wouldn't have been so bad if the exit we were supposed to take on the highway (once we finally got on it) hadn't been shut! Luck just wasn’t on our side! This resulted in a 15km detour taking the next exit. Google maps also has this great habit of only having the town that our campground is in rather than an exact address (I know I have already moaned about this before) so knowing this town was about 4 streets we thought...how hard can it be to find?! Well, once we had driven the entire length of the town…and the next one over, Dani was ready to throw all her toys out of the cot! This was the second day in a row that an hour long drive had turned into over double that! We pulled over and managed to locate (using yet another app) the place we were heading for. The motel with attached campground had been less than a 100m from our original turn junction but as always happens in these kinds of situations, we had a choice between left and right (a 50/50 split) and we had gone the wrong way. Problem number 600 for the day...it looked seriously shut!! We followed the signs for reception and there was nobody there. Then we waited with a father and son who also wanted to check in for about 10 minutes, before Dani decided to explore around the back. What a beautiful sight the slightly disheveled old woman was as she walked around the corner jabbering at Dani happily in Serbian. We were shown to the pitches, which were lovely and had a gorgeous view of the surrounding countryside. The site was littered with fruit trees and we were finally able to relax with, you guessed it…a nice cold beer! We were gobsmacked when another couple arrived at this incredibly isolated campground. They proceeded to unpack the most boxes we have ever seen carefully stacked into a car and then even more astounding was the fact that they had managed to set up camp, cook and sit down to a meal in 30 minutes. Another sweltering night preceded the next drive to the little village of Sremska Kamenica before heading on to another Avery recommendation. Sremska Kamenica is a sweet little town just outside of Novi Sad, which is famous for it’s locally produced wine. Bermet (red and white) is a dessert wine that was once served on the Titanic and tastes a little like a chilled version of mulled wine. Now, we’re not sure whether this place is always quiet or whether it was a Sunday thing but it felt pretty deserted. It had some interesting architecture and after wandering around for an hour and sampling some wine we picked up a bottle and headed off to Zasavica.
Zasavica is another tiny town near the Sava river. It is also the home of the world’s most expensive cheese that is made out of donkey milk. If you happen to have a spare €55 you can get a small sample pack to try (we didn’t have a spare €55). The campground located just outside the national reserve where the donkeys live is beautiful and very well equipped even if it is on the expensive side. After a peaceful and cool night’s sleep the only thing to do was go for a wander on the reserve. You get free entrance if you are staying at the campground so we headed off the 300m down the road. I’m not sure it’s the wildlife haven we both imagined, but we did get to pat a few donkeys and the colts (baby donkeys) were gorgeous. We also climbed up the viewing platform, which gives you a stunning view of the surrounding wetlands. The rest of the time at the campground was spent sorting, organizing, journaling and blogging before making a decision to drive right through to Zagreb instead of stop elsewhere in Croatia. I know this may seem like a strange decision but having travelled Croatia before we knew we didn’t really have time to head to the coast and we had no real desire to see the countryside leading to Zagreb. As beautiful as it may be there are very limited camping spots along this road and our option was to stop 15 minutes from the Serbian/Croatian border or drive through. We were meeting Dani’s Mum 2 days after, so it made more sense not to have a long drive to Slovenia either. The Bulgarian border was our first non-Schengen zone border crossing and upon arrival we were ushered out of the car after having our passports taken away for…inspection and examination we assume! Sternly the border control officer looked at my passport (clearly not very used to seeing non-EU passport holders) and yelled something in Bulgarian to his counterpart behind the counter. There were another couple also waiting and they proceeded to tell us how they had already been turned back from the Macedonian border that day because they weren’t happy with the documentation one of them had. Slightly unnerved by this information, I was relieved when they yelled at both of us to come and collect our passports and leave. Our friends also travelling in a Spaceship had warned us that we would need to purchase a vignette to travel on the roads of certain countries, so we headed to the nearest petrol station to pick this up. It only cost 15 Lev (€7.6/$11.50 AUD/9.15 USD) for a week and once armed with our first of many sparkly little window stickers, we set off for our first stop, the Rila Monastery. Bulgaria is a beautiful country to drive through and as we gently wound our way into the mountains it progressively got greener and greener. We pulled into Zodiak Camping (16 Lev/$12.30 AUD/9.80 USD) at around 5pm and got out to take a look around. This campsite was right by a river and surrounded by yet more beautiful greenery. The only problem with this stunning location was that we were the only ones there, in the middle of nowhere, and it suddenly sparked my crazy imagination about murderers and beasts in the forest (I know, too much CSI and True Blood). It also took a turn for the worse when the heavens opened and it started to pour down outside the car. It’s probably at this point I should also mention that the electricity provided for the car was the world’s longest household extension cord, plugged into a massive industrial generator circa 1920, tied to a lamppost! Unsurprisingly, we were reluctant to plug anything into aforementioned makeshift recipe for deadly electrocution, after the rain. Luckily we were quite enamoured with the owner who appeared to be somewhere in the region of 110 years old and who spoke absolutely no English but couldn’t have been friendlier or more accommodating, so we were quite comfortable for the night. This campground is probably wonderful in peak season but was just a little creepy for my liking when taking in conjunction with my overactive mind. The Rila Monastery was on the itinerary for the morning so we parked up in it’s car park and headed in. To explore the monastery and church grounds is free but for a nominal fee of 4 lev (€2.05/$3.05 AUD/2.45 USD) you can also visit the museum which we can highly recommend. It’s a stunning 8th century monastery with interesting architecture and wonderful frescos. From here we headed back down the mountain and via the Stobb Pyramids (still not entirely sure what we were supposed to be looking at) to Plovdiv. Now, Bulgaria is limited with the campsites and after an unsuccessful stop at a motel that had once upon a time had a campground we made our way into Plovdiv itself. The first attempt at locating a guesthouse was also disastrous when we unfortunately found ourselves in the middle of Plovdiv old town with Dani awkwardly manoeuvring our oversized car around the narrow cobbled streets with absolutely no easy way out! A brief panic stop in a car park led us to our wonderful guesthouse Ulpia House where we only had to pay 45 Lev (€22.95/$34.65 AUD/27.55 USD) a night. We had a private bathroom, wifi and a fridge and were even able to find parking across the road in a secure hotel car park for 10 Lev (€5.10/$7.70 AUD/6.10 USD) a day so that we didn’t have to leave our car on the road. We fell in love with Plovdiv. It’s old town is gorgeous and we also found one of our favourite restaurants on the entire Euro trip there. If you happen to find yourself in Plovdiv, do us a favour and stop in at Restaurant XIX Century. The food is amazing and you will get more than you can ever eat plus drinks for under 40 Lev ($24.40 USD/30.75 AUD/€20.35) for 2 people. While we were in Plovdiv we did the city walking tour, which definitely wasn’t the best-presented tour we have ever been on but it was interesting and we got to have a detailed exploration of the city. We stayed in Plovdiv for 2 nights and then headed off to our next stop in Veliko Tarnovo. Veliko Tarnovo was once a capital of Bulgaria (Thanks Plami!) during period of the 2nd Bulgarian Kingdom (there were 3). It is a stunning city and has one of the best walking tours we’ve ever done. We were staying at an awesome campground 12km outside of the city but parking in the centre costs next to nothing and is really easy to find. Veliko Tarnovo Camping is a well set up, new campground run by a lovely Welsh couple who fell in love with the area when they initially visited six years ago. They have a pool, good-sized pitches, washing facilities and a restaurant. I can definitely recommend it as a place to stay! It was also here that we met our new friends Phil and Ann who are on a late life gap year around the world. We spent a lovely evening with them swapping travel stories and sharing tips. After two lovely days and nights we moved on from Bulgaria feeling surprised by just how much we had loved it and how we were actually reluctant to be leaving. Maybe it was this reluctance to leave, maybe it was because I had been looking forward to Romania (When will I learn not to have an expectation of a country?!) or maybe it was just because Bulgarians were just so lovely, but we were let down by Romania. It all started when navigating our way through Bucharest. We had noted that road quality and other road users had got progressively worse as we travelled through each country and by the time we got to Romania Dani was desperately longing for the aggressively fast French. Bucharest was the pinnacle of every aspect of dangerous and frightening driving condition imaginable! Screeching of tires heard on every corner, people speeding down tramlines to overtake against oncoming trams, parking 3 deep against the curb and stopping wherever they felt like to park (including in the middle of lanes on roundabouts…I AM NOT KIDDING!). After a nerve-wracking hour navigating through Bucharest rush hour we were exhausted only to find that the hostel Hostel name and price we had book for the sole purpose of secure free parking had mislead us and there was no parking to be found at all. We finally found a legal spot (not that it appeared to matter) and stumbled up to our hostel ready for a beer…or six! We were fortunate that there was a very nice beer garden right next to the hostel and we were soon merry and feeling better about our near death experiences. We had already made the decision that we couldn’t be out of there fast enough so in the morning it was tea/coffee and out. On the way to find us some Transylvanian castles. We mapped out a route that would take us past Pele’s Castle on our way to Vampire Camping in Bran (the mythological home of Dracula). Pele’s castle was absolutely stunning and we wandered around the grounds through the forest until threatening black clouds started to loom over us. There is something that feels right about a black cloud over a Transylvanian castle but we didn’t want to risk driving with Romanians in the rain so back in the car and off to Bran we went. Vampire Camping in Bran is a lovely spot. It’s well taken care of but there was a notable lack in the facilities department so it hasn’t made our favourites list. It is located an easy 1km walk from Bran Castle and village so it’s the perfect location to explore from and even has a bus that goes directly to Brasov from outside it. The weather gods were not on our side and for the 2 days we were in Bran and it poured with rain pretty much solidly. Our little Hamster is great in the sunshine but it’s a seriously cramped space in the rain. We walked up to the castle (35 Ron/€7.8/$11.45/9.10 USD) early on our first morning while there was a break in the rain but by the time we’d left the castle it was bucketing it down. After yet more souvenir shopping we headed back to the campsite for some semi-raw polenta and multiple cup-a-soups. The decision was that the weather wasn’t good enough to stay on so we left for Sibiu via Brasov. Brasov is a quaint place but it wasn’t great in the rain so while we waited for the Sunday service to end in the Black Church we hid out in a cute little bohemian café called Kafe Pub. With some much needed Wi-Fi we caught up with messages and did a bit more research into where we were heading. The Black Church (9 Leu/€1.95/$2.30 USD/2.95 AUD) turned out to be worth waiting for as its impressive organ loomed over the back of the church and its 16th century frescos adorned the walls having survived the fire that gave it the name “The Black Church”. A few hours later we arrived into Camping Ananas in yet more rain. Only 10km from Sibiu this seemed like a good location to stop for the night. Yet more rain meant we were in the mood for a hot beverage but Dani becoming increasingly frustrated with the amount of time the kettle was taking to boil decided to change the voltage. Neither of us are quite sure what she was thinking when she sent 240 volts through the kettle she had just set to 110 volts but sure enough the fuse blew and that was the end of our beloved kettle! Despite trying to resuscitate it in any way possible there was no hope…we were without our number one travel essential. This immediately put our heckles up when it came to this campground as if it was somehow it’s fault we were without ‘our precious’ (yes Dani was starting to resemble Golem at this stage). With the hump we packed up our still damp belongings and headed off to Sibiu to explore. Sibiu is worth its reputation as a truly beautiful city. It’s old town buildings are particularly awe inspiring and after discovering a local market with fruit and veges galore that also happened to be in the much longed for sunshine we were once again warming (pardon the pun) to Romania. We had 2 choices at this stage, head over to a town near the Hungarian border or stay another night. As neither one of us had found that much needed spark we decided we’d start our journey out. It was this decision as well as a little advice from Phil and Ann about a particular campground to avoid that led us to the cute little place Camping Route Roemenie. This place is run by a lovely Romanian/Dutch couple and is in a sweet little village lined with cherry trees. It has a good set up and we soon discovered that the campers next to us were a Kiwi/Swiss couple. This immediately struck up the usual conversation about where they were from, where they were travelling and before I knew it we had been talking till 2 in the morning (Dani had excused herself much earlier). In the morning we shared breakfast with our new friends and then packed up to head to the place Phil and Ann were staying in Hungary. The Romanian Hungarian border was an easy crossing and we were very soon in Szeged with the urgent mission to find a new kettle and eat before getting to the campground. We found a shopping mall that also had a nice looking local restaurant across the road from it and after locating a new kettle we wolfed down a delicious meal before going to meet Phil and Ann at Sziksósfürdő for a beer and a catch up on what felt like forever in travel terms but had actually only been 5 days! They were a much welcome sight was the campground after Romania and we all agreed that it wasn’t our favourite country. Over a few beers it was decided that we would all head to another campground in Hungary together for a few days before all going our separate ways. Armed with Google Maps we set off on the 40-minute drive to Oasis Tanya Camping which promised to be a wonderful campsite…It is…Google Maps is not! The road Google Maps decided to take us down turned out to be 3km of field track and although the tracks were well mapped out it seem dubious that there would be a campground at the end of it. Imagine our surprise when exactly as promised a beautiful oasis appeared out of nowhere. It turned out that if you had ignored Google Maps and followed the road another 100m it would have lead you to a sealed road but Dani and I aren’t ones to take the easy option!
We woke up to the pitter patter of mulberries hitting the roof of our car from the tree we were parked under and set about our morning routine of what Dani has nicknamed Cafe Riv. We had decided we were going to have a relaxed day of getting through chores we had to do like washing, the blog, cleaning out the car and set about having a chilled and productive day. Phil and Ann had decided to go for a "quick" walk and when 2 hours had gone by we did start to worry. At hour 3 I got a message from Phil saying "We got lost and we'll be back soon. Will explain when we get there”. Knowing they were ok we relaxed but when they got back they had the most marvellous story of getting lost, walking 7km and then stumbling across a Dutch couple who lived in the middle of nowhere who not only helped them home but fed them as well. They needed a beer and we felt we had earned one too as we'd been so productive so we settled into another great evening of chatting. We had also decided to have the meal that Tineke (one of the owners) cooks for guests most nights during the week. For €8 ($12 AUD/9.55 USD) you get a huge 2 course meal and I was pleasantly surprised when they were even able to accommodate vegetarians. The food was delicious and although we had a few nasty interactions with 2 sets of guests (with the same 2 couples on 3 separate occasions) it didn't take away from the great experience we had with Tineke and Theo at Oasis Tanya. It would make it high up our list of hot campgrounds. Having made the last minute decision to skip San Marino we realised quickly we had travelled at least an hour and a half in the wrong direction and now had a 6-hour journey down to where we were heading. This would have been fine as we knew we were staying for 6 days with our friend at the other end, had we not experienced what everyone fears most with a hire car…the dreaded engine light coming on (obviously in the middle on nowhere)! A quick phone call to the AA let us know that a mechanic would be sent out to check the car within 2 hours. This was not a great start to our journey. Exactly 2 hours later a tow truck arrived and informed us they would be taking us to the Volkswagen dealership in the nearest town, almost an hour away in the wrong direction to our final destination. Having witnessed our beloved ‘Hamster’ being loaded onto the truck we jumped into the front cab and headed off to Terni. They were absolutely lovely to us at Volkswagen. Giving us espresso and juices while we waited and chatting to us in limited English, but we had to laugh when the response to “How long will this take?” was an Italian shrug of the shoulders that appeared to say…“How long is a piece of string?!”. It turned out that the answer to that question was another 2 hours. The brand new car we had hired had either a collapsed pipe or collapsed pump (our Italian isn’t great and neither is our knowledge of car engines) and although they had replaced it they had told us that because the mechanic didn’t feel confident in a right hand drive he hadn’t been able to test the car properly before handing back over to us. This left us mildly concerned that it might happen again, as we sped back down the road that we had already driven twice that day, towards our final destination. I do have to add though that both the AA and Volkswagen were brilliant. From the engine light switching on to being back on the road took 6 hours in total. The AA rang 3 times to check in that we were ok and everyone we had dealings with was so kind and friendly. Our fears of breaking down in our least favourite country had come true and we had come out of it unscathed! We finally got to Torremaggiore (a town in Southern Italy) at 11pm tired and ready for the ice-cold beer and pizza that Parsley had waiting for us (thank heaven for good friends). We spent 6 glorious days relaxing with our bestie in the heat of southern Italy whilst characteristically indulging in all the culinary delights that it had to offer. On one day we ventured out for a day at the beach, to an area called the Gargano, which is a National Park lined with olive trees and truly picturesque Italian villages. It was definitely a day well spent, however, the rest of our time was blissfully wiled away enjoying good company, drinking too many aperitivos and staying up way too late (we are not made for Italian timing). Italy had redeemed itself slightly (although the lady who screamed at Dani for using the woman’s bathrooms at the beach and did not even apologise when she was flashed Dani’s bikini top didn’t help) but we still aren’t sold and are not planning to go back again anytime soon. Having felt the last ferry trip had been acceptable we had booked another crossing with the same company (Grimaldi), this time from Italy to Greece. It turned out that their smaller commuter style ships weren’t nearly as nice and this ship had none of the amenities we had been expecting. More like a cargo ship than a ferry, we crammed into the small seated area available and counted down each uncomfortable minute of the 8 hour journey. As is always the case when you’re arriving somewhere late at night, the ferry was over an hour behind schedule and finally at 1.30am we drove off the ship. Having decided we would stay at a motel for the night, we were lucky enough to stumble across Holiday Zigos, which was not only open at 2am but also was also reasonably priced at €40 ($60.25 AUD/47.90 USD) for the night. Comfortable and clean we were grateful for a bed and dropped off to sleep almost immediately. The wife of the owner popped her head around the door at 10am the following morning and asked if we wanted breakfast and we decided it was worth the €5 ($7.50 AUD/6 USD) each not to have to worry about preparing it ourselves. We walked into the breakfast area and there was a feast before us. There were pastries, spanakopita, bread, jams and a wonderful omelette...great way to start the day! Having had a lazy morning it was time to get back on the road and it was as we were packing up that we realised the fridge in the car wasn’t working! We tried all the girl things of switching things on and off as well as fiddling with the fuse box to no avail. It was now time to contact Spaceship for their advice and after our 6-hour delay less than a week before we were dreading their response. Dani was on the phone to the lovely man in the maintenance department who was talking her through a series of unsuccessful checks and quick fixes…once again turning the fridge on and off and examining a couple of the fuses. Eventually he had to concede that this may not be an easy fix and so asked her if she had any DIY knowledge...the answer to this question is ABSOLUTELY NOT! I could see the look of panic in her eyes so I offered to take over. He asked me kindly to dismantle the whole back of the car in order to access the back of the fridge. Halfway through removing the middle panel in the car the phone disconnected. Knowing they were likely to call back I continued to unscrew the panel and remove it from the car. When he called back he said, “Just before you dismantle the car (too bloody late!!!!) I just want you to check one of the other fuses”. Sure enough THAT fuse HAD blown and the whole dismantling of the car had been completely redundant. The familiar hum of the fridge kicked in as soon as we replaced the fuse and half grateful and half furious I thanked the man and hung up the phone. Finally we were ready to go and headed off into Greece. Unfortunately Greece’s campsites are mainly limited to the coastline and as we would be returning to Greece later in our Eurotrip we were just driving through the northern mainland. A quick Google search had offered us 3 viable options. 2 near where we wanted to be and one in the middle of what appeared to be nowhere…nowhere (Kastraki) sounded great, so that was where we set the satnav. We drove into the most beautiful landscape of enormous towering rock formations with tiny monasteries perched on top. Now it turns out that this is a fairly heavily touristed part of mainland Greece but at the time we were unaware of this and were gobsmacked at our luck of stumbling across such a beautiful location. Camping Vrachos (€18/$27.15 AUD/21.60 USD) was one of the best we’ve stayed at with a tavern, great amenities and an easy walk into the nearest town. This was not going to be the quick one night stop we had planned. After pitching up for the night and making friends with the campground cats (which Dani named Persephone, Amsterdam and Hoover) we settled down to watch some CSI and drifted off to sleep early. Waking up to the surrounding mountains bright and early the next day was heaven and I think it was this campsite that truly sold us on the whole camping thing. We wandered up to the local village in the morning and stocked up on all our favourite Greek classics. Tzatziki, taramasalata, spanakopita, olives, feta…before heading into the souvenir shops to spend yet more money on all the things we get in every country. Our ultimate downfall was the lovely family that ran the shop, as they were so nice we ended up spending double our usual buying t-shirts for both Dani and one of our nieces as well as a dress for me to wear to one of the many weddings we would be attending later that summer. Armed with food and souvenirs we ambled back up the hill to the campground. We could have stayed there forever but it was decided that after two days we should continue making our way up to Bulgaria, so I found a campsite about 40 minutes out of Thessaloniki to stay in the following night.
This campground (Camping Agiannis/€14/$21.10 AUD/16.80 USD)was nothing like the paradise we had just left. It was 90% permanent caravans that had patios built around them and the pitches available had nothing more that an electricity box. We decided very quickly that we would leave early the next morning; explore Thessaloniki and then head straight into Bulgaria. That night we had the pleasure of attempting to find sleep whilst listening to the delightful lull of Bulgarian pop music and left as soon as we had had breakfast the next morning. Thessaloniki is a sweet costal city to wander around and we had a great time exploring the old ruins and churches that are dotted about. Before we headed off we restocked the fridge full of Greek goodies in anticipation of our imminent departure. Next stop…Bulgaria! |
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