Final post: Cote D’Azur, L’Arc de Triomphe and Oscar Wilde
01 Oct I arrived in Saint Tropez this afternoon and was surprised that it was a small fishing village/town with an overdeveloped Maritime tourism sector. I couldn’t find a beach either but that said the town was lovely and there were some lovely boats there. An hour or so later I started moving up along the coast to find a beach and take a dip. The next village was Saint Maxine and there were some nice beaches there. I had a swim and a shower and made some Lunch. I continued on along the coast toward Nice and to the airport to collect Eilis who was flying in to travel with me for another week. After I collected her we made our way to Monaco/ Monte Carlo and it was quiet a sight. It’s a city on a hillside and is immaculate. Its very over built with no open areas and is very expensive. We walked along the harbour and looked at the endless rows of exotic boats and then walked up to the castle, the home of the Grimaldi family who are the royalty of Monaco, and had a look around there and admired the view. After that we hit the road making our way toward Nice before stopping for the night.
02 Oct Into Nice this morning for the second time and for a look around. Didn’t do anything much different but went to the tourist office and got some info on a town nearby called St Paul De Vence. It was a incredible little place on a hill walled in and only pathways as streets. After that we made our way to Cannes and it’s a beautiful place with a fabulous promenade but very overstated. There are beautiful people, wealthy people, some with both and the majority are the wannabees that sit around pretending they are rich and cool but are the ones I feel sorry for. There are old ladies with more plastic than Fisher-Price with their Gucci handbags, Prada shoes and Peugeot bicycles. We walked around and looked at the place where the film festival is held. They were preparing for some Disney cartoon launch and were dolling the place up. Its quiet a plain old building without the glitz but that is all added on, on the special occaisions. Next stop tomorrow will be in Avignon and on our way there we had a run in with the local Cannes Police. Apparently I ran a red light and they drove in front of me to stop and have a word. Through a loss of communication, I mistook their raised finger as an indication that I was about to go down a one way and to detour. I gave them the thumbs up, turned a corner and drove off. All sirens started blaring as they chased down the road after me, the finger meant that they wanted a word and according to them Muggins made a run for it. They were furious and with my best French bleated out the excuse moi monsieur, je suis desole. To make matters worse they wanted to know why I wasn’t wearing a seatbelt. I tried to explain that I had just taken it off so I could get out to talk to him but with his English and my French we might as well been a sheep and a pig having a discussion. It probably worked in my favour as they abandoned the situation as a genuine mistake, La feckin Irlandes and we were more trouble that it was worth. My first thoughts afterwards were, at last a good yarn for the blog
03 Oct Drove to Avignon this morning; it is a nice walled in city with lovely cobbled streets and typical French cafés and restaurants everywhere. The big draw in the town was the Palais des Papes or the Palace of the Popes. Not much in the place but a fine medieval building. After that we were on our way to Grenoble, a city on the edge of the Alps. It was a pleasant enough place but not much there for the summer visitor but apparently comes alive during the ski season in winter. We decided as time allows that we would go to Geneva and made our way towards there. It seems like I have developed a problem with my Alternator (the device that charges the car battery from the engine). It’s grinding away so we are now driving during the day to save power on lights and no radio, fan, laptop, fridge and minimum use of Mary etc. It’s a pain in the arse and its Saturday today with no hope of getting it fixed or tomorrow for that matter and the next day or two after that we will be in Switzerland and a breakdown would cost the earth. So, minimum demand on electrics (= minimum alternator use) and all going I’ll get home in a weeks time still intact.
04 Oct Drove to Geneva in Switzerland this morning and it’s a lovely place situated on lake Geneva. As it was Sunday there were a lot of people around enjoying the sun but all the shops were closed. We walked around the lakeside and through the malls of expensive shops selling the best watches in the world. After that we headed further up the lake and into Lausanne, a similar city in lots of ways and very pleasant. I think I would go back to Geneva but is very expensive. We drove back into France and stopped short of Dijon for the night.
05 Oct Into Dijon this morning and the cold and wet of northern Europe was as evident as home. We walked around Dijon for an hour and headed off toward Paris. About 5 hours later we hit the Paris evening rush hour. We crawled through the city to our accommodation and found out that their car parking does not accommodate vehicles as high as mine. The car park across the road quoted me €49 per day and they were told where to go. I spoke to reception and they called them and asked them to try and revise the price. €40 was their best price but still too dear (cars were €15). I parked out on the street instead. That night we had a walk around the locality and had a meal in an amazing Thai restaurant. It was like been back in Ko Samui. We headed to a wine bar and had a couple bottles before heading back to the hotel for the night and boy was I looking forward to a nights sleep in a proper bed.
06 Oct Up and out of bed this morning at 8.30am and down to the van before 9am (ticket warden time). I said goodbye to Eilis for what was a short trip but good fun all the same. I pointed Mary to Lorient in Brittany, a 6 hour drive away. I had decided to visit and surprise an old buddy of mine Jean Marc Pierre, a French friend of mine that lived in Ireland for over 5 years and had opened his own restaurant in his home village outside Lorient.
Driving out of a wet Paris in morning rush hour was interesting. It so less hectic than I imagined and drivers are remarkably courteous and the pace is quite sedate for a capital like it. I wanted to drive around the notorious Arc de Triumphe roundabout but didn’t know whether my route would take it in or not, but lo and behold there it was straight ahead. The roundabout is huge, has no markings, no traffic lights and no apparent order other than Parisians know how to use it, and it processes an unbelievable volume of traffic from its 10 exits/entrances. The only way to tackle it is no fear and constant momentum, stop and you will be swallowed. What a buzz. I was driving on for about 3 or 4 hours and started seeing the signs for Cherbourg. I had my ferry from Cherbourg booked for the 10th of Oct and it was now only the 06th. The ferries go every 2 days and I thought that I might just go home now rather than drive all the way to Lorient and risk Jean Marc not being there, too busy to see me or the 15 years since seeing him may be too much. The weather forecast was bad for the next few days and there is little to do in France when it is wet and now cold. I stopped the van, turned around and set course for Cherbourg. I arrived in Cherbourg a couple of hours later and changed my ticket to tonight’s sailing. I went down to the local wine warehouse and bought 4 cases of wine for the family and by then it was time to go through to boarding. As I was driving through I saw this girl in an army uniform with a huge machine gun that must have weighed a ton. She was no more than 19 and had raindrops all over her glasses (god help us if she started shooting) She looked so innocent and had a hard man frown to help her look more intimidating. I couldn’t help but smirk. I was told to stop and open the doors of the van. As punishment for my smugness they went through the van with a fine toothcomb and took everything out of its place and didn’t put anything back. With all the doors wide open they did it in front of all the other cars and they looked on as my home was turned upside down. Bloody frogs. After all my heroine and other concealed narcotics were confiscated I finally was on the ferry and settled down to dinner. Later in the evening I met Harry Belle, a Galway solicitor and had a good chat with him. I found a couch in a corner of the front lounge and set up the laptop, with a bag of sweets from the pick and mix, & I sat down to 2 episodes of ‘Only fools and horses’ and a movie before retiring for the night.
07 Oct This is my last entry for the European blog and I suppose is one of mixed emotions. On one hand I’m looking forward to going home to family and friends and on the other it’s a facing of reality and the prospect of jobs etc. I will miss life on the road and the seeing of new places but it was also a life of uncertainty, risk and constant struggle of sorts, but maybe that’s life in general and presents itself in one form or another.
I am travelling on the Irish ferries vessel, the Oscar Wilde. Throughout the ship there are pictures, brief accounts of Mr.Wildes life and his quotes which are hilarious. My favourites are ‘Everything in moderation, including moderation itself’ or ‘the basis of a good family life… Fathers should not be seen or heard’. On entering America he told the customs official…. I have nothing to declare but my genius. Class stuff.
I had a grand nights sleep last night, the ship is very quiet and I had 2 sleeping bags and my pillow laid out in the front lounge and a lovely sea view in the morning. As I sat there this morning with my coffee and croissant, I could have been in the presidential suite with the whole front lounge overlooking the oncoming seas to myself. I saw a seagull 6 hours from shore which must be 150km away from land and a little further on the Irish Navy had stopped a ship and were boarding it. The seas are choppy enough but not rough. I felt like a baby being rocked to sleep last night.Finally I got off the boat in Rosslare at 2pm and drove 5 hours to Galway. As usual I didn’t let them know of my arrival beforehand and just walked into the kitchen. 14,000 miles and 12 weeks later…T’was good to be back.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Monday, October 5, 2009
Sicily, Sardinia and the Sistine chapel (Part 2)
24 Sep Out of the petrol station after a night of torrential rain and high winds in my memory and a cappuccino and croissant in my belly. It was great being all snuggled up in the sleeping bag with the wind rocking the van and the rain pelting it from all sides in the full knowledge that I was warm and dry and there was nothing nature was going to do to change all that. I arrived in Pula (about 20km outside Calgiari) and met up with Mum and Dad. I had been driving around and around Pula looking for the hotel with no luck. I asked a gardener and he waved me onward and then I asked this auld lad on a bike (which happened to be my father) where it was and he was kind enough to have me follow him to the hotel. It was great to see them both again and we got on the hotel bicycles and headed into town. It rained very heavily for the whole afternoon and after a look at the wedding hotel and a bite to eat we retired to the hotel to read and have a siesta (well, I went to the van). That evening we went to a restaurant for dinner and dad was looking up his dictionary for the word for ‘sauce’. I told him it was ‘Formosa’ which actually means ‘Buxom’. Not letting him embarrass himself I told him its real meaning and ‘salsa’ was the correct word for sauce. After a great laugh at that Dad though it would be really funny and called over the waitress and while pointing at me said ‘He thinks you are really Formosa!’ how embarrassing. I guess she spat in my Pizza. After dinner I drove to the airport to pick up my sister Dearbhla who arrived in at midnight. I retired to the car park in my van for the night.
25 Sep Out of the van this morning and had a bit of discreet brekkie in the back and into Dearbhlas room for a shower. Later that morning the 4 of us drove into Cagliari with Mum and Dearbhla up front with me and Dad lying on the bed in the back. We had a look around the town for a couple of hours and due to Louises late arrival into Cagliari on a delayed flight we went to pick her up from the airport instead of Thelma. We got times mixed up due to the time difference so we sat out on the little park in front of arrivals and had a little picnic as we basked in the sunshine. Louise finally arrived and we all were there to greet her. We all piled into the van liked the Travellers with more passengers than seats and drove 40mins to Pula. We sat by the pool drinking beer for the afternoon and went into town for dinner that night.
26 Sept Up and out this morning and having decided on a family day out, we all headed down to the supermarket in the van to get our bits and pieces for our picnic. We headed of to a town called Chia 15kms away and drove right down onto the local beach with the van. We walked around the area and afterwards made up a fine picnic with all the trimmings complete with table and chairs all laid out. Afterwards we walked across the headland to one of the postcard beaches and we all went swimming. It was like being back on a family holiday again. That afternoon we met up with Mgt and Bryan Flannery in their hotel apartment for drinks and a chat before a quick shower and change and off then to a drinks reception in Sean & Miriam’s hotel apartment. After that we went down to a local restaurant where 60 of the brides guests were fed and watered (too much watering) After a lot of shouting, roaring and singing we fell home after 12 having had particularly good craic with the Ballyburkers and Sheila McManus.
27 Sept After breakfast and elevenses at Bryan and Margarets, me and Dad cycled into town to see a museum. I have to say I don’t know much about it but it was a bunch of auld pots from an ancient civilisation that existed on the island thousands of years ago. I wish I found it more interesting but I don’t and was out of there in 10 minutes. Off down the town on my own I saw a procession of bulls outside the church and they were the biggest bulls I ever seen They were as wide as I’m tall and about 7ft in height. They were marched around the town in ceremonial gear but I didn’t catch what the whole thing represented. Later on myself and Dearbhla went swimming from a nearby beach before heading back to the hotel to get ready for the wedding. At 3.50pm, I piled the whole family into the van and the Geraghty tinkers went to ‘Da Weddin boss’ I pulled up outside the church and they all piled out much to the delight of the Irish contingent. Thelma arrived and looked lovely in her white wedding dress and the mass was all in Italian. Everybody commented how lovely the service was but I wouldn’t have known as I didn’t understand a word. At the end, the congregation poured out before the bride and groom and we were all armed with rice and things to throw at them as they came out. The mothers broke plates in front of them and was very nice and ritualistic at the same time. We headed to the reception via Bryan and Margarets (for tea) and were entertained by musicians during our 7 course dinner. It was a good night and different and interesting. At 2 am we went home.
28 Sept I headed off today from the family and the wedding party on my tour of the island. Going was slow and tight narrow mountain roads of the southwest corner of Sardinia didn’t pass fast enough. In my loop of the area I was longer doing it than I expected and as light started to fade I found myself within 30kms of where I started. I decided than instead of trying to find a place for the night I would go back to Pula and rejoin the wedding party for one more night. I explained to them all many times the reason for my return but Sean McManus preferred his version that I got lost and ended back where I started. We had a great night tonight in Sean and Miriams apartment for drinks and snacks before heading down to the hotel restaurant for a lovely 4 course dinner with Fionnuala and Brian. I said my last goodbyes to a very nice bunch of people and was a great end to an enjoyable stay at Pula with family and freinds.
29 Sept I finally hit the road once and for all this morning bound for my friend Tino up North in Mamoiada. I was on the road for over 4 hours and finally got there about 90 minutes later than expected. I drove to his girlfriends museum and she arrived to meet me. Unfortunately he could not and was caught up at work. She gave me a personal tour of her Museum (Museo Delle Maschere Mediterranee) a museum of ceremonial masks used in the Mediterranean region over the last thousand of years. There were some amazing masks and costumes (including one from Enniskillen in Northern Ireland) and was very interesting. She decided to bring me up to the workshop where a lot of the ceremonial masks are made and I met the craftsman who was telling me that his brother lives outside Galway and is married to an Irish girl. After that I headed on towards the port, Olida, 160km further North to get the ferry to Genoa in Northern Italy. The ferry journey is 10 hours so I decided to get a couch and kip there for the night. Unfortunately a staff member said I wasn’t allowed sleep there so I thought maybe I could sneek down into the van a kip there. I did that and the heat down there would knock a horse so had to come back into the main area again.
30 Sept Off the ferry in Genoa this morning and into the Italian morning rush hour. Genoa has more tunnels, flyovers, bridges and underpasses to confuse the best motorists and sat navs and Im afraid me and Mary were no match. Completely lost I managed to get out and onto the motorway. I saw a bit of Genoa from the van but unfortunately that was that. On then towards Nice, I pulled in for a rest along the way and was in Nice that afternoon. Nice is a beautiful city on the sea with a fabulous coastline. I desperately had to do laundry and after that walked down the main street, looked at the cathedral and walked part of the promenade. Lined with swanky hotels and casinos, I feel it is very representative of the French Riviera or the Cote D’Azur as they say locally. After a half day in Nice I started making my way to Saint Tropez.
25 Sep Out of the van this morning and had a bit of discreet brekkie in the back and into Dearbhlas room for a shower. Later that morning the 4 of us drove into Cagliari with Mum and Dearbhla up front with me and Dad lying on the bed in the back. We had a look around the town for a couple of hours and due to Louises late arrival into Cagliari on a delayed flight we went to pick her up from the airport instead of Thelma. We got times mixed up due to the time difference so we sat out on the little park in front of arrivals and had a little picnic as we basked in the sunshine. Louise finally arrived and we all were there to greet her. We all piled into the van liked the Travellers with more passengers than seats and drove 40mins to Pula. We sat by the pool drinking beer for the afternoon and went into town for dinner that night.
26 Sept Up and out this morning and having decided on a family day out, we all headed down to the supermarket in the van to get our bits and pieces for our picnic. We headed of to a town called Chia 15kms away and drove right down onto the local beach with the van. We walked around the area and afterwards made up a fine picnic with all the trimmings complete with table and chairs all laid out. Afterwards we walked across the headland to one of the postcard beaches and we all went swimming. It was like being back on a family holiday again. That afternoon we met up with Mgt and Bryan Flannery in their hotel apartment for drinks and a chat before a quick shower and change and off then to a drinks reception in Sean & Miriam’s hotel apartment. After that we went down to a local restaurant where 60 of the brides guests were fed and watered (too much watering) After a lot of shouting, roaring and singing we fell home after 12 having had particularly good craic with the Ballyburkers and Sheila McManus.
27 Sept After breakfast and elevenses at Bryan and Margarets, me and Dad cycled into town to see a museum. I have to say I don’t know much about it but it was a bunch of auld pots from an ancient civilisation that existed on the island thousands of years ago. I wish I found it more interesting but I don’t and was out of there in 10 minutes. Off down the town on my own I saw a procession of bulls outside the church and they were the biggest bulls I ever seen They were as wide as I’m tall and about 7ft in height. They were marched around the town in ceremonial gear but I didn’t catch what the whole thing represented. Later on myself and Dearbhla went swimming from a nearby beach before heading back to the hotel to get ready for the wedding. At 3.50pm, I piled the whole family into the van and the Geraghty tinkers went to ‘Da Weddin boss’ I pulled up outside the church and they all piled out much to the delight of the Irish contingent. Thelma arrived and looked lovely in her white wedding dress and the mass was all in Italian. Everybody commented how lovely the service was but I wouldn’t have known as I didn’t understand a word. At the end, the congregation poured out before the bride and groom and we were all armed with rice and things to throw at them as they came out. The mothers broke plates in front of them and was very nice and ritualistic at the same time. We headed to the reception via Bryan and Margarets (for tea) and were entertained by musicians during our 7 course dinner. It was a good night and different and interesting. At 2 am we went home.
28 Sept I headed off today from the family and the wedding party on my tour of the island. Going was slow and tight narrow mountain roads of the southwest corner of Sardinia didn’t pass fast enough. In my loop of the area I was longer doing it than I expected and as light started to fade I found myself within 30kms of where I started. I decided than instead of trying to find a place for the night I would go back to Pula and rejoin the wedding party for one more night. I explained to them all many times the reason for my return but Sean McManus preferred his version that I got lost and ended back where I started. We had a great night tonight in Sean and Miriams apartment for drinks and snacks before heading down to the hotel restaurant for a lovely 4 course dinner with Fionnuala and Brian. I said my last goodbyes to a very nice bunch of people and was a great end to an enjoyable stay at Pula with family and freinds.
29 Sept I finally hit the road once and for all this morning bound for my friend Tino up North in Mamoiada. I was on the road for over 4 hours and finally got there about 90 minutes later than expected. I drove to his girlfriends museum and she arrived to meet me. Unfortunately he could not and was caught up at work. She gave me a personal tour of her Museum (Museo Delle Maschere Mediterranee) a museum of ceremonial masks used in the Mediterranean region over the last thousand of years. There were some amazing masks and costumes (including one from Enniskillen in Northern Ireland) and was very interesting. She decided to bring me up to the workshop where a lot of the ceremonial masks are made and I met the craftsman who was telling me that his brother lives outside Galway and is married to an Irish girl. After that I headed on towards the port, Olida, 160km further North to get the ferry to Genoa in Northern Italy. The ferry journey is 10 hours so I decided to get a couch and kip there for the night. Unfortunately a staff member said I wasn’t allowed sleep there so I thought maybe I could sneek down into the van a kip there. I did that and the heat down there would knock a horse so had to come back into the main area again.
30 Sept Off the ferry in Genoa this morning and into the Italian morning rush hour. Genoa has more tunnels, flyovers, bridges and underpasses to confuse the best motorists and sat navs and Im afraid me and Mary were no match. Completely lost I managed to get out and onto the motorway. I saw a bit of Genoa from the van but unfortunately that was that. On then towards Nice, I pulled in for a rest along the way and was in Nice that afternoon. Nice is a beautiful city on the sea with a fabulous coastline. I desperately had to do laundry and after that walked down the main street, looked at the cathedral and walked part of the promenade. Lined with swanky hotels and casinos, I feel it is very representative of the French Riviera or the Cote D’Azur as they say locally. After a half day in Nice I started making my way to Saint Tropez.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Sicily, Sardinia and the Sistine chapel (Part 1)
17 Sept I drove to the ferry terminal at the toe of Italy to catch the ferry to Sicily. I was following Marys directions when I spotted the ticket kiosk. Outside the kiosk I saw this lad waving me on and I drove up to him. He had a little English and he asked me if I wanted to get the ferry to Sicily, I said yes and he brought me over to the desk. I asked how much, yer man looked at my vehicle and said €45. €45! I said, its only 25 mins. The lad with the English said to your man, only small car, only small car as if he was fighting my side. €45 was the price, so I paid it like I had any choice. Back to the van and there was another lad there washing my windscreen. I hopped in the van and started up and the lad with the English held the door. What about tip? He said. For what? I replied. For help you and my friend for tip for wash your glass. I didn’t ask for your help. He slammed the door and shouted some expelatives at me, Ciao, I replied and off I drove. I didn’t know where to go either and somehow managed to get in the wrong queue. I boarded the ferry and into a section for vehicles no higher than 1.9m and I am 2.05m. Traffic stopped, all jammed. Cars behind and I can’t go forward. Yer man, the ferry traffic lad is shouting at me in Italian, I'm saying no intendo, the captain is looking down from above and blowin this god almighty loud horn telling the lad to sort it out. He shouts up ‘no capiche Italiano!’ anyway he manouvers me into a corner and thank god another Italian arrives and does the same cock-up as me. Were both huddled into the side as they get the cars by and after loading they get us out. Thank god again for that Italian as he took directions to the right ferry and I followed him. Got to Sicily and it started raining heavy. I drove to a recommended spot called Taormina but I’m sure its lovely in the sunshine but not in the rain. I then decided to drive an hour inland up the mountain roads to have a look at Mount Etna. I drove up through little villages and I’m sure it was the first right hand drive cars some of those people ever saw. They stopped and stared. The closer I got to Etna, the scenery changed and the road was cut through the lava. Just a sea of black lumpy rock. Etna was no great shakes, but lovely driving to get there. After that I set course for another popular town called Syracuse intending to arrive tomorrow. It’s difficult to get internet access here or if they have it charge a fortune for it (€5 for 30 mins Wifi I was quoted day before yesterday) so I spotted a McDonalds drive in and parked up and fair play to McDonalds their free wifi is a joy to use. After all emails and blog update completed, I was on my way and pulled into a service station along the way.
18 Sept No showers at this service station this morning so I drove into Syracuse and went to the beach. All the main public beaches have parking and showers so in I went for a swim and a shower after. Fresh as a daisy I went into town for a look around. It’s a lovely old city and has not got the panic usually associated with Italian centres. After the walk around, I went to the Archaeological Park to see an old Coliseum ruin and a Greek theatre carved out of rock. I decide to drive down to the southernmost tip of Sicily and Europe and maybe spend the night there. Like most redneck towns and their colourful inhabitants this place was no exception. The place I was headed for is called Porto Palo and I had to go through a town called Pachino. It’s a 50% farming 50% fishing village and smelled a fish and shit. I made a sandwich and coffee and was on my way after that. I co-incided my arrival with sunset and as it was dark when I left I decided to get to the motorway and pull into the first suitable spot. As it was a rural enough location and the motorway ended where I was at there were no service stations for miles, so I pulled into an SOS bay which are half rest stops, half breakdown places with a phone to Emergency services if required.
19 Sept At 3am this morning I had a knock on the window, it was the Police. They wanted to know what I was doing. I said I was sleeping, and they asked if I was OK. I said I was. They gabbled in Italian to each other and said it was OK and good night. I subsequently read up that it is illegal to camp in undesignated locations but when I got up later that morning I saw broken beer bottles, syringes, condoms and other things strewn about. I suppose they were more concerned about other activities. After a bit of breakfast I was on my way to a place on the north of the island called Cefalu. I had to drive by Syracuse again so I popped down to my usual spot for a swim and shower. On the road again I drove through the centre of Sicily and it’s a barren spot. Mt Etna was towering down on me as I drove by and was have an auld smoke for herself. It was billowing out of 3 places as far as I could see. I got to Cefalu that afternoon and it was a friend of mine Declan Sexton that recommended it to me. It’s a lovely little town on the beach with old city walls and lots of little cobbled streets. There is a festival going on at the moment called the ‘Sherbeth Festival’. It’s a festival of Ice cream makers of ‘Geletaria’. They are all selling little samples of all kinds of ice cream including Tomato, Gherkin and red wine flavours. I parked on the road along the beach for the night nicely positioned to run down the ramp and into the sea.
20 Sept Down the ramp into the sea and under the shower, I was then ready for one of my morning cappuccinos in one of the beach cafes. A while later I was on the road to Palermo. The guide book said don’t drive in Palermo unless you have a death wish, well that was too tempting a challenge to resist so off I went. Now, I was cheating a bit by intentionally leaving it until Sunday but better safe than sorry. It was probably the right thing to do as it was relatively sedate and I drove in, had a look around and I was on my way to a beachside resort called San Vito lo Capo on the North west coast. It’s a nice remote village and there is an olive oil festival with all the growers in the region exhibiting their wares. I promise I won’t get too excited about the festivities. I had a drive around the coastline which was lovely.
21 Sept I moved the van last night into a vacant space in the beach car park so at 8am ran from the van into the sea. Great to wake you up in the morning a swim and even nicer when you have a shower to wash off the salty water. However the showers were not in operation so up the road and into a campsite to use theirs. On the road then toward Trapani to get the ferry to Sardinia. I wasn’t sure what time the ferry would be at or where it was leaving from but eventually sniffed it out. Unfortunately the ferries only go once a week and that was yesterday. The other option was the ferry from Palermo but that turned out to only go on Saturdays (2 days ago) so no good either. I resigned myself to the fact that there was no chance of getting to Sardinia via Sicily and would have to backtrack through mainland Italy towards the port North of Rome. I drove 230 miles from one end of Sicily to the other and another 200 miles towards Salerno. The mozzies are out in force tonight and are particularly vicious biters despite lots of repellent. I’m spraying repellent and applying Anthisan bite cream simultaneously but still hear that terrible sound as they fly past your ear. I finally dug out the unused mosquito net and fell asleep under that.
22 Sep Woke up this morning with more bites. How the hell did that happen and then I spotted the feckers. Mickey & Mo were dead ahead, caught in the net. They must have known at that point that certain death was ahead of them. As the giant hand finally made contact with them, their bellies full of another mans blood squirted onto the nice new white net. The deed was done, revenge was had. Anyway after that early drama I was on the road to Rome, all 500km of it. Q: What does Rossa have in common with visits to Rome? It pours rain and the Sistine Chapel is closed? Correct! In I drove to the centre of Rome on a busy Tuesday, found a parking space 1.5km from the Vatican and walked in the rain to and from the Sistine Chapel but with as much Leonardo De Vinchi under my belt as a result as the dog in the street. I drove about 50km outside of Rome to a service station on the way to Cittivechi, the port town that has the ferry to Sardinia. I went into the restaurant for a bite to eat and they were shooting a scene for an Italian soap opera. The scene involved some lad giving out to a kid at their table, I suppose it was a father and son. It was a huge set up for such a small piece. Anyway they didn’t need me for the Irish tourist bit so I retired to my movie star motor home.
23 Sep Drove to the port this morning and with not too much difficulty found it. During my search I stopped at this info kiosk at the port and asked yer wan if she spoke English. She said she did and I asked where the Moby ferry company was. She blabbered away in a language that must be an ancient relative to English but I certainly hadn’t a clue what she was saying. I went on in the direction I saw her wave her hand in and found the place soon after. Thanks to my sisters Louise and Dearbhla for their research and derv for booking it all for me, I sailed through (excuse the pun) without any problem even though my booking was for a car with the dimensions of a van (cars are getting so big nowadays, aren’t they?) While I was waiting to board a lad came up to me and asked me if I was from Ireland, I said I was and where was he from. He said Sardinia but lived in Dublin for 3 years. His family have a vineyard and olive groves and he runs a B&B. He invited me to stay a night and I may well do before I leave. I arrived in Sardinia 5 hours later and 270km from Calgiari and hit the road. I drove for about an hour and pulled in 100km from Calgiari for the night
18 Sept No showers at this service station this morning so I drove into Syracuse and went to the beach. All the main public beaches have parking and showers so in I went for a swim and a shower after. Fresh as a daisy I went into town for a look around. It’s a lovely old city and has not got the panic usually associated with Italian centres. After the walk around, I went to the Archaeological Park to see an old Coliseum ruin and a Greek theatre carved out of rock. I decide to drive down to the southernmost tip of Sicily and Europe and maybe spend the night there. Like most redneck towns and their colourful inhabitants this place was no exception. The place I was headed for is called Porto Palo and I had to go through a town called Pachino. It’s a 50% farming 50% fishing village and smelled a fish and shit. I made a sandwich and coffee and was on my way after that. I co-incided my arrival with sunset and as it was dark when I left I decided to get to the motorway and pull into the first suitable spot. As it was a rural enough location and the motorway ended where I was at there were no service stations for miles, so I pulled into an SOS bay which are half rest stops, half breakdown places with a phone to Emergency services if required.
19 Sept At 3am this morning I had a knock on the window, it was the Police. They wanted to know what I was doing. I said I was sleeping, and they asked if I was OK. I said I was. They gabbled in Italian to each other and said it was OK and good night. I subsequently read up that it is illegal to camp in undesignated locations but when I got up later that morning I saw broken beer bottles, syringes, condoms and other things strewn about. I suppose they were more concerned about other activities. After a bit of breakfast I was on my way to a place on the north of the island called Cefalu. I had to drive by Syracuse again so I popped down to my usual spot for a swim and shower. On the road again I drove through the centre of Sicily and it’s a barren spot. Mt Etna was towering down on me as I drove by and was have an auld smoke for herself. It was billowing out of 3 places as far as I could see. I got to Cefalu that afternoon and it was a friend of mine Declan Sexton that recommended it to me. It’s a lovely little town on the beach with old city walls and lots of little cobbled streets. There is a festival going on at the moment called the ‘Sherbeth Festival’. It’s a festival of Ice cream makers of ‘Geletaria’. They are all selling little samples of all kinds of ice cream including Tomato, Gherkin and red wine flavours. I parked on the road along the beach for the night nicely positioned to run down the ramp and into the sea.
20 Sept Down the ramp into the sea and under the shower, I was then ready for one of my morning cappuccinos in one of the beach cafes. A while later I was on the road to Palermo. The guide book said don’t drive in Palermo unless you have a death wish, well that was too tempting a challenge to resist so off I went. Now, I was cheating a bit by intentionally leaving it until Sunday but better safe than sorry. It was probably the right thing to do as it was relatively sedate and I drove in, had a look around and I was on my way to a beachside resort called San Vito lo Capo on the North west coast. It’s a nice remote village and there is an olive oil festival with all the growers in the region exhibiting their wares. I promise I won’t get too excited about the festivities. I had a drive around the coastline which was lovely.
21 Sept I moved the van last night into a vacant space in the beach car park so at 8am ran from the van into the sea. Great to wake you up in the morning a swim and even nicer when you have a shower to wash off the salty water. However the showers were not in operation so up the road and into a campsite to use theirs. On the road then toward Trapani to get the ferry to Sardinia. I wasn’t sure what time the ferry would be at or where it was leaving from but eventually sniffed it out. Unfortunately the ferries only go once a week and that was yesterday. The other option was the ferry from Palermo but that turned out to only go on Saturdays (2 days ago) so no good either. I resigned myself to the fact that there was no chance of getting to Sardinia via Sicily and would have to backtrack through mainland Italy towards the port North of Rome. I drove 230 miles from one end of Sicily to the other and another 200 miles towards Salerno. The mozzies are out in force tonight and are particularly vicious biters despite lots of repellent. I’m spraying repellent and applying Anthisan bite cream simultaneously but still hear that terrible sound as they fly past your ear. I finally dug out the unused mosquito net and fell asleep under that.
22 Sep Woke up this morning with more bites. How the hell did that happen and then I spotted the feckers. Mickey & Mo were dead ahead, caught in the net. They must have known at that point that certain death was ahead of them. As the giant hand finally made contact with them, their bellies full of another mans blood squirted onto the nice new white net. The deed was done, revenge was had. Anyway after that early drama I was on the road to Rome, all 500km of it. Q: What does Rossa have in common with visits to Rome? It pours rain and the Sistine Chapel is closed? Correct! In I drove to the centre of Rome on a busy Tuesday, found a parking space 1.5km from the Vatican and walked in the rain to and from the Sistine Chapel but with as much Leonardo De Vinchi under my belt as a result as the dog in the street. I drove about 50km outside of Rome to a service station on the way to Cittivechi, the port town that has the ferry to Sardinia. I went into the restaurant for a bite to eat and they were shooting a scene for an Italian soap opera. The scene involved some lad giving out to a kid at their table, I suppose it was a father and son. It was a huge set up for such a small piece. Anyway they didn’t need me for the Irish tourist bit so I retired to my movie star motor home.
23 Sep Drove to the port this morning and with not too much difficulty found it. During my search I stopped at this info kiosk at the port and asked yer wan if she spoke English. She said she did and I asked where the Moby ferry company was. She blabbered away in a language that must be an ancient relative to English but I certainly hadn’t a clue what she was saying. I went on in the direction I saw her wave her hand in and found the place soon after. Thanks to my sisters Louise and Dearbhla for their research and derv for booking it all for me, I sailed through (excuse the pun) without any problem even though my booking was for a car with the dimensions of a van (cars are getting so big nowadays, aren’t they?) While I was waiting to board a lad came up to me and asked me if I was from Ireland, I said I was and where was he from. He said Sardinia but lived in Dublin for 3 years. His family have a vineyard and olive groves and he runs a B&B. He invited me to stay a night and I may well do before I leave. I arrived in Sardinia 5 hours later and 270km from Calgiari and hit the road. I drove for about an hour and pulled in 100km from Calgiari for the night
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Austria to Italy via Hungary & Slovenia
Austria to Italy via Hungary & Slovenia
06 Sept After a trip to the bakery and a nice coffee and croissant breakfast I left Johannes and Austria and was on my way to Bratislava in Slovakia. It took me a few hours to get there and spent the afternoon walking around. The old town is lovely with a nice castle and reminded me of a miniature Prague. That evening I started on my way to Budapest in Hungary and pulled in to a service station 20km from the city. I went into the shop to buy something to eat but didn’t have any Hungarian money. I asked the girl behind the counter if she would take euro, no problem she said. How much for that sandwich? I asked. €5 she said, the conversion was equal to €3. I asked if that was the rip off price or is it her profit on the side? She didn’t like that but her silence and her pout answered that question. I’ll pay for it by visa; I said (knowing that visa would charge them a levy). Sly bitch.
07 Sept Was sound asleep in the wee hours of the morning with my earplugs in subconsciously enjoying the silence, until my new neighbours arrived. I was semi awoken by screeching and wailing and decided to ignore it but it continued on and curiosity finally got the better of me. I peered out though me curtains and I saw what I was expecting; pigs… and lots of them. A huge 3 level, 2 trailer truck kindly parked beside me with its cargo of Banshee swine. They were most probably on their way to the slaughter house, and they knew it. If that wasn’t bad enough, my necessary air ventilation was also accommodating their stench. Wafts of pig poo were joining the party in the back of the van. I considered getting up and moving the van but whatever my discomfort, I’m sure it was a million times worse for those poor auld pigs.
I got up at 8.30am and had to get out the gas a whip up some breakfast, tea and muesli bars as I had no money and didn’t want to go back into that shop.
Off into downtown Budapest, timing my entry into the city for 9.15am to avoid rush hour, but rush hour is all day in that place as I found out. It took me 30 mins to go 1km. I parked up and asked in an adjacent restaurant If it was OK to park there. The girl said it was and there were no clamps or tickets on that street. Great! I told her I would be back for lunch in her restaurant. Budapest is divided by the Danube River and one side is called Buda and the other side is called Pest. I was parked on the Buda side and decided to cross the Old Bridge and see Pest first, have lunch in that nice restaurant and see Buda after lunch. Pest is lovely with beautiful old buildings, an amazing Parliament house, a bit like Westminster, and nice pedestrian walkways. I walked along the Danube for a bit, crossed over another bridge and over to my restaurant. They recommended the special, Paprika chicken with home made noodles. Sounded great, and after a few minutes out it came. It was a leg and I reckon you’d get more meat on a flys leg. I ate 4 bits (it was gone by then) and the noodles were Gnocchi, macaroni stuff. The sauce was nice though but still I complained. I said that was a bad bit of chicken with no meat. They said sorry and offer me a bit of bread with a pumpkin seed on top (tiny thing, the size of a Leonidas chocolate) I laughed and I said no thanks. I was going to give them the tourist rip off act but bit my tongue. They had given me valuable advice on the parking and I paid them and left no tip. Ironic they call the place Hungary, as it accurately described my state when I left.
Pushing on with less than 3 weeks to get to Sardinia, I started my 350km drive to Ljubljana in Slovenia. I drove within 100km of it and stopped for the night.
08 Sep Up and out this morning around 9am and after shower and breakfast was on the road enroute to Ljubljana. It didn’t take long to get there but took an age to get parking. It seems that cities that weren’t bombed in the war do not have good public transport systems and the population rely heavily on the car. Anyway finally got a spot and off I went to check the place out. There’s nothing much in its small centre but what they have are lovely pedestrianised streets and walkways along the river, a nice refurbished castle on a hill overlooking the town and has a great vibe to it. I walked up to the castle, around the town and lunch before I set off again. I headed towards Italy but via a mountain range on the border. There was a mountain pass I read about that was worth driving over and after quiet a bit of looking I found it. It was very nice but not as good as the Conor pass in Kerry. It was getting late and was dark when I reached the Italian border. I hate driving after dark as full wits and concentration are needed in the day without adding the darkness to the problem. Driving through the bit of Italy was tough enough with new road systems and I was relieved to get to the first service station on the motorway.
09 Sept Up and out at 9am and after the usual service station shower, croissant and that oh so lovely Italian coffee I was on the road to Venice. Mary was in one of her moods and wasn’t playing ball. She completely turned off on me on 2 occasions, women. Despite the hiccups I was on the bridge to Venice within a couple of hours. Parking in Venice is a joke and a price of €27 was asked for my day in Venice. I told Mary to find me another car park and down the road another option was offered at €18 which I took. Venice is staggering in so many ways. Firstly is so much bigger than I ever imagined, and a complete maze and beautiful at the same time. I had begun not to use maps anymore and follow my nose but Venice is different. Even with the map I got lost countless times. I meandered through the street looking at the shops selling Venetian masks (no blinds though), wood carvings, t-shirts and food. I got a pizza slice in the train station and the oil from the pepperoni dribbled all over my t-shirt and shorts and I was walking around like a right mucker for the day. Anybody that asked me where I was from, I said England. Ha ha. I walked from the train station to St Marks square, the piece de resistance of Venice to see the amazing architecture but was very curious to see if the story of the €7 coffee was true, and it was, Cappuccinos were about €10 bearing in mind Italian coffees are tiny. I walked around Venice for 6 hours and slowly found my way back to the van and hit the road towards Verona. On Italian Motorways you have to pay tolls based on the Kms driven. One must go through a booth at the start to collect a ticket and that ticket is scanned further along and you pay accordingly. On one particular occasion one of the tellers (He was a few bottles short of a six pack), an innocent young lad with thick glasses got the shock of his life when I pulled up at his counter to pay as he looked into the van and saw nobody was driving ( of course, I was on the other side) He turned with a jolt as I leaned across with the ticket, and couldn’t help laughing at him. He probably charged me for a truck.
10 Sept Up and out at 9am and 20 mins drive into Verona. Verona is a nice town and is a mini Rome with a Coliseum and big mafia family mansions of old. One of the most famous things about Verona is a love story that William Shakespeare picked up on and wrote Romeo and Juliet based on it. R & J were based on either side of feuding Mafia families and the balcony where Juliet used to look down on Romeo is preserved and there for all to see. There is also a brass statue of Juliet and legend has it if you rub Juliet’s left breast 3 times with your left hand you will have increased fortune in love. She has a very shiny left breast indeed and I was not going to miss out on that perfectly acceptable ritual. After a couple hours in Verona it was off to Lake Garda which had lots of signs that the Garda Siochana at home would have a laugh at such as Garda Holiday resort, Garda Restaurant and bar & Garda Massage. I didn’t see Garda brown envelope but I didn’t stay too long other than a stroll along the shore promenade and did my laundry in a nearby camping ground. Back on the Autostrada (Motorway) and made way to Bologna and as usual timed it to arrived in its outskirts just as it was about to get dark.
11 Sept Arrived into Bologna about 10.30am this morning. I had read a John Grisham novel recently and the character was based in Bologna most of the time so it was interesting to see what he had been describing. There is an endless amount of history here, renaissance architecture and is all very interesting if you are into that sort of thing. I walked around for a few hours and was on my way to Maranello, a small town an hour away to see its most famous resident, Ferrari. Firstly I went to the museum and paid nearly twice the BMW/Mercedes price for half the experience. Don’t get me wrong it was great to see all the exotic sports cars and racing cars from the recent and distant past but it lacked the punch the Germans delivered. One of the biggest trump cards of Ferrari recently was the achievements of Michael Schumacher in Formula 1. The only Mi Schumacher stuff on display was the front left tyre of his formula 1 car that won in Japan 6 years ago and a few posters. Otherwise it was a collection of mediocre proportions. It was still worth seeing though and after that I went to the Ferrari shop where Ferrari were willing to advertise themselves on merchandise that you will be wearing and charge you a ridiculous sum of money to boot. I’d feel like an eejit wearing Ferrari clothes anyway but I did see a really nice leather jacket and although it had the Ferrari prancing stallion on it, I was willing to make an exception. I had a feel of it and was about to try it on and looked at the price, €680.00! Eh, no gratsie, Scusi, Ciao, Arrivaderci… I was outta there quicker than Magnum Pi. There were Japanese lads buying stuff like it was the Brown Thomas closing down sale, Ol’ Enzo Ferrari must be rubbing his oily paws with glee. I had a walk around the factory perimeter and like Mercedes it was 9ft high fences and security everywhere so my plans to sell their new designs to the Chinese were foiled. There was a company selling a 20 minute test drive for €100 in a F430 Ferrari and I was tempted, they were flat out busy and there were Ferraris roaring up and down the street. The cheapest thing with Ferrari printed on it was my ticket to the museum. Plain T-shirts with Ferrari on them were €39 each!
Bizarrely 2 different Italians stopped me and asked for directions (at least that’s what I think they were asking) the tan must be coming along nicely. I have seen Rossa coffee, Rossa Beer and TestaRossa Ferraris today…. Must be my Italian heritage. That evening I started making my way to Pisa, over the mountains to the West coast of Italy, and stopped 50km short of it for the night.
12 Sept I drove into Pisa this morning and as I drove around looking for parking I drove into this place and as it happens 3 other cars followed me. I pulled up to the barrier, pressed the ‘Gimme a ticket button’ and it wouldn’t. I don’t know why but I had to get out of the van and get all the cars behind me to back up out onto a busy road so the Irish tourist can get his van out, how embarrassing but they were all fine about it. I finally got parked and this African lad stood outside my door with all kinds of crap for sale. I slid over to the other side to change footwear and he walked around the other side too and continued to wait for me there. ‘On business’ I said, ‘not buying today’. He went off and so did I into the Piazza when the leaning tower is located. There are a few other buildings in the Piazza but the leaning tower was most of interest. The photos never do justice to its lean and looks like it ready to fall. They did work on it a few years ago to reverse the lean and brought it back from a 5.5m to a 4.1m tilt (measured from the top from where it is, compared to where it should be) Pisa takes an hour or two and by then I was off on my 1 hour journey to Florence. Florence was a lovely renaissancie place too where the statue of David, Neptune etc are in full view and there is a definite homosexual angle there with little Eunuchs putting things in there mouths and naked men rubbing their fingers through another lads hair, I don’t know buts its all very suspect. I wanted to get in to the Uzzi Art gallery but the queues were crazy. I’m sure I’ll see it in a book or something. After a few hours in Florence, another 90 mins down the road got me to Siena. Siena is a really interesting spot too and walked the narrow Gothic streets there for an hour or two. It was getting late so I pointed Mary in the direction of Rome and drove within a 100kms of it. The plan is to drive into the heart of Rome for the craic to see what the crazy driving the city is famed for (albeit on a Sunday morning)
13 Sept With only slight navigational bother I drove into the middle of a rainy wet Rome without any trouble. I parked within a stones throw of The Vatican and I headed there first. I roamed around St. Peters sq looking for a quicker way into the Basilica but no, I had to line up in the rain with the mile long queue. An hour later I was in there with my head leaned back looking at the ceilings and the height of the roof. It’s a beautifully ornate church with so many statues and paintings and in excellent condition; it’s a pity the rest of Rome isn’t in as good condition. I went into see the tombs of the popes and there was a real jam at the tomb of JP2. People were crying and kneeling, I had to get out of there quick. Most disappointingly the Sistine chapel was closed but no doubt I’ll find myself in Rome again sometime. Off then to the Pantheon, a dome thing with stuff in it and then to the Trevi fountain which was a nice bit of sculpturing and then to the Coliseum which was interesting but smaller than I had expected. I wandered around for a bit and after 6 hours traipsing around Rome I had seen what I wanted to see and hit the road south towards Naples.
14 Sept Arrived into Naples around lunch time and what an awakening. The place is like Vietnam for traffic and lunatics. I have never seen chaos like it in the modern world and would go as far as saying Naples is more 3rd world than first in many respects. It was not a nice place and by far the most displeasing of Italy so far. Mary has parking areas programmed in but they were jammed or impossible to get in to. No parking was to be had and after 30 mins driving around my tolerance had gone way past the safety level and I said enough was enough and got out of there. My visit to Naples did not even involve me setting foot in place. Anyway this cuckoo flew over the Naplese nest and continued down to Pompeii. That was an amazing place and reminded me so much of Matchu Pitchu in Peru. I didn’t really know what to expect of the place but I didn’t know it was a full on town with Coliseum, church, a brothel, grand homes and all the usual ancient town facilities including drainage, fresh water and sewage systems. It was so strange just to walk around countless streets and houses with nobody there. Pompeii was covered in Lava by the eruption of Mt Vesuvius and many people perished. The place was engulfed in lava and ash and in its rediscovery and archaeological rebirth the streets and houses are all accessible and its amazing how much survived. The most amazing thing for me were the bodies that were covered in Lava and are now preserved in a hard lava shell, still in the pose that they were in when they were killed. After that I set course for the motorway for the night and will head for Sorrento tomorrow.
15 Sept Arrived in Sorrento this morning and it’s a big improvement on the surrounding residential areas. It’s very built up and is built on a mountainside with high cliffs making the journey from town to the shore one of serious climbing or descending. It’s a fantastic setting and I spent the day wandering around having a look at the place. I intended on going to see the island of Capri but felt it would be best make a day of it so I checked into a campsite and will go tomorrow morning.
16 Sept Had the alarm set for 6.30am this morning to allow plenty of time to get the 7.45am ferry to Capri. I woke to the sound of both the alarm and the rain. I said feck it and slept on intending to get the next one at 9.25am and in the hope that the rain will have let up, but it was still pouring. It started lightening so I trekked down to the port but the rain got worse. I stood there watching all the people with their umbrellas queuing up and waiting. I couldn’t face going to a paradise island in the rain, done enough of that in Brazil. I decided to pack it in and use the day for the long drive south along the Amalfi coast and on towards Sicily. I checked out of the campsite and hit the road. It was pelting and thunder and lightening were a common occurrence. The scenery was beautiful but the traffic was dreadful. The roads along the Amalfi coast (A UNESCO world heritage site) are so narrow and buses slow things down especially when they meet each other going in opposite directions. The Amalfi coast is a 50km stretch of cliffs with windy roads cut into the cliff face on the west coast of Southern Italy. It’s so special as there are houses, hotels, restaurants and fishing villages dotted along the coastline and all cut into the cliffs edge. Tourists on day trips from Sorrento go mad for it. One of the downsides is the car reliant Italians have all the parking taken up and it’s very difficult to find a spot to stop and take in the view. They are all in such a hurry; I wonder what these rural Italians are rushing to or from. I began to notice in the areas where the driving is at its worst also having the worst cars. Every car is a banger or is covered in dents and scrapes. Bad and all as we think we are in Ireland for speed and lunatics, its playschool compared to Southern Italy. I continued on for the whole day working my way south and stopped 100km short of the toe of Italy where I’ll get the ferry to Sciliy.
06 Sept After a trip to the bakery and a nice coffee and croissant breakfast I left Johannes and Austria and was on my way to Bratislava in Slovakia. It took me a few hours to get there and spent the afternoon walking around. The old town is lovely with a nice castle and reminded me of a miniature Prague. That evening I started on my way to Budapest in Hungary and pulled in to a service station 20km from the city. I went into the shop to buy something to eat but didn’t have any Hungarian money. I asked the girl behind the counter if she would take euro, no problem she said. How much for that sandwich? I asked. €5 she said, the conversion was equal to €3. I asked if that was the rip off price or is it her profit on the side? She didn’t like that but her silence and her pout answered that question. I’ll pay for it by visa; I said (knowing that visa would charge them a levy). Sly bitch.
07 Sept Was sound asleep in the wee hours of the morning with my earplugs in subconsciously enjoying the silence, until my new neighbours arrived. I was semi awoken by screeching and wailing and decided to ignore it but it continued on and curiosity finally got the better of me. I peered out though me curtains and I saw what I was expecting; pigs… and lots of them. A huge 3 level, 2 trailer truck kindly parked beside me with its cargo of Banshee swine. They were most probably on their way to the slaughter house, and they knew it. If that wasn’t bad enough, my necessary air ventilation was also accommodating their stench. Wafts of pig poo were joining the party in the back of the van. I considered getting up and moving the van but whatever my discomfort, I’m sure it was a million times worse for those poor auld pigs.
I got up at 8.30am and had to get out the gas a whip up some breakfast, tea and muesli bars as I had no money and didn’t want to go back into that shop.
Off into downtown Budapest, timing my entry into the city for 9.15am to avoid rush hour, but rush hour is all day in that place as I found out. It took me 30 mins to go 1km. I parked up and asked in an adjacent restaurant If it was OK to park there. The girl said it was and there were no clamps or tickets on that street. Great! I told her I would be back for lunch in her restaurant. Budapest is divided by the Danube River and one side is called Buda and the other side is called Pest. I was parked on the Buda side and decided to cross the Old Bridge and see Pest first, have lunch in that nice restaurant and see Buda after lunch. Pest is lovely with beautiful old buildings, an amazing Parliament house, a bit like Westminster, and nice pedestrian walkways. I walked along the Danube for a bit, crossed over another bridge and over to my restaurant. They recommended the special, Paprika chicken with home made noodles. Sounded great, and after a few minutes out it came. It was a leg and I reckon you’d get more meat on a flys leg. I ate 4 bits (it was gone by then) and the noodles were Gnocchi, macaroni stuff. The sauce was nice though but still I complained. I said that was a bad bit of chicken with no meat. They said sorry and offer me a bit of bread with a pumpkin seed on top (tiny thing, the size of a Leonidas chocolate) I laughed and I said no thanks. I was going to give them the tourist rip off act but bit my tongue. They had given me valuable advice on the parking and I paid them and left no tip. Ironic they call the place Hungary, as it accurately described my state when I left.
Pushing on with less than 3 weeks to get to Sardinia, I started my 350km drive to Ljubljana in Slovenia. I drove within 100km of it and stopped for the night.
08 Sep Up and out this morning around 9am and after shower and breakfast was on the road enroute to Ljubljana. It didn’t take long to get there but took an age to get parking. It seems that cities that weren’t bombed in the war do not have good public transport systems and the population rely heavily on the car. Anyway finally got a spot and off I went to check the place out. There’s nothing much in its small centre but what they have are lovely pedestrianised streets and walkways along the river, a nice refurbished castle on a hill overlooking the town and has a great vibe to it. I walked up to the castle, around the town and lunch before I set off again. I headed towards Italy but via a mountain range on the border. There was a mountain pass I read about that was worth driving over and after quiet a bit of looking I found it. It was very nice but not as good as the Conor pass in Kerry. It was getting late and was dark when I reached the Italian border. I hate driving after dark as full wits and concentration are needed in the day without adding the darkness to the problem. Driving through the bit of Italy was tough enough with new road systems and I was relieved to get to the first service station on the motorway.
09 Sept Up and out at 9am and after the usual service station shower, croissant and that oh so lovely Italian coffee I was on the road to Venice. Mary was in one of her moods and wasn’t playing ball. She completely turned off on me on 2 occasions, women. Despite the hiccups I was on the bridge to Venice within a couple of hours. Parking in Venice is a joke and a price of €27 was asked for my day in Venice. I told Mary to find me another car park and down the road another option was offered at €18 which I took. Venice is staggering in so many ways. Firstly is so much bigger than I ever imagined, and a complete maze and beautiful at the same time. I had begun not to use maps anymore and follow my nose but Venice is different. Even with the map I got lost countless times. I meandered through the street looking at the shops selling Venetian masks (no blinds though), wood carvings, t-shirts and food. I got a pizza slice in the train station and the oil from the pepperoni dribbled all over my t-shirt and shorts and I was walking around like a right mucker for the day. Anybody that asked me where I was from, I said England. Ha ha. I walked from the train station to St Marks square, the piece de resistance of Venice to see the amazing architecture but was very curious to see if the story of the €7 coffee was true, and it was, Cappuccinos were about €10 bearing in mind Italian coffees are tiny. I walked around Venice for 6 hours and slowly found my way back to the van and hit the road towards Verona. On Italian Motorways you have to pay tolls based on the Kms driven. One must go through a booth at the start to collect a ticket and that ticket is scanned further along and you pay accordingly. On one particular occasion one of the tellers (He was a few bottles short of a six pack), an innocent young lad with thick glasses got the shock of his life when I pulled up at his counter to pay as he looked into the van and saw nobody was driving ( of course, I was on the other side) He turned with a jolt as I leaned across with the ticket, and couldn’t help laughing at him. He probably charged me for a truck.
10 Sept Up and out at 9am and 20 mins drive into Verona. Verona is a nice town and is a mini Rome with a Coliseum and big mafia family mansions of old. One of the most famous things about Verona is a love story that William Shakespeare picked up on and wrote Romeo and Juliet based on it. R & J were based on either side of feuding Mafia families and the balcony where Juliet used to look down on Romeo is preserved and there for all to see. There is also a brass statue of Juliet and legend has it if you rub Juliet’s left breast 3 times with your left hand you will have increased fortune in love. She has a very shiny left breast indeed and I was not going to miss out on that perfectly acceptable ritual. After a couple hours in Verona it was off to Lake Garda which had lots of signs that the Garda Siochana at home would have a laugh at such as Garda Holiday resort, Garda Restaurant and bar & Garda Massage. I didn’t see Garda brown envelope but I didn’t stay too long other than a stroll along the shore promenade and did my laundry in a nearby camping ground. Back on the Autostrada (Motorway) and made way to Bologna and as usual timed it to arrived in its outskirts just as it was about to get dark.
11 Sept Arrived into Bologna about 10.30am this morning. I had read a John Grisham novel recently and the character was based in Bologna most of the time so it was interesting to see what he had been describing. There is an endless amount of history here, renaissance architecture and is all very interesting if you are into that sort of thing. I walked around for a few hours and was on my way to Maranello, a small town an hour away to see its most famous resident, Ferrari. Firstly I went to the museum and paid nearly twice the BMW/Mercedes price for half the experience. Don’t get me wrong it was great to see all the exotic sports cars and racing cars from the recent and distant past but it lacked the punch the Germans delivered. One of the biggest trump cards of Ferrari recently was the achievements of Michael Schumacher in Formula 1. The only Mi Schumacher stuff on display was the front left tyre of his formula 1 car that won in Japan 6 years ago and a few posters. Otherwise it was a collection of mediocre proportions. It was still worth seeing though and after that I went to the Ferrari shop where Ferrari were willing to advertise themselves on merchandise that you will be wearing and charge you a ridiculous sum of money to boot. I’d feel like an eejit wearing Ferrari clothes anyway but I did see a really nice leather jacket and although it had the Ferrari prancing stallion on it, I was willing to make an exception. I had a feel of it and was about to try it on and looked at the price, €680.00! Eh, no gratsie, Scusi, Ciao, Arrivaderci… I was outta there quicker than Magnum Pi. There were Japanese lads buying stuff like it was the Brown Thomas closing down sale, Ol’ Enzo Ferrari must be rubbing his oily paws with glee. I had a walk around the factory perimeter and like Mercedes it was 9ft high fences and security everywhere so my plans to sell their new designs to the Chinese were foiled. There was a company selling a 20 minute test drive for €100 in a F430 Ferrari and I was tempted, they were flat out busy and there were Ferraris roaring up and down the street. The cheapest thing with Ferrari printed on it was my ticket to the museum. Plain T-shirts with Ferrari on them were €39 each!
Bizarrely 2 different Italians stopped me and asked for directions (at least that’s what I think they were asking) the tan must be coming along nicely. I have seen Rossa coffee, Rossa Beer and TestaRossa Ferraris today…. Must be my Italian heritage. That evening I started making my way to Pisa, over the mountains to the West coast of Italy, and stopped 50km short of it for the night.
12 Sept I drove into Pisa this morning and as I drove around looking for parking I drove into this place and as it happens 3 other cars followed me. I pulled up to the barrier, pressed the ‘Gimme a ticket button’ and it wouldn’t. I don’t know why but I had to get out of the van and get all the cars behind me to back up out onto a busy road so the Irish tourist can get his van out, how embarrassing but they were all fine about it. I finally got parked and this African lad stood outside my door with all kinds of crap for sale. I slid over to the other side to change footwear and he walked around the other side too and continued to wait for me there. ‘On business’ I said, ‘not buying today’. He went off and so did I into the Piazza when the leaning tower is located. There are a few other buildings in the Piazza but the leaning tower was most of interest. The photos never do justice to its lean and looks like it ready to fall. They did work on it a few years ago to reverse the lean and brought it back from a 5.5m to a 4.1m tilt (measured from the top from where it is, compared to where it should be) Pisa takes an hour or two and by then I was off on my 1 hour journey to Florence. Florence was a lovely renaissancie place too where the statue of David, Neptune etc are in full view and there is a definite homosexual angle there with little Eunuchs putting things in there mouths and naked men rubbing their fingers through another lads hair, I don’t know buts its all very suspect. I wanted to get in to the Uzzi Art gallery but the queues were crazy. I’m sure I’ll see it in a book or something. After a few hours in Florence, another 90 mins down the road got me to Siena. Siena is a really interesting spot too and walked the narrow Gothic streets there for an hour or two. It was getting late so I pointed Mary in the direction of Rome and drove within a 100kms of it. The plan is to drive into the heart of Rome for the craic to see what the crazy driving the city is famed for (albeit on a Sunday morning)
13 Sept With only slight navigational bother I drove into the middle of a rainy wet Rome without any trouble. I parked within a stones throw of The Vatican and I headed there first. I roamed around St. Peters sq looking for a quicker way into the Basilica but no, I had to line up in the rain with the mile long queue. An hour later I was in there with my head leaned back looking at the ceilings and the height of the roof. It’s a beautifully ornate church with so many statues and paintings and in excellent condition; it’s a pity the rest of Rome isn’t in as good condition. I went into see the tombs of the popes and there was a real jam at the tomb of JP2. People were crying and kneeling, I had to get out of there quick. Most disappointingly the Sistine chapel was closed but no doubt I’ll find myself in Rome again sometime. Off then to the Pantheon, a dome thing with stuff in it and then to the Trevi fountain which was a nice bit of sculpturing and then to the Coliseum which was interesting but smaller than I had expected. I wandered around for a bit and after 6 hours traipsing around Rome I had seen what I wanted to see and hit the road south towards Naples.
14 Sept Arrived into Naples around lunch time and what an awakening. The place is like Vietnam for traffic and lunatics. I have never seen chaos like it in the modern world and would go as far as saying Naples is more 3rd world than first in many respects. It was not a nice place and by far the most displeasing of Italy so far. Mary has parking areas programmed in but they were jammed or impossible to get in to. No parking was to be had and after 30 mins driving around my tolerance had gone way past the safety level and I said enough was enough and got out of there. My visit to Naples did not even involve me setting foot in place. Anyway this cuckoo flew over the Naplese nest and continued down to Pompeii. That was an amazing place and reminded me so much of Matchu Pitchu in Peru. I didn’t really know what to expect of the place but I didn’t know it was a full on town with Coliseum, church, a brothel, grand homes and all the usual ancient town facilities including drainage, fresh water and sewage systems. It was so strange just to walk around countless streets and houses with nobody there. Pompeii was covered in Lava by the eruption of Mt Vesuvius and many people perished. The place was engulfed in lava and ash and in its rediscovery and archaeological rebirth the streets and houses are all accessible and its amazing how much survived. The most amazing thing for me were the bodies that were covered in Lava and are now preserved in a hard lava shell, still in the pose that they were in when they were killed. After that I set course for the motorway for the night and will head for Sorrento tomorrow.
15 Sept Arrived in Sorrento this morning and it’s a big improvement on the surrounding residential areas. It’s very built up and is built on a mountainside with high cliffs making the journey from town to the shore one of serious climbing or descending. It’s a fantastic setting and I spent the day wandering around having a look at the place. I intended on going to see the island of Capri but felt it would be best make a day of it so I checked into a campsite and will go tomorrow morning.
16 Sept Had the alarm set for 6.30am this morning to allow plenty of time to get the 7.45am ferry to Capri. I woke to the sound of both the alarm and the rain. I said feck it and slept on intending to get the next one at 9.25am and in the hope that the rain will have let up, but it was still pouring. It started lightening so I trekked down to the port but the rain got worse. I stood there watching all the people with their umbrellas queuing up and waiting. I couldn’t face going to a paradise island in the rain, done enough of that in Brazil. I decided to pack it in and use the day for the long drive south along the Amalfi coast and on towards Sicily. I checked out of the campsite and hit the road. It was pelting and thunder and lightening were a common occurrence. The scenery was beautiful but the traffic was dreadful. The roads along the Amalfi coast (A UNESCO world heritage site) are so narrow and buses slow things down especially when they meet each other going in opposite directions. The Amalfi coast is a 50km stretch of cliffs with windy roads cut into the cliff face on the west coast of Southern Italy. It’s so special as there are houses, hotels, restaurants and fishing villages dotted along the coastline and all cut into the cliffs edge. Tourists on day trips from Sorrento go mad for it. One of the downsides is the car reliant Italians have all the parking taken up and it’s very difficult to find a spot to stop and take in the view. They are all in such a hurry; I wonder what these rural Italians are rushing to or from. I began to notice in the areas where the driving is at its worst also having the worst cars. Every car is a banger or is covered in dents and scrapes. Bad and all as we think we are in Ireland for speed and lunatics, its playschool compared to Southern Italy. I continued on for the whole day working my way south and stopped 100km short of the toe of Italy where I’ll get the ferry to Sciliy.
Friday, September 11, 2009
Czech Republic to Austria (twice)
27 Aug Up and out at 7am and en route to Prague. It was a long drive of 5 hours / 350km approx but the whole way was motorway which was very welcome. The traffic in the CR is fast but not as bad as Poland. I SET Mary bound for Prague and to a hostel called ‘Sophie’s place’. When I got there they wanted €41 for a dorm bed incl parking for 1 night. It was early enough so I drove off and found a free car park, and set off on foot to see Prague that day and head off that night. I trekked around Prague from Midday to 7pm incl doing a walking tour and a wander around myself. I think I saw most of the highlights and it is a superb city steeped in amazing architecture and history. I was fascinated by the place and will definitely go and see it again. It started getting dark after 7pm so I decided to head back to the van and hit the road. I set Mary to take me to Cesky Krumlov an historic Czech town near the Austrian border and the setting for the recent movie, Hostel. I didn’t intend to get there today so on the way I stopped off at a 24 hour Tesco supermarket (that was a surprise) and picked up some necessary supplies. It was a grand spot so I stopped there for the night.
28 Aug Up and out at 8am, into Tesco for the breakfast and off I went. I got to Cesky about 10am and it’s a lovely quaint little place set on a bend in the river. It’s got little narrow cobbled streets amongst its old buildings. I had a walk around the town and its castle and at 11.15 I was in the van on my way to Austria. I went via a little town called Cesky Budejovice where the original Budweiser beers comes from and only interrupted by a snooze was in Austria an hour later. As I entered Austria, the difference in wealth was striking with better houses, smoother roads, better kept generally. It was great to be back in the Euro zone as I have had 8 currency changes since leaving Germany to go into Austria. I arrived in Linz, Austria second city, to meet Johannes a lad me and frog met in Antarctica. He brought me for a tour around the city and in this particular place we walked past a wax dummy robot. I could have sworn it was real and I was asked to sit down and talk to him. We chatted away in English and the robot told me he was from Japan. He had moving eyes, hands, facial twitches etc. I could go on but I won’t. We went to city hall after that and Johannes showed me the floor which was an aerial view of the city. The authorities had the whole city photographed and then had it made in a lino and used it as floor covering. It was amazing. It was a lovely evening, so we sat out in the sum and drank a couple of beers before heading up to a Church on the hilltop to look out over the city at night. There was lightening in the distance and we watched the lightening forks but without the rain which we both agreed was great additional entertainment.
29 Aug It was raining today so we decided to go to the cinema to see the new Quentin Tarrantino movie, Glorious Bastards. It was about a team of US mercenaries in WW2 France and Germany there just to kill Nazis. It was a good film but I lost a lot in the translation. That evening we went to a nearby Spa and enjoyed a swim in an indoor and outdoor pool, steam room, Jacuzzi and sauna. It was a lovely relaxing evening and even enjoyed a beer in our nice surroundings.
30 Aug Up and out at 10am and me and Johannes went for a traditional breakfast in a nearby café. It was a lovely sunny morning and we were joined by a friend of his. After that we headed for the hills to his parents place in the mountains. At his village the weekend fair was in full swing and we had Bratwurst while watching the entertainment. After that we headed for a walk up to this high point that looks over a like. The lake forms part of the border between Austria and the Czech Rep and Johannes showed me where the Iron curtain once was. It was a lovely spot. After that I set course for Dachu, a town outside Munich to call to Galway friend of mine, Paul Hanlon, who has an Irish pub there called the ‘Muddy Boot’. My visit was to be a surprise and as I was driving around looking for the place the only man on the street to ask where it was, was Paul. I drove up to him (he was on the phone) and shouted ‘Oi, where’s the Muddy Boot!’ He was talking to his brother on the phone and he couldn’t believe it, he was shouting at his brother ‘You’ll never believe whose just pulled up in a van!’. It was a great laugh. I had a beer and a bite to eat in the pub before he locked up and we headed to his apartment in Munich to stay the night and meet his better half Nadia.
31 Aug That morning I met Paul’s daughter Cara. She is a lovely girl around 3 and spoke German. Nadia speaks to her in German, Paul speaks to her in English and she always replies to Paul in German although she has been spoken to and understands in English. So she understood me but I hadn’t a clue what she was saying.
We all went for a traditional German breakfast this morning of boiled white sausage with mustard. It came in a big bowl of boiling water and we scooped out what we wanted. As I was about to take my first bite I was stopped and told I had to peel the skin off first. As I was doing so, Paul told me the story of the Korean lads he brought here and after a phone call Paul had to go back to the flat for a minute as breakfast had arrived. By the time he got back, the Korean lads had eaten the sausage, the skin and all the hot water. They said they liked the soup but had cramps all day after the sausage. But on this occasion they were very good and no soup.
After breakfast, we went into Munich on the underground. It was a lovely city but very different to what I expected. We walked around the sights and the pedestrianised streets and went into the famous Hofbrauhaus which is a huge refectory style pub with big long bog standard timber benches and tables. We had a typical German dinner of Pork knuckle and potatoes washed down with a litre glass of Bavarian beer. After that we walked around the area that the annual Munich beer festival ‘Oktoberfest’ is being held and it was huge. It must be 10 times the size of the Galway races hospitality area. They weren’t building tents either; they were full on barn sized timber structures. After too much of the amber elixir we headed home to Paul’s for the night.
01 Sep This morning we went to the Olympic park, the setting for the 1972 Olympic Games. It was a fabulous complex with lovely modern buildings, walkways, man made lakes and hills. (The hills were made by the WW2 rubble created in the city and were brought by hand by the residents of Munich as a mark of respect for their dead.) We hung around there for a while and Paul went home early while I stayed on to go across the road to the BMW world at BMW HQ. BMW world is a fabulous set up with all kinds of exhibits including all the new cars, old cars, futuristic cars, racing cars, motorbikes, cars used in movies including the 2 BMWs that Pierce Brosnan used in 2 of his James Bond movies. We got an Indian take away that night, not something I’ve eaten since I was at home. Lovely.
02 Sep After a coffee and croissant breakfast I left Paul, Nadia and Cara and off I went to Stuttgart. A few hours later I arrived and had Mary set for the Mercedes museum. I ended up at one end of Mercedesstrasse (Mercedes street) and needed to get to the other end to the museum, but apparently only staff and deliveries can go that way, everybody else have to detour. To find that out was only half the story. As I had arrived in the van the non English speaking security guard wanted to see my delivery documents and couldn’t understand why this van driver had no documents. I said ‘Museum’ he said ‘what for Museum?’, then I said ‘Tourist’ and opened the van for him to see. Anyway, after the hullabaloo he gave me sign language directions and off I went. Parking a couple of minutes walk from the museum, I walked along the Mercedes plant perimeter and it was like a secret government agency as I couldn’t see in with all the carefully placed landscaping and couldn’t climb in if I wanted to for all the high metal railings. Apparently these companies have huge problems with rival companies spying on them. As I walked past the staff exit they were coming through huge turnstiles with screening and security guards etc. Outside the museum is the other end of Mercedestrasse and has a big roundabout. I thought I was in a Mercedes ad with all sorts of Mercs from every entrance pouring in and out. It was comical to watch and suddenly they became boring to look at. At home I think a lot of people would subconsciously look twice at somebody driving a Mercedes but when it’s all Merc, that changes.
Eventually, I got into the museum and saw the world’s first car. It was 115 years old! Mercedes has a huge motoring history and even had the Pope mobile on display. I spent over 3 hours there but enjoyed the BMW museum a bit more. It was a close call though.
I continued down the autobahn to a town called Baden Baden on the edge of the Black Forest (Schwartzfeld) before pulling into a service station for the night for a meal and a DVD.
03 Sep Up and out around 9am and into Baden Baden. Ironically my father was telling me yesterday how bad the weather was in Ireland and I telling him that the weather was great in Germany only for the heavens to open up today. Baden Baden was a nice town but didn’t offer much other than being the gateway to the Schwartzfeld. The first town I stopped in was called Schiltach, it is a stereo typical German village with cobbled streets and that Swiss/Tudor style look houses but is especially popular as 2 rivers meet there. After that it was onto Triberg, called so as 3 mountains meet there and it’s situated in the valley between them. It’s a famous Cuckoo clock location and shops there had thousands of clocks. The 2 world’s biggest cuckoo clocks are located there, each claiming to be the biggest. The clocks are the size of a house and the cuckoo the size of a swan. After that onto a lakeside town called Titisee, all towns pleasant but nowt too exciting. On then toward Lake Constance on the Swiss/German border stopping 50km shy of it for the night. The place I pulled into was disappointing as it had crap food, no showers or green areas and I had to settle for a giant hotdog with a bread roll with a blob of mustard and ketchup. I ate that and topped up with biscuits and came to the conclusion that I could find a better spot to stop for the night. As I was driving out, around the corner the complex extended to a great spot with buffet restaurant etc. I was full though and full of junk. Feck. I stopped there though for the night.
04 Sept Up and out at 9.30am and had my nights accommodation, shower, breakfast and internet for €6, bargain. I headed off into Constance and it’s a lovely city and the lake being exceptionally so. It wasn’t a particularly good day so after a couple of hours I pushed on to Zurich. A short time later I reached the Swiss border and for the first time I was stopped for a passport check. He went off with the passport and came back a couple of minutes later and told me to pull the van over as they were going to check it. I did that and he told me to wait by the van for his return. He came back with this gun toting lad that had a puss on him like some character I had seen in Shawshank Redemption. He had me open the doors and was surprised to see a camper in the back rather than goods for commercial purposes. He hopped in and started looking at a couple of things and after two closets he abandoned the search and sent me on my way. I arrived in Zurich an hour later and although it was a fine city, I expected it to be nicer. I walked around for a couple of hours (it was cold and wet) and hopped in the van and headed to Lichtenstein. Lichtenstein is the 6th smallest country in the world measuring 12km X 35km and Vaduz is the capital. It’s more like a town the size of Loughrea but very well presented. I walked around for a bit before heading back into Austria towards Innsbruck. I crossed over the Austrian border, stopped by the very pleasant border control momentarily and pulled in a few miles up the road for the night.
05 Sept Up and out early at 8am en route to Innsbruck, Austria. It’s a nice small city nestled amongst the Alps, a place I had flown in to a few times skiing but never getting the chance to look around. On then to a small town called Berchesgaden, just inside the German border. It was the location of Hitler’s Bunker and nearby summer residence, ‘The Eagles nest’ or ‘Kehlsteinhaus’. The bunker was a barren old concrete thing but was very high tech and had dozens of rooms. It had clean air systems for gas attack, fresh water and huge reserves of food, wine, tobacco and chocolate. In its hey day was very luxurious and akin to a luxury hotel foyer, they say. It was looted after the war and huge local pressure convinced the occupying yanks not to blow it up. They also wanted to blow up the Eagles nest, Hitler’s summer home nearby. It is accessed by a 6.4km road uphill onto the mountain top (1650 metres above sea level), just below the summer snow line. It’s so high up your can see Salzburg from it. It was an amazing feat of engineering to build it and was a gift to Hitler from the Nazi party for his 50th Birthday in 1938. He entertained local and foreign dignitaries there and I’m sure they were very impressed by it and how the hell they built it so high up. All part of the ‘superior ability of the Germans’ image they wanted to convey to the world.
Off then to Linz to stay a night with Johannes. Fair play to him, he got more than he bargained for with me but still brought me out that night to see a festival and fireworks display that was going on. He also downloaded the full series of ‘Only fools and horses’ for me which was 5 DVDs. That will keep me entertained until I get home for sure.
28 Aug Up and out at 8am, into Tesco for the breakfast and off I went. I got to Cesky about 10am and it’s a lovely quaint little place set on a bend in the river. It’s got little narrow cobbled streets amongst its old buildings. I had a walk around the town and its castle and at 11.15 I was in the van on my way to Austria. I went via a little town called Cesky Budejovice where the original Budweiser beers comes from and only interrupted by a snooze was in Austria an hour later. As I entered Austria, the difference in wealth was striking with better houses, smoother roads, better kept generally. It was great to be back in the Euro zone as I have had 8 currency changes since leaving Germany to go into Austria. I arrived in Linz, Austria second city, to meet Johannes a lad me and frog met in Antarctica. He brought me for a tour around the city and in this particular place we walked past a wax dummy robot. I could have sworn it was real and I was asked to sit down and talk to him. We chatted away in English and the robot told me he was from Japan. He had moving eyes, hands, facial twitches etc. I could go on but I won’t. We went to city hall after that and Johannes showed me the floor which was an aerial view of the city. The authorities had the whole city photographed and then had it made in a lino and used it as floor covering. It was amazing. It was a lovely evening, so we sat out in the sum and drank a couple of beers before heading up to a Church on the hilltop to look out over the city at night. There was lightening in the distance and we watched the lightening forks but without the rain which we both agreed was great additional entertainment.
29 Aug It was raining today so we decided to go to the cinema to see the new Quentin Tarrantino movie, Glorious Bastards. It was about a team of US mercenaries in WW2 France and Germany there just to kill Nazis. It was a good film but I lost a lot in the translation. That evening we went to a nearby Spa and enjoyed a swim in an indoor and outdoor pool, steam room, Jacuzzi and sauna. It was a lovely relaxing evening and even enjoyed a beer in our nice surroundings.
30 Aug Up and out at 10am and me and Johannes went for a traditional breakfast in a nearby café. It was a lovely sunny morning and we were joined by a friend of his. After that we headed for the hills to his parents place in the mountains. At his village the weekend fair was in full swing and we had Bratwurst while watching the entertainment. After that we headed for a walk up to this high point that looks over a like. The lake forms part of the border between Austria and the Czech Rep and Johannes showed me where the Iron curtain once was. It was a lovely spot. After that I set course for Dachu, a town outside Munich to call to Galway friend of mine, Paul Hanlon, who has an Irish pub there called the ‘Muddy Boot’. My visit was to be a surprise and as I was driving around looking for the place the only man on the street to ask where it was, was Paul. I drove up to him (he was on the phone) and shouted ‘Oi, where’s the Muddy Boot!’ He was talking to his brother on the phone and he couldn’t believe it, he was shouting at his brother ‘You’ll never believe whose just pulled up in a van!’. It was a great laugh. I had a beer and a bite to eat in the pub before he locked up and we headed to his apartment in Munich to stay the night and meet his better half Nadia.
31 Aug That morning I met Paul’s daughter Cara. She is a lovely girl around 3 and spoke German. Nadia speaks to her in German, Paul speaks to her in English and she always replies to Paul in German although she has been spoken to and understands in English. So she understood me but I hadn’t a clue what she was saying.
We all went for a traditional German breakfast this morning of boiled white sausage with mustard. It came in a big bowl of boiling water and we scooped out what we wanted. As I was about to take my first bite I was stopped and told I had to peel the skin off first. As I was doing so, Paul told me the story of the Korean lads he brought here and after a phone call Paul had to go back to the flat for a minute as breakfast had arrived. By the time he got back, the Korean lads had eaten the sausage, the skin and all the hot water. They said they liked the soup but had cramps all day after the sausage. But on this occasion they were very good and no soup.
After breakfast, we went into Munich on the underground. It was a lovely city but very different to what I expected. We walked around the sights and the pedestrianised streets and went into the famous Hofbrauhaus which is a huge refectory style pub with big long bog standard timber benches and tables. We had a typical German dinner of Pork knuckle and potatoes washed down with a litre glass of Bavarian beer. After that we walked around the area that the annual Munich beer festival ‘Oktoberfest’ is being held and it was huge. It must be 10 times the size of the Galway races hospitality area. They weren’t building tents either; they were full on barn sized timber structures. After too much of the amber elixir we headed home to Paul’s for the night.
01 Sep This morning we went to the Olympic park, the setting for the 1972 Olympic Games. It was a fabulous complex with lovely modern buildings, walkways, man made lakes and hills. (The hills were made by the WW2 rubble created in the city and were brought by hand by the residents of Munich as a mark of respect for their dead.) We hung around there for a while and Paul went home early while I stayed on to go across the road to the BMW world at BMW HQ. BMW world is a fabulous set up with all kinds of exhibits including all the new cars, old cars, futuristic cars, racing cars, motorbikes, cars used in movies including the 2 BMWs that Pierce Brosnan used in 2 of his James Bond movies. We got an Indian take away that night, not something I’ve eaten since I was at home. Lovely.
02 Sep After a coffee and croissant breakfast I left Paul, Nadia and Cara and off I went to Stuttgart. A few hours later I arrived and had Mary set for the Mercedes museum. I ended up at one end of Mercedesstrasse (Mercedes street) and needed to get to the other end to the museum, but apparently only staff and deliveries can go that way, everybody else have to detour. To find that out was only half the story. As I had arrived in the van the non English speaking security guard wanted to see my delivery documents and couldn’t understand why this van driver had no documents. I said ‘Museum’ he said ‘what for Museum?’, then I said ‘Tourist’ and opened the van for him to see. Anyway, after the hullabaloo he gave me sign language directions and off I went. Parking a couple of minutes walk from the museum, I walked along the Mercedes plant perimeter and it was like a secret government agency as I couldn’t see in with all the carefully placed landscaping and couldn’t climb in if I wanted to for all the high metal railings. Apparently these companies have huge problems with rival companies spying on them. As I walked past the staff exit they were coming through huge turnstiles with screening and security guards etc. Outside the museum is the other end of Mercedestrasse and has a big roundabout. I thought I was in a Mercedes ad with all sorts of Mercs from every entrance pouring in and out. It was comical to watch and suddenly they became boring to look at. At home I think a lot of people would subconsciously look twice at somebody driving a Mercedes but when it’s all Merc, that changes.
Eventually, I got into the museum and saw the world’s first car. It was 115 years old! Mercedes has a huge motoring history and even had the Pope mobile on display. I spent over 3 hours there but enjoyed the BMW museum a bit more. It was a close call though.
I continued down the autobahn to a town called Baden Baden on the edge of the Black Forest (Schwartzfeld) before pulling into a service station for the night for a meal and a DVD.
03 Sep Up and out around 9am and into Baden Baden. Ironically my father was telling me yesterday how bad the weather was in Ireland and I telling him that the weather was great in Germany only for the heavens to open up today. Baden Baden was a nice town but didn’t offer much other than being the gateway to the Schwartzfeld. The first town I stopped in was called Schiltach, it is a stereo typical German village with cobbled streets and that Swiss/Tudor style look houses but is especially popular as 2 rivers meet there. After that it was onto Triberg, called so as 3 mountains meet there and it’s situated in the valley between them. It’s a famous Cuckoo clock location and shops there had thousands of clocks. The 2 world’s biggest cuckoo clocks are located there, each claiming to be the biggest. The clocks are the size of a house and the cuckoo the size of a swan. After that onto a lakeside town called Titisee, all towns pleasant but nowt too exciting. On then toward Lake Constance on the Swiss/German border stopping 50km shy of it for the night. The place I pulled into was disappointing as it had crap food, no showers or green areas and I had to settle for a giant hotdog with a bread roll with a blob of mustard and ketchup. I ate that and topped up with biscuits and came to the conclusion that I could find a better spot to stop for the night. As I was driving out, around the corner the complex extended to a great spot with buffet restaurant etc. I was full though and full of junk. Feck. I stopped there though for the night.
04 Sept Up and out at 9.30am and had my nights accommodation, shower, breakfast and internet for €6, bargain. I headed off into Constance and it’s a lovely city and the lake being exceptionally so. It wasn’t a particularly good day so after a couple of hours I pushed on to Zurich. A short time later I reached the Swiss border and for the first time I was stopped for a passport check. He went off with the passport and came back a couple of minutes later and told me to pull the van over as they were going to check it. I did that and he told me to wait by the van for his return. He came back with this gun toting lad that had a puss on him like some character I had seen in Shawshank Redemption. He had me open the doors and was surprised to see a camper in the back rather than goods for commercial purposes. He hopped in and started looking at a couple of things and after two closets he abandoned the search and sent me on my way. I arrived in Zurich an hour later and although it was a fine city, I expected it to be nicer. I walked around for a couple of hours (it was cold and wet) and hopped in the van and headed to Lichtenstein. Lichtenstein is the 6th smallest country in the world measuring 12km X 35km and Vaduz is the capital. It’s more like a town the size of Loughrea but very well presented. I walked around for a bit before heading back into Austria towards Innsbruck. I crossed over the Austrian border, stopped by the very pleasant border control momentarily and pulled in a few miles up the road for the night.
05 Sept Up and out early at 8am en route to Innsbruck, Austria. It’s a nice small city nestled amongst the Alps, a place I had flown in to a few times skiing but never getting the chance to look around. On then to a small town called Berchesgaden, just inside the German border. It was the location of Hitler’s Bunker and nearby summer residence, ‘The Eagles nest’ or ‘Kehlsteinhaus’. The bunker was a barren old concrete thing but was very high tech and had dozens of rooms. It had clean air systems for gas attack, fresh water and huge reserves of food, wine, tobacco and chocolate. In its hey day was very luxurious and akin to a luxury hotel foyer, they say. It was looted after the war and huge local pressure convinced the occupying yanks not to blow it up. They also wanted to blow up the Eagles nest, Hitler’s summer home nearby. It is accessed by a 6.4km road uphill onto the mountain top (1650 metres above sea level), just below the summer snow line. It’s so high up your can see Salzburg from it. It was an amazing feat of engineering to build it and was a gift to Hitler from the Nazi party for his 50th Birthday in 1938. He entertained local and foreign dignitaries there and I’m sure they were very impressed by it and how the hell they built it so high up. All part of the ‘superior ability of the Germans’ image they wanted to convey to the world.
Off then to Linz to stay a night with Johannes. Fair play to him, he got more than he bargained for with me but still brought me out that night to see a festival and fireworks display that was going on. He also downloaded the full series of ‘Only fools and horses’ for me which was 5 DVDs. That will keep me entertained until I get home for sure.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Helsinki to Riga, Vilnius, Warsaw and the rest of Poland.
Helsinki to Riga, Vilnius, Warsaw and the rest of Poland.
19th Aug Laura had an early start today so, so did I. Up and out at 7.15am and after saying my good-byes made the 15 minute drive to the ferry terminal. I was 3 hours early for check in so I climbed in the back and slept for a couple of them. At 2pm I arrived in Tallinn and headed straight for the road south to Latvia. Laura had told me that the Latvian roads were bad and they certainly were not as good as Finland, but judging by all the ‘sponsored by the EU’ signs along all the newly paved roads, I was quite sure the roads have improved of late. Estonia seems like a nice country, for the bit that I saw, with lots of little villages and sprawling farms and forests. A few hours later I crossed over the Latvian border and past the old passport control checkpoints, rotting away and roads full of weeds. I’m sure their passing into history are mourned by no one. The EU has been good to these countries with a real lift very evident. Latvia is a less well off country than Estonia with obvious but subtle differences, however Latvia is lovely too. The road from the border to Riga is along the Baltic Sea and although much of the sea views are blocked by trees, many of the road side stops have access onto the beach. I stopped at a couple and there were miles of deserted beach. I’m sure if Dad were with me, he’d be in like Flynn for a swim. I finally arrived in Riga and called to the hostel. I decided to stay there and went off to park the van. Big Eastern European cities have a reputation for break-ins into foreign registered cars so I found a secure underground car-park. After checking into the hostel I went into the restaurant next door and had a lovely dinner for €5. That evening I went for a walk around the town and on first impressions seems like a larger version of Tallinn.
20th Aug Slept in today until about 10am and was on the streets by midday for a look around. I visited the ‘Museum of Occupation of Latvia by the Soviet Union’ today, which was also visited by Mary McAleese, Queen Elizabeth, Laura Bush and others. It was a good display and those guys had a hard time under Stalin and later regimes up until 1991. I visited a war museum, walked through the park, the streets, by the canal and the river. It’s a nice city but I’m ready to move on tomorrow.
21st Aug Left Riga today bound for a small town called Sigulda. It’s an hour west of Riga and is best known for its castles and outdoor adventure pursuits. It has a bobsleigh track and a nice river which the guys that rent the kayaks will drive you upriver and release you to paddle down river and back to base. Unfortunately for me they do not allow lone paddlers and as there was nobody else going at the time, so that was knocked on the head. I went to the bobsleigh track, parked at the bottom and walked up to the start. The track was closed for the day for maintenance so didn’t get to do that either. At that point I decided to push south and make way for Lithuania via a village called Pilsrundale. At this tiny place there is a massive palace designed by the great Baroque era architect Bartolomeo Rastelli who also designed the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, yawn. I had a nice dinner there for €6 and walked around the outside before 6 pm closing time and had to leave. Close to the Lithuanian border, I decided to continue on across the border and similar to Latvia a big checkpoint setup and nobody there. As I intended to stay the night at Sigulda and didn’t expect to be as far on as I was. My hostel in Vilnius (capital of Lithuania) was booked for tomorrow night and now I was with a 150 km of it. I stopped in a couple for places but didn’t like them too much but finally stopped at this rest area, watched a video and slept for 10 hours.
22nd Aug Up and out about 10am and hit the road for Vilnius. I arrived in the hostel early that afternoon and had a look around town. I must have broken a world record for the amount of churches I’ve been in and out of and this place added to that. It’s a lovely old world place but despite the massive restoration projects underway there is still lots of fabulous buildings crumbling away due to years of Soviet era neglect.
23rd Aug Up around 10am this morning and decided to leave Vilnius but not before doing the much hyped ‘Free walking tour’ of the more unusual sights at midday. Although it’s free, for tax or regulation reasons or whatever, one is expected to tip at the end if they thought it was any good. Around 10.30am I went down the town to get some breakfast and decided on this particular place. It was nice and sunny Sunday morning and I took a seat outside and waited. A while later a waiter appeared, plopped the menu on the table with a grunt and was gone. I flicked through it, decided on some gourmet pancake thing and awaited his return. 10 minutes later he came back and I told him what I wanted. He looked at me and said ‘Breakfass finiss in the 11am’. I could have thrown the menu at him; I was sitting at his restaurant like a green horn since 10.50am. He leaned over the menu, impatiently flicked the pages to the Lunch menu and prodded his finger down on the page and stood up straight again. I vigorously flicked the pages to the end, closed the menu with a prod of my finger and handed it back to him with the delicacy of a Lithuanian Lada. I stood up slowly and with 2 Americans grinning widely at the next table, I strolled off with my pride full and my belly empty. After a quick visit to a convenience store and a sandwich and cappuccino later I was waiting at the steps of the town hall for this tour. There were 10 others waiting and at 12.15pm it was obvious that whatever gobsheen that was doing the tour had no intention of showing up (despite the poster advertising it as being on 7 days per week). Deciding at that point that it was time to point the van in the direction of Poland, off I went. It wasn’t too long before I was close to the Polish border and I pulled into a petrol station and exchanged all my Lithuanian coins and notes for that exact amount of diesel. It was a pre-pay station so I had to go to the counter and pay for the amount I wanted and back out to the pumps and it would dispense that amount in fuel. When I plopped all my coins on the counter it was like a scene from a bar in a Wild West movie with copper coins spinning and rolling this way and that. I parked on the opposite side of their forecourt, had a quick bite to eat and went for a snooze in the back. Two hours later, I was on the road again crossed through an obstacle course of a border into Poland. It was early Sunday evening and the traffic was mental. The Poles are lunatic drivers passing out cars in a solid line of traffic, squeezing in where there isn’t space, risking their lives and others to save about 20 seconds, maybe it was because it was a Sunday evening. Hunger was creeping in and dead quiet rural eateries are usually not a good idea so passing through this town I spotted a McDonalds and succumbed to its temptation. It was the busiest McDs Id ever been in with people squabbling over table and Q’s out the door. I pronounced the Polish ‘Big Mc Meal’ in my best accent and yer wan hadn’t a clue what I was saying. Bored Que’rs were watching and listening in and I felt the eyes of the world were on me. Abandoning my efforts to use the language, I pointed at pictures etc and got what I wanted. Driving along through the countryside anyway, Mary my Sat Nav was telling me that I would be arriving in downtown Warsaw in less than 20 mins. All there was around me were single carriageway roads, farms and redneck kids. It dawned on me that the clock was an hour earlier in Poland and in fact Warsaw was 1hr 20 mins away. That suited me fine as I didn’t want to arrive in Warsaw until the following morning. I pulled into a service station / truck-stop for the night and parked in amongst the trucks. I started writing up my blog for the night when I noticed a dog sitting in front of the line of trucks. As time went by I observed him sniffing and growling at anybody that walked near the Lorries but not the truck drivers themselves. He seemed to know the difference. I reckoned he was a stray and etched himself purpose and a living doing what he was doing as the drivers were giving him scraps and bit and pieces. Was lovely to see.
24th Aug Up and out at 10am and off to Warsaw rejoining the mental traffic made worse by road works, probably one of the short term downsides of EU infrastructural money. An hour or so later I arrived in the old town of Warsaw, and it’s absolutely beautiful. There are so many fantastic buildings I just wandered with my mouth open. All is not how it seems however as Warsaw was flattened during WW2 and all their old period buildings have been 90% rebuilt to their original design since the mid 80’s. It took me totally by surprise and would definitely recommend it as a weekend destination. Armed with all the tourist info I saw a lot of the city and by the evening I felt I’d seen a lot of what was on offer. That night I went down the town again to soak up the night atmosphere and have dinner. As I walked around I was listening to all the busker musicians playing the best classical music I heard anywhere. The famous composer Chopin was from Warsaw and perhaps he has inspired future generations of musicians. There were lots of beggars too and one person I gave money to was an elderly chap Id say in his mid eighties. He was dressed in his best suit, a grubby former soviet design with a really skinny tie and leaning heavily on his stick. He shuffled his weight from one leg to another and was standing there for ages. He was comforted the classical music being played nearby and I watched him with his little plastic container subtly at his front and not being shoved in anybody’s face. He wasn’t collecting much, in fact there was nothing in his container and had got nothing in the 15 mins I was watching him. His toothless mouth hung open as he watched the 3 busking violinists through his thick glasses and I felt so sorry for him. What was his life like? At that age having to beg and obviously not comfortable with it or used to it. He was trying his best to look respectable but at the same time if you didn’t look closely you would think he was just standing there. He should be with family, watching TV or in bed. I had a lump in my throat as I observed him. I tried to work out what he would make in an evening and maybe through a donation I could encourage him to go home early. I know there are worse cases in the world but it must be frightening at that age not knowing what will happen to you the day you can’t get out of bed to beg.
25th Aug I slept in the van outside the hostel last night. The hostel was really busy and they used my reservation which was fine as sleeping in big smelly dorms are less attractive than having the camper to myself. I woke at 6.30am and was on the road for 7. The morning traffic was getting busy leaving Warsaw but didn’t really let up all day. The Polish roads, drivers and volumes on the roads are ridiculous, I’ll be glad to put them behind me. I drove from 7am until 2pm today and arrived in Krakow in Southern Poland. When I arrived, Mary my Sat. Nav. some how directed me down the main tourist Pedestrian street and was so embarrassing all the tourists looking at me and having to get out of the way. I swung round the first left I came across before the local constabulary caught up with me. It’s a fabulous little city with lots of old buildings, castles and pedestrianised streets. One of the churches I went into had 2 doors, one signed for worshipers and one signed for tourists. There was a charge for tourists and free for worshippers so Naturally I was a worshipper. I was walking in a few steps behind these American girls and the security guard stopped them and told them to go to the tourist entrance. He then took a look at me and I started blessing myself as I walked by him whilst spouting in a subtle but loud enough; In Nomine, Patris et filee et Spiritous Santi. He let me pass.
Krakow was the setting for the film Schindlers list and I walked around the Jewish quarter where the Nazis rounded up the local Jewish population and exterminated them in the nearby concentration camps Auschwitz and Birkenau. The place is still be repopulated and still has the decay from WW2. I met an Australian lad in the hostel that Id met in Vilnius and Warsaw and he’s joining me on a trip to Auschwitz tomorrow. We went out for dinner and drinks this evening and enjoyed his cop stories (Aussie Police officer in Sydney).
26 Aug Up and out of Krakow with Casey, the Australian lad, and on our way to the concentration camps Auschwitz and Birkenau.. We got there about 90 mins later and went to Birkenau first. It was a horrifying place built entirely for the storage and extermination of Jews, Gypsies, Russian POWs, resistance fighters, gays and the mentally ill. The complex was huge and housed over 100,000 people at its peak in barn size timber bungalows. All the houses were built with a concrete base and chimney and that’s all that remains of the bungalows now except for a few that have been rebuilt for exhibition purposes. We saw the gas chambers, miles of barbed wire and the conveyer belt system of the mass murder of over 1.5m Jews. We stayed a couple of hours and went off to Auschwitz, 3km away. Auschwitz had a visitors centre and after lunch there we took a look around. Auschwitz was a concentration camp for workers in the nearby factories. They were overworked and underfed and once they started to fade they were sent to Birkenau for extermination. Funnily enough Auschwitz as a camp was a pleasant enough place on the surface. It was an ex Polish Military base and had nice grounds, mature trees and pretty red brick buildings. However, underneath the horror of the place beggared belief. Live human medical experiments, hangings, executions, lethal injections, brutal interrogations not to mention the mountains of human hair, spectacles, adult and childrens shoes, suitcases, hairbrushes etc. Inmates died from disease, hunger, exhaustion, lunacy and terror. It was great to see but at the same time shocking to know that it was perpetrated by a fellow EU member only 65 years ago.
Later in the afternoon, I bid farewell to Casey (he went back to Krakow on the bus) and I set Mary bond for Prague. I crossed the Czech border about an hour later. I though the border was further along than it was and had not spent all my Polish Zlotys (Slutties as I called them to many a raised brow) so after crossing the border swung around and back into Poland to the nearest service station and did my diesel routine. Back to the Czech republic and as it was getting dark found a service station with a truck stop and pulled in for the night. I filled up with Diesel and bought a Bohemia Beer ( apparently the best beer region in the world) paid it all with visa as I had no Czech money and drank that before bed.
19th Aug Laura had an early start today so, so did I. Up and out at 7.15am and after saying my good-byes made the 15 minute drive to the ferry terminal. I was 3 hours early for check in so I climbed in the back and slept for a couple of them. At 2pm I arrived in Tallinn and headed straight for the road south to Latvia. Laura had told me that the Latvian roads were bad and they certainly were not as good as Finland, but judging by all the ‘sponsored by the EU’ signs along all the newly paved roads, I was quite sure the roads have improved of late. Estonia seems like a nice country, for the bit that I saw, with lots of little villages and sprawling farms and forests. A few hours later I crossed over the Latvian border and past the old passport control checkpoints, rotting away and roads full of weeds. I’m sure their passing into history are mourned by no one. The EU has been good to these countries with a real lift very evident. Latvia is a less well off country than Estonia with obvious but subtle differences, however Latvia is lovely too. The road from the border to Riga is along the Baltic Sea and although much of the sea views are blocked by trees, many of the road side stops have access onto the beach. I stopped at a couple and there were miles of deserted beach. I’m sure if Dad were with me, he’d be in like Flynn for a swim. I finally arrived in Riga and called to the hostel. I decided to stay there and went off to park the van. Big Eastern European cities have a reputation for break-ins into foreign registered cars so I found a secure underground car-park. After checking into the hostel I went into the restaurant next door and had a lovely dinner for €5. That evening I went for a walk around the town and on first impressions seems like a larger version of Tallinn.
20th Aug Slept in today until about 10am and was on the streets by midday for a look around. I visited the ‘Museum of Occupation of Latvia by the Soviet Union’ today, which was also visited by Mary McAleese, Queen Elizabeth, Laura Bush and others. It was a good display and those guys had a hard time under Stalin and later regimes up until 1991. I visited a war museum, walked through the park, the streets, by the canal and the river. It’s a nice city but I’m ready to move on tomorrow.
21st Aug Left Riga today bound for a small town called Sigulda. It’s an hour west of Riga and is best known for its castles and outdoor adventure pursuits. It has a bobsleigh track and a nice river which the guys that rent the kayaks will drive you upriver and release you to paddle down river and back to base. Unfortunately for me they do not allow lone paddlers and as there was nobody else going at the time, so that was knocked on the head. I went to the bobsleigh track, parked at the bottom and walked up to the start. The track was closed for the day for maintenance so didn’t get to do that either. At that point I decided to push south and make way for Lithuania via a village called Pilsrundale. At this tiny place there is a massive palace designed by the great Baroque era architect Bartolomeo Rastelli who also designed the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, yawn. I had a nice dinner there for €6 and walked around the outside before 6 pm closing time and had to leave. Close to the Lithuanian border, I decided to continue on across the border and similar to Latvia a big checkpoint setup and nobody there. As I intended to stay the night at Sigulda and didn’t expect to be as far on as I was. My hostel in Vilnius (capital of Lithuania) was booked for tomorrow night and now I was with a 150 km of it. I stopped in a couple for places but didn’t like them too much but finally stopped at this rest area, watched a video and slept for 10 hours.
22nd Aug Up and out about 10am and hit the road for Vilnius. I arrived in the hostel early that afternoon and had a look around town. I must have broken a world record for the amount of churches I’ve been in and out of and this place added to that. It’s a lovely old world place but despite the massive restoration projects underway there is still lots of fabulous buildings crumbling away due to years of Soviet era neglect.
23rd Aug Up around 10am this morning and decided to leave Vilnius but not before doing the much hyped ‘Free walking tour’ of the more unusual sights at midday. Although it’s free, for tax or regulation reasons or whatever, one is expected to tip at the end if they thought it was any good. Around 10.30am I went down the town to get some breakfast and decided on this particular place. It was nice and sunny Sunday morning and I took a seat outside and waited. A while later a waiter appeared, plopped the menu on the table with a grunt and was gone. I flicked through it, decided on some gourmet pancake thing and awaited his return. 10 minutes later he came back and I told him what I wanted. He looked at me and said ‘Breakfass finiss in the 11am’. I could have thrown the menu at him; I was sitting at his restaurant like a green horn since 10.50am. He leaned over the menu, impatiently flicked the pages to the Lunch menu and prodded his finger down on the page and stood up straight again. I vigorously flicked the pages to the end, closed the menu with a prod of my finger and handed it back to him with the delicacy of a Lithuanian Lada. I stood up slowly and with 2 Americans grinning widely at the next table, I strolled off with my pride full and my belly empty. After a quick visit to a convenience store and a sandwich and cappuccino later I was waiting at the steps of the town hall for this tour. There were 10 others waiting and at 12.15pm it was obvious that whatever gobsheen that was doing the tour had no intention of showing up (despite the poster advertising it as being on 7 days per week). Deciding at that point that it was time to point the van in the direction of Poland, off I went. It wasn’t too long before I was close to the Polish border and I pulled into a petrol station and exchanged all my Lithuanian coins and notes for that exact amount of diesel. It was a pre-pay station so I had to go to the counter and pay for the amount I wanted and back out to the pumps and it would dispense that amount in fuel. When I plopped all my coins on the counter it was like a scene from a bar in a Wild West movie with copper coins spinning and rolling this way and that. I parked on the opposite side of their forecourt, had a quick bite to eat and went for a snooze in the back. Two hours later, I was on the road again crossed through an obstacle course of a border into Poland. It was early Sunday evening and the traffic was mental. The Poles are lunatic drivers passing out cars in a solid line of traffic, squeezing in where there isn’t space, risking their lives and others to save about 20 seconds, maybe it was because it was a Sunday evening. Hunger was creeping in and dead quiet rural eateries are usually not a good idea so passing through this town I spotted a McDonalds and succumbed to its temptation. It was the busiest McDs Id ever been in with people squabbling over table and Q’s out the door. I pronounced the Polish ‘Big Mc Meal’ in my best accent and yer wan hadn’t a clue what I was saying. Bored Que’rs were watching and listening in and I felt the eyes of the world were on me. Abandoning my efforts to use the language, I pointed at pictures etc and got what I wanted. Driving along through the countryside anyway, Mary my Sat Nav was telling me that I would be arriving in downtown Warsaw in less than 20 mins. All there was around me were single carriageway roads, farms and redneck kids. It dawned on me that the clock was an hour earlier in Poland and in fact Warsaw was 1hr 20 mins away. That suited me fine as I didn’t want to arrive in Warsaw until the following morning. I pulled into a service station / truck-stop for the night and parked in amongst the trucks. I started writing up my blog for the night when I noticed a dog sitting in front of the line of trucks. As time went by I observed him sniffing and growling at anybody that walked near the Lorries but not the truck drivers themselves. He seemed to know the difference. I reckoned he was a stray and etched himself purpose and a living doing what he was doing as the drivers were giving him scraps and bit and pieces. Was lovely to see.
24th Aug Up and out at 10am and off to Warsaw rejoining the mental traffic made worse by road works, probably one of the short term downsides of EU infrastructural money. An hour or so later I arrived in the old town of Warsaw, and it’s absolutely beautiful. There are so many fantastic buildings I just wandered with my mouth open. All is not how it seems however as Warsaw was flattened during WW2 and all their old period buildings have been 90% rebuilt to their original design since the mid 80’s. It took me totally by surprise and would definitely recommend it as a weekend destination. Armed with all the tourist info I saw a lot of the city and by the evening I felt I’d seen a lot of what was on offer. That night I went down the town again to soak up the night atmosphere and have dinner. As I walked around I was listening to all the busker musicians playing the best classical music I heard anywhere. The famous composer Chopin was from Warsaw and perhaps he has inspired future generations of musicians. There were lots of beggars too and one person I gave money to was an elderly chap Id say in his mid eighties. He was dressed in his best suit, a grubby former soviet design with a really skinny tie and leaning heavily on his stick. He shuffled his weight from one leg to another and was standing there for ages. He was comforted the classical music being played nearby and I watched him with his little plastic container subtly at his front and not being shoved in anybody’s face. He wasn’t collecting much, in fact there was nothing in his container and had got nothing in the 15 mins I was watching him. His toothless mouth hung open as he watched the 3 busking violinists through his thick glasses and I felt so sorry for him. What was his life like? At that age having to beg and obviously not comfortable with it or used to it. He was trying his best to look respectable but at the same time if you didn’t look closely you would think he was just standing there. He should be with family, watching TV or in bed. I had a lump in my throat as I observed him. I tried to work out what he would make in an evening and maybe through a donation I could encourage him to go home early. I know there are worse cases in the world but it must be frightening at that age not knowing what will happen to you the day you can’t get out of bed to beg.
25th Aug I slept in the van outside the hostel last night. The hostel was really busy and they used my reservation which was fine as sleeping in big smelly dorms are less attractive than having the camper to myself. I woke at 6.30am and was on the road for 7. The morning traffic was getting busy leaving Warsaw but didn’t really let up all day. The Polish roads, drivers and volumes on the roads are ridiculous, I’ll be glad to put them behind me. I drove from 7am until 2pm today and arrived in Krakow in Southern Poland. When I arrived, Mary my Sat. Nav. some how directed me down the main tourist Pedestrian street and was so embarrassing all the tourists looking at me and having to get out of the way. I swung round the first left I came across before the local constabulary caught up with me. It’s a fabulous little city with lots of old buildings, castles and pedestrianised streets. One of the churches I went into had 2 doors, one signed for worshipers and one signed for tourists. There was a charge for tourists and free for worshippers so Naturally I was a worshipper. I was walking in a few steps behind these American girls and the security guard stopped them and told them to go to the tourist entrance. He then took a look at me and I started blessing myself as I walked by him whilst spouting in a subtle but loud enough; In Nomine, Patris et filee et Spiritous Santi. He let me pass.
Krakow was the setting for the film Schindlers list and I walked around the Jewish quarter where the Nazis rounded up the local Jewish population and exterminated them in the nearby concentration camps Auschwitz and Birkenau. The place is still be repopulated and still has the decay from WW2. I met an Australian lad in the hostel that Id met in Vilnius and Warsaw and he’s joining me on a trip to Auschwitz tomorrow. We went out for dinner and drinks this evening and enjoyed his cop stories (Aussie Police officer in Sydney).
26 Aug Up and out of Krakow with Casey, the Australian lad, and on our way to the concentration camps Auschwitz and Birkenau.. We got there about 90 mins later and went to Birkenau first. It was a horrifying place built entirely for the storage and extermination of Jews, Gypsies, Russian POWs, resistance fighters, gays and the mentally ill. The complex was huge and housed over 100,000 people at its peak in barn size timber bungalows. All the houses were built with a concrete base and chimney and that’s all that remains of the bungalows now except for a few that have been rebuilt for exhibition purposes. We saw the gas chambers, miles of barbed wire and the conveyer belt system of the mass murder of over 1.5m Jews. We stayed a couple of hours and went off to Auschwitz, 3km away. Auschwitz had a visitors centre and after lunch there we took a look around. Auschwitz was a concentration camp for workers in the nearby factories. They were overworked and underfed and once they started to fade they were sent to Birkenau for extermination. Funnily enough Auschwitz as a camp was a pleasant enough place on the surface. It was an ex Polish Military base and had nice grounds, mature trees and pretty red brick buildings. However, underneath the horror of the place beggared belief. Live human medical experiments, hangings, executions, lethal injections, brutal interrogations not to mention the mountains of human hair, spectacles, adult and childrens shoes, suitcases, hairbrushes etc. Inmates died from disease, hunger, exhaustion, lunacy and terror. It was great to see but at the same time shocking to know that it was perpetrated by a fellow EU member only 65 years ago.
Later in the afternoon, I bid farewell to Casey (he went back to Krakow on the bus) and I set Mary bond for Prague. I crossed the Czech border about an hour later. I though the border was further along than it was and had not spent all my Polish Zlotys (Slutties as I called them to many a raised brow) so after crossing the border swung around and back into Poland to the nearest service station and did my diesel routine. Back to the Czech republic and as it was getting dark found a service station with a truck stop and pulled in for the night. I filled up with Diesel and bought a Bohemia Beer ( apparently the best beer region in the world) paid it all with visa as I had no Czech money and drank that before bed.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
(Part 2) Copenhagen to Tallinn, Estonia via Sweden, Norway & Finland.
Aug 12th Up and out this morning at 7.30am and on the road at 9. It is getting considerably cooler but makes sleeping at night much more comfortable. The clock moved forward an hour today when we crossed the Finnish border so it was actually 10am when we got away today. We made our way 70km north to a town called Rovanemei. This is the gateway to the Artic circle and the Santa Claus village, 8km from the town. After a brief visit to the tourist office, we were on our way to see Santa. The Santa Claus village is very commercialised and comprises of a grotto building with restaurant and gift shop, a post office selling all kinds of Christmassy items and Santa’s office where it is free in but one needs to pay €19 to have your photo taken with him (fake beard incl. in the price). All the other things are shops and not a reindeer in sight. One good gimmick though was a letter from Santa sent on the first week of Christmas to a child of your choice whereby Santa mentions talking to the recipient. This cost €6 for each letter and we did it for the 4 grandchildren. Of most interest to us however was the Artic circle. Above the Artic circle at least one day in the year will be in total darkness for 24 hours and one day in the year will have 24 hours of continuous daylight. After that we decided to meander our way 800km south to Helsinki. That evening along the way we stopped at a place with a few trucks and a closed café. We made our dinner and found a sink around the back which we started using. We were cleaning pots etc and making a little racket when this Finnish guy appeared and started giving out to us for being on his private property. We apologised and said we didn’t realise but he kept huffing and puffing. We wrapped up operations fairly lively and moved on to another part of the car park.
Aug 13th Up and out at 7.30am and on the road at 8.15 after a quick shave and brushing of teeth. We decided not to hang around as we didn’t feel too welcome by our host. We drove an hour down the road and pulled into a rest area for breakfast. At this point Dad was starting to feel tired (and perhaps a bit homesick) with life on the road and we decided to take a direct route to Helsinki and not bother with the smaller towns and cities. He said he had seen enough and may change his flight and go home a bit early. We drove to Helsinki and pulled into the main international airport en-route. The cost to change was in excess of €150 so he decided to stay on. We went on to hotels.com and found a last minute bargain at the Crowne Plaza in central Helsinki at €94 per night discounted from €264. At €47 per night each, we checked in for 5 nights. It was a fabulous hotel and we even got two €21 buffet breakfasts each thrown in as the curtain were broken in our room and nobody was available to fix them until the following day. That evening we went into downtown Helsinki for dinner and a walk around. It appears to be a lovely city and will look forward to seeing more of it tomorrow.
Aug 14th We went down for our complimentary breakfast at 9am this morning and boy what a spread. We could have anything imaginable and dad even had porridge with honey and milk. 2 loaded bellies later we went downtown again and got on the ‘Hop on Hop off’ bus for an introductory sight seeing tour of the city. The tour wasn’t great but we got off at the 1952 Olympic stadium and had a look around. It’s still a major sporting and concert venue today and was a superb design for its time. We climbed to the top of its observation tower for a view over the city. We saw a few other sights and after the tour we went to the ferry terminal to book our tickets for a day trip to Tallinn in Estonia. That evening we went into town for a Chinese, where Dad saw a sauce on the table and helped himself to a spoonful. It was chilli and his tongue was out half a mile. He was oohing and ahhing, whoo-ing and jingoes-ing and feck me-ing for over 20 minutes. It was hilarious.
Aug 15th Up and out at 8am for another breakfast and out the door onto the 4T tram to take us to the ferry. We were on the ferry and on the way to Tallinn an hour later. The views of Helsinki harbour were lovely and are littered with islands in the bay. The journey passed quick enough and 2 hours 30 mins later we were there. We walked into town and quickly realised that it’s a magical little place with street vendors all dressed up in their traditional dress selling their wares. Tallinn is a walled city and all the streets within the wall are cobbled with nice little shops, bars, cafes and restaurants everywhere. We went into churches, museums a restaurant and even into the Irish embassy for a look but did not go in. After an afternoon looking around we made our way back to the ferry. We had dinner onboard and were back in Helsinki before we knew it. On the tram back to the city centre from the ferry terminal it was jam packed with ferry passengers. Dad hobbled on with his stick and this young girl of about 7, accompanied by her grandmother, got up and offered dad her seat. Initially he refused but she offered again and he took it. He smiled at her and thanked her. Delighted with her gesture dad reached into his bag and pulled out a big roll of smarties with Pooh bear on top and gave it to her. Initially intended for Beabhin, the girl was delighted with her unexpected windfall. She or her grandmother spoke no English so we think they were Estonians. The grandmother showed no emotion, no smile, no thanks, no nothing. Perhaps she was wary but I feel it was more of a cultural thing of many years under Russian occupation and suspicion. Anyway, the kid was happy and gave Dad a big wave from the platform when she got off. I think it made Dads day.
Aug 16th No posh breakfast for us today so we helped ourselves to the complimentary coffee and biscuits in the lobby before heading off to Mass. Dad needed his religious top up so with the help of Google and Google Earth I found a Catholic church along the tram line. We were just on time for 11am mass totally in Finnish. At 12.05pm dad gave me the nod to leave as Mass was still going and he had enough religious credit notched up at that stage. Back on the tram into town and had a lovely brunch in the food court in the Forum shopping centre. As we arrived in the food court, Dad went over to this Turkish lad at a kebab stand and asked in his PJ Flaherty accent ‘Have you Porridge?’ Of course the guy spoke good English hadn’t an idea what he said. I explained he meant oatmeal and the guy grinned. We finally settled on having food that was actually sold there. After that we were on the tram again to the bike rental shop and €15 later we were on pedal power for the rest of the day. I must admit I was reluctant to cycle around all day but once I was going I was delighted. We cycled all around the harbour area, through the city and the parks and more or less all on dedicated cycle lanes. It such a shame this is not more widely available in Ireland. One stop was the Sibelius monument, which was impressive. Sibelius was a famous Finnish composer, whom id never heard of but once I heard the music I recognised it straight away. After 4 hours on the bikes we gave them back and went back to the hotel for a swim in the leisure centre. The night was rounded off by a visit to our Chinese restaurant for a feed of barbequed pork and 2 pints of beers. We watched Uncle Buck’ on the laptop before nodding off for the night.
Aug 17th Dad made his porridge this morning using the kettle in the room and oatmeal he soaked overnight. He was delighted with the results and had his little bottle of Soya milk stashed away in the mini bar fridge. After complimentary coffee and biscuits in the lobby we went downtown to do the laundry. I had two sleeping bags, pillow cases, towel, blanket and all my own laundry to do (a fortnights worth). The launderette used the huge washing machine and a smaller one to do it all. It all came to €28 which I thought was a bit pricey, but was happy to have it done. During the day we went on a tour of the parliament and dad was a great student asking all the questions and even took the tour guide aside afterwards to correct him on his pronunciation. Down to the laundry to collect our stuff, and off to an Indian restaurant for our lunch. In the afternoon we visited an amazing church (Temppeliaukio church) which was built in the late 1960’s. It was built into an old quarry and looks like a flying saucer from the outside than a house of god. Check it out on Google images using:http://images.google.ie/images?hl=en&q=temppeliaukio+church&gbv=2&aq=f&oq=
We then went down to the park on dads request to listen to some music and sat in to listen to a Finnish/Swedish folk band. Dad fell asleep and when he woke up suggested that we go as it was ‘Tripe-ailte’. We meandered our way home through the park before getting to our hotel where we relaxed for a while before going for our evening dip at the hotel leisure centre. Dinner was at our Chinese restaurant again which delighted our waiter and he was all chat, not much of which we understood.
Aug 18th We checked out this morning as it was time for Dad to go home and me to continue on my travels to Eastern Europe. We headed off to the airport about 10.30am in the van with all our bag and baggage on board. We spent a total of 6 days in Helsinki and did justice to such a lovely city. We saw most things worth seeing and had a laugh doing it. We had a great time combining a bit of wildness, adventure, sacrifice and a good dollop of luxury at the end. The holiday was a time of many firsts for me and Dad. We went on our first lads holiday, spent 2 weeks together without other family members, our first day long chats about this and that, and we drunk our first, second and third pints together on this trip too. The occasion will be more significant on retrospect than anything in particular that we did on the trip. No regrets having done the trip with my father, it was excellent. I think of many of my friends who fathers have died, who dads wouldn’t go even if they could and ones that just can’t. They would give their left arms for the chance. For that I am grateful.
After dropping off dad, I made my way back to the hotel to resume my free parking for another few hours. There were parking attendants putting tickets on the cars that were illegally parked. They didn’t put a ticket on mine the whole 6 days. Maybe it was because of the Irish reg or maybe it was the Crowne Plaza card I had in the windscreen, I don’t know and I didn’t ask. I booked my ticket for the ferry to Tallinn tomorrow morning and bought a bottle of wine for my host tonight. I will stay with a Finnish girl, Laura that I met in Laos. You may recall in a previous entry the girl who was sitting on a packed Laotian bus beside a bus driver that was looking at her more than the road. The seat was an uncomfortable one and I offered her my seat. She was most appreciative. So that’s where Im spending my last night in Finland.
Aug 13th Up and out at 7.30am and on the road at 8.15 after a quick shave and brushing of teeth. We decided not to hang around as we didn’t feel too welcome by our host. We drove an hour down the road and pulled into a rest area for breakfast. At this point Dad was starting to feel tired (and perhaps a bit homesick) with life on the road and we decided to take a direct route to Helsinki and not bother with the smaller towns and cities. He said he had seen enough and may change his flight and go home a bit early. We drove to Helsinki and pulled into the main international airport en-route. The cost to change was in excess of €150 so he decided to stay on. We went on to hotels.com and found a last minute bargain at the Crowne Plaza in central Helsinki at €94 per night discounted from €264. At €47 per night each, we checked in for 5 nights. It was a fabulous hotel and we even got two €21 buffet breakfasts each thrown in as the curtain were broken in our room and nobody was available to fix them until the following day. That evening we went into downtown Helsinki for dinner and a walk around. It appears to be a lovely city and will look forward to seeing more of it tomorrow.
Aug 14th We went down for our complimentary breakfast at 9am this morning and boy what a spread. We could have anything imaginable and dad even had porridge with honey and milk. 2 loaded bellies later we went downtown again and got on the ‘Hop on Hop off’ bus for an introductory sight seeing tour of the city. The tour wasn’t great but we got off at the 1952 Olympic stadium and had a look around. It’s still a major sporting and concert venue today and was a superb design for its time. We climbed to the top of its observation tower for a view over the city. We saw a few other sights and after the tour we went to the ferry terminal to book our tickets for a day trip to Tallinn in Estonia. That evening we went into town for a Chinese, where Dad saw a sauce on the table and helped himself to a spoonful. It was chilli and his tongue was out half a mile. He was oohing and ahhing, whoo-ing and jingoes-ing and feck me-ing for over 20 minutes. It was hilarious.
Aug 15th Up and out at 8am for another breakfast and out the door onto the 4T tram to take us to the ferry. We were on the ferry and on the way to Tallinn an hour later. The views of Helsinki harbour were lovely and are littered with islands in the bay. The journey passed quick enough and 2 hours 30 mins later we were there. We walked into town and quickly realised that it’s a magical little place with street vendors all dressed up in their traditional dress selling their wares. Tallinn is a walled city and all the streets within the wall are cobbled with nice little shops, bars, cafes and restaurants everywhere. We went into churches, museums a restaurant and even into the Irish embassy for a look but did not go in. After an afternoon looking around we made our way back to the ferry. We had dinner onboard and were back in Helsinki before we knew it. On the tram back to the city centre from the ferry terminal it was jam packed with ferry passengers. Dad hobbled on with his stick and this young girl of about 7, accompanied by her grandmother, got up and offered dad her seat. Initially he refused but she offered again and he took it. He smiled at her and thanked her. Delighted with her gesture dad reached into his bag and pulled out a big roll of smarties with Pooh bear on top and gave it to her. Initially intended for Beabhin, the girl was delighted with her unexpected windfall. She or her grandmother spoke no English so we think they were Estonians. The grandmother showed no emotion, no smile, no thanks, no nothing. Perhaps she was wary but I feel it was more of a cultural thing of many years under Russian occupation and suspicion. Anyway, the kid was happy and gave Dad a big wave from the platform when she got off. I think it made Dads day.
Aug 16th No posh breakfast for us today so we helped ourselves to the complimentary coffee and biscuits in the lobby before heading off to Mass. Dad needed his religious top up so with the help of Google and Google Earth I found a Catholic church along the tram line. We were just on time for 11am mass totally in Finnish. At 12.05pm dad gave me the nod to leave as Mass was still going and he had enough religious credit notched up at that stage. Back on the tram into town and had a lovely brunch in the food court in the Forum shopping centre. As we arrived in the food court, Dad went over to this Turkish lad at a kebab stand and asked in his PJ Flaherty accent ‘Have you Porridge?’ Of course the guy spoke good English hadn’t an idea what he said. I explained he meant oatmeal and the guy grinned. We finally settled on having food that was actually sold there. After that we were on the tram again to the bike rental shop and €15 later we were on pedal power for the rest of the day. I must admit I was reluctant to cycle around all day but once I was going I was delighted. We cycled all around the harbour area, through the city and the parks and more or less all on dedicated cycle lanes. It such a shame this is not more widely available in Ireland. One stop was the Sibelius monument, which was impressive. Sibelius was a famous Finnish composer, whom id never heard of but once I heard the music I recognised it straight away. After 4 hours on the bikes we gave them back and went back to the hotel for a swim in the leisure centre. The night was rounded off by a visit to our Chinese restaurant for a feed of barbequed pork and 2 pints of beers. We watched Uncle Buck’ on the laptop before nodding off for the night.
Aug 17th Dad made his porridge this morning using the kettle in the room and oatmeal he soaked overnight. He was delighted with the results and had his little bottle of Soya milk stashed away in the mini bar fridge. After complimentary coffee and biscuits in the lobby we went downtown to do the laundry. I had two sleeping bags, pillow cases, towel, blanket and all my own laundry to do (a fortnights worth). The launderette used the huge washing machine and a smaller one to do it all. It all came to €28 which I thought was a bit pricey, but was happy to have it done. During the day we went on a tour of the parliament and dad was a great student asking all the questions and even took the tour guide aside afterwards to correct him on his pronunciation. Down to the laundry to collect our stuff, and off to an Indian restaurant for our lunch. In the afternoon we visited an amazing church (Temppeliaukio church) which was built in the late 1960’s. It was built into an old quarry and looks like a flying saucer from the outside than a house of god. Check it out on Google images using:http://images.google.ie/images?hl=en&q=temppeliaukio+church&gbv=2&aq=f&oq=
We then went down to the park on dads request to listen to some music and sat in to listen to a Finnish/Swedish folk band. Dad fell asleep and when he woke up suggested that we go as it was ‘Tripe-ailte’. We meandered our way home through the park before getting to our hotel where we relaxed for a while before going for our evening dip at the hotel leisure centre. Dinner was at our Chinese restaurant again which delighted our waiter and he was all chat, not much of which we understood.
Aug 18th We checked out this morning as it was time for Dad to go home and me to continue on my travels to Eastern Europe. We headed off to the airport about 10.30am in the van with all our bag and baggage on board. We spent a total of 6 days in Helsinki and did justice to such a lovely city. We saw most things worth seeing and had a laugh doing it. We had a great time combining a bit of wildness, adventure, sacrifice and a good dollop of luxury at the end. The holiday was a time of many firsts for me and Dad. We went on our first lads holiday, spent 2 weeks together without other family members, our first day long chats about this and that, and we drunk our first, second and third pints together on this trip too. The occasion will be more significant on retrospect than anything in particular that we did on the trip. No regrets having done the trip with my father, it was excellent. I think of many of my friends who fathers have died, who dads wouldn’t go even if they could and ones that just can’t. They would give their left arms for the chance. For that I am grateful.
After dropping off dad, I made my way back to the hotel to resume my free parking for another few hours. There were parking attendants putting tickets on the cars that were illegally parked. They didn’t put a ticket on mine the whole 6 days. Maybe it was because of the Irish reg or maybe it was the Crowne Plaza card I had in the windscreen, I don’t know and I didn’t ask. I booked my ticket for the ferry to Tallinn tomorrow morning and bought a bottle of wine for my host tonight. I will stay with a Finnish girl, Laura that I met in Laos. You may recall in a previous entry the girl who was sitting on a packed Laotian bus beside a bus driver that was looking at her more than the road. The seat was an uncomfortable one and I offered her my seat. She was most appreciative. So that’s where Im spending my last night in Finland.
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