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.