Europe trip 2010 - extended

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This is the extended version of http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Bulgaria/Varna-Province/Varna/blog-531481.html.

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The travel was planned differently, but there was some trouble at the Serbian border so we changed the route, and now, later on I must admit that the fortune was on our side, since we could see the most amazing things just because we took a different route. We even accidentely ended up in Turkey (which for sure was never planned 😉


Latvia
When we started the travel it was kinda rainy and cold and we didnt believe that our car could really take this travel and already had an emergency plan made up what to do when it suddenly dies in the middle of a lonely road. However it did not happen, after the Europe travel it worked for much more time after some pimping.

Poland
In Warzawa we had our first real stop and in the heat of 38°C we checked out the old city, stuffed our face with icecream, walked through the Ghetto and went on. It was kind of hard to get out of the city,
Crow church,PolandCrow church,Poland
Crow church,Poland
since our navigator stopped working and we didnt have a Europe map. Well prepared huh?

Hungary
We arrived in Budapest by night and stayed in a house nearby the town, I thought the town was absolutely romantic and very beautiful, there is something in the air, some kind of old strange man playing a song of Paul Anka on his old broken guitar. By day it was still very interesting, but the 38°C kept the enthusiasm low. It all looked so much better by cool night. We also noticed that the handbreaks of our car tore..Hm. How good that we went to the very top of Budapest to have a better view! After some nice Gulash in front of the Parliament we went on driving to Belgrad, Serbia, so we thought..

Serbia
We entered the border and after about 50m we had to turn around and leave the country due to silly Visa complications. So what now? We planned to go down to Greece via Serbia and now this road is closed. Well we decided to buy a Europe map after all (thank god) and saw; Hey we can have a small detour over Romania. What do we
Warzawa, PolandWarzawa, Poland
Warzawa, Poland
know about Romania? Hmmm, there are gypsies, the Carpathians and Draculas castle. Well lets go for it!

Romania
To our very surprise, Romania turned out as one of the most interesting countries on our way. The nature so goddamn beautiful and the people so goddamn nice for what reason? Doesnt look like they have much money or education, the houses and roads broken, everything so cheap and so many beggars. But they were. Never seen so many happy people welcoming strangers in a such warm way. Also many stray dogs, puppies left alone in the bushes, dog gangs walking along the roads, many dogs that left their lives by the roads.. Which aint a surprise, the way they jump out of nowhere in front of cars going 90 km/hr. We managed to full stop every time, but others didnt.
By night we arrived Bran, where the castle of Dracula is situated and without getting bitten we went all through the Carpathians to Bucharest. The city looks like it just got bombed yesterday, all full of dust, rusty metal and stray dogs.
We thought now that we are here, its not that far to the Black Sea..There we arrived by
Budapest, HungaryBudapest, Hungary
Budapest, Hungary
night and it welcomed us with warm but dark water. We stayed at some posh hotel for 20Euro / room with an amazing view of the sea.

Bulgaria
The roads were terrible, we really thought our wheels would fall off the car since we were falling in a hole every 5 m and sometimes couldnt drive faster than 20km/hr because of the terrible condition of the street. We drove along the coast of the Black Sea and its lonely shore without monsterhotels or huge parklots. There were no big streets down to the sea, so we took the risk and drove along a tiny street which lead us directly to a huge coastline with wild horses on it. The waves would suck you in if you go in too deep and there were seashells everywhere. During our stay there an old old man with 2 donkeys went down the hill, packed in some sand and left again. No cars, no hotels, no civilisation. No screams, no parfume smell, no lights, only waves sand and horses.
That evening we stayed in the cheapest hotel so far, 18 Euro / room, which was huge with a balcony and a view on
Budapest, HungaryBudapest, Hungary
Budapest, Hungary
the sea.
In the hotel we were pondering about our way to Greece and we decided; Hey its only 100 km to Turkey...Well why the hell not.

Turkey
We bought the Visa and the car insurance at the border and went to Istanbul. No problems at all. We thought we would see the sign "Istanbul center" just like in every country and get to the center, but we were in the middle of a megacity, on a 6 line highway with a crazy traffic but that sign wouldnt come. So we drove off the highway to ask the Turkish, and a Bulgarian girl told us laughing that the center of Istanbul is in 30 km and not here. But this looked to me a LOT like a megacity, 6 line highway with cars, mopeds, donkeys on it and a never ending HUGE city with children, mopeds, cars, people and everybody making sounds. Well nope, its only a small suburb, not worth mentioning. Okay, so we ended up in the center of Istanbul later after all and took a hotel just next to Sultanahmat for only 30 Euro/room.
We arrived just at the time of Muezzin calling for praying, which
strange castle in Budapest, Hungarystrange castle in Budapest, Hungary
strange castle in Budapest, Hungary
I heard live for the very first time. And actually..It wasnt that bad. I always thought it would be annoying, really unmelodic and too loud. But it was rather interesting with a strange melody, but yeah, loud.
Istanbul was a collision of two worlds, our western free world and the islamic highly religious world. However both worlds coexisted next to each other, and until the very late night there were all kinds of people and ethnics on the streets singing, drinking, talking, walking and laughing. Of some you could only see the eyes, the others would barely cover their hips.
During the day the city turned out even louder, everyone trying to sell some crap to you, especially at the Grand Bazaar. Not too cheap but full of gold and jewellery. The university of Istanbul was the only calm place in a green park, full with cats. I've never seen so many cats as in Istanbul, in the night you can see flashing eyes everywhere, there is a cat behind every tree, under every car, in every trash bin and the Turkish seem to like them. Since they all look well fed.
But as exotic as it was, we had
Bran, RomaniaBran, Romania
Bran, RomaniaGraf Draculas infamous castle
a long way in front of us, and so we went on to Greece.

Greece
In Greece all hotels were so goddamn expensive, so we slept at the beach like hobos. A strange but interesting experience, the sound of waves, the light of the moon and salty air..
Thessaloniki turned out pretty crap. Nothing really worth seeing. So before we left Greece we thought we couldn't go without having seen the Olymp and so we drove to the Olymp. And once there, why not drive it all the way up. And once on the mountain, why not climbing it!!!It was Zeus himself who turned the wheels of our car (called Muffin) and led us to this place. Since Serbia and Montenegro was closed for us, we went all the way around to get back to the plan, to Bosnia.


Bosnia
37 Euro for car insurance???Mama mia! But it was worth it. No city was as interesting as strange and occult as Sarajevo. The smell of burned wood, weird smoke over old wooden roofs, bullet holes in old old walls. A single church and many many mosques with a market, kind of light Istanbul Bazaar in the middle,
mmm...Romanian homemade cheesemmm...Romanian homemade cheese
mmm...Romanian homemade cheese
where you could buy anything that was made out of wood or plates. Without doubt, there was a strange aura, some kind of wicked ambience covering the city in smoke, the city which was the womb of many wars. On a hill above the city an old forgotten cemetery lay next to a military cemetery of the Jugoslawian war and although the sun was shining down, the aura of this place was still black. But above all, it was this smell of burning wood that gave Sarajevo this strange atmosphere.
Out of Sarajevo we drove along a river, that was so blue and clean we thought it couldnt be a river. You could see fish and serpents from 100m above. The nature was astonishing and if I had opened my mouth back then out of amazement, I wouldnt have closed it til now.

Croatia
In Croatia I jumped into the sea right after split because it was so goddamn hot again. Snorkeling, eating delicious food and walking in old Croatian cities by the sea, a very relaxing time. It's definitely worth driving along the coast of Croatia, its not very touristics (mostly) and the sea is very clean with
Lonely shore, BulgariaLonely shore, Bulgaria
Lonely shore, Bulgaria
funny looking fish.

Italy
Before arriving in Venice, we had to sleep in the car since the hotels turned really expensive. Unlike I heard Venice didnt stink and it wasnt dirty! It was of course so touristic it could have drowned, but I liked it. Later on we arrived in Ravenna and accidently ran into Dante Alighieri's tomb and although we searched for the Tomb of Theodorico, we only found it 3 hours later.

San Marino
A small country on top of a hill with a very beautiful view on Rimini and the sea. The city itself nothing really special and full of Russians, which got on our nerves. But the view is indeed worth it.

Back to Italy

Our further way lead us through L'Aquila where we slept in the due to lack of any (cheap) hotels. In the morning we observed the destroyed town of L'Aquila and this wasnt one happy sight..All buildings broken, many completely demolished, no stores open and keys hanging everywhere..It seems Italy has forgotten its earthquake victim.
While approaching Neapel, we kinda noticed that the traffic isnt exactly what we are used to..Slowly but confident like tanks the cars
Lonely shore, BulgariaLonely shore, Bulgaria
Lonely shore, Bulgaria
drove whereever they wanted, pushing each other aside and scratching each others doors out. Ouch!
Not our muffin though. With a lot of skills we moved through the army of carscratchers and silly things selling criminals without stopping anywhere, not for other cars, not for the red lights. Without a single scratch but with a half heart attack we arrived in Neapel, facing criminals on every step trying to steal everything, almost tearing our clothes down from our bodies. After half an hour we had enough and left to Pompei. We really wanted to see the ruins, but the they were closed. So we wandered around..til we found an open door. That led us right in the center of the ruins. 😊
Pompei was impressing, a pretty big city, untouched by anything for centuries, only the Vesuvius. The sight of the buried by ashes people was of course the most impressing and a bit shocking sight.
Enough of the region of Napples, up we go again!
Rome was so goddamn full of piligrims that we could hardly move and although we planned to spend the night in Rome we left it cause we just got so sick of millions of
Lonely horse, BulgariaLonely horse, Bulgaria
Lonely horse, Bulgaria
kinds with their silly tshirts all looking the same and walking the elephants. But the touristic attractions wouldnt stop! We drove to do the Tuscany trip, Siena, Florence and Pisa. And Im not a big fan of Tuscany (yeah yeah the art and shit, I know, but I mean the countryside) and there was really nothing to be fan of. Florence overcrowded but artistic as usual, Sienna really struck out. A huge white cathedral with a mirror (!) on top! Why would you put a mirror on your cathedral? I know the answer now, cos it looks so goddamn fantastic! The sky was blue and those few white clouds looked like pillars of white light, while the blue sky looked like water. Thank god the sun didnt shine right into the mirror, otherwise we'd all go blind 😉


France

In Nice I found the best snorkeling place ever, it was at a rather wild beach where you wouldnt see many people, at first I thought the water was shit and not clear but when I swam to the side I found a place that looked like an underwater paradise with a lot of different fish of all
Istanbul by night, TurkeyIstanbul by night, Turkey
Istanbul by night, Turkey
sizes, and underwater grass of all forms and sizes. Unfortunately it was also a nudist beach..So it was : fish fish ass fish fish fish stones ass stones fish crabs ass.
But except for the water, France wasnt very interesting of welcoming. So we were out of it.
Monaco left a dull impression as well, full of humongous ugly futuristic hotels, villas and stupid restaurants.
We're sooooooooo out of here!
In the Pyrenees I first started to like France (well it was almost Spain anyway) but the landscape turned intersting and everyone spoke Catalan, although it was still France. But yeah, who wants to speak French anyway.

Andorra
The surprise of the day was the gas! 1,06 Euro?No way!!Andorra the country was very beautiful, although it scared the shit out of us with its crazy curvy streets (dont forget out handbrakes dont work) and white cows. Andorra la Vella, the capital was a dissapointment though. It was like a huge shopping mall, there was nothing there but shops shops shops. And thin air.

Spain
Finally a country where we could spend some relaxing time. The prices not over the top and perfect snorkeling places, what else do you
typical Turkey photo, eh?typical Turkey photo, eh?
typical Turkey photo, eh?
want to rest (I thought this was kind of vacation after all??). Although we didnt rest that much, instead we went checking out old spanish cities, wild shores and tried to speak Spanish. It even kinda worked. But as a future Spanish student I probably really embarrassed myself. Finally after all this driving and walking and running and searching we had some chill out time swimming and eating well. Next stop Granada. Oh it was just terrible. It was the hottest day of our whole travel; around 45°C. Mama mia! And we wanted to go all the way to Alhambra??Well screw it!Im going back to jump into the sea and I wont get out before the sun goes down, was my only thought, and we did accordingly.

Gibraltar
While we waited because the street was closed, an airplane crossed our way. Like in Hollywood movies, but reality. The airport crossed the highway, interesting logistics!On the rock we were attacked by apes, that jumped into our car and tried to steel my underwears. They didnt succeed with us, but the attack on a small girl was pretty successful, since they tore the bag out of her hands and she ran
Sultanahmat, IstanbulSultanahmat, Istanbul
Sultanahmat, Istanbul
away crying. What a bad upbringing! There were 2 ape families that were at war with eachother, so they were kicking, biting and pushing eachother. So if you go to Gibraltar, dont take plastic bags with you, close the windows of your car and dont touch the apes. They dont really like it , I tried it and I had to run away from a raging ape.
The view was terrific, you could see the very top of Africa in the fog and Spain up to La Linea.

Back in Spain
It was incredibly hot while we were in Jerez in Sevilla. Later on we saw on the news that just 1 day after we left there were terrible floods in Sevilla/Malaga/Granada/Cordoba and that there were many people who drowned. Fortuna seemed to be on our side once again, since we left just 1 day before the floods.

Portugal
Right after we crossed the border we saw a small Tornado on a parking lot of a supermarket. Wasnt too big, but looked like from a real movie. The Atlantic coast was pretty cold and it had huge waves and many mountains at the shores. All in all a
The Grand Bazar, IstanbulThe Grand Bazar, Istanbul
The Grand Bazar, Istanbul
beautiful view and perfect for surfers, but not if you want to snorkel because of big waves.
Lissabon centre has only one way streets so its really hard to get where you want. You just move all around the place but you can never go RIGHT or LEFT just straight. Argh! You could never tell that you're in the centre though cos there is just nothing special in there. No extraordinary sights or anything. But the charme of Lissabon aint in its sights but in the life there.
Porto was exactly how I imagined cities in Portugal, kind of old with a lot of houses in 1 line, everything dusty but vivid life on the streets.

Back in Spain once again!(Northern Spain)
By chance we ended up on the Camino de Santiago and drove all the way to Santiago, a really crowded piligrim city with an enormous cathedral.
Galicia was so green and beautiful, its a completely different view than south of Spain. The waves are huge and the coasts arent too crowdy, not too many huge hotels and fantastic views. Most cities weren't too impressing, Santander, Bilbao and so on were interesting, maybe it was us who were
in front of the Blue Mosque, Istanbulin front of the Blue Mosque, Istanbul
in front of the Blue Mosque, Istanbul
saturated with sights, but nothing would impress us much anymore. So along the Atlantic coast we drove to Berlin via France, which was so dull that it's not worth mentioning here.

Germany
After a few days in Berlin we moved towards the north to Schwerin, a rather small Northern German city with a huge castle and a cute typically german centre. During our stay there it rained. Gah. Welcome back to Germany.
The coast of the Eastern Sea was completely full with Jellyfish, from small up to 20cm big ones, but not poisonous ones. I tried to reanimate them and throw them back to the sea, but apparently they were suicidal since they kept swimming out again.

Holland
In the middle of the night after 1000 closed roads due to rain we finally arrived at our destination Purmerend near Amsterdam where we stayed at our friends place who even persuaded us to stay 3 days instead of 2 to see "The Expendables". Finally some relaxing after these months of travelling, puuh. The Northern Sea was all cold and windy, I even had sand in my ears 2 days later. So after some good relaxing with friends we moved
The blue mosque, IstanbulThe blue mosque, Istanbul
The blue mosque, Istanbul
on to our last destination.

Belgium
We couldnt find the Brussels city center and we ended up in the Arabic quarter. Everything was written in Lebanese, Iranian or Turkish and there wasnt a single Belgian on the streets. We thought we were pretty far from the center, but actually we were just almost there. It looked kind of like Istanbul and then after the next corner, there wasnt a single arabic store but only banks and business buildings. Unfortunately it started raining again so we couldnt see the whole center, but after seeing fairly enough we thought that its finally time to go home. You can't see all sights in the world anyway.


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So this is the journeys end, a lot of things seen and experienced and an important recognition, that the countries that had the most interesting and amazing landscapes and cities werent the Western ones. The people who were most satisfied,helpful and openminded were often not the Western ones either. So if you want to go on holidays, think about the "new" European countries, it doesnt have to be Italy or France all the time. In fact Italy and France were the big
dissapointments of the journey. Rich in culture, but often poor in mind.

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