Hungary 12/06 - 14/06

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We returned to the garage that fixed our water pump in the morning and they printed us off a diagram of the additional work that needed doing on the car. We thanked them for helping us out and decided to call in at IKEA before beginning our journey to Hungary. Just as we were pulling into the car park we heard a new strange noise that the car was making. Jack looked out his wing mirror and “oh fuck, the wheel!”. Char jumped out to find the back left wheel on a very scary angle with only one bolt in! We carefully and slowly moved the car inches further into a space and thanked our lucky stars it hadn’t fallen off going down the motorway. Chars dad thought the garage must not have tightened the nuts back after checking the car, needless to say they denied this. With new bolts and our lives intact we hot footed it away from Vienna. We headed for a place called Sapron in Hungary and found a lovely spot to stay that night in a national park. We were still a bit shaken after the loose wheel incident and so called Jacks mum for some over the phone cuddles and gossip from home. Sapron seemed a nice enough place and we got a recommendation for a garage we could use but neither of us fancied hanging around here for more than one day and so we decided we would continue on to find a garage. The weather was terrible too so we went to the pub and then to bed.







13/06

We drove onto lake Kesseley which he’d heard was a great place to have a swim and relax. Not for us though as yet again it was raining! It was a blessing in disguise though as we needed to sort out Dobby. Luck was on our side as we drove into the town and we could see an actual fiat garage - happy days. We went in and explained all of the palava we had been through via google translate as the man helping us tried his best. It turned out they had a slot free for the following afternoon so booked in. That left us with 24 hours to kill. We paid for a place to stay that night to charge up Dobby’s leisure battery and actually have a warm shower for yet another treat. We also managed to work out how to make an awning/shade shelter with a shower curtain, commandeered sticks from a nearby tree and magnets (it worked better than it sounds!)



14/06

We awoke to another overcast morning and with Dobby going into the garage that afternoon we spent a hectic morning trying to find a way to contact the NZ imbeciles (Bank) to try and find out where our money was. We spent 4 frustrating hours going to a library, then a phone box, then on hold to a mobile network that royally messed up our data plan trying to find a way to call them to try and talk to a human being. We ended up arranging for them to call us (again) that evening to explain (again) what was going on. By this time it was time to get the van into the garage. We dropped him in and needed a treat, we followed our smell and found a pizzeria! After half anhour or so we trotted back to the garage, with our pizza in hand, praying and hoping that we were in for some good news and that it wasn’t going to bust the bank - it was even better news than we’d hoped for! Turns out the garage in Vienna did the usual mechanics thing and lie. The problem was not nearly as serious as first thought and even said that it doesn’t need to be done immediately. They recommended that we carry on with our trip and if we wanted to get the work done on our way back to the UK we could do it with them. What was even more astonishing was that they quoted us a third of the price that the Viennese garage did! We were full of smiles and thanks for these guys and it was safe to say that we were cursing the Austrian wankers who tried to fleece us.



After a shitty day of ups and downs we needed some fresh air and to stretch our legs. We drove to our sleeping spot that night and walked all round a lake which had a sailing club, horse jumps and a cycling track. Not many people were out whilst we were there except for a few joggers. We blew out the cobwebs then sat and had a few beers before trying to get some sleep. Unfortunately the car park we had chosen was busier at night than it had been in the evening. Fisherman and stupid lads were continually driving round shining their headlights into Dobby so it was a broken nights sleep. We did have some good news this night though as the imbeciles finally called us! Turns out that they were holding our money for “unusual activity and fraud” as we had transferred all of our money overseas. This seemed a logical reason for imbeciles I suppose, as we had explained fully our intentions of doing just that before we left in order to avoid this exact situation. Money in the floor boards it is then!

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