Vilnius to Budapest

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Mileage: ~3000 miles

We spent our afternoon in Vilnius wandering around. We traveled to Uzupis, a section of the city which has declared its indipendance from Lithuania (though not taken too seriously). The small town is famed for its relaxed bohemian lifestyle - walking through we saw a harpist and singer performing on a footbridge, an artist with his house-come-gallery freely open to the public and the 'constitution' of 41 rights, including the right to own a cat! The town's peaceful and laid back way of life was fascinating and difficult to part from.

We left Vilnius later than planned, heading towards Prague and camped the evening in Augustow (again!) Not having made it as far as hoped, we made an adjustment to our plans, opting to head South for Budapest, rather than breezing through Prague without really doing the city justice. This afforded us the chance to catch up a little on our vague itinerary and spend a full day in Budapest when we got there. The next morning, a Polish driver tapped on our window and told us that we'd just lost our numberplate a mile or so back. After failing to find it, and on the advice of the garage we'd hoped would print us a new one, we turned ourselves in to the (non-english-speaking) Polish police. After a telephone conversation with a translator who alarming told us we'd need to visit our embassy over the issue, a senior policeman walked past and asked us to explain the situation to which he replied: "so whats the problem?". We drove on, through Warsaw and into the Czech Republic, where we spent the night.

Driving through the Czech Republic was beautiful - winding roads through densely foliaged mountains on a clear, warm day. Unfortunately, the car had been gradually losing power, a problem that we have been unable to resolve as yet, but on advice continued with into Hungary. Unfortunately, congestion just outside of Budapest forced us to camp a ways out of Budapest itself at an Aquapark of all places!

We caught a train into Budapest itself where after an hour's walk along the Danube, we had a quick meal at a restaurant and Matt and Lucy paid a visit to the baths while I sat in a nearby park.

We head tomorrow to Romania where Matt has a fun activities planned for us. Stay tuned.

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