#lastminutemolnars

Since leaving Northern Romania it has become more and more difficult to find places to stay with the campervan. This means, that over the past eight nights we have spent five in hotels or Airbnbs.

Two of these were spent in an absolutely beautiful town called Sibiu, our first stop in the Transylvania county. Here we ate some delicious traditional Romanian food, drank some Romanian wines and enjoyed the charming little town.

Above and below: Wine tasting at the Sibiu beer festival (Octoberfest, Sibiu styles)

A cool thing about Sibiu is that the roofs have ‘eyes.’ The effect is so striking that on reading about it we found paranoid people often panic whilst walking through the streets.

Our drive then took us on the tourist route through the medieval and very colourful towns of Sighisoara (the birthplace of Dracula), Viscri and Bran (the home of Dracula).  

Throughout this route we experienced what people say when they comment on how bad the roads are in Romania! Pot holes, missing sections of roads, hidden dips, bumpy, being stuck behind animals of all sorts, insanely narrow streets…  they have it all! A 50km drive could take you two hours due to the road conditions.

Above: Every town in Romania you drive through has a fancy church. 

Below: Annual meat and cheese festival in Bran welcoming the sheep herdsmen down from the mountains at the end of Summer.  

Above: the garlic lady to keep away the Vampires!!!

Below: deep fried goodness 

From Bran we semi-backtracked (standard) in order to drive down a road named the Transfagarasan which, according to top gear, is one of the world's best road trips. Andre thought we were driving up a race track, while I had to continually urge him to slow down because we definitely were not!!! The drive took us the most of the day but it was definitely worth it.

Take-away from Romania: We were both super fascinated to see animals (horses, sheep and cows) roaming the paddocks with no fences. Rather, each mini herd has a man who lives with his animals and makes sure they stay together under his watch.

We crossed the border into Bulgaria and went to Belogradchik where they have these bizarrely shaped rock formations, some reaching 200 metres high!

As it was Andre’s birthday, we went for a nice dinner where the owner was so hospitable giving us a free bottle of wine (because we were his first Aussie customers), free desserts and he even let us park the campervan and sleep in the backyard of the restaurant for free!  

Above: photo shows how the communist era in Bulgaria is still fresh in their minds

Below: Roasting chickens in a tent on the side of the road

The remaining three nights not in the campervan were spent in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. We really enjoyed Sofia. There are heaps of new and modern restaurants with a strong focus on healthy / clean eating, accompanied by small bars everywhere all at a very affordable price.

Above: lots of street art in Sofia

Below: a geyser (hot spring of water that erupts steam and water into the air) in the center of town at the base of the Rila mountains. We spent two nights in this town and enjoyed the thermal hot springs they have on offer 

The Rila mountains were our next Bulgarian destination where we were SO excited to see SO much snow! Considering it was only early October, they had more snow than us Aussies get all season!!! Luckily for us it wasn’t our first hike in Europe so we were dressed appropriately for the three or four hours in which we trudged through the snow.

As the tracks were not often used, we sometimes found ourselves falling in knee (or higher) deep snow.

At the end of the hike through the Rila mountains you are meant to get a viewpoint of seven lakes. Unfortunately for us, the clouds were quite low which meant we could only see four. Ah well – still definitely worth the cold cloudy snowy adventure!!

Below: traditional Bulgarian dish. Note the cheese on top. I was pleased to find that they put this on EVERYTHING

Kilometres driven so far: 9,184

It has been brought to my attention that my headings are one post ahead of the actual blog. I shall use this one as an attempt to catch up. 

Hungary was lovely. We dropped the campervan at Andre’s cousins who lived in a beautiful town on the Danube about 50km north of Budapest and headed into the city where we were fortunate enough to spend four nights in a family owned apartment in Budapest.

Our main objective of time spent in Budapest: eat some awesome food. As we had already been to Hungary in the past, we felt no need to see the sights or do the tourist things. Rather, we enjoyed city life and ate at a Michelin Star restaurant and countless other well recommended ones. 

Our food highlight from Hungary was a ‘business lunch special’ at a restaurant called Friska where we enjoyed a quality three course meal, four drinks for only $30 AUD. BARGAIN!!!

Andre’s great aunt (who speaks not a word of English) was very hospitable to us and I must say her home cooked meals were a highlight of our food adventures in Europe thus far. Although there was a massive language barrier, we now know how to count to 10 in Hungarian without mishap! 

All in all, it was lovely to meet the extended Hungarian family and we felt privileged for them to be so kind and welcoming to us. Picking up the campervan ensured we left with a fridge full of home grown fruit and veg, wine, as well as freshly made pickled goods and syrups. Thanks!

The road then took us East into Northern Romania. 

Crossing the border was somewhat uneventful compared to what we were expecting. Our first night in Romania was spent in Sapanta, which is the home to the ‘merry graveyard.’ A meal consisting of baked polenta, cheese and sour cream (YUM!), a lamb stem, salad, pancakes and a bottle of wine set us back only $25 before tucking in for the night. The graveyard was a bit wasted on us in that we unfortunately could not understand any of the tombstones or the stories (as nothing was in English). We took some photos, and off we went further East into Maramures country.

We stayed in a town called Viseu De Sus where we took a day trip into the mountain gauges on the oldest running steam train in Europe. 

Andre was very upset to learn that there was a slight communication issue when his lunch arrived and he was given a HUGE plate of cheese with a raw red onion in the middle. Now I love my cheese, but traditional Romanian cheese is somewhat hard to stomach.

The next day we spent hiking in the Rodna mountains. A grueling uphill (and more uphill) hike took us to Pietrosul Rodnei peak, standing at 2303 metres high, the tallest in the Eastern Carpathians. The hike was tough but the view from the top was amazing and made it all worthwhile. The patches of snow and the FREEZING icy breeze which also met us at the top was something we will not forget in a hurry.

Wooden monastery. The Maramures county is known for the wooden buildings they have. Also, this was the starting point of our hike. In the distance you can see our destination and the snow on the mountain (yes - it was A LONG way up). 

MADE IT!!! 2,303 metres

Cold and windy at the peak

... and snowy...

Got bogged trying to get the campervan out the next morning, but some local Romanians with a four-wheel drive helped us on our way.

Northern Romania is like travelling back in time, horse drawn carriages, standing hay racks, old school buildings and houses, no card facilities anywhere, but WOW what beautiful country side they have!

Every town you drive through (no matter how small) has a big church in it

dodgy looking electricity pole

ROAD BLOCK!!! 

Hard life for the Romanian ponies.

Kilometers driven so far: 7,547

Time away: 5 1/2 weeks

Campervan fails:

smashed a window on a very narrow street trying to get past a truck

broke the inner fly screen door (lucky it’s not hot!)

Thirty in Krakow was a thoroughly enjoyable day. We had a relaxing morning before going to an old school ‘Milk Bar’ type restaurant for lunch for some tasty (both sweet and savoury) and cheap perogies.

History Lesson 101: The Milk Bars in Krakow have been around since the 1800’s as a way to serve cheap and nutritious food to locals during tough times. After WWII, if you wanted to eat out in Poland you often had no choice but to eat at a Milk Bar. Due to the communist regime, the majority of normal restaurants were shut down at this time.

They are tiny, canteen style shops and you never know who will join you on your table! We then had a few afternoon drinks before a 12-course degustation for dinner. All in all, I had a lovely birthday.

The remainder of our days in Krakow were spent exploring the city on our new bicycles, eating and drinking some vodka – when in Poland! 

Krakow was surprisingly full of tourists. One street we walked down was so crowded we commented on the similarity to Las Ramblas in Barcelona.     

We contemplated getting a ride on one of the multiple (seriously, there were A LOT) horse drawn carriages but decided against it.

Our next stop was Auschwitz. We went to both Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II- Birkenau and wow – what a surreal and confronting experience that was. To think that over 1.5 million people died there is just more than words can say.

Some more history: Auschwitz was the largest extermination centre during World War II and the only camp to be preserved to such an extent in its original condition. Located at Auschwitz are the grounds containing human ashes, ruins of gas chambers and crematoria, the places where SS doctors carried out selection, the places where Jewish (and other) families awaited death and multiple execution sites.

In total, the land size is approx 500 acres over the two camps which was quite overwhelming to us. We saw over two-tonnes of hair which had been cut from the heads of prisoners, displays with hundreds and thousands of shoes, glasses, pans, pots, bags, brushes, shoe polish and other everyday items in which proved that the prisoners just had no idea where they were going when they were deported.

From here we drove south into Slovakia to the base of the Tatra Mountains. 

The next morning rode our bikes approx 3km to the base of a chairlift which we caught to the top of the mountain. Went on a fairly tough eight-hour hike in which we saw a beautiful crystal-clear turquoise blue lake before ending up back at the bikes. Unfortunately for us, once we got up pretty high we were in the clouds and the views of the surrounding mountains were therefore limited (AKA non-existent). As you can see, this didn’t make for very good photos.

The below photo was in an Aragonite cave in Slovakia  (there are only three in the world where you can see this type of formation), just near the Hungarian border. The Aragonite is 138,000 years old. 

Next, we found an organic food and wine festival which had one day left in a town in Hungary and decided to check it out. 

Drove three hours to get here and ate some delish Hungarian food and sampled some of the local wines they produce. Still can’t find any kale though!!! As the rain seems to be chasing us on this holiday, surprise surprise at about 4pm the rain started and we called it a day.  

Traditional Hungarian dancing

Goulash

Langos - deep fried bread with garlic spread, sour cream and cheese. 

MULLED WINE!!!

Seeing as though we were already in Hungary, we decided to go and meet some of Andre’s Hungarian family, ditch the campervan and spend a few nights in Budapest. Read about this in our next blog!

The thing we have realised over the last week is there is a really strange feeling in that we have nothing to do, but yet no time to do anything.

Ok it is only blog number four and we are already getting slack with them. Our aim was one a week..

We spent a relaxing four nights in Prague where we chilled out, ate some food, drank some beers and didn’t really do anything else. From Prague we went back into Germany to a small town where we spent two nights before driving to Dusseldorf and FINALLY PICKING UP THE CAMPERVAN. For those of you that know your geography, yes, we know, we have driven around in circles. Guess sometimes a bit of forward planning pays off.

THE CAMPERVAN IS AWESOME!!! Spent the first night on a lake in a town called Magdeburg, which funnily enough was the exact same place we stayed last time we hired a campervan in Europe.

Woke up the next day and into Poland we went. Poland - where the roads are worse, the English-speaking people harder to find, the money goes further and the vodka is a plenty!!! 

First stop in Poland was a forest which was full of crooked trees. Our limited research brought on some differences in opinions as to why the trees are crooked. Andre thought it was the works of a UFO and I thought the native people genetically modified them as the shape is better for building boats. Pretty sure neither of us are correct.

Next, we went up North to the Polish coast. Although the weather wasn’t very good, it was nice to be back on the beach. 

Ate an AMAZING smoked/cured fillet of salmon from a local fisherman in Chlopy and continued onto Leba which is where the Slowinski National Park is. The key attraction of the park is the sand dunes and to get there it is an 8km walk/bike ride/buggy through a pine forest. When we checked into the place the guy offered us some bikes to borrow so we opted for the bike ride. 

Unfortunately, about three quarters of the way the chain came off one of the bikes. Regardless, we made it to the sand dunes, had a wander round and when it was time to go remembered the chain issue. After multiple attempts at putting it back on we decided it was best if Andre just towed me the whole 8km back (winning!)  

Leba is known for its seafood so after a bit of research we found ourselves at a restaurant where we ate a delicious dinner which consisted of herring, cheese and fish soup, deep fried cabbage pancake rolls and a fillet of fish with potatoes and salad. The meal coupled with a beer, a wine and a few vodkas came to only 40 AUD. I must add it was the best meal we have eaten yet.    

The next day we spent chilling out, unpacking our bags and buying ourselves a bicycle each before watching a beautiful sunset on the beach.  

So in our frantic rush to pack and leave Melbourne, we were bound to have packed badly. Few strange things that we found in our bags:

-          A wine aerator

-          One glove (unsure where the other one is)

-          A fair few odd socks

-          An ALESSI coffee percolator – wait… we purposely brought this

-          A bottle of Hendricks (again – winning!)

We opted to do the big drive from Leba to Krakow (700km) in a day so we can be in Krakow for my 30th birthday!!!! Got a restaurant booked for dinner and will spend the day exploring the city. 

Oh, and we booked our flights to Rio. 22 November, we will return the campervan and SOUTH AMERICA HERE WE COME!

First let me set the scene. I am sitting in the passenger seat whilst Andre drives through Austria and it’s raining… like… a lot.

Campervan update – the earliest we can pick up the campervan is on the 7th (apparently you need to book at least 10 days in advance… whoops). Currently in a hire car until then.

We picked up the car from Munich and off we went. Our limited research on ‘the best drives through Europe’ took us to town called Wurzburg which was the start of the ‘Romantic Road’. A 350-odd km stretch of road which we thought was going to be beautiful. Turns out, it isn’t the road that is nice, rather the four or five medieval towns which you can see along the way. We went to one. It was enough.

Wurzburg was cool, the wine capital of Germany. Ate some good food, drank some nice wine, and saw some nice stuff. Went to a wine bar where you order a glass and they leave the bottle for you to pour yourself. At the end, they somewhat use the trust system and somewhat try work it out from how empty the bottle is to see how many glasses you’ve had. Safe to say… we took advantage of the free pouring.  

Our drive then took us to another German town called Fussen, where we spent the night on a beautiful lake at the bottom of the Austrian alps. Had an arvo swim, got take away pizza and watched the somewhat disappointing sunset while we drank wine out of plastic cups. We so classy.  

^ an attempt at being creative... unfortunately the glass tipped over before I got a sip..

Next stop was to the Neuschwanstein castle which was the inspiration for the Disney logo. Luckily, we got in early because the hordes of tourists just kept on coming. 

Into Salzburg (Austria) we went where the weather dropped by 15 degrees and the rain began. Hopefully this isn’t the start of things to come…

On route to Prague where we will spend 4 or 5 nights. Loving the breweries and cheap beers everywhere.

Scariest moment so far: getting up to 182km/hr on the Autobahn. Thank gosh the campervan won’t go that fast!  

It’s amazing to think that we are only one week into a 26+ week adventure. Definitely has not yet hit us that we:

a)      will be away for so long

b)      won’t see the dogs!! :(  

b)      don’t have to work for six months and;

c)      we are not returning to our last jobs!

Kilometers traveled so far: 940

After an insanely hectic day of last minute packing and organising a house worth of stuff between two houses, dropping off cars and cleaning up, we said a teary goodbye to the dogs and were off to the airport.

28 hours, 3 flights, multiple champagnes later we arrived safe and sound in Munich. The taxi driver dropped us at our hotel, we checked in and went to the room. I feel the need to add that there was a moment of panic when Andre thought he left his passport in the taxi.

We were a little surprised to see the door to our room was already open before noticing that the room was still under construction. When we told this to the man at reception he just laughed before giving us the key to another room. Munich is a little like London, you pay a lot but don’t get much for a room here. It is modern, near new, great bed and great shower but once we put our (probably unnecessarily over-sized and over-packed) bags into the hallway we could no longer move. Luckily for us there was space under the bed!

So to hold true to our name we are struggling to find a campervan to hire at such short notice and may need to travel closer to Berlin to get one. But hey, that’s ok… it’s not like we changed our flights or anything just for that reason. Until then – the brauhaus and wiener shnitz are calling!  

Best moment of the holiday thus far (early days I know):

Let me set the scene…. whilst travelling from London to Munich in Business Class the air hostess was offering drinks.

Air Hostess: “Ms Peters, can I get you a drink?”

Marni: “I’ll have a sparkling wine please”

Air Hostess: “Sorry, we only have champagne. Would that be ok with you?”

Well dahhhhhh

Fun fact: the fancy camera still hasn’t left the safety of our bag

Next stop: who knows?