The Great Tour in Europe 2023

Prologue

I have been feeding my partner Eunice with an idea of having a proper road trip around Europe ever since we met. She hasn't been to Europe yet. Well, now she has been in Estonia for 3 months and briefly we dropped by the Aluksne area in Latvia. But obviously Europe is way more than Estonia or a tiny bit of Latvia. Although I would say that Estonia is also very diverse. For instance, the islands in the west have their own vibe, an islanders-slow phase vibe. The western bank of lake Peipus has a very rich subculture with old believers from Russian Orthodox and their smoked fish, garlic and onions are superb. We visited that part of Estonia in August while we were mainly in Tartu. We also discovered Seto and Võru subcultures and the beautiful landscapes of South-Estonia. We were camping at the lakeside in Värska and attended the Kostipäiv - a home café and restaurant day. There were about 20 spots hosted by foodies in Setoland. Actually we saw quite a lot of Estonia, and that is because we decided to rent flats for 10 days in Tallinn and a month in Tartu, the rest of the days we were nomads. We camped and drove by car, motorbike or even canoe. 

So, we have criss-crossed Estonia and seen many beautiful places, met good people and had good food. Now we set our eyes towards the south and start our epic journey to Spain. We are planning to take it very easy and slow, because we need to keep working and besides, we don't want to drive our asses off.

We decided not to ride a motorbike, which would be my first choice of wheels, instead we took our Volvo. Because we have a lot of hiking gear and we don't want to be grounded due to the weeks of rain in September. 

Our ultimate destination would be the island of Mallorca in Spain. Eunice's cousin Joy is living there. The route however is not fixed, but I want to show her East-Europe, part of Italy and France, Spain, Benelux countries, the northern part of Germany and Scandinavia. All in all we expect to be away from Estonia for about 1.5 months.

My daughter Mirjam went to 5th grade a week ago. She has also been touring with us for a couple weeks, but as she is already a teenager, she is quite busy and has many activities on her own. She had a stay at a friend's place in Oslo in Norway for 10 days. She was there without parents and the purpose was learning English. My ex-wife Jaanika just dropped her off there and later picked her up again. After all, it is just a one hour flight from Tallinn to Oslo. But of course she will miss me in my absence, but somehow she has used to see me going on journeys like this and always coming back. She is a daddy's girl.

We are like migrating birds going south. We can already see gold-yellow leaves on the birch trees along the roadsides. Autumn is here and soon it will be even more colourful. The dying of nature and hibernation is actually really beautiful. This is something new for Eunice to witness, because the nature in the tropical Philippines and elsewhere in South-East Asia is pretty much the same the whole year long. There are no dramatical changes like in northern Europe.

We are planning to camp now and then have accommodations for proper cleaning and laundry. There are some places ahead where there are no hotels in sight and so the tent is the only option. Besides, we are very well equipped with chairs, a table, a gas stove etc. For me there are many places to revisit too. I'm looking forward to the great adventure ahead.

The sky was dark grey and the low hanging clouds were sprinting above us. I set fire to our grill and boiled water for coffee. Our gear was all over the camping site so I slowly started to pack stuff to the car. My friend Meelis borrowed the ski box and there we put the table, chairs, tent and other camping gear on top of the car. Eunice didn't have much of an appetite and only had a sip of coffee and a small bit of the fried eggs. We enjoyed the last morning at our Suurupi basecamp. We have been here before and this time we were here for 9 days and drove to Tallinn to do some stuff. As we were packing our stuff, it started to drizzle. Well, that was annoying, because I have laid sleeping bags for drying on the car doors. Now we needed to hurry and put stuff in the car. But soon the sun came out and rain stopped and soon it drizzled again. Strange weather really.

At 11AM we started our journey south. We drove through settlements like Tabasalu, Harku and Laagri around Tallinn. We first drove to Ruila school. There were many stables around and we walked and made friends with beautiful horses. The Ruila school itself is located in a renovated manor. We needed to wait for one lady who needed to wrap up the class in that school. She came out and gave me the Keen trekking shoes for trying. These were nice, slightly used pairs of shoes for heavy trekking. I wired 50€ to her and we continued our drive south. Near Pärnu in Are we made a stop, because Eunice needed to have an English online class with Haruna.

We reached almost to Pärnu at 3:45PM, more precisely to Valgerand. I like this area because the sandy beach is very near to the small road, very convenient for camping. In the summer that place was packed with campers, but now we were able to choose the prime spot. There were no masses like just a few weeks ago in August, only few people walking their dogs. I slowly drove down the asphalt into a sandy track and manoeuvred behind the pine trees. I really didn’t want to get stuck in the sand. We set up the camp at 4:30PM and started cooking.

The sun was nice and gave warmth. We took a dip in the shallow water. The water was very cold, it actually is not warm at any period in the summer. Of course it is debatable. But if I say the water is warm, I mean 40’C Japanese jacuzzi. Rest could be swimmable, but not necessarily warm. We sat at the seaside and admired the sunset. We took a little hike along the beach to the Valgeranna beach house and restaurant. It was all quiet and there was no life in September. Some parts of the sandy beach are surrounded by reeds. There are even official cows whose main job is to eat the vegetation including the reeds along the western part of Estonian coastline. We heard their noises nearby, just across the road. After the sunset, it was really chilly and we evacuated into the tent at 8PM.

Ewert and the Two Dragons (Estonia) - Journey. This video really reminds me to drive alongside the shore and pine forest between Pärnu and Salacgriva

Welcome to Latvia! The scenery has not really changed. Similar buildings and streets, only the street names were called iela’s and not tänav like it was in Estonia. We continued on the highway, passed Salacgriva and parked near the sea and the river Vitrupe. I like this part of the seaside, because there is an endless sandy beach and a nice pine forest and the river is flowing into the sea. Beautiful sand dunes and not too many people. In fact there is a nudist beach. We only saw one couple sunbathing hidden and protected from the wind by the sand dunes. Of course it was already September and the breeze was a bit Arctic. It was a perfect sunny evening. We needed to carry our camping gear from the parking lot through the pine forest to the shore. We set the camp just behind the sand dune with a nice view to the sea. We ate the smoked eel. It was very oily and fatty, but very delicious.

Eunice prepared dinner. At 7PM we slowed down and we enjoyed setting sun and good drinks on the blanket. Later in the night we made a bonfire. It was such good coal and we decided to grill pork shashlik. What a perfect night. Once it was getting dark, we went into the tent. There were no mosquitos to worry about. These annoying insects are a problem that comes with summer months only. At 9PM we went to sleep.

Su 09/10 in Latvia

We woke up at 10AM. The wind has picked up and we heard waves coming to the shore with some medium roar. First we ran to the sea and swam a bit. It was sunny, but the sun’s heat was not kicking in just yet and the Baltic sea water was freezing. But if we do that every morning over the winter I bet we will have strong hearts and no cough for the next full year. We sat on the chairs and let the sun dry our skins. There were still no people in sight. It feels like the beach was reserved only for us. We slowly started to take down the tent and pack the stuff to Volvo, then cooked oatmeal porridge and bread omelette. We also prepared coffee and enjoyed our first morning in Latvia. At 11AM we carried stuff to the parking lot and packed it into the car. We went for a walk on the sandy strip of land between the river Vitrupe and the sea. We were able to cross the river at the point where it meets the sea. Actually the rest of the river was quite deep and the river water coloured like coca-cola. We saw some people walking and in the parking area. They were mostly Estonians, Latvians and Germans. A few more minutes and we started our journey towards Riga.

Eunice had a call with her mother in Manila who was at the wake of her husband and Eunice's father. He passed away last Sunday. We were not able to go to the funeral in the Philippines. The tickets were crazy expensive for some reasons. We also had a call with Saleena and Danish in India. We were travelling together there past March and April in India. Now we were planning the trip together in Vietnam, because Vietnam is visa free for both Indian and the Philippine nationals. There are not too many countries where these two match. For Europeans it is visa free like in many other destinations. It was great to see Saleena and she was excited about planning the adventure in Vietnam.

We walked further to the square where the renovated Black Heads order house is located and with a little loop back to the hotel. We got the key and went upstairs. We showered and felt absolutely delighted with the refresh. We had a little nap. I wrote and at 6PM we went back to the streets of the old town. 

Our stomachs were empty and at 7PM we landed in a Latvian-Lithuanian restaurant. It was a bit touristy, but the soups served in the bread were very good. Later we criss-crossed the old town and walked back to the hotel. We ate some snacks, watched TV and went to sleep.

Mo09/11 in Latvia

We finally woke up at 9AM and had a quick shower. We are not taking such a normal thing as a hot shower for granted, because we have witnessed cold showers and buckets of cold water in India and in the Philippines while travelling around. Also as we are mostly camping, showers - hot water sprays to the face and drizzles down the body - are just nice. We drank all-in-one coffee in the room. At 10AM we walked in the old town and had breakfast at Rigensis bakery. I know this particular bakery from my previous visits. The aroma of the fresh bakery was just overwhelming and that opened the wallet itself. We had cheesecake, apple strudels and coffees. Cost was 13€. The red shirt Brits were walking around already, but not as noisy as yesterday, perhaps had a hangover. All of a sudden a group of Koreans came to the same café. The guide used a microphone and tourists wore headsets and therefore the group was able to be more scattered on the street.

We made a loop on the streets and dropped by the Catholic church called Our Lady of Sorrows Church. Turns out it was St Mary's day and there was an ongoing mass. We walked in and did the cross signs. The mass was about to end. We kneeled in front of the St Mary statue and Eunice lit a candle and prayed. There is a small Catholic community in Latvia and Estonia, mostly protestants and Greece Catholic believers. In Lithuania and Poland it is the other way around - we can easily consider these two as Catholic countries. We walked on narrow streets back to the hotel. On the way we saw a monument in front of the Latvian parliament - the Seim -  that was memorising victims in 1991 when regular people stood up to the Soviet special forces called Omon to block them from reaching the parliament house. It was a tiny pyramid-shaped monument. I haven't seen that before although I have crisscrossed the old town. I only saw that because one tourist group was standing in front of it. We had to hurry back into our hotel. We had a shower and checked out at 12. We started to drive south by heart.

Brainstorm (Latvia) - Maybe. This band somehow has grown on me

At 6PM we drove to the river side where there was a nice spot with a shelter and benches overlooking the river Venta and the valley. Eunice started to cook Korean type of ramen with whatever we had, but this time we also had salami and seaweed sheets to add to the mix. Only some people were passing by on the pedestrian road. Some were walking with the dogs and some were riding bikes. But we were lucky to find a calm and quiet spot. The river was flowing quite fast and creating nice backdrop noise.

We set up the tent and enjoyed the setting sun at 8PM. Also we had local beer, cider and cheese. This was camping at its best by enjoying local food and beverages and stunning scenery while camping. We got some plums and apples from nearby trees. These trees were growing outside of the fence of the houses and many passing people took apples for eating. It was a nice and calm night, only the mosquitos were annoying. I thought the mosquitoes were dead or at least went to sleep. But to my surprise a few were attacking us. At 8:30PM we went to the tent and soon went to sleep.

Tu09/12 in Latvia

We woke up at 8AM. It was a rough night. It was too hot or too cold and the moisture kept creeping in. The river was covered with thick fog and it was windless. It was very quiet and only a few fishermen or runners went by. I prepared breakfast. Eunice started to love oatmeal porridge so now it’s part of the daily menu. I also consumed our last eggs. Luckily our car fridge is working nicely and we keep milk in the fridge. We drank coffee and later enjoyed just sitting on the chairs and observed the sunshine and admired the river view. I attended two online meetings and wrote a diary. What a lovely morning in the office.

At 11AM Eunice prepared pasta and consumed the last slices of salami. The sun was shining brightly now and we were able to dry the tent, the sheet underneath the tent and sleeping bags. At noon we drove through the old town of Kuldiga and parked the car in the parking lot near the old bridge over the massive river. One attraction in Kuldiga is to walk in the river and cross the river on the edge of the fall. It is a relatively shallow river, but the current is quite strong and the river is wide.

We walked to the falls and attempted to cross it, but turned back when the current was getting stronger. Actually the slippery stones were the bigger problem. I have crossed the falls on the top with my daughter Mirjam in 2020. We continued walking on the river bank and sat on the bridge at the beach. It is a lovely little beach, just a bit upstream from the falls. We walked over the old red brick bridge and ordered coffee and cider. We sat on the bench and watched the fall and how many people were crossing the falls. Nobody fell. Next time we will do it as well. It would be a test of trusting yourselves and each-other.

We had been lucky with the weather. It is really not guaranteed sunshine in September around the Baltic sea. It could easily be raining and miserable conditions instead. We were lucky, we enjoyed another beautiful wonderful sunset. Around the sand dunes were found a lot of dry wood and we made a bonfire. It turned out Eunice enjoyed playing and hassle with the fire and flaming wood. It has been my boyhood and boy scouting youth thing and I still want to have a bonfire whenever I can even in adulthood. It is nice to look into the fire, just being speechless and standstill for a change. I guess without the fire it could be considered rude not to spill a word. After sunset at 9PM we went to the tent and soon we slept.

We09/13 in Lithuania

I dragged myself out from the tent and let Eunice continue sleeping. It was 8AM and the sun started to peak over and between the pine trees. I took a dip in the sea, it was mostly for hygiene reasons, but it was cold like I was expecting. There were only a few people around. We heard some aeroplanes taking off from the nearby airport. Other than that it was very quiet. I walked to the car in the parking lot and saw a 40€ fine slip attached to my Volvo's whipper. It was all in Lithuanian language. Actually it was not clear whether I should pay or not for the parking, because it is September. But I guess they also charge parking fees in February when there is snow.

I took milk from the fridge and walked back. Eunice was walking on the beach. We put the chairs in a prominent position to watch the sea and passing people on the beach. I prepared coffee and oatmeal porridge. We ran out of water, milk and porridge. We enjoyed the morning and breakfast. We worked and checked our messages. We cooked an early lunch too, which was potatoes and canned pork. Very much camping food. Eunice went to the waves for a small dip too. At noon we started to pack our camp. It was a good and lovely spot. We drove to Palanga downtown and parked the car at the beginning of the promenade. This time I poured all my coins into the parking machine to have a decent time in the area.

We walked on the promenade, which is a typical touristic road with all the restaurants, cafés, souvenir shops, children and teenager attractions on both sides. We ended up at the boardwalk which was leading far to the sea. The beach was relatively crowded. People were taking the most out of the summer extension, but soon the clouds started to cover the sun. We walked back to one fish restaurant and ordered coffee and fish soup, it cost 8€. We both had a meeting at 2PM. Eunice went upstairs to a more quiet space for her English language class and I stayed on the first floor. At 3PM we walked back to the car and started our journey towards Kaunas.

There was a highway from Klaipeda to Kaunas and therefore it was uneventful. We were able to avoid a massive traffic jam in the outskirts of Kaunas and found a way to our hotel. It was a very hot night, almost a tropical warmth. I urged Eunice that we should go to the lovely old town of Kaunas for a walk and drinks, because I was sure that tropical warmth would be exchanged for rainy and cold weather the next day. But she was not in the mood, because she was thinking about her father and the funeral ahead. We stayed indoors and at 10PM went to sleep.

We09/14 in Lithuania

It was a good long sleep and we woke up at 9AM. We ate breakfast and soon we drove to the edge of the Kaunas old town. It was drizzling and the air was heavy and damp. First we walked to the Kaunas fort which is located on the peninsula of rivers Neris and even bigger Nemunas river. This mediaeval red brick castle is built on the crest overlooking the rivers. We walked around, not going into the museum itself. Then we walked to the town hall square and walked back and forth on the Vilniaus gatve or Vilnius street.

I kind of started to admire this relatively small old town in 2020. Somehow I have not made a proper stop in this beautiful city. Also I walked on these streets in 2022 when I was here on motorbike. Streets were very empty, because it was about to start raining again and it was still morning. We needed to rush back to the hotel to check out. At 1PM we headed more south towards Druskininkai. In Alytus and at 3PM we entered the resort town of Druskininkai. Town was quiet and there were no tourists.

We parked the car near the lakes to the gate of the cemetery. It was not raining anymore and we walked around the lovely lakes and in the park. The sandy beach was empty and it was perfect for us to have a little picnic. It was somewhat crazy to think that behind these trees is already the Belarus border, where one of the last dictators in Europe is from. It was roughly the same area where in 2022 there were many waves of illegal migrants trying to enter Lithuania and into the promiseland of Europe. It was a proper mess and poor people from East Turkey and Iraq being used as a weapon for pressurising Lithuania by hostile neighbours Belarus and of course big brother Russia. Later it was clear that there were cheap direct flights from Turkey and Iraq to Minsk and ads promoting a chill walk to the EU. What a nasty lie! We decided not to walk further because it was still a bit cold and damp and drove to the other side of the town. Again we were walking on Vilnius street. There were cable cars going over the river Nemunas and the forest to an indoor ski hill.

We walked back and forth and saw the up-side-down house and many beautiful old wooden villas. This place would be much nicer on a warm summer night. We continued our journey a little bit back to the north, because we were not able to enter Belarus and took small gravel roads into Poland at 4:30PM. Actually it was very bizarre to drive on the arrow-straight gravel road in the pine forest and all of a sudden we saw a Polish border column. Cool, Shengen is nice. No border guards and no document checks needed.

It was already getting dark and we set up the camp just before sunset. It was a huge lake and strong wind was blowing from it. We used the car as a wind shelter for making cooking and being outdoors possible. While Eunice did the cooking she was wearing absolutely everything she had for keeping warmth. There were 2-3 other campers a little bit further away. It was already dark when we erected the tent beneath a bigger tree. The tent was flattering violently at the mercy of the wind, but luckily our Volvo gave some shelter from the winds storming over the lake. At 9PM we went to sleep.

We also lit a bonfire and sat on the chairs and enjoyed the nice morning. Well, we had plenty of paper waste to burn and sticks were laying by too. Soon we packed our camp back to the car. We prepared soup and had a dip in the lake. Water was refreshing. We saw cranes migrating and flocks of duck-like birds grouping on the lake to fly further south. We sat a bit more in the chairs and at 11AM we continued our journey.

This compound with heavily fortified bunkers was the headquarters for Hitler and other Nazies during the Russian invasion. Some of the bunkers were relatively well preserved, but the bunker that Hilter used was exploded by the Red Army to erase a potential cult site from the earth. But the huge concrete rocks were still there. I have read many biographies and they have mentioned they didn't like that part of the newly carved German empire, because this place was in the middle of forests, bogs and lakes - the mosquitos were eating everybody alive. Hitler was almost killed here, but he narrowly escaped with bruises and European history didn’t have a less bloodier twist. Tom Cruise played the main act in the movie Valkyrie. This movie is based on real events based in these woods and in these bunkers. It was good to see this place and walk around this relatively touristic spot. Later on we ate fries and grilled sauces at the gates. I needed to attend an online meeting, so it was a necessary break.

At 4PM we continued driving and our road took us further to the north-west, actually very close to the Russian border. I switched off the data roaming in my phone to prevent it from switching into an expensive Russian telecom network. We were that close to the border. The Kaliningrad oblast is a far away enclave that belongs to the Russian Federation. Of course this place was the beating heart of the former East Prussian capital Köningsberg until the Russians liberated and annexed this part of Germany. Well, again, this is the complex history in Europe. 

And Kalinin was a Russian communist who was most likely killed by Stalin who saw him as a rival and celebrated his death as hero’s death. Anyways it is still common in modern day Russia to see hysterical and controversial state of actions and phenomenals. For example the statue of Lenin and last czar of Russian Nikolai II side by side somewhere in the small town in Russia. Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin and other proper communist despised Nikolai II and the Russian royalty so much that they ordered the killing of the entire royal family including all the kids. Displaying these two statues side by side creates a conflict, but not to many Russians. They like both heroes. No problem. I haven’t ever been to Kaliningrad. I would like to see the hints of the old Köningsberg. Perhaps one day again it would be possible again to drive in Russia.

We drove around Gdansk and Sopot and through Gdynia. It was already dark and it took another hour to reach the end of the Hel peninsula. It was very hard to find a wild camping spot. Everything was blocked. We made several attempts, but we were not able to reach the beach. At one point we ended up in somebody's private land. The guy came out from his van and declared that this is private land. It turned out he has a food truck and he is living in it too. Also we might see him on the streets of Hel tomorrow. He also mentioned it would be impossible to find a wild camping site in Hel. I was devastated, because I don’t want to stay in the camper site with hundreds of people and pay for that too. There was one camper site just around the corner and quickly we got a spot for the tent and we were able to park the car next to it. The fee for a tent, car and two adults was 100PLN~23€. It was dark and quickly erected the tent and started cooking the dinner. First I was grumpy and still disappointed that we needed to spend a night in a zoo. Yes, it was noisy and still relatively crowded, because there was an extension of summer in September. But on the other hand we also had access to the shower, kitchen and car parking. The parking of the car itself would be a headache in Hel. So, I relaxed and opened Lithuanian beer and started to enjoy my first caravan park experience. We didn’t go out and went to sleep at 10PM. It was a long day on wheels.

Sa09/16 in Poland

We woke early, because there was life around our tent. Some Polish teenagers hassled in one hammock and laughed endlessly. We took a shower at the camping facilities already at 7:30AM. At 9AM we prepared a strong breakfast at the kitchen counter. Around us were all Polish campers. Some campers' dogs were barking at each other and had even a small fight.

We walked to the small town of Hel at 10AM. Basically there were two parallel streets where tourists mostly walked. There were restaurants, cafés, souvenir shops and apparels. We stopped at a Polish brand shop and didn’t buy anything. The prices were amazingly high for quick fashion.

Poland is vast, even on highways it takes ages to get from north to south, but we hit the road and near Bydgoszcz we found a caravan site. It was already dark and we were kind of desperate to find a place to stay. The gates of this caravan site were hard to find. At one point Google Maps directions were saying: “you have arrived”, but we were staying in the concrete plaza surrounded by warehouses and fences. But we found the gate eventually. We were able to choose the spot ourselves, because there were not too many people camping. It was very dark, but luckily the camp manager lit up the site for us. We set up the tent and Eunice made our bed as comfortable as possible. Each time she was also cleaning the tent floor from sand, which could be very annoying while sleeping. At 8PM we walked to the nearby kitchen unit and prepared dinner. The Kluski dumplings were a bit disappointing, it was only wheat, a bit sweet, no meat inside. It was a long day and we were tired and we went to sleep at 10PM.

Su09/17 in Poland

We woke up at 8AM. I got a relatively good sleep despite the passing trains. The campsite is located in the outskirts of Bydgoszcz on the bank of river Brda which is crossing with the mighty Vistula. We took a shower and prepared breakfast. After that we walked to the riverside where we saw teenage swans who were not too afraid of us. Silently we sat on the beach chairs near them and relaxed. It would be another hot day. After some 30 minutes we started to pack our camp. Fellow campers from Warsaw asked about our journey. They bought a brand new caravan yesterday and they were testing it out. At 11AM we started to drive through Bydgoszcz downtown. Most Europeans have never heard the name of this city and most likely can't pronounce it, but this half a million population city has its charm. There are old brick churches and cute old town.

We drove back to the highway and mostly drove 120KM/H to keep Meelis's ski box from flying away from our car's roof. At the outskirts of Poznan Volvo completed 300,000KM. Amazing milestone. Actually, I bought the car from France when it had only 180,000KM completed in the year of 2012. Well, I really don’t drive much and mostly the car is just standing in front of the house.

At 1AM we parked the car and walked to the Poznan old town to celebrate this achievement, like a birthday. Well, the centre of the city was opened up and really looked like a war zone. At some points it was really hard to cross the road, because there were trenches and fences blocking the walk. But surely the heart of the city will look nice after all these works have been completed. There was a nice restaurant at the townhall square. In the middle of the rectangular square was located a town hall building, a block of colourful merchant houses and a museum with the Soviet functional building. The group of buildings were not making any sense. Currently they are laying the stone pavement around the square.

Poland has surprised us with beautiful cities and also with affordable prices. The fuel and food were cheaper than in previous countries. At 6PM we made a stop just before the border to eat dinner and make good use of our last remaining ~80 zloti'es, which is ~18.5€. In the nice roadside tavern we ordered pork schnitzel with mushroom sauce and potato dumplings. Also we had Żurek soup. Food was good. It started to get dark. As we continued the road we ended up in the corner of Poland, Germany and Czech Republic. At one point we even crossed a canal to the German side and had a quick spin there too.

At 9PM we reached Prague and we needed to hassle with booking a hotel for two nights. There was a proper traffic jam on the edge of the city. I guess many people were arriving from the countryside back to the city from the mountains near Liberec. Finally we booked a hotel right next to Praha Slavia football arena, 164€ for two nights. I parked the car and Eunice checked in. It was a nice and well kept hotel room. We took a shower and completed a Danish movie called Bombardment. It was a long long drive. We went to sleep at midnight.

Mo09/18 in Czechia

We woke at 7AM and had a slow start for the morning. As we went downstairs to eat breakfast, we were pleasantly surprised how rich the breakfast choice was with many Czech  dishes. I promised myself to try it all in the upcoming mornings. I started to work at the café both indoors and later at the terrace, just to do a few urgent tasks. It was already warm and nice in the sunshine. After that we walked to the parking lot to take some stuff including candies for Eunice's cousin's kids, which might melt during the heat. At 11:30AM we went back to the room and had some calls and meetings. At noon we walked to the nearest tram stop, bought the tickets from the ticket machine and boarded an old looking tram. Public transport is very convenient in Prague. I have been in Prague I guess 5 times. First time I was there was with my mother and I was just a 12 year old kid in 1990. The last time I was in this city was with the Estonian racketlon team in 2015. Each time I have travelled by metros and trams and found it very convenient and relatively cheap.

The old town is the main tourist magnet, but luckily the old town is a relatively big area and spans on both sides of the Vlatava river. The mass of tourists just spays more broadly and it was not as cramped as in Venice or Corfu old town streets in August. Immediately Eunices started to love Prague and its lovely streets.

We stopped at the Fat Cat and ordered nachos and a Mexican set and a 7 craft beer tasting set. The cost was 735CZK ~ 30€. Of course it was a tourist price, because we were just a few hundred metres from the old town epicentre, which is the town hall square. Right next to our table was an Indian family. Actually it was the standard approach as they started to take selfies of themselves. I interviewed and offered to take the photo instead. It turned out they are living in the US and they are on a longer trip in Europe.

At one point we walked to the clocktower area and as the crowd was gathering we witnessed the hourly event in the tower. The 12 apostles statues were looping and appeared on the windows of a 600 years old clock tower. Again we avoided visiting museums or paying for climbing up to the towers. Instead we walked on mediaeval streets and tried to feel the city. One specialty of Prague was the Chimney cake which would usually cost 140CZK ~ 6€. It was a crispy bakery baked in a kebab-like heater. Inside of this relatively big cone was whipped cream and fruits.

We walked over the beautiful and romantic Karlov stone bridge. In the water we saw beavers hassling and swimming right beneath the bridge and near the banks of the river. Amazing - city beavers. All of a sudden the sun heat was turned off as the clouds started to cover the sky. We walked into a simple tavern and ordered schnitzel, beer and cider. Pilsner Urquell half a litre cost was only 63CZK ~ little more than 2€. I asked the waiter how the people of this country reacted to the rise of the beer price from 25-30CZK to today's price. Were there any riots? Cheap beer is like human rights in the Czech Republic, very often beer is cheaper than sparkling water. Amazing.

Slowly we walked to the tram stop and drove 6-7 stops to our hotel. Actually we didn’t go out and stayed indoors for the rest of the night, because it started to rain and we really enjoyed the hotel for a change. At 10PM we went to sleep.

At 1PM we parked our car in front of the legendary Pilsen beer factory. We were not eager to take the tour with the guide and see the factory and messing and bronze testicle-shape vessels where they used to make the Pilsner Urquell. Instead we had a jar of beer and sat outdoors overlooking the factory. The sun came out again and it was very pleasant to enjoy the hoppy Pilsner Urquell in Pilsen. And we were not the only tourists doing that. Some Germans and Spanish people were also enjoying the sun, the view and beer.

I have a theory about the beer-wine line crossing the sub-continent of Europe. There has to be a strong influence of history, more precisely who colonised, what religion was dominating and the simple south-north geography. So, mostly Catholic countries are clustered into wine-countries. Basically, all the countries on the banks of the west part of Mediterranean sea, are dominantly Catholic and wine-countries. Take Italy, France, Spain and to some extent Portugal. North-Europe is not a very good place to grow grapes and the Catholic faith was uprooted mostly too 500 years ago. Mid-Europe is very much mixed and the border follows the old duke and noble property borders and not nowadays country borders. Basically you need to follow the smell of beer or wine there. Very fascinating. Perhaps one day I will write a paper about it. This is my nerdy side. Next we turned towards east and our next target was Brno.

At one point we also saw the Brno dam and the lake. It was a bit of a hassle to park the car and finally got to the parking spot near the old town. We rushed upstairs and found a St Peter-Paul cathedral's restaurant where nuns were serving the food. Eunice was exhausted from this uphill rush, but we were in the hurry for meetings. We ordered beer, orange juice, coffee and soup. We held our meetings. The serving nuns were from Asia and from Africa. One nun later talked with Eunice in Tagalog as she is from the Manila area.

After our online meetings we walked on the lovely streets of Brno old town and ended up at the townhall square. There was a market like it would be a central point for each mediaeval town. The counters were filled with local fruits and vegetables. I introduced some new fruits to Eunice - nectarine and persimmon. The botanic name for persimmon is Diospyros, which means in Greek the gods food - so, it has to be good. Later we ate persimmons a lot in Spain. Usually I stick with the rule of buying only local fruits, but these two fruits were new for her and she was curious about those weird looking items. Additionally we bought local plums and apples. The sun was shining nicely and we bought ice cream and sat in the middle of the square, right next to the fountain.

Th09/21 in Slovakia

We woke up at 9AM. The sun was already burning nicely. Our camp was located between two green mountains and this alone created its own climate. There was a wind circling around and from time to time it was rather chilly. I cooked breakfast. At 11AM we packed our gear and continued our journey towards the east. Driving on the highway, we saw some ruins of old castles on top of the hills.

At noon we decided to stop for grocery shopping and buy supplies for the upcoming days. The shop's name was Billa - that means in Cebuano “Spread your legs!” Well, that was unexpected. Again it was fun to investigate the product packages and try to figure out the meaning from Slovakian, because there were very rarely anything in English. It is always amusing to do this. 

There were every now and then road constructions and therefore the speed limit was reduced down to 70KM/H on the highway. On one of those spots I got a fine for speeding. I didn't reduce the speed quickly enough and I got a 10€ fine. The police officer even had a card machine to charge the fine, very convenient. Other than that our drive on the highway was uneventful and near the Liptovsky Mikulaš we turned north to the mountains.

At 5:30PM we reached the foothills of the Lomnica mountain and drove to the camping site. I was fully aware that in mass tourist spots like Lomnica there are no wild camping sites. I even asked from Slovakian mate Ondrej and he didn’t know any free spots. It was not much of a drive on our last leg and therefore we were able to arrive and set up the camp in the daylight. The fee was a whopping 28€ for camping, but to be honest having the Lomnica as a backdrop of the campsite is kind of worth it. First we just drank a beer and a Frisco fizzy drink and enjoyed the changes at the top of the mountain.

We were reflecting on our journey from the west side of Slovakia. Eunice has pointed out some interesting names along the way. There are funny village names. For example Horny in Vysoke Tatry. I wonder if there is also a village called Nizke Libido? Sounds very possible. Eunice cooked pasta with grinded meat and tomatoes. It was finger licking good. We set up the tent in a rush, because there were dark clouds rolling over the sky. But still no rain. Wind was getting stronger. Eunice had a shower and I set up the camp. I had one small draft beer at the bar. Cost was only 1,2€. I used my last coins. I washed and went to the tent at 8PM. Soon we went to sleep.

Fr09/22 in Slovakia

We had a rough night, we were not able to sleep much. My lower back was hurting and I needed to turn and twist all the time. It wasn't cold, actually it was rather too hot in the beginning in the tent. It was just one of those nights. Eunice took a shower and I boiled water for the coffee. It was very windy and therefore I boiled the water in the tent. Tent was nicely warm because of it. I bet the mountaineers are used to cooking inside the tent because of the heavy winds. For me it was the first time to do so.

At 9AM we drove uphill to the foothill of Lomnica mountain. It was too windy and the gondolas were not operational. We walked around and sat in a nice restaurant. We ordered breakfast, coffee and Burčiak, a young unfiltered wine, and we paid 12€. We secretly, like many other tourists around us, were hoping the weather might improve and the gondolas started rolling towards the mountain, but miracle didn’t happen.

I have been in this spot once in the summer and 3-4 times in the winter when this place is really buzzing with countless skiers and snowboarders. I really enjoy these hills, because they offer many opportunities to ride far away from the tracks on the powder snow, jumping off the cliffs and doing reckless downhill within the woods. There is even a huge natural half pipe, which is of course not allowed to enjoy and is blocked by fences, but to my great surprise in the summer it was a riverbed of a mountain river which was rushing down the valley. I guess it was the year 2006 or 2007 when I arranged a concert here in the Tartras for an Estonian artist Ewert Sundja who back then was with the band called Thief. However, I am usually here with friends and enjoying the snow. 

Soon we left the sleepy ski and mountain resort town and drove back to the camp. I paid the camping fee and we packed our gear again to the trustworthy Volvo and hit the road towards the south. Then we took a break, because I saw a flock of sheep. These animals were curious and posed for me with the Lomnica mountain as the backdrop.

It was still kind of cloudy in the afternoon too, but we didn’t get rain. We made the decision to not drive to Slovakian capital Bratislava and to Vienna in Austria and instead we decided to head south to Hungary and to its capital Budapest. This decision meant we needed to take smaller and more mountainous courses instead of the highway to Bratislava. It was a good decision, because we saw the nice side of Slovakia with beautiful countryside, well preserved nature and small villages and towns.

Near Muran we tried to drive up to the mountaintop and see old castle ruins, but somehow it was not possible by car and we didn’t have time for a multiple hour hike. The narrow uphill road through the forest was very thrilling and exciting though. Soon we dropped the matter and instead found a parking lot at the gates of the cemetery.

Eunice cooked our lunch at 2:30PM. It was a nice location overlooking the Muran town and surrounding mountains with quiet neighbours. It was a nice break and soon we continued our journey towards the border. At 4:30PM we entered Hungary. Actually before the border I noticed village signs were written in two languages already. Borders here have been dragged back and forth throughout the ages. Landscape remained very much the same as in the south part of Slovakia, but hills were smaller and smoother, not that pointy anymore and we were able to see far into the distance. One major difference was compared to Slovakia - the roads leading to Budapest were dramatically worse, but we had chosen the right car and we didn’t care much.

At 6PM we entered Budapest. It was my first time ever visiting Hungary. Somehow I have missed this beautiful and history rich city. It took some effort to find the correct house and gate. Also we were already moving stuff into one flat, when the owner gave us a bigger room. The guy who drove into the yard with an old Fiat cargo van turned out to be a very cool Hungarian. He introduced himself as Tibor and he suggested we remember him as Pirate, because he has one eye covered with a patch. Instead of a parrot on his shoulder, he had two friendly dogs. While Eunice was unpacking the stuff, I walked into Tibor’s office in the same yard and we had a little chat. It turned out he has multiple rental flats in this yard and additionally two studios for kinky BDSM activities. I was not aware of these acronyms, but he explained he will get better rental when some guys get beaten up by ladies or get pissed. He even promised we could take a look next morning at his studios. I said for curiosity's sake surely I will do that. I asked about his eye. He said he was just in the wrong place at the right time in the 1990s and some idiots beat him up and he lost his eye. He has done peace with it and can make pirate jokes. He also gave me good hints for Budapest and for the Palaton area. I thanked him and walked back to my room.

We were able to take a shower and rest a bit. At 8PM we started to walk towards the city centre and to the streets of restaurants and bars. Budapest is beautiful and we really felt the grandness of the past when Hungary was combined with the Austrian empire. The houses kind of reflect the richness and echoing the urge to be remembered. These rich merchants and politicians built houses to compete with each other. Showing off and classiness was a norm back then. The Hungarian language is a torture, nothing make any sense, almost unpronounceable. They even say Estonian and Hungarian languages are relative languages. Well, that must be fiction and very far from the truth.

At 10PM the bartender lady started to pack things up and asked us also to wind down, but instead we paid the bill and our friends led us to another nearby bar. Csaba was very wasted and later I learned, he started to hit on Eunice. Well, this wasn’t really something disgusting, but rather cute and funny, perhaps a desperate move by a 55 year old man. Eunice played table football with some other ladies and guys. Surely we had good fun and a good time in Budapest. To be honest we didn’t discover much of the old town of Budapest, perhaps only a few streets. Again next time we could discover more of this city. When I started to pay for the drinks, it turned out our host Csaba had already paid for us too. We thanked Csaba and Tomaš for the drinks and fun time and started our walk back home. Well, it wasn’t easy, because my lovely lady was wasted to the extent that she was running away from me in the dark streets of Budapest. At one point she ran away and I was not able to find her. She was just gone. She didn’t have a cell phone with her and didn’t remember the complicated address of our home. Luckily she popped up again from somewhere and I was able to guide her back home. I guess I witnessed a rare case of too many drinks mixed. It was a fun and memorable night.

Sa09/23 in Hungary

We woke up at 9AM. It was raining and dark outside. I went ahead and prepared breakfast. We both had proper headaches from last night’s bar hopping in Budapest old town. I don’t get hangovers very often, because I rarely go over the line. I guess it happened through mixing too many drinks. Slowly we packed our gear back to the car and got ready to leave. The landlord Tibor arranged for us to see one flat that was designed for BDSM. It was all red and there was even a cage and torture devices. On the table we saw enormous dildos and hanging on the wall we saw a variety of whips. OMG I haven't really seen this subculture with my own eyes. At 11AM we made a little loop in the old town. Budapest is grand, buildings are just so beautiful with all the fancy facades with statues and towers. As it was drizzling and it was damp, we just drove around.

We made a stop at the monument to remember the Hungarian Judes who lost their lives. There was a controversial statue with the angel and the German eagle, which was erected by prime minister Orban. The issue was mostly about the way it was presented, like war time Hungary leaders had nothing to do with the horrors of holocaust. In fact Hungary was an ally to Nazy Germany. But more interesting were the photos and descriptions of the survivors.

After that brief stop, we drove over the vast river Danau and headed south. The highway is actually in bad shape, quite bumpy.  Eunice had a power nap and I listened to podcasts. In the gas station I was stunned by the price - 731HUF or 1.9€ per litre. Total amount was 47,095HUF ~ 123€. Huge numbers made my eyes roll.

At 1:30PM we entered Veszprém, which was apparently the European capital of culture in 2023. Veszprém is a cute town located in the north end of lake Balaton. It was still a bit damp and cloudy. We parked the car into a hotel parking lot and walked through parks up to the old town. There was a nice view over the surrounding area and lake. Again we made a little stop in a nice restaurant and ordered veal ragout soup and coffee.

Soon we walked down the stairs back to the car and continued our journey on the bank of Balaton. In the summer the surrounding area of lake Balaton will turn into super touristy and will not be as sleepy as it was at the end of September.

The next cute town we went to was located on the peninsula, surrounded by the lake, and is called Tihany. We had a small break in this tiny 1000 years old, cute town, because first we were struggling to find parking and later the way to pay for parking. But this place is worth having a day break in the small cute accommodation and fully enjoying the stay.

One thing we understood quickly is that in Tihany and the surrounding area, people are obsessed with the beautiful purple-pink plant called Lavender. These plantations were everywhere, but not anymore that colourful, the season was over. Actually it was sad we happened to be there on a cloudy and damp day. I bet in the sunshine the Balaton will shine. Hopefully we will have another chance to drive around in this beautiful area.

Su09/24 in Hungary

We finally woke up at 9:30AM. Our car glass was covered with moisture, so there was no chance somebody could see us from outside. It was a rough night. At 1AM a strong gust of wind ripped off the outer layer of our tent. It was very windy and from time to time it was raining, it was a proper storm. It was an easy decision to evacuate to the car. Quickly packed stuff and converted the car rear seat into a bed. The wind was very strong, even moving the car side to side. And soon it started to rain as well. It was a good decision to move to the car. It was still drizzling. Slowly we made a spring roll out of the rear seat mattress and rearranged the boxes and soon we started to drive.

At 11 we entered Tapolca and we turned into Tesco grocery and ran through the rain to the entrance from the parked car. Shopping took an hour, because it was really hard to understand the goods with only Hungarian labels. Also I was still not comfortable with calculating in forints. In one aisle I was looking for duct tape and an older man approached me and recommended some tapes speaking only in Hungarian. Lovely, I was not able to understand anything, but he kept on talking. All in all our shopping ended up with the cost of 18,000HUF ~ 47€. In the car parking we packed food and body lotions etc to the respectful boxes in the back of the car and drove to the tiny lake in the old town. 

It was a very cute quiet lake named Malom-Tó surrounded by colourful old well maintained houses. Some of the houses and stairs have been painted with flowers, fish and waves. Very artistic and cool atmosphere. The lake was attractive for both swans and ducks swimming in and people walking around. It started to rain again and we found refuge in Topart Bisztro at the edge of a tiny lake of Malom-Tó. It was obvious that we ordered in the land of goulash both forms of Gulyas as soup and as a dish with macaronis. Our Gulyas experience cost was 10,000HUF ~ 28€. It was a nice lunch break and it was time to continue our journey towards the south-west end of Balaton.

Despite the greyness we witnessed the lovely countryside with tiny roads with stone walls on both sides and endless vineyards laid on the small hills. There were hardly any people walking while we drove, just vineyards and cute houses. Perhaps because it was Sunday and it was damp. At one point we made a little hike to attempt to climb up to one hill to see over the surrounding area and have a clear view to the lake Balaton. But just before the crest we were forced to turn back to the car, because it started to rain again.

When we entered Slovenia we didn’t notice any such thing and actually we were only able to drive a few kilometres in Slovenia when we were caught by the raid. I was frustrated and said it is unnecessary harm by giving me a fine of 150€. And on top of that I needed to pay for the minimum one week pass. The irony was that after Slovenia we were not entering any of those countries that have joined the E-vignette union, because we decided not to go to Austria and Italy, France and Spain have their own highway taxes. That sucked big time. 

At 6PM we entered Maribor. It was Sunday and we didn't need to pay for parking. Maribor old town is lovely, but because of the cold and wet it was almost deserted. First we walked around these cute streets and bought chestnuts. Eunice has not eaten these Mid-European snacks ever. Later we sat in Baščaršija restaurant, which was fully booked and we got a table outdoors. We had chicken soup and coffee. On the way back we bought a slice of pizza, because the pizza joint smelled so good. It started to get dark and we drove on a highway bypassing the capital Ljubljana and pulled off to a little town called Postojna. 

Eunice was able to book a simple hotel for us while we were driving. This time we didn’t see much of Slovenia. Actually there are caves and a monastery built partly into a mountain nearby the same town. There is Koper, where I have been many years ago, on the edge of the sea and Planica and more broadly the Slovenian Alps. And I haven’t seen Ljubljana either. I would like to do Slovenia more thoroughly next time. Eunice did the check in while I was carrying the vital boxes into our room. It was already late and we ate Hungarian snacks and enjoyed the shower again. At 11PM we went to sleep.

Mo09/25 in Slovenia

We woke up at 8AM and soon we had a little grocery break in the same town and continued on the highway towards the west. At 9:45 we entered Italy and soon saw the lovely coastal city Trieste and the Mediterranean sea from the edge of a mountain. Trieste is another rich and beautiful city that has changed ownership many times. It was even a main naval base and port city for the Austrian empire before the First World War. As we zig-zagged down to the city and to the harbour area, we were able to find a parking spot. It was payable parking and I used all my coins for parking. It was a must to buy a panini in a café on the edge of the canal.

We took a train called People Mover that had only two stops and we ended up at piazzale Roma. Of course all of it took time and frustration to figure out where to go and what to take. But the mood was good, the sun was burning nicely and we started to walk in the labyrinth of the wonder world. Imagine, there are no roads for cars, all the people and goods need to be transported via the canals by boats. The canals are the roads instead in this town. First we walked to the train station and it seemed travelling to Venice by train would be the most convenient way of transportation, because the train station is located within the old town. It was lovely to walk in slow phase in random streets, away from the crowd and the tourist path which is marked with St Marcus plaza this way. Instead we ended up at a smaller church plaza, Chiesa Parrocchiale di San Giacomo dall'Orio, and sat in a restaurant and enjoyed pasta. It was very nice to see life in the old town. Kids were playing football and playing around the fountain.

Later we saw laundry hanging across the narrow streets. I really like that the old town is not a museum. In the front of Rialto market we just ate fruits while sitting at the edge of the canal and watched the boats floating by. Nearby was also the famous Rialto stone bridge. In a tiny workshop we saw how local mask artist Micheli glued paper sheets layer by layer to form the surface of the mask and later painted it. The variety of the different designs of the masks and just the colours itself was breathtaking. I’m not obsessed with the masks nor the famous and semi naughty balls, but I really admired his work.

After some dead end streets we found the route to St Marcus plaza. There were hundreds of pigeons who have been part of the plaza for many years and they aren't afraid of people anymore. They ate food from the hand and landed on people. The church tower was high and one attraction is to climb up there, which we again dropped this time. Actually the view of the narrow streets, canals and red roofs below could be worth it. Next time, I would like to stay overnight to see how this town comes alive at night. I can imagine locals will get their asses into some wine shops and little bars after the day's heat and tourists are gone. I suppose it would be a different face of the town.

The sun started to get lower and it started to share a very nice smooth light on the facades of the buildings. On the way back we took a public transport boat near the St Marcus plaza to Roma plaza. The sea between the islands was quite rough and waves were relatively high. The parking fee was a whopping 30€. At sunset we started to drive back to the mainland and towards the autostrada aka paid highway.

As we have been punished in Slovenia, we were very cautious of paying the fees of the motorways. But soon we were in the situation where the autostrada started and we needed to choose the correct line and the toll booth. Unfortunately I took the wrong toll booth and there were no people inside and it was meant for cars who have a monthly subscription and a transmitter on the windscreen. Well, I was not able to reverse or divert to the correct booth, because we had a queue of cars behind us. So, when we pulled off the autostrada, we made contact via the booth microphone and I said I don’t have the ticket. The answer was “No bileta, big problema!” After hearing longer oi-oi and repeating “No bileta, big problema!” the man somewhere in the highway control centre asked where we started our journey and calculated the cost. It was 23€. I paid and we drove to Verona and found the right gate to the camping site in the middle of the city and in the middle of a mediaeval fortification. It was already dark and we needed to park the car, get the spot for the tent and set up the camp. As we were starving, we cooked late dinner too. It was a long drive and day, a lot of emotions. 

Tu09/26 in Italy

We woke up at 8AM. This has been the loveliest payable camping site we had so far. It is located within the castle towering over the old town. There are gates, stairs, walls and camping lots that have been delicately isolated from each other by bushes and vegetation. Birds were singing and we saw a hedgehog hunting for food leftovers last night. As we prepared breakfast and drank coffee, the sun was starting to shine nicely, but we were covered by the walls and high trees. The reception was upstairs, where we paid 34€ for our night. Soon we walked back down, had a shower and packed most of the camp.

At 11AM we walked down the steep road to the river of Adige. We crossed the stone bridge and entered the city of Romeo and Juliet. The streets of the old town of Verona are well organised, built in a square type structure. As we were walking very slowly on these streets we really felt the richness and glory of the past times. The wealth has an imprint on those facades surrounding us while we slowly walk towards the Piazza delle Erbe.

There was a court and garden with the balcony where based on the Shakespear story Juliet was standing and perhaps checking out Romeo. Of course there was a proper crowd gathered in a queue in front of this building to see this. Well, it is just that kind of tourism, like seeing the filming sites of famous movies, which fascinates true fans to visit the sites of movies or books. No, we were not interested in waiting in the queue to see the courtyard and instead went to a nearby narrow street to kiss passionately each-other.

Again we had a nice coffee break in a lovely café, which was a bit drifted from the main tourist path. The menu and the service was only in Italian and that was a fine, genuine cultural experience. Right next to us were older Italian couples who had their espressos.  After seeing the almost 1000 years old Lamberti tower, we slowly walked to an even older landmark - Arena di Verona. This is a smaller version of the colosseum, but very well preserved like in Pula, Croatia. It housed 20,000 excited visitors to see gladiator fights or similar sophisticated art. Nowadays it presents opera shows. After seeing this megastructure, we slowly zig-zagged through the old town to our camp. There was not much to pack and soon we drove to the west on smaller roads and avoided motorways.

At 3PM we reached the little town Pai on the bank of lake Garda. First we decided to eat our combo - a soup and a coffee. The café was nicely located at the lake side and we saw big fish in the transparent water. The higher majestic peaks of the Alps were the backdrop in the north most of the time when we started our journey from Trieste. There was a small grocery store where we bought more supplies for the upcoming days. The area around Garda is nice and calm, it will definitely be a destination for next travels and we would like to stay there a couple nights to enjoy the view of the lake and surrounding mountains.

Now we turned south-west and drove on the highway towards another rich and dominant political player in the past, Genova. But along the way we decided we should find a camping spot near Genova. At 8:30PM we reached the camping site in 30 minutes to Genova. The road leading to Garbanga was very twisty and went through small and old mountain villages. It was already dark. We checked in and found a spot near the main building. There were only a handful of campers.

We09/27 in Italy

We woke up at 8AM. Soon we took a shower and prepared breakfast. It was a windless morning and the sun was warming us nicely, but I was able to see clearly the steam of breath coming from my mouth. So, it wasn’t that warm after all. Our neighbours took off and headed towards Innsbruck. We had a friendly cat who had a fresh wound behind one ear from the evening fight with other male cats for supremacy in this spot and perhaps because of female cats too. As we were already experienced campers, our moves were rational, but not rushed. We ate and slowly packed our camp. At 10:30AM I paid a 25€ fee for the camping site and started to drive towards Genoa. Instead of heading back to the autostrada, we continued on smaller roads and saw some lovely small villages and mountainous terrain. I had a work-related meeting on the way.

At 12:30PM we entered Genoa. This is a vast and confusing city. Our route to the city centre crossed so many tangled and interconnected bridges and causeways, it was hard to follow Google lady's instructions. Eventually we entered the tunnel and found a parking space near the piazza Raffaele de Ferrari. Quickly we sat in the café and ordered a spritz and latte macchiato and a set of snacks. Snacks included olives, bruschettas, nuts and chips. Total cost was 20€. Eunice took the Volvo keys and walked back to the car to have an English class with Haruna, because the café environment was too noisy. I stayed a bit longer and wrote a diary. I walked a bit in the very grand city. Genoa and Venice were the two rival superpowers 500 years ago, both were republics and not kingdoms. Very impressive. I walked back to the car and slowly we started our journey towards France.

Surely we need to come back to this city, because we only sniffed it. Again we decided to avoid highways and drove on the magnificent coastal road through multiple resort towns and beaches near the road. This road also climbed over the rocky mountains. In Bergeggi we made a beach break and dipped into the Mediterranean sea.

The water was rather cold, getting deep very quickly and the little stone surface mixed with sand was sinking. We laid on the sand. In Italy I have seen ladies sun paving without bras and it is not sluttish or anything. There were only a few people around, because it was getting late, the sun was starting to hide behind the big hills and people went away. Soon we also continued our journey. Soon we made another stop in another coastal town and bought juicy grapes and plums. At one point we decided to turn into autostrades, because otherwise we would reach Toulon at midnight. The nice coastal road is just too time consuming. Next time we would like to stay more in Sanremo, Monaco, Nice, Saint Tropez and Cannes. We skip them all this time. To my great annoyance we saw beautiful castles and villages on mountain tops while we were driving on the highway and we were not able to stop at will. The autostrade was quick and boring, and costs were relatively high, 5-15 euros each time we crossed through the tolls. We entered France at 7PM and we continued on highways.

The rational decision was not to take the hotel or go to the campsite. The hotels in Toulon were 100€ + price range and we thought it would not be sensible and the camping would be pointless, just too much hassle. So, Volvo it was for the night. There were some passing drunk people, but we didn't let them bother us too much. At 11PM we went to sleep.

Th09/28 in France

I snoozed the alarm a couple times and finally decided to wake up at 6AM. Despite the passing cars, annoying flashing ads and pedestrians we were able to sleep in the car. It was nearly 7 hours of sleep and our crampy camper van was just fine. Next big task was to roll the mattres into a spring roll shape and rearrange all the boxes in the back of a car. At 6:30AM we drove to the nearby port entrance and ended up in the queue. There was a lady with the measuring stick and it turned out that our car with the ski box was not under 190CM like I claimed online, but 196CM and we needed to pay an additional 17€. 

It was a relatively big ship. As we left the car in the belly of the ship we walked up to the 7th deck seeking a quiet spot for laying down. There were options for buying a cabin or seats too, but again they were asking ridiculous prices for that. Besides, it was a day cruise and didn’t include the night. Eventually we slept on the carpet beneath the stairs like teenagers. Actually we saw the teenagers' imprints from the past in the form of carvings on the surface of the stainless steel metal which reflected the importance like S+M within the heart. Well, we felt like teenagers too, sleeping in an illegal spot. Eventually we had a nap for about two hours and after that we walked to the café and got hot drinks in the paper cups. Once the sun was up and bright we also went out to the deck and enjoyed sunshine. Actually it was quite cold indoors because of the AC. We ate grapes that we bought from Italy. The sea surface was very still, no waves. There was a little breeze. I was able to see a little dolphin swimming near the ship and jumping in and out the sea.

At 10:30PM the ship entered the Alcúdia port on the northside of the island. They started to offload the stream of cars to Mallorca. Soon we were on the highway. Our fuel gauge dropped to zero. I was pretty sure there will be enough fuel until Palma or there will be a gas station on the road any time soon. But some 15KM before Palma the engine shut down and we rolled on neutral gear off the highway into a small road and into darkness. Eunice tried to get her cousin Joy's husband Justin to bring us diesel. But this was a long shot. After some waiting one car stopped in the pitch black darkness, only Volvo indicator lights gave some light. The guy who stopped helped me to get to the nearest gas station with our big 7 litre water bottle. I poured the water out and filled it with 10€ worth of diesel and we drove back. He was from Torino and working in the pro level racing bicycle shop in Palma. We thanked him and gave some Estonian chocolate candies. Volvo needed some diesel pumping, but fired up nicely after some tries. Eunice was more worried about me, after all I went with a total stranger god knows where to get the diesel. But there are always nice people around to help. 

I turned the car nose back to the highway and drove to Palma. It took some hassle to find the right address in very narrow streets, but Joy was already on the street to welcome us.  Eunice went up and I went with Justin to find a parking spot. Well, that was a big challenge. Parking is free and therefore every possible and impossible place is full of cars. It took some 30 minutes of spinning around the block many times and finally got the spot a bit further away in the marina area. Eunice's aunt had prepared Filipino pork food with white steamed rice. Eunice had been itching for rice for a long time. We probably made enough noise so that little dude Khalil woke up to see what was going on. He is 3 years old and was very happy about the basket full of Estonian candies. Finally at 2AM we fell into bed.

Fr09/29 in Mallorca

It was a good sleep in a proper bed for a change and at 9AM we rolled off from bed. First, we walked back to the parked car. It was already nicely warm. We took the necessary items and walked back. We took a shower and prepared breakfast. I consumed our own camping leftovers. There is a lovely balcony and I prepared the breakfast outdoors. Balcony is overlooking to a tiny yard where there are few big trees which provide shade from the burning sun in the summer. I worked a bit and needed to walk back to get one credit card. Eunice's aunt prepared lunch which was finger licking good. She offered shrimps in the sauce and fried fish and of course a pile of rice. We might gain weight during the stay in Mallorca and not lose any.

At 1PM Eunice had a two hour marathon English class with Haruna. I worked and wrote a diary while laying on the couch at the balcony. Only little mosquitos were annoying, but our host brought an electric weapon to deal with these tiny insects. Eunice aunt Yolanda aka Olli prepared us ice coffees. She talked about life in Majorca and how she has been recovering from severe sickness. Later Khalil was playing with Eunice on the balcony. This was their first meeting.

Soon we reached back home. Later in the evening we walked to tourist streets in the marina area. It was time to buy ice cream and Eunice was able to speak Tagalog with  the seller. There are many Filipinos in Mallorca and in the bigger cities in Spain, because it is relatively easy to get work permission and there is always a need for hands in the service sector.

Palma is a rather small town and we were able to walk to the old town. First we checked the well preserved fort and surrounding narrow streets. Well, the streets are just adorable and small restaurants and bars were very tempting, but we had a plan to get back for more thorough exploring and perhaps having dinner with Joy. Slowly we made our way back through streets with vivid nightlife. Close to midnight we reached back home and it was all quiet and all were sleeping and we too went to sleep.

Sa09/30 in Mallorca

We woke up at 9:30AM and Khalil ran into our room. He was very interested in our stuff. Eunice prepared noodle breakfast and we drank coffee. Eunice got some clothes from Joy, because they are like sisters only a few months between and they grow up 5 metres from each other in Carmen, Cebu. April Joy, that is her full name, had clients to get eyelashes done and Justin went to work as a chef in a Thai restaurant. Another cousin of Joy came to babysit Khalil while she was making clients pretty in another room. So it was time for us to explore the island. First we needed to walk to the car and pray we'll make it to the nearest gas station. Well, we made it and tanked 50 litres. So, there was plenty on the bottom of the tank still. BP had a weird system of paying first. Well, I didn't know how much I could tank, although the tank was empty. I took 50 litres and paid 89€. We drove to La Romana beach.

Slowly we walked back to the car and drove to Coll de Sa Gramola view point at 360 metres. It was the right time to take out the chairs from the ski box and sit in the shade of a tree and eat grapes, nectarine and plums and admire the view over the valley all the way to the blue sea. Time to time some bicyclists stopped by and catched their breath before going down the hill. Some of them tried to find shelter around the steep cliffs and rocks, rolled their suits down and relieved their natural desperate needs. But for us it was a nice, slow time.

At 3PM we rolled down the hill and soon up again. All of a sudden we entered tiny streets full of people. It turned out there was a street food festival in Estellencs. Later we learned they have organised this festival for 10 years to remember the festival’s first organiser Mateu Vidal who has passed away. We parked the car and walked to the busy street corner, where around the church was a stage for a jazz band, multiple food trucks and tables full of good and affordable food and drinks.

The small tower was on the edge of the cliff and overlooking the vast sea below. The climb up to the tower’s cannon deck required climbing up through a very small hole. There was a very nice view to the shoreline of Mallorca. Somewhere beyond the horizon lies the shore of mainland Spain.

The road continued to crawl around and over the mountains and through pine forest. There was another lovely town called Esporles on the way, but this time we decided not to stop there and drove home. We found the parking space in the same area a few days before and walked home. The heat of the sun had drained us and we felt flattened. Olli had prepared chicken stew with bananas aka chicken pochero with rice. Later in the evening it was a domestic night. There was a Coco cartoon in the background and of course I was crying watching that. We opened up the Vana Tallinn liqueur and added rocks and milk. Even Joy sipped that drink. At 9:30PM we went to sleep.

Su10/01 Mallorca

It is the first day of October and it will again be a tropical +30'C day. Amazing. Khalil came to our room and played with real potatoes and lemons. All were cartoon characters. He is a cute boy. A bit spoiled already though. Justine prepared the typical Filipino childhood porridge - a sticky rice with chocolate. Additionally we drank coffee.

At 11AM we hiked up to the Castell de Ballver. As it was a proper uphill hike, we did many stops and we kept a non-sporty phase. Afterall we didn't want to sweat like pigs once we reached the castle, besides it was already very hot outside. It was a free submission on Sunday and masses have conquered the fort. This fortification has been renovated very well and it has two floors of museum.

After a few hours we walked back home and had a shower. Joy, Justin and Khalil had returned from the playing ground. It was time for a siesta and we had a nap. Later we ate again Olli's prepared Filipino food - ribs in tomato sauce and potatoes and carrots aka caldereta. It seems we have driven from Tallinn to the Philippines. I was happy that Eunice was able to get the missed home-cooked Filipino food. We did laundry and had coffee drinks on the balcony. Joy and Khalil had also nap. Justin went to work. Olli had a baptising ceremony in a Christian church she is going to.

Afternoon we had a quiet time on the balcony. Only some pigeons flew around the branches and made noises.  At 5PM Khalil woke up, Justin went back to work in a restaurant, he had a siesta. It seems the restaurant is also closed during the siesta time or working with less crew. Who is eating lunch in a restaurant in that kind of heat? Khalil came calling Tita and was happy to see Eunice. She is taking aunt’s duties seriously and as a result Khalil is happy to play around although this has been the first time they ever met. 

At one point Olli came back from church with sister. She was exhausted from the baptising ceremony. Soon there were more people and they all went back to church for dinner. Later we ate and chatted with Joy. At 9PM we went out with Eunice for drinks. Many bars were closed because it was Sunday. We walked past a  tourist bar and ended up at the parking area where our Volvo was parked. That was a proper local spot. Soon We sat out on white plastic chairs and surrounded by only relatively noisy locals, most were playing a domino board game and drinking. The host couple was very nice. They are from Colombia and they offered us Colombian tapas which were flattened fried bananas with hot sauces.

I ordered Riviera red wine and Eunice had an Aperol spritz and later a local liqueur called Hierbas Mallorquinas. Our bill was 27€. It was a fun night in a community restaurant. At midnight we walked back and quietly went to bed in order to not wake up everybody.