Well since my last update we have been through Greece, into Turkey and even to Asia, then up through Bulgaria where our Alternator pulley exploded, through Romania where our welded alternator pulley fell apart then our JK repro pulley failed, through Hungary and we are currently in Bratislava Slovakia for one night only shortly I am going outside to changce the oil and then we will be heading to Vienna and Austria for a week or two.
I cant be arsed to write loads so I will let the pics do the talking, there are a few...
Our first night in Greece camped on a beach
Monemvasia, South Pelopennese
An awesome drive from Olympia to Kalamata, I think
I found it strange to think of people skiing in Greece but apparently they do
A lovelz riverside camp gave for a refreshing batrh in the morning
Not sure if this was some guys garage or a boneyard...
a couple of m,z fave pics from South Peloponese
I set a new PB at the 192m sprint at Olympia :-[
At our southerlz most point of travel in Greece
and some Greek architecture you may recognise in Athens
Greece involved visiting a lot of ancient ruins of temples etc and beach camping ;D
My birthday camp even provided some decking
We were only in Turkey for a couple of night so not many pictures to show, Istanbul
Car parks in Istanbul when you want to get your van out...
Bulgaria we whizzed through but we did visit seom Thorcian kings tombs, which were closed so all zou could see were giant molehills
and at the top of the mountain range that splits the country into north and south
Before we left we visited Veilko Tarvano which was quite impressive
No idea where we were, other than on our way out of Bulgaria but I love this pic...
Onwards to Romania which has been our favorite country so far and in Bucharest saw this beaut outside the Hilton
and this round the corner
later met some Romanian guys who said vans were supplied with a lesser powered watercooled engine over there. We ran out of gas and had to cook over fires for a while
While we waited for a new alternator pulley we were forced to camp three nights be a lake here
was difficult
but we explored a monestary
and walked up a mountain
where I proposed to Nic
she said YES ;D
With the alternator pulley sorted we also treated the van to some new shoes
and moved onto Sibiu for a celebratory dinner as it was Nics birthday two days later
Just outside Sibiu there is a museum of Romanian culture from the last 2 decades which was interesting if you are into that sort of thing, then we moved onto Brasov to explore Bran and learn about Vlad the Impaler and to go bear hunting
Camped in Bran after too long without a shower
then explored the gorge at Zanesti
Before heading back to Brasov to pick up the second alternator pulley and walked down one of the narrowest street in Europe, Rope Street. Not sure what made it a street as opposed to an alley?
found a campsite on a mountain ridge, by far our best wild camp from the last four months
With the van back to full running order we headed to Hungary with 8 days to get to Vienna to meet my mum. On the waz out of Romania we stumbled across a local village fete so stopped to buy some lunch and some honey
We found a big car boot the following day and Nic wanted to explore her gypsie side
Into Hungary and my main aim was to visit a bath house in Budapest, so while it pissed it down outside and Nic went wandering round the city I spent 3 hours swimming, saunaing and steaming myself in the Gellert baths
After Budapest the wind really picked up and blew us all over the place and blew the temperature down. We had bought a 4 day vignette so only
drove through Hungary without much motivation to get out of the mild temperture in the van into the chilly winds outside.
Now in Bratislava with snow falling, I have bought some foil sided insulation foam ansd turned the back of the van into a panel van top try and keep the temperature higher when camped.
Setting off now to Austria then will head to Swityerland either via Czech and Germany or not, then up to Belgium and Amsterdam before arriving back in the UK next month...
Lets hope for an unusually warm autumn.
