Today was supposed to be a pseudo-long day. The Adventurists had organized a party in Vama Veche, Romania which is supposed to be a pretty cool place right on the Black Sea. The problem is the total journey would be around 1000 miles away that we would have to do in 2 days, which doesn’t factor in driving on that crazy highway.
The goal was to drive through Austria or Slovakia, stopping in Budapest to check it out and then trying to drive as close to or as far into Romania as possible. Of course, the best laid plans of mice and men. There was a ton of traffic through most of the day, and even leaving Prague at 8am took about 9 hours hours to get to Budapest, which should have taken 5.5 hours. On the way out of the Czech Republic we stopped in a town called Brno to grab lunch. We worked our way into the city center and found that the place was pretty cool. Incredibly ornate stone buildings everywhere. It felt like a very laid back old European city devoid of all the typical tourist stuff. We used Tripavisor to find a place to eat and decided to go to what was ranked as the #3 restaurant in Brno. We got pretty close and realized it was inside a hotel which is fine, but we had passed so many cafes with outdoor seating and it was quite a lovely day. Lunch was pretty darn tasty, and still pretty darn cheap. 3 meals, a couple beers and bottles of water ended up being around $30.
Slovakia was uneventful. We zipped through in less than an hour, though we were stopped at the border briefly. You’re supposed to get a “vignette” at some borders, which is like a temporary registration or something for your car. We were waved to stop right as we crossed the border, and after a police officer looked at our passports, he literally lol’ed and pointing out that 3 Americans in a French car in Slovakia going to Mongolia was quite funny to him. He let us go and we didn’t even have to get the vignette.
You’re supposed to stop right past the Hungary border and buy a vignette but we didn’t. Whatever, what’s the worst that could happen. Mitch eventually got tired and pulled into a rest stop area to switch off with me. Getting out of the car he was immediately accosted by a Hungarian speaking woman trying to sell him an iPhone. Wtf. She was really jabbering on, even after he pointed out that he already had one. We went to the bathroom, decided not to use that bathroom and were accosted by a guy this time, still trying to sell an iPhone. Wtf. It happened again at the next gas station. Lot of stolen or fake iPhones in Hungary. Also the conversion rate is pretty funny when you get gas. 47 litres for $1603 Czech Korunas.
The silver lining of all the traffic is that the car is going slow enough to open the van door and bring in some extra air. Today was hot as hell.
We drove into Budapest to check it out and grab a bite to eat. There was a convoy of teams that were going to be driving through, so we figured we’d get a bite to eat and wait for them. We parked the car in front a random hotel, exchanged some currency and headed our way to what is supposed to be one of Europe’s best bars. When we got there we collectively decided that we’re not going to have our schedule revolve around the organized events of the Adventurists. We were tired of driving for the day so we decided to spend the night in Budapest. After wandering around for a bit we found a hotel and were happy to have the room issue settled so we could get food. When we got to the room we were a little surprised how swank it was. The only problem was that the entire bathroom was frosted glass, which is really weird, creepy, and unnecessary to know what the person you’re with is doing…
Ryan and I decided to stay in for the night and rest but Mitch went out to do some laundry and meet some other teams. He might update this shortly. Sorry not a lot of pictures of Budapest, so here’s one I pulled off of Google (and then some of ours)
WTF is that?
