More Romania, Hungary and into Slovakia

The campsite at Carta where we stayed 24th/25th May even had artwork in the toilets!

On Friday 25th May we went north and passed through Sighisoara, the birthplace of Vlad the Impaler more commonly known as Dracula. We saw this interesting church in town and also got hassled by two local urchins - very third world.

 

In common with many parts of eastern and central europe there are many storks nests to be seen in towns and villages - bringers of good luck? We spent the night of Friday 25th May in a motel car park near Reghin, Romania. No charge - parking is free round here.

On Saturday 26th May we continued north to close to the Ukranian border. We passed through some very poor areas - it seems washing machines (and womens' rights?) are a pretty low priority round here.

There were roadworks going on interminably and lots of enormous potholes.

Haymaking was going on - the haystacks are interestingly shaped.

We spent the night of Saturday 26th May on some wasteground by a river near Barsana in north west Romania.

On Sunday 27th May we visited the orthodox monastry at Barsana, north west Romania - it was like something out of a disney theme park with a semi open air mass going on - very atmospheric!

From Barsana we drove west along the Ukranian border which takes the form of a river.

Later we stopped at an amazing graveyard were every grave had a picture of the deceased and a humourus verse about the person buried beneath.

Finally we crossed into Hungary and spent the night in the swimming pool car park in the town of Mateszalka.

On Monday 28th May we moved on to the Bukk Hills between Miskolc and Eger.

We found a nice campsite in the beech woods and lit a fire!

On Tuesday 29th May we visited Eger. A nice little town but not a real wow! Here's a view from the castle battlements. Apparently the water here has medicinal qualities - hope so as we filled up a bottle. Eger is home to Egri Bikaver wine - often referred to as Bull's Blood.

Eger cathedral is in my opinion a bit over the top. I think they call this style "Baroque". We spent last night in a layby at Mataterrenye, northern Hungary.

Today Wednesday 30th May we changed our plans and instead of travelling west to the Danube Bend north of Budapest we instead travelled north out of Hungary and into Slovakia where the country became more and more hilly as we headed for the High Tatra mountains on the Slovakian/Polish border.

This afternoon we arrived at the foot of the Tatra and  got some tantalising glimpses of the high peaks through the clouds.

We are staying to night at this campsite with mountain views (clouds permitting) at Tatranska Lomnica in Slovakia. There is a german van which you can see beyond ours. Otherwise no other campers yet though there is a hotel on site which seems to have a few Czech guests.

More Bulgaria and into Romania

On Sunday 20th May We travelled north up the Black Sea coast to the city of Varna but couldn't find any any where to park for the night so we gave up on the overdeveloped Black Sea Coast and travelled inland going westwards.

Before too long we arrived at "the Stone Forest" a few kilometres west of Varna. These incredible formations look like they have been put up by humans but infact are complrtely natural.

There is a really nice car park next to the Stone Forest where we had our own beautiful tree with holes in its trunk and rustic seat right outside our van door where we stayed the night.

On Monday 21st May we aimed to visit the Thracian Royal Tomb at Svestari but we failed to read our Rough Guide to Bulgaria sufficiently throughly in advance and when we got there reallised that it was only open Wednesday to Sunday!

We continued north to the Danube at Ruse and parked in what we thought was an okay car park near to the bridge over the Danube to Romania. However not only were we charged 20 Leva (£8.00) for the priviledge but also as the night progressed we were surrounded by lorries which kept their engines running all night but to add injury to insult the "staff" at the Ruse Free Zone who ran the car park took it on themselves to dissconnet us from our electricity supply during the night without telling us. I gained the impression that they regarded us as less than human!

On Tuesday 22nd May we crossed the Danube into Romania.

We saw many fellow travellers on the road once we crossed to Romania. Apparently even educated Romanians regard them as less than human and totally unable to benefit from any social programs. While we're here maybe we are more like the Roma than we think!

We spent the night at a motorway service area between Bucharesti and Pitesti. It rained a lot.

On Wednesday 23rd May we tried to cross the Carpathian Mountains at their highest part but the pass was blocked due to snow and we had to turn back.

We stayed the night at a campsite hight in the mountains with fantastic views. However it was not all good - I scraped the van on the electricity bollard you see behind it and got temporarily stuck in the mud - grim! Give me a nice car park any day.

Today 24th May we passed this amazing wooden church - reminiscent of the Norwegian Stave Churches we saw last summer.

We headed north to the city of Brasov but it was not van friendly territory - nowhere to park so we headed west towards Fagares.

We tried to visit two separate fortified churches but on neither occasion could get in for obvious reasons!

We passed the golden dome of Fagares Cathedral and are tonight staying at a very nice campsite between Fagares and Sibiu. It is raining.

From the Mediterranian to the Black Sea

On Thursday 17th May we parked on the quayside at Porto Lagos near Xanthi in NE Greece with fishing boats coming in and out. There was a fish shop right next to the quay and I bought, cooked and ate a beautiful golden striped fish much to Ann's disgust.

Porto Lagos seems to be in decline. The beach has silted up and turned into a wetland. There is a heronry in the pine woods and lots and lots of litter.

Wherever we went this sandy coloured dog came with us.

On Friday 18th May we travelled north to Dadia National Park which is noted for a wide variety of birds of prey. It rained - here is Ann in her pixie outfit courtesy of the Guardian.

We continued north and crossed from Greece into Bulgaria. The country was wild and sparsely populated with what villages we saw being very run down and poor. We spent the night in a village square which was surrounded by redundant soviet era administrative buildings adorned by images of the heroic bulgarian peasantry doing their traditional dances. Very patronising when viewed through today's eyes!

Today Saturday 19th May we headed east towards the black sea coast and passed some fairly horrendous industrial scenary on the way.

Eventually we arrived at the Black Sea and parked next to it at Nesebar.

Nesebar is a nice old town with some beautiful byzantine churches but it is also a horrendous tourist trap!

North past Thessaloniki and then eastwards towards Kavala

On the morning of Wednesday 16th May the clouds cleared and we got some good views of the Mt Olimpos massive from the motorway service area where we had spent the night.

We set our sat nav to avoid toll charges and hence went a very roundabout way around the city of Thessaloniki - probably a false economy. Eventually we were able to head east and stopped for a cup of tea by Lake Volvi where Ann fed this flock of geese with our biscuits.

We stayed last night at this service station on the road to Kavala which has good servicing facilities for vans and excellent wifi all for free. We are heading off east again this morning Thursday 17th May. The weather is cloudy for a change!

More Peloponnes and starting to travel north

Before leaving the campsite at Gialova Pylou on Thursday 10th May Ann took a dip in the sea.

Close to the campsite was Mycenian Nestor's Palace. The Palace was destroyed by fire over 3000 years ago but this bathtub survived.

Close to the Palace was this Mycenian Tholos Tomb.

We continued south to the fishing village of Koroni where we spent the night parked by the harbour. This was the view from our van.

On Friday 11th May we left Koroni and travelled north up the coast to the city of Kalamata where we could again turn south and head for The Mani - the extreme south of the Greek mainland and notorious wild country where blood feuds have been carried on for centuries.

We stayed the night at Neo Itylo on the west coast of the Mani. We were parked on a minor road right by the sea and close to a nice restuarant where I had this very nice fish for my evening meal - Ann had a kebab which was not so nice.

On Saturday 12th May we drove anticlockwise aroung the southern Mani - south down the west coast and north up the east. We saw many of these traditional tower houses - build for short range gun battles between houses as part of the feuding culture of the Mani.

That night we left the Mani and travelled north to the Parnonas Mountains where we stayed on this pass at nearly 1200 metres.

On the morning of Sunday 13th May we descended form the Parnonas Mountains through an incedible limestone gorge where we saw this monastery perched on a huge mountain wall.

We stayed Sunday night at a Camperstop in Korinthos. The site had a path to what was described as Aphrodite's Waters which was a horrible muddy dripping cave inhabited by nasty looking fresh water crabs!

Before leaving Korinthos on Monday 14th May we visited the site of Ancient Korinthos - amazing - here is the Temple of Apollo. They even had the podium from which St Paul adressed the townsfolk in 52AD!

We then started serious travel north and found this quiet spot just north of the city of Lamia to spend last night. There was a tremendous electical storm during the night.

Today Tuesday 15th May we continued north and came upon this little orthodox church on a high mountain pass close to Mount Olimpos. Inside were many beautiful icons as below for example.

Tonight we are stopped at a motorway service area about 60 kilometres south os Thessaloniki. The wifi here doesn't seem to upload very well so not as many pictures as I would have liked in this post.