European Adventure

Gallery: Austria & Hungary

connie_elman — Sat, 3 Nov 2007 05:38:00 GMT

19-26 Sep

Austria & Hungary (9) 19-26 Sep

connie_elman — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 23:05:00 GMT

Austria - a welcome sight after the Czech Republic and I could understand everything again. At this border crossing the guy actually wanted to look in our van. So when we opened the back door for him, there were our wet clothes hanging up everywhere. He couldn't help but smirk

So we entered Austria and our GPS took us around some back villages for a while because apparently that was the 'fastest way' to Wien.

The Carrot - oh yes our first night in Austria will always be a memorable one. So there we were in Horn, preparing dinner, when I ate a small piece of carrot, cut like a $1 coin. It felt like it got stuck down my throat, and then I got sharp pains in my chest. The pain got worse and was at the back of my chest. It came and went, and after 1L of water and some other food wouldn't go away. I have never felt anything so painful. After 20 minutes, Elman had enough and found the closest hospital. They were really friendly and took an x-ray of my chest while I drunk some yucky fluid. Nothing stuck or torn, so the carrot just caused damaged to my throat (Schpeise rohr). They put me on a drip for an hour (painkillers and relaxant). Felt much better after that, but it still really hurt to swallow. Poor Elman was starving at this stage and had to eat his potatoes soggy that night :-( The next day I could already eat soft food, and recovered fast from then on. It's pretty embarrassing in hind sight.

Vienna (Wien) - what a beautiful city, many old buildings and palaces. We had a look at the Hofburg in town and Schloss Schoenbrunn. I also looked at the Sissi Museum, Kaiser Apartments and Silber Museum. I loved watching a film about the Austrian Empress Sissi when I was little, so having a look at Wien was great for me. Especially the Schloss Schoenbrunn where the movie was filmed. There where huge gardens around this castle with a few over all Wien and even a maze garden. (Yes Bianka, I finally got to walk through one) The nights in Wien where cold but the days were very pleasant.

Unfortunatley that was it for Austria, as we planned to come back to the western side of Austria when we travel through western Europe.

Hungary was nice and green and warm when we got there. Different buildings and cutlure, and a weird language.

Started in Sopron, cute little town with remaining city walls and old buildings. From here we drove to Fertrod, without much help of our GPS. The navigation system only had main cities and streets, but we managed to find the Castle, Esterhazy Kasthely, and later we looked at a fortress in Komarom.

Esztergom - great little town on the Danube River on the border to Slovakia. Not sure if we pronounced its name right. There was an awesome Dome top church at the top of the hill overlooking the town and river, the most interesting church we'd seen so far. All marble interior. We climbed the tiny winding stairs to the top of the dome and walked around outside. The weather was magnificent, shorts and t-shirt, bring it on. Not sure how safe the construction of the walkways at the top were, guess we are here to tell the story. We walked across the bridge to Slovakia, so we can say that we have been there too :-) for all of 10 minutes.

to be continued ......

Czech Republic (8) 16-19 Sep

connie_elman — Tue, 9 Oct 2007 20:48:00 GMT

Passed a border to get into the Czech Republic, from Germany. Stamped our passports. So this was the scene as we entered the country: older houses, same style as Germany but not that well kept, uncut grass along the road, small market stalls along the road, and some small little huts with a glass front. In these huts there were woman in underwear dancing. When we passed the first one it was like, was that really ? Yes, it was, keep driving. There were only these huts along the first road and town and from then onwards we didn't see anymore. Doesn't leave a great impression of a country in your mind.

Can tell this is a poored country. Neither of us could read the road signs, or understand the language.

Our first stop was at a highway rest stop for the night. Some Indian looking dude came up to our van asking for help because his car wouldn't work. Tried to sell a 'gold' ring to us, I shut the door on him. Elman watched the next day as a bunch of gypsies tried their luck on any foreign car at the rest stop. Politely told them no, and they left us alone.

Prague: had Aussies at our camping ground, first time we heard a familiar accent, was nice. The first day it was really warm, we caught a tram into the city. Only one mode of transport, only took 15 minutes, that's a good start. When we got to the centre it took us a while to figure out where we were, both of us were stubborn and reckoned it was this way or that way. How funny. Went for a walk through the centre of the city, heaps of cobbled roads and old buildings. Some really cute narrow streets. Crossed the bridge to the Prague Castle. Walked around the gardens and then up some steep stairs to the top. Wishing that we weren't wearing long pants cause it was so hot. (But after the Scandinavian weather we weren't going to complain) Great view over the whole city at the top, as well as the castle, a cathedral and a large courtyard. After exploring the top we headed back down, accross the bridge and into the town square where we enjoyed an icecream. Prague is a very picturesce city, with heaps of tourists. Back at our camping ground we did some washing and enjoyed the warm weather. Unfortunately I woke up to rain, and had to move our washing inside. The next day it was pissing down rain, and not exactly warm anymore. Packed up our stuff and roped up the back of our van so we could hang all our clothes up.

Ceske Budejovice: the home to Budvar (Budweiser) Beer. We drove here straight from Prague, unfortunately it was still drizzling outside. Most of our clothes were still wet so we had to hang it in the front of our van now. What a sight :-) Ceske had a nice town square and pretty old buildings, although we enjoyed walking around the shopping centre more because it was freezing outside. Shorts one day, thick jacket the next. We did a tour of a brewery here. I found it really interesting but Elman had already been to a brewery before. He did get to drink my portion of the beer tasting tough.

Czech Rep was the cheapest so far for grocery shopping and they had the best bread. As we had both never been there before, it was an interesting experience. Next stop Austia

Gallery: Germany 12-16 Sep

connie_elman — Tue, 9 Oct 2007 20:27:00 GMT

East Germany

Germany (7) 12-16th Sep

connie_elman — Thu, 4 Oct 2007 19:24:00 GMT

Welcome back to Germany, was glad to be out of freezing cold Sweden, although northern Germany was not much warmer. Was dark when we got off the Ferry so we couldn't see much.

Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp - this is a former concentration camp, so there isn't really much to say. A little depressing to walk around the grounds.

Berlin - stayed at a nice camping ground along a small river, surrounded by bush, wouldn't think that you're in the middle of a capital city. Catching public transport into the city was a mission. Had to walk about 750m to the bus stop, then catch a bus to the U-Bahn, catch that to the tram, had to swap to another tram to arrive in the centre of town. It was worth it though, we both really liked Berlin. Did the toursity thing and looked at Brandenburger Tor, Reichstag, Holocaust Memorial, Fernsehturm (TV Tower) and walked past many old buildings. The next day we went on a 'Biking Berlin Tour', did about 20km on a push bike around the city, with a guide explaining the history of the whole city. Took around 5 hours. Have to say that I had forgotten that the wall was actually around West Berlin. Stopped at the Wall, Dokumentationszentrum, Check Point Charlie, Bebelplatz & more, and rode right through the centre of town again. Was heaps of fun, great way to see the city, and our guide was hilarious. By the time we caught all our transport back to the camping ground it was 10pm, so we were pretty tired and hungry. Was worth it though.

But as good as Berlin was, we couldn't stay in one place too long - got the travelling bug.

Dresden: another great city. Weren't very orgainsed about when we got here so I missed out on seeing my cousin. Very slack of me! Dresden has an awesome AltStadt (old city). Lots of old Castles, Curches and an Opera building. Really pretty main street with trees running through the centre. Just really nicely set out, and imaculate. We visited a huge Art Gallery (Galarie Alte Meister), some pretty cool old paintings. Elman has to look at every single one and also read all the captions. So I was a little bored after an hour, guess I'm not an art critic. We also went next door to the Armoury (Ruestkammer). This had old weapons and armoury from the 1700's onwards, like swords, guns and horse armour. Was really sunny and warm.

That was it for Germany this time, headed towards the Czech Republic.

Gallery: Sweden

connie_elman — Sun, 9 Sep 2007 18:25:00 GMT

visiting Elman's family in Göteborg

Gallery: Germany 4 Aug - 19 Aug

connie_elman — Sat, 8 Sep 2007 02:04:00 GMT

Two weeks spent with family

Gallery: Denmark

connie_elman — Thu, 6 Sep 2007 08:47:00 GMT

the cold country

Sweden (6)

connie_elman — Wed, 5 Sep 2007 00:51:00 GMT

So after looking onto Sweden from Denmark all day, we caught the ferry over. Welcoming looking port in Helsingborg with many flags flying. We headed out of the city along the highway direction north. In the south Sweden looks similar to Denmark, the further north we drove the more hills there were. There are also bigger houses and more green grass (as apposed to empty fields).

The first night we stayed at a rest stop near Falkenberg. Continued to Göteborg the next day. Sunny but still not all too warm.

Elman's Aunty and Oncle welcomed us at Göteborg the next day. His two cousins came as well for a late lunch. My turn to not understand anything :-) Elman's Aunty and Uncle only speak Bosnian and Swedish, but his two cousins and their partners can speak English really well.

The same night still his two cousing plus partners took us to 'Liseberg' an amusement park in the centre of the city. Went on a revolving tower, that takes you 120m above the city. You just sit there as it takes you to the top and then it slowly turns, giving you a view of the city. Played some games, and walked through a ghost house.

On Monday Elman and his cousin went fishing, catching 5 trout. I went into the city, to a huge shopping mall and then a large park. The park had lots of animals to see for free, including Moose, very cool.

We've also been to a Maritime Museum, where we looked at some old boats, including a destroyer ship and submarine. Actually went down the submarine, while it was sitting in the water.

We've had pretty nice weather so far, as in sunny, but still cold enough to be wearing a jacket. Once you speak to people here and look around the city, you understand why they live here. Everything is very neat and clean in the city, and people are very fashionable. The only weird thing is that no-one has a propper shower. Only a bath tub, with a shower head that has to be held up mannually. hmmm

We have been walking through the city and the gardens. Had a look in an art museum, housing works by Picasso, Van Gough and Monet. Not bad. One day we spend at a huge shop, about an hours drive from Göteborg. The clothes and stuff was cheaper than Australia. Who said Scandinavia was expensive? (oh that's right - I did) We've also been bowling and out to dinner, watched movies at home. It had been very easy going.

Left Göteborg on Tuesday 11th September. Excited to continue our travels. Drove down to the southern most point of Sweden, Trelleborg. From here caught a large Ferry at 5pm, to Sassnitz Germany, took four hours.

Gallery: Germany 19-27 Aug

connie_elman — Tue, 4 Sep 2007 04:07:00 GMT

First days on our trip through Germany

Denmark (5)

connie_elman — Mon, 3 Sep 2007 05:30:00 GMT

Denmark: 27 Aug - 31 Aug

So after Germany we arrived in Denmark. Easy to enter, just driving along the highway, we came to a sign welcoming us to Denmark and a Danish flag. No longer was I able to understand all the road signs. First impressions were that it was just as flat and windy as northern Germany. When we got to Denmark it was also late afternoon and overcast. It is a lot less populated than Germany however, we noticed the wider roads and many empty fields straight away. As its the end of summer, many fields were bare, cut off wheat stubs remaining. Otherwise there were corn fields. The houses are a lot smaller in Denmark and not as 'pretty' looking as they were in Germany.

We stopped at a pertol station and used their free toilets and picked up a free map and information brochures. Good impression so far.

Aabenraa: spent our first night here, and then the next day was nice and sunny, but not too warm. Time for long pants and a jumper. In this town we looked at an old castle. We walked around the gardens first and found a wallnut tree, the nuts we picked are still in a bag drying out. :-) The castle is now an art museum, we had a quick look inside.

Ribe: town on the west coast of Jutland (the left island). Denmark is made up of three main islands. This is one of Scandinavia's oldest towns. We parked right in the centre and walked around the narrow old cobbled streets. Very windy, time for a jacket. The Danes, seemed not to feel this cold as they were all enjoying an icecream. Pretty little town.

Kolding: eastern coast of Jutland, further north, near the bridge that crosses to the next island. I attempted driving our van on the way to Kolding because we drove along country roads that weren't too busy. Changing gears was no problem and I got the backwards blicker, but driving (what seemed to me) in the middle of the road was too much. No power steering, with a huge wheel that seemed like a truck, scared the hell out of me. So that was the end of my driving experience. We only arrived late afternoon and found a nice spot on the huge river on the city outskirts. I went for a nice walk through the bush and found heaps of blackberry bushes. So me and Elman went and collected about 1/2 kilo of berries. It was nice and sunny here too, so we still had a great impression of Denmark. The night was freezing though.

Odense: bigger town in the centre of the middle island, Funen. Drove over a nice bridge from one island to the other. In Odense we went to a public library and used their free internet to write some emails. As we wanted to get to the third island continued on over the next bridge.

The 16km bridge: that's right 16km over the ocean, what an amazing view. Were really happy until we reached the other side and got charged DKR205, that's $45. Yep, $45 just to cross the bridge, we were really annoyed. Can't say that we used those words to express our feelings at the time. I just thought Sweden better be bloody worth it. There is still one more long toll bridge to cross to get to Sweden and we still have to get back!! So at that point in time we decided to spend as little money in Denmark as possible.

Roskilde: again on a harbour, home of a Viking Ship Museum. Right island of Zealand. Was an interesting museum, free of charge for us, as we only walked on the outside. Half the museum is the boats on the harbour, so we still got to see lots. Absolutely cold and really really windy. This is summer?? Why would you want to live here??

Copenhagen: capital of Denmark. Unfortunately it was raining a little when we got here. Parked at a metered car park, $10 for 2 hours. So after having a look at the National Museum we moved our car, to a private work car park. (hee hee) The National Museum was really interesting and had a lot of Danish as well as Scandinavian historical exhibitions. Also had some international exhibitions. We then walked throught the centre of town. It had stopped raining now, but I was wearing a thick jacket and beany. Walked through Christiansborg Palace and the Royal Library. Walked along the river to Amalienborg Palace, home to the royal family, complete with the royal guards outside. Nice city, very clean (like the rest of Denmark)

Helsingor: home to Hamlet's castle Kronborg Slot. Quaint little town with a port where ferries leave for Sweden every 20 minutes. Can see Sweden across the channel. Wearing my winter boots now, as well as jacket and beany. After walking around town and visiting Kronborg Slot, we spent the afternoon in an indoor swimming pool. Was awesome to defrost, and much better weather too when we left. Caught the ferry across to Sweden, was a nice experience to park our car in the huge ferry and go upstairs for the 20 minute ride. Of course it cost lots again.

So I suppose that if catching ferries and crossing bridges wasn't that expensive, our impression would have been so much better. It's a nice country its just that it was bloody freezing. It's really flat everywhere and the wind blows right through you. Also people beep their horn constantly when driving, as soon as you take more than 2 seconds to move. So once it was probably because we didn't have our lights on, which you need to have 24/7. People were friendly to us, and they could all speak English at tourist attractions. Grocery shopping with only Euro's to pay, when the lady couldn't understand us was an intersting experience :-)

Germany: (4) 19 - 27 Aug

connie_elman — Mon, 3 Sep 2007 03:00:00 GMT

The first two weeks of travelling in our motorhome through Germany.

And we are off and away!! Yay, we were very exciting to start our trip around Europe.

Rothenburg ob der Tauber: a cute little medieval town surrounded by a 15m high brick wall. Walked along the top of the narrow wall for quite a way around the little town and through its beautiful gardens. Climbed up narrow little wooden steps to the top of their tower for a great view of the typical German buildings and cobbled roads.

Heidelberg: looked at a half bombed down Castle on top of the hill overlooking the city. When half the wall is missing you can really see how thick it is. To sooth their thirst the royals kept two huge barrols for beer. One can hold 130,000 litres.

So by this stage we realised that in Germany you have to pay to use public toilets, and that you can buy nice wine from supermarkets for $3 a bottle :-)

Rhine Valley: a stretch along the river with many little towns, heaps of old castles and steep sloaping vineyards either side of the river. Absolutely beautiful! Even if it was a bit overcast one day, and drizzly the next. Climbed up to the top of Bacharach to Burg Stahleck (castle) for amazing views over the valley. Walked through vineyards, old cobbled towns, museums and some more castles. Saw lots of huge transport ships constantly going up and down the river.

Bonn: only really looked at the Beethoven Haus here and the city centre. Couldn't find another carpark, as our van is too tall to fit in a parking house. Narrow streets and many apartment blocks and just not enough places to park.

Köln: camped right on the river bank, and took some time out just to read, and do our washing and stuff. Huge city, caught the train into the centre to look at Germany's largest cathedral. The cathedral is a massive building with lots to see inside. Also had a look at the rest of the city. Have to say that we've been doing plenty of walking around, and climbing up to the top of hills on our trip so far.

Duesseldorf: very impressed with this city, really clean and inviting. It was a really hot day as we walked around. Probably 10km all together, by the time we walked to the city and along the river bank. Strolled down Koenigsalle (equivalent of Rodeo Drive). Can tell there are many rich and trendy people in the city. Every brand name imaginable has a shop here, we saw Rollex watches for $40,000. So we spent all of $3 on two fantastic tasting icecreams :-). There was another street that had a bar or pub as every second shop. The Rhine also runs through the city and there are many parks on either side.

Stayed on a highway rest stop half way to Bremen. It's been a week since we started our journey. Feels longer because we have seen so much already. Gotten used to our van by now and quite liking it.

Bremen: Connie walked into town while Elman rested. I only walked into the city centre to look at the town hall and the Town Musicians Monument. The town musicians is about a fairytale with a donkey, dog, cat and rooster, all on top of each other to scare the robbers outside the house. There was some nice typical german music being sung by some old sailor's choir along the river bank. Again this alley was filled with outside drinking areas and restaurants. Done around 1,000km in our van now.

Hamburg: got up at 4am so we could make it into town for the famous Sunday fish markets. Still dark when we got into the city, so we easily found a free car park. After a coffee we headed to the harbour. Absolutely huge harbour with big cargo ships and at least 20 huge cranes to empty the cargo from the ships. Looked iery in the early hours of the morning, was a bit cloudy and grey. The fish markets were easy to find as there was more and more people as we got closer. The excitement was starting to build, as if we were all heading to a sporting match or something. The markets contained many stalls, with all the sales people yelling out trying to sell their goods. You could buy a large basket of fruit for $16, including the basket. Lots of lollies and chocolates, memorabilia, clothes, shoes, handbags, and of course fish. Lots of fish and eels and yukky looking stuff. By 7am the sun was half way up the sky but because of all the clouds it was still relatively dark. The only downside at the markets was that there were a few drunk people who walked there from the clubbing area. In the middle of the markets was also a large hall with a band playing, where these people continued to drink. Around 8am we got back to our van and had a sleep for two hours. When we woke again we went on a city tour on a double decker bus. Interesting city, from the Reeperbahn (red light district) to the posh subburbs, and the old city buildings. Hamburg contains the second largest number of millionaires, 6,000, after Moscow. We also walked around the old part of the city and through the Reeperbahn, and along the harbour. Again walking heaps and heaps.

Wrohe: where? what? randomly picked a camping ground at this tiny town, as it was on a lake, about 70km north of Hamburg. Spent the day doing absolutely nothing. Not warm enough to go swimming, but the sun was out. It's very windy up the northern part of Germany, as it's very flat. We stayed here until about 4pm on the 27th August and then headed to Denmark. (see Denmark for the remarks on the cold cold country)

Spent about 9 days in Germany, coming back through it again on the way back from Sweden to see the eastern side. In a way it still feels like home because I can speak the language and understand all the road signs. Will be another story once we get to other countries. Was interesting to hear how people speak in the northern part of Germany. People said they could tell straight away that I was from the south because of how I greeted them. Didn't really listen to that much news or the radio, and of course no tv. Very much just me and Elman and our lovley van.

Germany: (3) 4 - 19 Aug

connie_elman — Mon, 3 Sep 2007 01:21:00 GMT

These two weeks were spent with Connie´s family.

We got a very warm welcome at the Ulm train station, and had a fantastic time for these two weeks. It was really good to see my family again, and all the new additions to it (many of my cousins have had kids). Germany is sooo green and had heaps of nice forests. One day we spent rafting, slowly, down the Iller River in a rubber boat, Elman and I had one boat and then two more boats contained some of my cousins and their small kids. Elman spent a day in Sensheim at a big aircraft and car museum. We went to Munich for a day where we looked at the Olympia Tower, Marienplatz (town square), the Hofbreuhaus (beer hall), went on a city tour in a double decker bus, walked through the huge English gardens, enjoying large Bretzen to eat (bread pretzles). We looked at Ulm and the large church and the most crooked house. A lot of time was spent looking for a Motorhome, obviously. First on the internet and large sales yards and then some privately. When we bought our VW Bus, Elman did a complete service on it. I had to learn lots of names of car parts in German and English as I was constantly translating. We also had to arrange insurance and a type of RACQ breakdown service. Worst of all was having to pay $800 tax for the year - ouch! That's a lot considering our VW Bus cost us $5,000. Took a little getting used to driving on the right hand side of the road, and sitting a lot higher up. Once we organised everything into our van we drove to visit my mum's side of the family. For these two weeks we were constantly busy doing something, or seeing someone. It was really great. Thanks heaps to my family if you are reading this !

Gallery: Our Motorhome

connie_elman — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 19:54:00 GMT

VW Bus

The Journey (2)

connie_elman — Wed, 8 Aug 2007 19:32:00 GMT

So Friday morning Elman's parents picked me up at 5.30am. The traffic wasn't the best so we needed a bit over an hour to get to the airport. Our plane left at 10am. Finally, we got to fly out, was very happy at that point in time. Taipai Airport is just crap I have to say, no ATM or money exchanges, had to pay $4 for a bottle of water, because you can't drink theirs. No chairs except down the bottom where the gate is, and only plastic ones with arm rests, so you can't lye down. So Elman & I found a bit of carpet right at the end of the terminal and had a bit of a sleep. The plane wasn't too bad, had many movies to choose from, games, language lessons etc, on your personal screen. Had to catch the train from Frankfurt to Ulm, where my relatives picked me up. We got to their place at 12 noon Saturday. Add on 8 hours time difference, and that makes our door to door travel time 38 hours. Needless to say we were pretty tired at the end of it.

Gallery: Australia

connie_elman — Thu, 2 Aug 2007 09:14:00 GMT

Farewell photos

Still in Oz (1)

connie_elman — Thu, 2 Aug 2007 09:07:00 GMT

So I am still at home at my parents house, and just want to write in here to test it out and maybe add some photos. Flying out tomorrow, yay! Very excited now. I have said bye to everyone and no longer have a mobile number. Doing one last trip to the storage place today, and then packing my suitcase. Going out dinner with my parents tonight. There are some photos under "Australia" in the Photo Gallery of my farewell