albania and montenegro

13-14 august
Sitting in our camp chairs with a nearly full moon above and a smooth glass of Montenegrin cabernet in hand, we laughed about the road through Albania. It wasn’t so funny as we were driving it. It took us 5.5 hours to drive 95 miles. As we drove, we tried to come up with ways to describe it. He said it best: it’s like a service road out in the mountains somewhere that is closed to the public. At the end of it, is a radio tower or something like that. People walk on it on their way to hiking trails. Another attempt to describe it is that it’s like a road that you drive when you’re looking for your mountain campsite. Or it’s a hiking or goat trail. We didn’t actually drive over the pass. We drove along the edge of the pass, no hard shoulder, no barricades. This is why we were warned not drive at night. This is a national road, by the way. At least Albania doesn’t try to charge a road tax for such a thing like Bulgaria does. The road improved slightly after Tirane because we were out of the mountains. But it deteriorated quickly. There were more patches from filled potholes then road.

the albanian national road. it is the main road to the border with montenegro. i drove this bit. paul's section of road was far more harrowing. we don't have any photos of that because it was all we could do to drive!

pill boxes. we read about these and wondered if we'd see any. paul took this photo just after the border into albania. no need to stop there though. they are everywhere. who would invade albania?

tirane has tried to make their soviet block apartments look better. i think they've done a good job.

this pill box has been turned into a tattoo parlor.

We stumbled onto our Montenegro camp site, but couldn’t have made a better choice if we’d searched all day. It’s near Budva, the most popular section of coast in Montenegro. We’re just outside the village of Sveti Stephan, which is on an island. When we arrived yesterday, we set up camp and made our way to the water, down a winding path. We landed on a stretch being used by very fit, naked men. I enjoyed it, but Paul set a steady pace up the beach to where there were families. Oh well. Our camp site has its own small beach with a bar and beautiful, beautiful water.

our camp site beach

There is no sand, just small, smooth pebbles and clear, clear water. We went into Budva today and saw the walled city, and went to the beach near the island, but our camp site had the best beach. We expected crowds, but it was quiet and easy to find space both in and out of the water. If you like beach holidays, go to Budva.


sveti stephen

macedonia

11 august
A short distance to Ohrid, Macedonia from Meteora, but it takes a LONG time. At one point we lost the road altogether. The one we were on was closed, for road works I guess, and there were no detour signs. A nice man at a garage helped us even though he didn’t speak any English and it’s ‘all Greek to ‘ us. Lake Ohrid is a beautiful, large mountain lake. The literature claims that it’s one of the oldest lakes in the world.

the city from near the lake

I think that the mountains that I see on the other side are Albania. The border runs down the middle of the lake. We were dissuaded from driving through Albania on our way to Dubrovnik, the shortest route, by a French couple that were camping next to us. The Poles on the other side agreed. However, our land lord here says it’s no problem to get through Albania. A bus does it every day. It’s only the northern tip. So we’re going that way. The alternate is at least a day and night out of the way. The Loves, Kristine, and David drove the entire length of Albania, in a Lada no less. We should be just fine in our brand new rental, even if it isn’t insured. It probably wasn’t insured in Romania and Bulgaria either. We were driving slowly though the village of Ohrid looking for camping signs when we reached a dead end and were addressed by an older man on a bicycle. His English was very good. He offered a room for 25 euro a night for us near the center and said camping was 15 km away. We took it and followed him to it. I asked if he’d been following us and he smiled and said, ‘since the traffic lights.’ His son lives in New Jersey. We parked the car and walked to the center, skirted the old town and sat in the grass on the shore and drank a beer while Tim climbed all over us. He’s getting good at pulling himself up and seems to have discovered his knees: they bend and he can rest on them.



12 august
This is the 40th day of our tour, which gives me pause. The days have not disappeared. As a matter of fact, most days have felt like full days, each hour a complete unit. This doesn’t happen often. When I was working, the days either stretched on forever or were gone in a flash. It feels to me like I’m living in real time now. Part of it must be because I have to deal with very little stress. I think a big part of it is because I’m with my family, and the needs of the family are the current that push and pull me through the day. It’s nice. Tim is certainly getting his fill of love and attention from both parents.

relaxing at our flat

We walked through the old city today. It is on a hill, crowned by a fortress and littered with churches on the slope down to the lake. It’s beautiful. The people have been friendly, the food filling and cheap, and the weather perfect.

one of the churches on the lake

greece

10 august
Paul made coffee and we took it with us to Meteora to have breakfast on some rocks with views of four monasteries and the valley stretching out beneath. The morning light pulled the warmer hues out of the rock. It was lovely. Just as the day started to feel uncomfortably warm, we took Tim to the pool to try out his floating car in calmer seas. There is a school group of about 60 15 year olds staying, but we got to the pool just before them. It took a few minutes for him to adjust to the size of the pool, but then he enjoyed floating around between Paul and me. The teenagers showed up and we made our exit. In the early afternoon, the rain started with wonderful thunder. It rained off and on all day, which gave us an excuse to relax in the tent and give Tim plenty of time to work on his crawling skills. He still drags his left foot behind him, but he spends some time rocking on his hands and knees now. We ate dinner at a tabepna (that’s a tavern with Greek spelling so we call them tabepnas). It was good but some vegetables would have been nice. Tomorrow we head north to Macedonia.

meteora

meteora

meteora

9 august
Our drive to Meteora was relatively short, so we took our time breaking camp. Lonely Planet directed us to a campsite in Kastraki, a village just below the monasteries. I came here in 2004, a week after meeting Paul. I even invited him to join us being ignorant of his visa issues as a South African. He counted with the suggestion that we meet somewhere in Europe in the near future, and the rest is history. When I was here, I never thought that I’d come back and certainly not with a husband and son. Paul put it best when he said that the Acropolis with all it’s history is great but Meteora is far more impressive. I’ll let the photos explain. We drove around to get a view of all of them and then went into Saint Stephens. It’s a nunnary.

8 august
We spent last night on a ferry from Cesme, Turkey to Athens, Greece. I don’t know what classifies something as a ferry. To me, we weren’t on a ferry but a ship. Paul booked us a cabin so that we wouldn’t have to sleep on the floor in the corridors like most of the other low budget travelers. I expected to see 20 something backpackers, but the pensioners surprised me. They must be made of stronger stuff than me. Our cabin was just big enough to fit Tim’s bed beside our bunk beds. We had our own shower and loo. It took me about two hours lying in bed to get used to the motion of the ship. I think it bothered Tim because he woke and had trouble falling back to sleep. When he finally did at 03:30, I slept deeply. The boat left at 23:00 and we docked at 06:30. We were at the Acropolis at 07:20 and driving north by 09:00. I’ve been to Athens before and Paul trusted me when I said there wasn’t anything else worth seeing other than the museum. The British Museum is so good that it makes paying for others too painful sometimes. We set up camp in Kamena Vourla at about 15:00, did some grocery shopping, had a gyro and enjoyed the sea. We bought Tim a floating car in Cesme and tried it out. The sea was a bit too rough, but he enjoyed sitting in it on the shore and letting the soft waves rock him a little. Yesterday was spent in transit. We drove from Selcuk to Cesme, arriving hours before our ferry to make sure our booking was in order. It was, thanks Martin. It took several hours to get through customs. We took a small ferry to Chios, a Greek island, ate dinner in the port, then boarded our ferry for Athens.

the pantheon

the acropolis

the turkey leg

27 july - 7 august
Paul was the one who stated the obvious (the Turkey leg) when we were planning our trip in winter, so blame the title on him.

the blue mosque

Ahhh Turkey. I love this place. There are several reasons for this. One of my dearest friends lives here, Kelly with her husband Martin and children Megan and Johannes. She has a gorgeous penthouse flat in a cool part of Istanbul and a summer home on the island of Bugaz.

galata tower, near the school where Kelly works and their kids attend. the tower is part of the view from their flat terrace, but his photo is taken from the other side of the golden horn.

I first came here when I was living in Bulgaria. Visiting her was like going home. But there's more to loving Turkey than this. The people are friendly. The food is fantastic. The place is exotic but manageable. The sites are glorious. The sea is friendly. It's just a great place. Mind you, I haven't been more than 100 miles from the western coast, so I really don't know Turkey.

We arrived in Istanbul a few hours before Martin. He’d been in Colorado with Kelly and the kids. She’s a teacher, so they are still there. Our drive from Edirne to Istanbul was easy thanks to a modern, divided three lane motorway and Martin’s precise directions. His brother met us near their flat, arranged for our underground parking, gave us a key and offered to give us some local currency so we could get some lunch. (Every time I've come here, I've experienced this kind of hospitality. It may be a big part of why I love this place.) Even though we didn’t have to set up the tent, we had more to unload as we wanted to wash as much as possible and reorganize things. Thankfully, there’s an elevator. After cracking the Fort Knox doors, we entered nirvana. Five stories above the noisy city, a wrap around terrace on the top floor, a tasteful and sexy décor, and best of all…four cold beers in the fridge (which we swiftly consumed thinking Martin was staying on the island). Martin arrived, deciding to stay in Istanbul, but he made a bee line for the supermarket when I told him we’d drank him dry, and after putting Tim to bed, we ordered pizza, drank more beer and watched TV. It was surreal. I could go on and on. Do you see why it’s so great for me to go to Istanbul? Staying at Kelly and Martin’s place provided us a holiday from our holiday. Paul says that statement will probably make some people mad. Sorry. After moving around so much and camping or staying in sterile rented rooms, eight glorious days in this place was heaven. Their flat is so nice and their hospitality so complete that staying here is heaven anyway. Thank you, thank you, thank you. He stays at their island home in the summer months, so we had the place to ourselves for a few nights. We went out to the island with him twice, each for one night. He has a powerboat and took us out twice, letting Paul drive even. Tim ‘swam’ for the first time. We thought he’d cry because it was a little cold, but he was a trooper. He tried to keep his hands and feet out of the water. He really liked watching the waves as we sped through the water and the bumps as we hit waves from the other boats.

lunch prepared by Martin on Kelly's power boat
Istanbul was its dependable, interesting and exotic self. I think Paul likes it as much as I do.

the hagia sophia

inside the hagia sophia. originally a christian church, it was turned into a mosque when constantinople became istanbul. today, there is an interesting combination of islamic and christian icons.

the grand bazaar - everyone wants to sell you the same thing, but it's a weird and wonderful experience.

turkish delight at the spice market

we took a boat ride up the bosphorus to the black sea. this castle was one of the sites on the way.

one of our 'babysitter's. in turkey, a baby is public domain. everywhere we went, tim was touched, kissed, cuddled, picked up and often carried away. our waiters took him from us and walked him around the restaurant. this woman was on the bosphorus boat ride with us. she had him for at least twenty minutes. this continued in greece to a lesser extent. he now expects strangers to pay him attention.

Sadly, we left the luxury of Kelly and Martin’s place today. Wonderfully, we left it not to return to jobs and responsibilities but to continue our adventure. We drove from Istanbul to the ferry at Chanakkale, which took us through Gallipoli, but we didn’t stop for the war tour. From there it was a quick drive to Troy. Tim and I enjoyed some time in the shade on his blanket while Paul toured the place, as I’ve been here before.

troy

From there we drove to a camp site recommended by Martin. It was a long drive on curving narrow roads, but the place was great, right on the beach. We ate dinner and watched the sun turn red and set. We would have liked another day here, but we’ve got ‘miles to go before’ we sleep.

breakfast in our campsite south of troy

We drove an hour or so to Bergama and visited Pergamum. The first place Paul and I met for a weekend together was Berlin and while there we visited the Pergamum museum. It was impressive then, and seeing where all that once stood in all its glory was great. I’ve been here before as well, but wanted to see it with Paul for that reason.

pergamum


pergamum

From Bergama we drove to Selcuk. The highway is top of the line, and the drive was refreshingly easy. We made camp and I took Paul to Ephesus. Tim and I skipped this one as it was hot and he was sick of being confined. When I visited these places it was in the reverse order: Ephesus, Pergamum, and Troy. Paul did it in the better order as each one is more complete and more impressive this way.

ephesus

ephesus

bulgaria

As both of us have spent some time in Bulgaria, our goal was to get through it to Turkey as quickly as possible. Ha, ha, ha. We made it to the Romania border and could see the Danube, but the bridge eluded us. No signs, no indication that another country was just yards away.
the bridge between romania and bulgaria

Getting through the check point was easy and we crossed the bridge and paid our road tax. I want my money back. The roads were shocking. I was looking forward to seeing Shipka pass because I'd heard so much about how important the battle there was between the Russians and the Turks. The road was so bad and so congested with large trucks that any interest in seeing the pass disappeared.
luckily, we can read cyrillic

We got lucky and found a camp site at Ruse and drove hard all the next day to the border with Turkey. That crossing took 3.5 hours. That's not an exaggeration. Good-bye Bulgaria.

romania

some of the traffic on the from hungary to romania

23-25 july
Our drive from Hungary to Romania was not just a drive from one country to another but a departure from the west to Eastern Europe. We’d seen hints of it in Czech, Slovakia and Hungary, but none of it could compare to Romania. First of all, it was our first border with check points. Romania is now part of the EU, but they are not fully integrated yet. I don’t know if they want the check points or if the EU makes them have them. Curt, no smiles, sour people passed us through without any trouble. They disappeared with my passport but at least explained that it had to be stamped ‘because from U. S.’ We needed to buy a motorway tax sticker. Some guy on the side of the road offered us one for 60 euros, almost six times what Switzerland charges. We turned him down. The woman in the petrol shop said we didn’t need one as the program was suspended. Paul had spoken to our Romanian neighbors in Vienna at length about driving in Romania and got some good advice. About the road tax, he was told that no one pays it. We didn’t want to deal with any more surely Romanian officials than necessary and decided we’d get it anyway. We stopped at the next petrol station, but no one spoke English there. (This continued for our entire stay in Romania.)

Sighişoara

Our first destination was Sigisoura where Vlad Tepes, better known as Count Dracula, was born. We knew we wouldn’t make it that far and drove until Tim couldn’t take it anymore. We tried to find a pension but put if off for too long and settled on a new hotel right on the road. It was more than we wanted to pay, but the room was clean, large and comfortable. We discovered at lunch that eating out here is very cheap and the food is tasty, a nice change from Hungary. It took us a long time to get anywhere in Romania. The roads are rough and it's a big country. Everyone that we asked about Budapest responded by asking why we wanted to go there. So we decided to go there for lunch and so Paul could tour Ceausescu's palace and then drive south. The city was nicer than we'd been led to think it would be. Unfortunately, Paul wasn't able to enter the palace.
Ceausescu's palace


budapest - like a lot of eastern europe it has a kind of planet of the apes feel


peles palace in sanaia

budapest

22 july
First thing this morning, we drove to the statue park outside the city where the statues from the Soviet era have been laid to rest. The people no longer wanted them in their city.

women are great

to give you some idea of the size of this, his back toe is about shoulder height to me

lenin, of course

After this, we dropped off the car at our camp site and headed for the Pest side of the city today. The bus from our camp site stops on the Buda side, so we walked down the hill to the bridge beside the island. This gave us a good view of the Parliament building on the Pest side and the castle on the Buda side. We walked from the Parliament building through a square with the only remaining soviet statue in the city. It commemorates the Russians liberating the city from the Germans. This is my old neighborhood from when I spent two weeks here with Kristine and Cheryl in 2004. I took Paul to St. Stephens and showed him the flat we called home right next to the church. Then we walked to the synagogue, across the Chain Bridge, up to the castle and back to the bus stop where we started.

the soviet monument still in budapest has to have a fence around it to protect it from damage by the people. a policeman walking by explained this to us when paul asked about it

st. stephen's church

the synagogue

21 july
It took us three hours to get to Budapest, and the sat nav delivered us to our campsite. It is called ‘Niche’ for a reason. It’s on a steep hillside and we are slotted into the slope like a niche in a wall.
our camp site

We set up camp quickly, then took the bus to the castle. Both it and our campsite are on the Buda side of the Danube. We walked the length of the castle and enjoyed beautiful views of the river and Pest side before returning ‘home’ for dinner at the local restaurant.

a view of parliment from the fisherman's bastion on the castle hill

the chain bridge from the castle hill

a gate to the hapsburg part of the castle hill

detail from a building on a corner within the castle walls

vienna and bratislava

20 july
Bratislava Slovakia is just down the Danube from Vienna. We wanted to take a boat there, but they have to be booked well in advance, so we took the train instead. It was a quick hour’s journey through more farmland. The difference between Eastern Europe and Western Europe was more striking here than in the Czech Republic, possibly because the trip was so quick and also because Vienna is so opulent.

pretty but shabby

the train we rode was in much better shape than this

Still, Bratislava is charming, with a pretty hilltop castle and small town centre. We enjoyed a wonderful meal of tapas before returning on the train.

our lunch stop


one of the main squares

Tim’s fever is gone and he’s back to his perky self.


19 july
Vienna is an impressive city. It’s all about the architecture again, but where Prague’s buildings are generally cozy and welcoming, Vienna’s buildings seem to sit on golden thrones that we wander around the legs of, like ants in the throne room. We started at St. Stephen’s church.


impressive tile work on the church roof


the opulent inside of the church

Then we made our way to the palaces, and museums that look like palaces. We stopped and had some Viennese coffee near the stables where the Lipizzaner horses are kept, trained and paraded. We didn’t see them. From the outside, the stables and arena look like a palace.

the square where we had coffee. the stables are behind paul who is taking the photo

this is a museum. we ate our picnic lunch beside one of the bushes.

i believe this statue of athena with nike is a replica of what scholars believe stood inside the pantheon in athens. we'll see the pantheon in a few weeks and can try to imagine her there about five times this big and without all the statues below her feet.

At 18:00, Tim’s fever spiked, so we took him to a hospital that we’d learned of from a pharmacist this morning. The care was excellent and immediate. The first question they asked was about insurance, and Paul was ready with EU insurance cards that he organized for all of us long before the trip. We saw four doctors, all of which spoke English. They were kind, friendly, professional and made a nice fuss over Tim. They gave him a suppository for his fever and a prescription for some drops for his eyes. We didn’t get home until 23:30, which was hard on Tim. He was over tired and screamed in bed inconsolably for about forty minutes. Poor guy. Poor neighbors. Poor us.

18 july
Our sat nav, which we love, took us to Vienna by way of a secondary road through Northern Austria. It wound through small villages and rolling hills of farmland. We met the Danube at Krems with the monastery of Melk making an impressive show on a high hilltop. Arriving at our Vienna campsite in the late afternoon, we spent our time doing administrative business, as Paul calls it. Our campsite has loads of hot water and laundry, so we got all the kitchen things clean as well as our clothes. When we arrived, the place was about half full. By the time we went to bed it seemed full, and when we woke the next morning the place looked like a music festival. Tim’s cold hasn’t improved or worsened except that his other eye now has the same discharge.

there is a tent to my left that you can't see with a family from romania inside.