Sliven, Bulgaria
best, healthiest camp ever, from the Bulgarian Bear Gryllis, we had roasted mackerel in walnut leaves, with roasted pepper, aubergine and tomato salad, local organic wine and rakki and green tea to finish. Now that's glamping!
Istanbul, Turkey
Peace in Greece! Diary August 2nd After a very pleasant night in our Istanbul hotel, showered, fresh and breakfasted on salad, soft cheese and bread we felt ready to take on Istanbul's insane driving again... Well kind of... we actually just figured out the quickest way out of there. As Jess said, "we came, we saw and we ran away with our tail between our legs." So with not too much fuss and only a minor detour we set out, victorious. Which leads me to the change in plan. Having been led to believe we had a chance of getting a ferry onward to Odessa we found out what we had a suspicion of, that the rules have changed and there are no longer any passenger car ferries operating. So we decided to scoot across to Greece, have a day by the beach and then head back for a figure 8 across the belly of Romania, follow the black sea around into Ukraine and from there tackle Russia. I get to see Romania again! And it'll be like the first time for me; I was so sad I missed it being sick. So far so good. We are camping tonight on a sandy beach, in relaxed sunny Greece and have dabbled our toes in the shallow Agean sea. Hope to find a better swimming spot tomorrow but it was quite funny earlier watching an elderly couple wallow in the knee deep water like water buffalo! Haha! Tomorrow - Bulgaria Part Deux PS folks, I'm eating fresh fruit and veg mostly, not great appetite but baby steps. So good to be laughing and smiling again!
Istanbul, Turkey
And she's back! Had my first driving stint in a while today and it felt good to be behind the wheel, heading towards the Turkish border... For the second time in one day! We had missed a turn earlier and found ourselves heading out of Bulgaria, saying "yes, yes Turkey, yes" to the questioning border officials face, and hence on over an unmanned Turkish border. "Bet not many ralliers come this way" we thought smugly until we realised that actually the road turned into track and we were soon to be on the dead end trail to the resort of St. moritz. Was quite embarrassing passing by the border official's landrover on the way back Still we managed to fudge our way doggedly unembarrassed through the rest of the day (gawd knows why) "oh we needed to do paper work at this border? You don't say" "oh this highway toll entrance needs a special card, you say? Sorry" and best of all: freaking out at the driving calamity that is Istanbul, where all the rules you know
Burgas, Bulgaria
Warning ralliers! Be very careful what you eat and drink - I just spent the last 4 days in the passenger seat in a semi-vegetative state, only more annoying than that, because at least vegetables don't squeal in pain over every pothole. A trip to a very nice Romanian hospital later and I'm on the mend but I was not expecting this trip to be this hard, this soon. It was very nearly game over right there. And my team mate probably hates me. Stay healthy one and all!!
Banskobystrický kraj, Slovakia
Divine Divin. Diary July 27th I woke up this morning with a feeling in my gut that I wanted to spend the next night in a real campsite, nothing special, just a break from motorway rest stops and preferably near a lake, which is exactly what we've got tonite. Good one, me. All in all it's been a pretty good day, apart from one strange incident this morning. The rest stop we stayed at last night had nice clean toilet area, with real showers, so we went to bed looking forward to getting nice and clean. We paid our 10 crowns to the scowling elderly toilet babooshka. However when we went to get in the showers we were accosted by the babooshka who shouted at us in mile-a-minute Czech, and ignored my attempt at international sign language: No shower? (arms crossed in an x) I don't understand Czech (shrug) How much? (paying gesture) and just kept shouting with her hands on her hips. So we went into the toilets and tried to make do with a sink wash, but she came back, with another lady who also shouted
South Moravia, Czech Republic
LOST - one flamingo. Answers to "Mungo". Last seen at dinner last night. May be trying to hitchhike to mongolia. Please return to Suzi Swift.
South Moravia, Czech Republic
What a night! Diary 26th July After a full days motorway driving we entered the Czech republic around 3:00pm and were catching up with ralliers all the time, waving and honking horns all the time. We had a brief pitstop for shopping in klatovy, and made it to the campsite by 5:30, where hi-jinks were already underway! There were some new and interesting vehicles too, including a giant army van and a wood-effect skoda type thing. We got changed, fluffed up our pink wigs and headed up to the castle, where we found the theme was "Arabian nights" oops, we didn't get that memo! The party was great, live bands, a dj booth inside one of the castle rooms, a shisha cafe and plenty of mayhem. I don't know what was going on but all night random people kept lifting me up and putting me down in different places! What was going on?! I'm not that small am I? Haha! Sadly my perfect evening was slightly diminished when some overenthusiastic drunken mosher landed on me
Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France
heading for the Belgian border. First night camping in a motorway rest stop. Driving on the wrong side, weeeee!
, UK
Fantastic sendoff from Goodwood today. Thank you so so much to the people who made it all possible! Now waiting at Dover for the 9:00 ferry
Plymouth, UK
picked Suzi Swift up from getting fuel gauge fixed. Driving down the motorway, "oh what's this? No rev counter or engine temperature now" 1 step forward 2 back...@
