Some photos have been uploaded!

Time for an update

So as i had mentioned in the last post we entered into serbia, this was in fact not the case we were still in hungary, although we were so close to serbia sitting right on the border.

We headed out the following day after as i had mentioned some immense storms, i woke up to find that i had chosen probably the worst camping spot possible, although in my defense that was due to the fact that the skys had just opened and we were pretty desperate to get the tent put up. So what was wrong with the spot i had chosen?? Ants thousands on the little gits, in the morning i woke up to find one of my bags was almost crawling away. Where there are ants there are bites!! thankfully the mosquito net on the tent was zipped up but still some how the little gits made there way inside.

Anyway, i woke up pretty early after sampling some donkey goulash the night before, i hasten to add it was fantastic!!!

The sun was again shining so i went for a wee wander, well when i say wee it ended up that i was gone for almost 2 hours, i fancied exploring :)

So wandered up to the top of some steps which had been cut into a mountain on clay, took in the most amazing view over the danube full 360 degree view was fantastic as i turned there were 2 sunflower fields the color contrast was fab. Throughout our trip we had travelled along the danube quite a few times, the first time we had all noticed it was extremely full, it had burst its banks at pretty much every place we went.

So after taking in the great views i wandered more, walked up through an old gate to the sunflower fields, so many sunflowers all you could see was brown and yellow for what seemed like miles. From here i wandered down to the danube through 2 orchards, apricots, pears, apples, peaches the smells were great. Walking down toward the bank of the river there must have been about 50 small boats tethered up, not that anyone could have got to them as they were about 15 meters out due to the flooding. Walking past some huge houses with views you couldnt believe across the danube i headed back toward the camp site.

As i got back tez and finnie had just woken up, so we got all our gear together and started to get packed up. Now it had been great weather up until now, as me and tom were packing the tent up getting all the stuff out it, again the skys opened, the rain was nuts we had taken out the poles for the tent, so it was no longer very waterproof, tez drove the van round and we dashed inside.

We all just sat there watching as the puddles on the tent grew bigger and bigger, so we thought we may as well just go for it, dived outside into a torrent of rain and grabbed the tent, rolled it up, shoved it in a black bin bag and drove off.

Right i shall leave it here for now, before we leave austria i will get some pictures uploaded and update this to include all the other bits and pieces we have been up to. Ciao for now

the skys open

So we are all sitting in serbia we arrive about 2 hours ago, had some food paid for camping and now the skys have opened we are in the middle of what we think are 3 immense storms. The lightning is all around us the water on the street is 1inch deep and we still havent got our bloody tents up. The place we are staying have just locked there doors :( looks like its gonna be am interesting night. Wish us luck :)

day 11? I think

So we have arrived in budapest after a 10 hour drive from krakow the roads were good although the bus was finding it a bit tough getting up through the mountains. The scenary in poland was amazing on route out the country once again i would suggest you come to visit poland it has everything you could want for a holiday. Unless of course you want some great underground music. We ventured out on a tuesday night into the heart of krakow the night life was there but the music seemed awful so we ended the night early. Today all are asleep, its funny how the hot weather seems to make everyone so tired, that and the long drive of course. At the moment i think the plan is to venture into budapest today to see what it has to offer. So thats another country to add to the list :) on route we passed through slovakia but i wont mention to much about that one as we will be heading back soon so tez can play at the download festival. Ciao for now

6 become 4

So i havent updated this for a while things have been hectic.

Ok so i think i left you all in Hamburg, since then we have travelled on to denmark, the drive was long and tedious, when we arrived we got fuel then turned straight around to drive back through germany, sadly as we left late it was decided that we wouldnt be able to manage the scandinavian countries so we headed to berlin.

We arrived in berlin at around 12am, at this point i think all were pretty ratty, and very tired so we tried to find somewhere to stay... emphasis on tried.

3 of our party decided they would stay in a hostel while 3 of us slept in the bus, the following morning we woke up again pretty early and headed across berlin to go get the others.

We arrived at the hostel and got the guys, when we arrived we all decided it was time for a chat, 2 of the party had had thoughts through the night and sadly had decided they would prefer to leave the trip and get a train through to prague so we dropped them off at the main station in berlin and waved them off.

We then had to reconsider our trip, sadly with the loss of 2 people we realised that we could no longer afford to do the full trip in the allocated time.

Each member of the party were paying £200 for fuel, we had calculated that with 6 people we could manage all 30 countries, sadly being £400 down we can longer achieve this, so we pondered the idea do we turn around and head home?

We had already driven so far and achieved a good few countries, or do we carry on?

From the outset this trip had been planned to allow us to see 30 countries in 30 days, if we were to have been setting off early and not having any problems on the way we would have been able to spend some time in each country and be able to see the sights and sounds, again sadly this hadnt been the case. Instead we had been setting off usually at 1pm, then having to sort out "problems" then carrying on to the next country, trying to find some sort of accomodation for a couple of the guys then starting the same the following day.

So the 4 of us have made the decission, we decided to stay in berlin a 2nd night and see the sights, it was as though a massive weight had been lifted from our shoulders, i think all have now relaxed and are starting to enjoy the trip.

In berlin we went to see the berlin wall, the brandenberg gate, the holocaust memorial and then we decided it was time to get some fantastic cold german beers :)

We took these back to the camp site we had found during the day and sat, relaxed and planned our next day.

The following day we woke up fresh as a daisy, and headed east toward krakow poland.

Tom had previously visted Krakow with a school trip and had recommended it so we made the journey. The second we crossed the polish border the roads turned horrendous, this carried on for what seemed like hours, i think the road finally turned good after about 50 miles.

We then hit the motorway, now in poland although the roads arent really the best the speed limit seems to be crazy, everyone seemed to drive so damn fast, or maybe this was because our bus was so slow, who knows.

So after hitting the motorway tez turned to me and said the battery light was on ?!?!

So we turned off at the next turn into far smaller road, parked up and i got to work, upon opening the bonnet i immediately noticed the inverter was no longer attached and neither was the fan belt..... ARGH!!!! this had been fixed in belgium, we had paid 100€ for this?!?!? The altenator had been re attached using new pins, and a new belt had been installed.

The engine was popping and cracking the water level was at 0 everything was burning hot. 

So i grabbed my boiler suit, trust me those that know me  would think James? mechanic? what the??? 

I took out the trusty tool box and set to work, i had been talked through the alternator before we had set off, i had replaced the pin before we set off, so i kinda knew what i had to do.

Although i didnt have any spare parts. We were in the middle of nowhere and none of us could speak a word of polish.

So i managed to make a pin to hold the alternator in place, i manage to bolt it on at all the required positions i then replaced the fan belt with the old one that i had been given back in belgium.

After about 45 minutes we were back on the road, I had saved the day lol for now!!!

40 minutes later the inverter in the bus started beeping??? but the alternator was charging? what now?

Again we pulled over, this time on the hard shoulder of the polish motorway... the second i stepped out it was a scarey experience, the cars travelling so fast so we put out the warning triangle and donned our reflective vests :)

We really did look the part, again i popped the bonnet to find the bloody pin i had just fit had snapped, it was still in place and it was still secure but the fan belt needed tightened, so i tightened that then slid under the bus to check what was now needing replaced, while under the bus i checked the only visible part of the drive belt, there was a 1 inch tear in it ARGHHH!!!!

This is major, if the drive belt was to snap or fail we could loose the engine, instantly i thought we shouldnt drive, we should call the AA and get towed to the closest town. But it was sunday no where would have been open and we only have european breakdown / tow service, if we needed work done whic we clearly did we would have to pay a small fortune.

So we drove on, we had booked a small bungalow in Krakow before leaving berlin so we had somewhere to stay. Tez drove for hours and we arrived in Krakow at about 2am.

The following morning we all woke up again feeling pretty relaxed and headed to the closest garage, which handy enough was about 100m away from the campsite, would you believe there wasnt just 1 garage but 2 side by side.

The first guy i spoke to spoke really good english, i explained the problem and he said quite abruptly he cant fix until wednesday so we went to see the other garage next door.

These guys didnt speak a word of english. I tried all the "recognisable" signs i could think of, i then took out my trusty Haynes manual to show the parts i thought were broken.

The guy went into the house and took out his grand daughter she spoke a little english so she explained the cost to repair would be 200€ ARGHHH 200€ when you are on a VERY tight budget is bloody expensive.

i somehow manged to get the price down to 125€ again expensive but needs must, he said to take the bus back tomorrow at 8am we shook hands and that was that.

Time to explore Krakow :) let me just say now, krakow is a beautiful city, full of history and some great buildings its the sort of place i could quite happily visit again. The right mix of culture and nightlife.

We took in the sights, had some food then headed back to the bungalow. 

Day 4

So we woke up at a reasonably respectable hour. We got all our bits sorted, we packed up the bus and we left the campsite which was our home for 2 nights. As we were leaving with the bus not being used for a full day and night the main battery was dead, i decided to use the 2nd battery to jump start the bus, seemed like the logical thing to do but this turned out not to be the case. The bus started we were on the road on route to pick up 2 spare keys from the ford garage in amsterdam. When we arrived they made the keys no problem. On route to the garage the inverter had been beeping warning of a low battery, sooo at the garage i thought now would be a good time to check it, sure enough the 2nd battery hadnt been charging. While getting more and more burned by the sun trying to thin why on earth it wasnt working i decided enough was enough and asked the guys at ford what was wrong, as the mechanics came out each one walked away scratching there heads. Not one could understand why the battery wasnt charging. Anyway long story short we ended up getting it working after 2.5 hours.

So we set off to hamburg, on route jonny says he has a friend there who we could probably stay with, after him figuring out who the friend actually was on his phone he makes the call.

And so we are now in hamburg, we stayed with his friend phillip we have just had a great german breakfast and we are about to continue on our travels across to denmark.