The Road Back Home

I realise that this blog post is 5 months late, but I believe it is better late than never. Why is so late? You may ask, and the answer is simply – life got in the way. I did have a couple of attempts at writing this blog before now, but I never got much further than the title, to be honest. Reece and I were enjoying spending time with our families and then, life happened. We got home, Papaya pretty much went straight to the garage (and still hasn’t come out), I got searching for work, Reece was trying to get back into work, we were looking for a place to live and I was enjoying spending time with my pups, my pony and catching up with my mum.

But now we’re living in strange times, and the world has come to a halt. The loneliness and scariness of the Covid-19 outbreak cannot be ignored, and I feel very thankful that we have long completed our big trip and are back home and settled during this time, but I send my love out to all of those who haven’t been quite so lucky.  I will take these precious moments of downtime to pick up where I left off on our travel blog – which was upon a ferry on the Tyrrhenian Sea, having just boarded the ship from Cittevechia on Wednesday the 4th of December, 2019.

Thursday, 5th of December 2019

Day One-Hundred and Twenty-Seven: Civitavecchia – Barcelona (Spain)

We arrived in Barcelona much later than we would have liked after a pretty dull ferry trip, and you may think that because we (well, mostly Reece) had been driving on the right (or wrong, some may say) side of the road for months, that getting to a new country who also drive on the right isn’t an issue, which most of the time, it’s not.

But each new country has its new rules and regulations, different toll systems, some of which required vignettes (little stickers you put in your window), some took pictures of your number plate and send you a bill later, some countries required time disks for when you park (we got caught out in Sweden with that one), and others just have downright crazy drivers (yes, Italy, we’re talking about you!), whilst other road systems are utterly complex for no apparent reason – and the latter is exactly the category which Spain falls into. Thankfully the internet will give you heads up about each country’s regulations, which if you’re planning a trip for when all this over, you should definitely check beforehand.

Usually, this wouldn’t be too much of a problem, but when you arrive into the biggest tourist haven of Spain late at night with lanes going off left and right and centre and since all the parking spaces close to the ferry had warnings of van theft and break-ins and many campsites were closed at this time of year,  we had to trek right the way across the city – it wasn’t the best start. We also lost our wheel arch cover within 10 minutes of being in the country so we now had not so much of a smart-looking van to top things off!

Nonetheless, I found a campsite which was open and had bus connections into Barcelona. It felt a little weird as we arrived to just the security guards at the gate due to the time. They took my Driver’s license, and locked the gates behind us. But we had somewhere to sleep for the night which was safe.

We were pretty hungry so we found the nearest restaurant – an ‘Italian’ pizza restaurant, which wasn’t exactly what we wanted having just arrived to Spain from Italy, but it would do. Safe to say, they don’t make pizza quite like the Italians! But we went to bed on a full stomach and happily went to sleep.

Day One-Hundred and Twenty-Eight: Barcelona (Spain) – Cubelles (Spain)

And sleep we did, a bit too late into the morning to be honest. The ferry journey had taken it out of us, and so we only had a few hours to explore Barcelona, which I knew wasn’t enough. But we were on a budget, and campsites in Barcelona aren’t cheap, so we grabbed what time we had and headed into Barcelona.

It was so nice to be able to speak a little bit of the language of the country we were in. That is one unusual, but brilliant, things about Europe – each country, even though they are so close, have different languages. Many of them are so unbelievably different, you wouldn’t believe they are just hours apart. But it was so nice to be back in Spain, where I lived previously for a year, and be able to (sort of) communicate with the locals. Numbers I definitely do have down in Spanish, so it was nice to be able to ask the bus driver what the price of the ticket into Barcelona was and understand the reply and produce the right change. The little things, hey!

We reached Plaza de España, or Plaça d’Espanya in Catalan, at around 10am, and had a wander around the Magic fountain of Montjuic and the Cascada Monument, before we went off to the next place.

As Reece had visited Barcelona before, he directed us to the next iconic location – the Arc de Triomf. After this, it was around 11, and we were both getting hungry. We found a little cafe near the arc, and had our first tostada con tomate (toast with tomato) of the trip! This is one of my favourite breakfasts in Spain, not only is it vegan, but it’s really healthy and tasty, too. All it is is fresh bread that is lightly toasted, smothered in blended tomatoes with a good drizzling of olive oil and a bit of salt on top. It might sound a little plain, but it really is delicious.

We were then ready to head off to our next destination, the Gothic quarter, which is home to the Basílica de Santa Maria del Pi, another beautiful Gaudi building. This area was absolutely stunning, with the traditional Spanish floors and the tall, gothic, Gaudi buildings all around us. But it was also packed. Although it was a Friday, we must’ve fallen on a bank holiday as there were parents frantically grabbing children and shuffling them around the bustling Christmas market which was placed outside the Basílica.

It was all pretty hectic, so we then went to somewhere even more hectic and touristy – La Sagrada de Familia. One of the most famous buildings in Spain. Even though it was busy, there was still a feeling of serenity about the place, so we spent a good half an hour there walking around and taking in the artistic building in all it’s glory and all the different angles.

After having a look round the Sagrada de Familia, I wanted to see this famous beach of Barcelona! Having lived in Madrid for a year, I had come across a lot of people saying “Yeah, Madrid is nice, but it doesn’t have a beach like Barcelona.”

Not having a beach seems to be the one big hang-ups about Madrid, there’s even a famous song by The Refrescos called “Aquí No Hay Playa”, which translates to “There is no Beach Here”, and they sing about all the different places in Madrid and the fact that there is no beach! So, I felt I had to see the beach of Barcelona.

It turns out it was a pretty long walk to get to the beach as there were no metro stops close to the beach, but we made it! It was a lovely walk there past the marina and all the fancy boats and there were buskers along the way serenading us as we walked. And yes, I admit, the beach was lovely, too! It was a warm day and there were people out sunbathing on the beach and it was really calm and peaceful. We couldn’t spend too long there and the time had passed quickly and it was time that we had to head back to the campsite and move on. I had hoped to spend time in Barcelona, but I’m sure I will back at some point to see what else the city has to offer.

We got back to the van, packed up and left. We were heading towards Murcia as we were planning on spending Christmas with Reece’s parents who currently live there, but we were going to take the journey slowly and enjoy the country as we went.

Our next stop was Cubelles, which is located not far from Barcelona, but it was in the right direction and there was a parking spot which had good reviews – so off we went! About 5 minutes before we got to the Park4Night spot, we realised we stalking an old transit van, which had a GB sticker on it! They were obviously going to the same spot as us, which was great as we like having a friend nearby to make us feel safer. We pulled up and met the owners of a van – a couple who had been living in their van full-time for quite a few years and had just got to Spain from Italy. They had been living and working in Sardinia for the past few months and were now slowly heading back to the UK for Christmas to see their family and get an MOT!

We were tired by that point from the long ferry journey and from our hectic tour of Barcelona, so we simply cooked some dinner and had a relaxing evening in the van.

Day One-Hundred and Twenty-Nine: Cubelles (Spain) – Benicasim (Spain)

We woke up to another beautiful day, after lots of rainy days in Italy, we were pleased that Spain was living up to it’s ‘Sunny Spain’ reputation. We went for a walk on the beach, which was so quiet and seem to go on for miles and miles and settled down for another breakfast of Tostada con Tomate which didn’t disappoint!

The waitress didn’t speak any English, so it was the perfect chance for me to practice my Spanish and the waitress was so lovely and patient and was happy to speak to me slowly and take the time to listen.

After a pleasant walk and tasty breakfast, we got back in the van and drove 2 hours south to Benicássim. It may seem like a strange destination, I don’t think it’s a usual holiday place, but each year the town host one of the biggest music festivals in Spain called FIB. I’ve not been before, but Reece goes yearly and absolutely loves it, so he wanted to show me the place where this amazing beach festival is held as the town is home to miles and miles of golden beaches.

This is what the town looks like when the festival is on:

But as it was out-of season, there was barely anyone on the beaches and the whole town was practically deserted. But we did go to one of Reece’s favourite sangria places and had a glass as we we watched the sun go down over the beach.

Day One-Hundred and Thirty: Benicasim (Spain) – Murcia (Spain)

The next day, I got up early and had a long walk all the way down the beach front and found a very clean public toilet where I could brush my teeth, one of the many challenges of living out of a very small van! And then I did some stretches on the beach and went back to the van to wake Reece up so I could eat some breakfast.

Once awake, Reece decided that it had been too long away from his parents (almost half a year!) and that he really wanted to get Murcia that evening. So after giving his parents a few hours warning that we would actually be arriving, we began the 3 hour journey south.

We reached Murcia in the afternoon and it was so lovely to see Keith and Donna and take some time away from the van.

Day One-Hundred and Thirty-One – Day One-Hundred and Fifty: Murcia

Our time in Murcia was certainly rejuvanating after the months of travelling. And at the time, I was looking forward to having a few weeks off then getting back on the road to explore Portugal, but to anyone who has seen us since we went back, they will know that that didn’t go to plan as our van constantly continued to let us down. After we had to call breakdown to restart Papaya after the battery had died (yet again!!!), we had a couple of days driving around trying to find someone who would fix her. But when that didn’t work out, we spent time driving around trying to find parts to attempt to fix it ourself. In the end we had to settle for a new battery and have our fingers crossed that she would at least get us back to England…

Don’t get me wrong, Papaya wasn’t all bad, and during our time in Murcia she did become the taxi at one point as Keith’s car was in the garage. During this time, we were thankful we had installed the seatbelts on the rock and roll bed as it was great to have a  seat in the back, although it wasn’t the comfiest seat in the world to say the least. As we were going through all the mayhem with the van, Peta (our first Workaway host in Italy) sent me a lovely picture of Reece and I with Papaya, and I think this is the only picture we have of both of us with her. It made me realise that we had done pretty well to take a 25-year-old van, who had started it’s life in Japan, all the way round Europe racking up around 12,000 miles and only have a few breakdowns. At least she had made it to Spain, even if we didn’t believe we would actually get there at times.

Most of our time in Murcia consisted of relaxing, chatting, enjoying the sunshine, making food, going to the markets, practising yoga, eating out,  growing plants, exploring the local beaches, shops and parks, gawping at the amazing sunsets and generally taking it easy, hence why I am summing it up here.

The beautiful sunsets which we got to witness many of the evenings:

These are the few of the experiments that we did: growing lentils, tomatoes and peppers from store-bought food, making oat milk from some oats and water, making peanut butter in a blender with the cheapest bag of peanuts we could find, and we also attempted to make olive oil from Keith and Donna’s olive tree. All were really successful, bar the olive oil, which didn’t work at all, we were left with a stinky purple sludge which ended up in the compost bin…

I also had quite a bit of work to do for my boss, and I wrote the blog about Italy during my time there.

Day One-Hundred and Forty-Seven: Christmas Day in Murcia

This was my first Christmas away from home, so I was a little apprehensive, and of course, I missed my family. But it turned out to be such a lovely day!

Reece and I had booked a table in advance for the four of us at an Indian restaurant where they had a whole section of vegetarian food, so I was excited to have that for my Christmas dinner! And, to start the day off, we went for a lovely walk along the coast line and joined in with a Christmas party on the beach. It was strangest thing I had ever seen, all different cultures together having barbeques and drinking cava on the beach, with many people dressed in red, oh and lots of santa hats, too. There were even people in the sea – on Christmas day!

Although it was a little strange, it was great to experience a hot Christmas. It was nice to be able to wear a sparkly skirt (without super thick tights!!), feel the sunshine on my skin and get sand between my toes.

The food at the restaurant was absolutely delicious! We were all really happy with our dishes (plus we had a few veggie roast dinners at the house around that time, so it didn’t really feel like we were missing out on a ‘traditional’ dinner).

Roast dinner!

Veggie roast with lentil load and meat-free ‘meat’ loaf

Our ‘meat’ loaf made from seitan

After dinner, we came back to the house and opened up the rest of our presents, had a few drinks and fell into a food coma.

Day One-Hundred and Fifty-Three: New Year’s Eve in Benidorm

Reece and I had planned to be in Portugal for New’s Years Eve ever since our trip began, but as more problems with the van started to arise in Spain, we settled for Granada. So, a couple of days before New Year’s Eve, we packed the van up, jumped in the front ready to go and…. Then Papaya didn’t start! We weren’t going anywhere. We know now that there was an issue with the battery and starter motor, but at the time we were just utterly disappointed. We had hyped ourself up for Portugal, then re-hyped ourself up for Granada, and now we couldn’t go anywhere.

I was feeling  a little mopey on the morning of New Year’s Eve, so I had a quick look at hotels nearby, and I saw a really cheap last-minute offer on a hotel in Benidorm. I let Reece know and that was it, within 40 minutes all four of us were in the car heading to Benidorm!!!

We had a walk along the beach when we got there and a wander round the centre, it was really pretty and so warm! There were loads of people there, obviously ready to celebrate New Year’s Eve just like us.

We had a few issues with parking, but once we finally sorted all of that out, as we started to walk towards the hotel to check in we could hear some really loud music and see a stage. It looked like the party was booming! What we didn’t expect that behind the stage was our hotel…

Luckily everyone just laghed it off, the energy was great and everyone was dancing away to the DJ on the stage. I got ready for the night then joined Reece and his dad on the balcony where we were watching the crowd and singing along out to the classic British rock music they were playing. It was a fun start to the night!

We then left the party behind and headed towards the strip of Benidorm, which was really quiet at this time of year, but there were a few bars open, so we went to one which had a Tina Turner impersonator singing and really cool vibe and had a couple of drinks. We then went to get some dinner. It was pretty late by that time (around 10.30) and I really wanted to get back to the party – with some grapes and cava to follow the Spanish tradition where they eat 12 grapes when the clock hits 12 and pop open a bottle of cava – but we had walked a long way a way from the party, so it was looking unlikely that we would get there in time. Reece and I excused ourselves early and made a mad dash back to the beach and the stages (not so easy on a full stomach) and tried to get hold of some grapes and cava (which we couldn’t), but we made it the beach just in time for the clock to hit 12. A bit of a mad rush, but we did it!

We were hoping to continue the party afterwards, but everything was closed by then, so we simply sat and had a glass of cava outside the hotel and talked about the year we had had. And wow – what a fantastic year 2019 had been!!! From some really fun trips in the UK, the stress of all those final exams, going to shows with my lovely pony, some fantastic summer parties, graduating with a 1st class degree, building a van from scratch, to travelling all the way from England to the fjords of Norway, to Laplap, and all the way through Finland, through the Baltic Countries, to Poland, then a quick dash back to Germany and then all the way to the south of Italy and back up to get across to Spain (and all the many, many countries in between). Wow, it’s been a crazy one!

Day One-Hundred and Fifty-Four: New Year’s Day in Guadalest

On New Year’s Day, we woke up, had another wander around Benidorm and had some breakfast in the town. We then got in the car to head back home, but Keith and Donna asked if we wanted to go to a scenic place on the way back, which I immediately agreed too! That place was Guadalest, and it was absolutely beautiful.

The town of Guadalest is perched on top of a huge boulder, with a castle right at the top. Walking up to the castle makes you feel as though you’ve stepped back in time with the cobbled paths and buildings carved out into the rock. The views across the valley once you climb up the hill are absolutely breathtaking. The valley is surprisingly green and at the centre of it is a bright turquoise lake, a stark contrast the pale white coloured rocks all around.

We spent a lovely couple of hours there walking round and enjoying the views before we got back in the car and drove back to Murcia.

Day One-Hundred and Fifty-Nine: Murcia – Madrid

Just before Christmas we booked our ferry back home, which was leaving on the … of January from Bilboa (North Spain). Before getting on the ferry, we had hoped to go to Portugal and do another Workaway there, but we couldn’t. Because Papaya was in such a sorry state, we bought a new battery (which only lasted us a few weeks as it turns out) and decided that we would bolt to the top of Spain as fast as we could as the van didn’t seem to want to start up once it had been stood for longer than a few hours, and we didn’t want to risk missing that ferry! We had had the most amazing life-changing trip, but we were ready to come back home.

As it happens, halfway between Murcia and Bilbao lies Madrid. And how could I go past the city that gave me such a fantastic year without popping in and saying hi? So that’s exactly what we did. We decided that we would drive from Murcia to Bilbao with a one-night stay in Madrid. So we packed the van up for one of the last times, said our good-byes and set off with our plants velcroed to the bonnet (you should see the tomatoes now – they’re almost as tall as me!) and all of our things pack away in our little van.

It took us almost four hours to get to Madrid, but we found a lovely spot on the Park4 Night app just a 30 minute metro ride away from the centre which had a beautiful view across the city with lots of other fellow campervans around. We got ready, locked up and headed into Madrid for a little look around and to find some food to eat.

The city was as beautiful as ever. I realised last time I visited Madrid after my Erasmus year that the great thing about my stay there wasn’t actually the city, as stunning and lovely as it is, but it was the people. So, although I will always enjoy walking around the grand city and take in the sights, the love that I once thought was for the city is actually the love I have for all the wonderful people I met.

Day One-Hundred and Sixty: Madrid – Bilbao

We woke up with the last big stint ahead of us, we were driving another four hours up to Bilbao, where we would stay overnight, and then get the ferry back to England the next morning. Thankfully the van started, and so we continued.

It was a long drive, but the closer we got to Bilbao, the prettier the views got which always helps the time pass. We had misjudged the timing a little, and we had stopped for quite a long lunch break on the way to take a breather before we continued, which meant that the night came upon us quicker than we were anticipating.

Around 20 minutes away from Bilbao, we got stuck in heavy traffic and as we were both tired and really just wanted to get to our camp spot for the night, it wasn’t the most welcome thing at all. Plus, once we got past the traffic and into the city, we found ourselves on twisting, winding fast motorways with lanes going left right and centre like spaghetti! We went the wrong way a couple of times, which is always more frightening when it’s dark, but we finally made it to our destination. That night we were staying in a car park just outside the centre of Bilbao, and like the one in Madrid, it had a fantastic view across the city. That evening we stayed in our van for the last time. We cooked dinner on our little hob and watched some videos on YouTube before getting some rest before the last leg of our journey commenced in the morning.

Day One-Hundred and Sixty-One: Bilbao (Spain) – Bay of Biscay

In the morning, we had some time before we boarded the ferry, which was scheduled to leave around 3pm. So instead of sitting around and waiting, we went for a walk around the city. I have visited Bilbao before, so after a lovely Spanish breakfast, I guided us to see the main city monuments, Puppy (a giant west highland terrier sculpted out of flowers) and the Guggenheim Museum.

We also had a look at some of the grand cathedrals and went to a view-point so we could see across the whole city before we returned to Papaya.

We packed up for the final time, jumped in the front and prayed that our van would start. Just one more time and we would practically be on the way home. Thankfully she chugged to life with only a little bit of resistance. We got to the port with plenty of time to spare, despite getting lost again in the maze of the motorways, so we could kick back and relax before it was our turn to board.

And then the beautiful sunny day suddenly vanished and the big dark clouds rolled in above us and the wind picked up speed…

Then we watched all the cars and campers that had just arrived from England come off the boat. There wasn’t much smiling as everyone drove off the ferry, despite having just arrived in Spain. At the time I thought it might be because it was cloudy, but then a couple of people did a up-down wave motion with their hands. Now I understand why no one was smiling.

After everyone got off the ferry, we were slowly allowed to board. Campervans always seem to go on last and the ferry staff like to make you do all weird kinds of manoeuvres with your vans and fit into tiny spaces, so it takes forever to get everyone parked up. But we were on board, and we were finally heading home. Well, that was until the announcement that the ferry was now delayed 3 hours because they were waiting for a storm to pass. Great, I thought at the time, at least it won’t be bad when we leave.

It turns out I was completely wrong. It was bad, really bad, terrible even. I barely got any sleep as I was so frightened the boat was about to capsize at any moment. I honestly don’t know how it didn’t. I’ve been on a few cruises, but I’ve never felt so scared or sick on a boat before. All our things were sliding around the cabin and the whole ship was swaying like crazy. Reece was also feeling really ill, as though he was coming down with flu, so it was a really rough night.

Day One-Hundred and Sixty-Two: Portsmouth – Collingham

I was very pleased when morning came and we could leave our cabin and actually look out the window to make sure the boat wasn’t actually falling over. It turns out it wasn’t, although when we looked out the window there were moments you could see all-sky, and others you could see all sea. It was VERY rocky. But seeing everyone doing their drunken sea walks all in sync with one another as the boat swayed side to side and realising that the staff were calm made me feel a bit better, so the day at sea wasn’t too bad bar feeling pretty queasy, plus it was a really pretty ship.

We reached England around 11pm and I was SO thankful when we finally got off the ship and onto solid ground. I don’t think I will ever take the ferry from Spain to England or vice versa again. What a frightening 24-hours!

But it didn’t quite end there, we then had an hour wait to get through border control (thanks Brexit!) and then a 4-hour drive all the way back up to Collingham. Halfway through the journey we pulled up to get some fuel and were welcomed back to England by a group of very drunk and very loud bunch of people in the petrol station who delayed us by another 15-minutes on our already crazy long journey to get back home. Not the best.

But we made it. We got home at 4 o’clock in the morning. Well, it was sort of home, but as my mum had moved whilst I away it was all new and strange, but my mum was there, so it was still home. I was SO happy to be back!

 

So, what happened next?

The following weeks went by quickly, we had a lovely time catching up with all our family back in England. I was able to spend lots of time with my pony and pups. Papaya went into the garage to get some major issues fixed. I was applying for lots of jobs, and I had secured an internship with a company in Leicester through a graduate scheme my university put on. Reece had a slow start back at work due to the time of year.

But before too long we were really getting into the swing of things, Reece and I managed to rent a little house in Alvaston, Derby. It is only tiny, a mezzanine type house that is half-up, one-down! But compared to a campervan, it feels huge. Reece’s work was really picking up and I was going into Leicester for my internship, plus I had secured a full-time position at a company in Nottingham in a role I was really excited about, which was set to begin in May.

And then COVID-19 happened…

Both of us are very thankful that we were back home when all of this broke out in Europe. We know many people have had to cancel their once-in-a-lifetime trips, others have got stuck in foreign countries, precious campervans have had to be left behind as their owners jetted back home in fear of their own safety, and the whole world turned to chaos.

We have been very lucky as we were able to get a house together before lockdown, and as soon as people are back in the office, I will still be able to start my new job and Reece will be able to go back to work. The time off has been beneficial in some ways as I have been able to learn lots of new skills to help kickstart my career, and we have got into new hobbies such as baking, gardening and long walks. But we know there are many people who are less fortunate than us and it has been really hard being away from family, friends – and my lovely pony!

But we are home and we are safe, and we are so grateful for the wonderful experience we able to have.

I hope you have enjoyed reading about our van-life adventures, and we hope to do something similar again one day (in a bigger van!!!), so watch this space.

Take care x

 

“You may have the universe if I may have Italy” – Giuseppe Verdi

Tuesday, 19th of November

Day One-Hundred and Eleven: Pompeii – Cicerale

Having driven to Pompeii from Rome the previous day, we simply had a walk around new Pompeii and ate pizza.

In the morning we got up pretty early and headed to the gate of Pompeii so we could get into the old town and have a look around. It had been recommended to us that we get a tour guide to take us around, but after around an hour of waiting to create a big enough group to make the tour a reasonable price, we gave up and instead got an audio tour. Because we were under 25 years old and European citizens (still, thankfully…) we managed to get our tickets for £2 each rather than £15, which was nice, especially because the place itself was a little bit of a disappointment to me, to be honest. I had this picture that I’d drawn of Pompeii a long time ago, I’m not quite sure why – maybe too many historical and fantasy movies that paint a mysterious and magical world of the past, so I was expecting this ancient town upon a mountain that boasted amazing views. There were a few nice places in the city, but it definitely wasn’t how I imagined it to be. Plus I had a splitting headache and it was raining, which I’m sure didn’t help. But I’m glad we went anyhow.

We reached our next Workaway hosts at around 5 pm, so all was getting dark. We knew they were a Dutch and German couple of fifty-four and fifty-eight years old who practised permaculture, sustainable living, medicinal herbs (all things that we would really like to do in the future) plus they’d had good feedback from previous Workwawayers, but still, it’s always nerve-wracking meeting new people. But again, there was absolutely nothing to worry about, they turned out to be so lovely and welcomed us with open arms and pasta and broccoli cooked in their own homegrown olive oil and garlic – it was delicious! We also met their pets Luna the rottweiler, Google (yes, like the search engine) the terrier and Mitsu, Jimmy, Mimi and Minnie the four cats – Mitsu being the mum and the other three, her babies.

Luna

Google

Two of the kittens

We were shown to our own private apartment, which was absolutely beautiful, it had been recently built by Gianni, Linda and some Italian builders and they had done a fantastic job. We then had some limoncello made fresh from the lemons they grow on their land (it was gorgeous) and talked until it was almost midnight and we thought we had better get some sleep so we were ready to help out in the morning.

Wednesday, 20th of November – Thursday, 28th of November

Day One-Hundred and Twelve – Day One-Hundred and Twenty: Cicerale

The twelve days that we spent in Cicerale were some of the best of our trip! 

In the morning, when we finally got to see the place in the daylight, we were taken aback by its beauty and all the hard work that Gianni and Linda had put into the place so they could make their own food, medicines and even some cosmetics! On that same day (the day after we arrived) two other Workways joined us, Markus and Yvonne, a German couple who had been living in their Fiat Ducato campervan conversion with their little Jack Russell x (Nellie) and seven cats and kittens (Minnie, Emmie, Mickey, Tubsy, Julie, Lottie and Ellie). All who were absolutely adorable, especially the four kittens who were just five-months-old. Their mother was a rescue cat from Spain who got herself pregnant so Yvonne and Markus unexpectedly ended up with seven cats, but they all get on so well and are super cute.

Little Mickey, one of Yvonne and Markus’ kittens, and huge Luna

Yvonne with Google and their dog, Nelly

Markus and Reece

The jobs we were doing for the week were split between us – the boys (Reece, Markus and Gianni) were building a shed from scratch. This meant laying the foundations, putting in beams, building the roof, cladding the sides and then laying the roof tiles before finally fitting the doors. This is their progress in picture form:

The boys at work!

The girls (Yvonne, Linda and I) spent the week gardening and making a wooden chalet that was next to Linda’s house – which was previously being used as storage – into a small apartment. This meant making a bed from recycled wood, putting up shelves and generally making the place a bit more homely. We also helped the guys out where we could – collecting stones for the foundations and painting wooden slats for the shed.

We found some pretty unusual insects whilst we were collecting stones, including a praying mantis, a stick insect, leopard slugs, green grasshoppers, stinky bugs (or shield beetles) and a little tarantula! Reece even spotted a scorpion under a log pile whilst he was in Cicerale!

This is how Yvonne and Linda and I made the bed… We used some old shelves, table legs and a couple of doors instead of the base to make a full-sized double bed for the wooden chalet.

The mornings before working were spent eating great fresh food. Gianna was once a pizza chef in the Netherlands with his own pizza company, so he was an excellent baker and every day he made us all fresh sourdough bread from wild yeast that had been growing for the last couple of years. They also source their flour from a mill that still has the licence to produce flour in the traditional way which allows the flour to keep all its natural nutrients (nowadays the milling takes out most the nutrients and so vitamins are fortified into white flour- this happens in England too). We also had some delicious jams, all from fruit just from the garden, and some gorgeous spreads that Yvonne made from legumes and vegetables. Yvonne and Markus are vegan, so we had a very eye-opening week to the amount of delicious food you can make with just vegetables, grains and pulses! One morning Yvonne made some vegan latte macchiato’s from oats, hazelnuts, walnuts and cashews and delicious Italian coffee.

The evenings we spent cooking different vegan and vegetarian meals, and then we talked and laughed so much into the night. It did get a bit chilly on the terrace as it got later, but we just pulled up a gas heater and all was well. It was like Christmas every evening with all the great food we made.

A vegan Sunday roast Reece and I made with a lentil loaf, roasted potatoes and carrots, mashed potato, broccoli and courgette and vegetable gravy

It seemed to go down well!

Reece even made vegan Yorkshire puddings!

Prepping some cauliflower cheese

Vegan cauliflower cheese with a side of fried peppers, fennel, onions and carrot with extra vegan cheese sauce – yummy!

The starter from an Indian inspired three-course meal Yvonne and Markus made for us! It was very tasty

Chefs at work!

Greek-inspired mezze with hummus, a sort of falafel, fried potatoes, soup, some spread and pita bread

On the first Friday we were there, Yvonne, Linda and I went to the market to get some food for us all for the week (we bought fresh cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, onions, garlic, courgettes, peppers, tomatoes, aubergine, fennel, apples, olives, rice, lentils and mung beans), and whilst we were out we went to visit the olive mill where Linda and Gianna get all their olives made into Extra Virgin Olive Oil as well as the flour mill where they buy all their flour and a carpenter to pick up some wood stain for the shed. On the way back we nipped into a bar where Linda treated us to an Aperol Spritz which came with some aperitifs!

The marketplace

The flour mill

The olive mill

A beautiful Maremma sheepdog outside the carpenter’s workshop, a popular farm breed in Italy.

Aperol Spritz and aperitifs

Unfortunately somewhere during our little trip to the market, Linda had her purse stolen which contained all her ID cards and some cash, so we all pretty upset about this. We did our best retracing our steps and calling some of the market vendors, but it wasn’t to be found! This is such a shame as pickpocketers and thieves just like this give this beautiful country a bad name. But we did have a lovely time just the three of us out of the house before this happened.

Friday, 29th of November

Day One-Hundred and Twenty-One: Cicerale – Napoli – Cicerale 

On Friday, Reece and I took a day trip from the Workaway to go to Napoli! Way before we started planning the trip, maybe eighteen-months before, the idea was that we would move to Italy for 6 months and get jobs teaching English as a second language, and Naples was the one place we quite fancied moving to. But then Reece had the idea to get a campervan and travel the whole of Europe instead – which I was very happy to do! Anyway, both of us were excited to see the city, and we weren’t disappointed.

Napoli wasn’t as grand as some of the other places we’ve been to in Italy, and around the edges, it was pretty dirty, with rubbish scattered all over the floor and some strange smells floating around in the air, but the centre had the great Italian charm to it that I think everyone falls in love with. With its tiny winding streets and beautiful cathedrals, markets selling Christmas gifts and fantastic food, we really enjoyed Naples. Plus, we had fantastic weather which we were very grateful for after a week with so much rain. During our pretty short time in the city, we made it our mission to enjoy the Italian food and drink as we knew we were leaving Italy in just a few days, and we definitely did that. The prices were also unexpectedly cheap, so we went all out with a margarita pizza each (whole pizzas for €2!!), coffee’s and croissants, an Aperol spritz on the go (these were only €1 and very refreshing) and ricotta/white wine cannoli for dessert.

Proper Napoleon pizza!

Cannoli

After walking around Napoli a little more and taking in all the sites, we went back to Cicerale. I was pretty tired so I fell asleep on the train back, but it was nice to get home. We got back into the apartment, and I was just about to put some dinner on when I heard a knock on the door. It was Markus, and he arrived with an invite for pizza. Yes, we know, we had already had a whole pizza that day, amongst other food. But when in Rome, right? So of course, we said yes, and the six of us went out for pizza in the next village! It was a little restaurant, but the owners were friends of Gianna and Linda, so we got brilliant service and the pizza was absolutely amazing! We started off with a garlic pizza to share between us all, then Yvonne, Markus and I went for a vegan pizza (interestingly the two most famous pizzas in Italy are vegetarian – the margarita — and vegan – the marinara) which came with grilled courgettes, tomatoes, aubergine and some other veg on top, and it was absolutely delicious! Reece had a margarita topped with chilli peppers which he said was also very tasty. Afterwards, they brought to the table some limoncello and some sweet liquor which tasted a lot like Jagermeister. We all had a few shots each and then headed back home. Linda and Gianna were kind enough to take up the bill!

When we got home, more shots were on the cards in the form of grappa, which is a very strong clear Italian liquor made from grapes. We all stayed up till around one in the morning just chatting, laughing and drinking.

Saturday, 30th of November

Day One-Hundred and Twenty-Two: Cicerale – Salerno – Cicerale 

For our final day, we had all planned to go to Salerno to see the Christmas lights, which was supposed to be quite a spectacle that people from all over Campania come to see. So, after eating breakfast, I had a little more chilled out morning whilst Reece, Markus and Gianna continued with the shed. It gave me a chance to catch up on some work I had to do and also this blog (well, the one before about Rome).

After a crazy car ride to Agropoli and a train, we reached to Salerno around 4pm, which was perfect timing as we arrived just before the sunset and it was quite a spectacular one that night. We had a steady walk along the coast, where they had a big wheel and also some little penguin lights on the rocks which were very sweet.

Then we entered ‘the Zoo’ which was a small park filled with the most amazing light sculptures of all different animals, from monkeys to flamingos to elks to elephants, it was like nothing I had ever seen before!

Then we simply spent a few hours walking through all the streets, which were filled lights, music, little shops and stalls, beautiful churches, a nativity and many many people. We walked and talked and gawped at everything around us until we got hungry again and went to a pizza place where we ate calzones!

We then did a little bit more walking and eating before heading to the train station where the last train of the evening was supposed to leave around 10pm. We got to the train station and we were a little confused as we couldn’t find the ticket office, but we weren’t too worried as Linda had checked the timetable a couple of days ago and we had plenty of time. Or so we thought. We somehow accidentally split up, Linda and Gianna found the ticket office whilst we were waiting outside where the train platforms were. Markus found Linda and Gianna, and unfortunately, we were met with bad news. The last train had already left, about half an hour ago…  The next train going south wasn’t until 6am. Uh-oh. We all quickly checked different route options – maybe other trains, coaches, buses – surely? Nope, nothing until the morning. So, it was either a €100 taxi or staying up until the next train. It was a Saturday night after all. But we were all pretty tired, Yvonne and Markus had their animals at home in the van and Reece and I were planning on leaving in the morning. We got a drink and asked some locals to see if they could come up with another option. No, that was it.

Contemplating our next move…

In the end, we decided that the best option would be to simply split the taxi three ways and get back home that night, which is exactly what we did. The drive to Agropoli where the car was parked was an hour in the car (it was only 30 minutes on the train) and if you have ever been driven by an Italian, you will understand when I say that the car ride was quite an experience and I can’t say it was the best one. Exhilarating, for sure, but there was also quite a lot of genuine fear too… I had planned to get a little kip but after the first 10-minutes of aggressive overtaking, swerving and some good ol’ brake slamming, I decided that wasn’t an option. We reached the car at around midnight and then it was just a 25-minute car ride home with Yvonne in the boot as 6 people don’t quite fit in a 5 seater car!

I really feel like we have made such good friends here and I will be so sad to leave. I wish we could stay longer, but everything must come to an end, and so we carry on to the Almalfi coast tomorrow.

 

Sunday, 1st of December

Day One-Hundred and Twenty-Three: Cicerale – Ravello – Minori

We had a lovely last breakfast with everyone and then Reece and I packed up the van, which surprisingly takes quite a while given how few possessions we brought with us and then we left with parting gifts of fig jam, a candle and also some of Linda and Gianna’s organic olive oil that we bought. Both of us were pretty sad to be leaving, but we were grateful for the amazing time that we had had in Cicerale.

And then we were off to the Amalfi coast! I think the drive to the Amalfi coast through the outskirts of Napoli was some of the most hair-raising driving that we’ve done (well Reece has done, I daren’t go anywhere near the wheel in Italy) and how we came out of that without a scratch I have no idea, but we did anyway. We reached the coastal road of the Amalfi at around 2pm, and we were heading to Ravello, a little village just up from Amalfi that was recommended to us by my Nan who had been to Ravello many summers. We had planned to get there for lunch, but the views from the road were just so beautiful and we must have stopped every 15-minutes to gawp and take a picture as we just couldn’t believe how gorgeous it all looked. The road was pretty narrow and windy with lots of blind bends with quite a few huge tourist buses coming towards us, so I’m sure you realise how terrifying it was to both drive and be a passenger on this road, but what we were seeing made up for it all. Plus, we only have a little camper, so it could have been worse.

When we realised we were going to miss lunch, we decided to stop at a bakery in Minori that Gianna had recommended to us and get a cake – we went for a pistachio cheesecake and it was gorgeous.

Then, I took a look at places we could park in Ravello, but there was barely any, and the few there were, were all very expensive. I had a quick look on Google maps and it told us that it was only a 35-minute walk to Ravello, as opposed to a 25-minute drive, so we decided that we would stay where we were for the night and just walk to Ravello – it should be a nice walk along the coastline, right? We set off at around 4pm, so we had around an hour of sunlight left, so I was hoping we would catch the sunset from Ravello, which was said to have amazing views. What Google maps didn’t take into account was that the walk to Ravello was all uphill. And it was not a steady incline. I have never ever walked up so many steps. Ever.

This was me at the start of the walk, in the beautiful daylight just at the beginning of the steps. It had a sign to Ravello, so we knew people must walk to the village often.

And then there were more steps and more, and then even more! Then the 35 minutes slowly crept into 40, 50, 60 minutes…

It took us two hours to reach Ravello and by the time we got there, the sun had gone down, which was such a shame. But we couldn’t be too disappointed as the views on the way up there were breathtaking.

The town itself was very pretty and quaint and as we were walking around, even though it was dark, we got the sense that we were very high up and there were valleys all the way around with more villages nestled amongst them. Unfortunately, we had somehow managed to visit Ravello during a bank holiday, so everything was closed, even the restaurant we were hoping to have dinner in. We did find a little cafe that was open on the main square, so we each had an overpriced hot chocolate, which was disturbed by the sound of fireworks. We asked the waitress what was happening and she explained that on the first Sunday of December, the town celebrates the opening of the Christmas season. So we went outside to see what was happening and there was a small crowd of people gathered around the Christmas tree watching the fireworks, there was then a procession with choir singing and music which was quite lovely to watch.

Afterwards, we then began the long walk back home, since it was now all downhill we got back down much quicker. Halfway down we stumbled upon the most impressive view of a firework display over a castle which was perched on a cliff over the sea.

Since we had worked up quite an appetite from all the walking, we went to a pizza restaurant in Minori and ate pizza and drank wine which ended the night perfectly.

Day One-Hundred and Twenty-Four: Minori – Amalfi – Positano – Sorrento – Vico Equense

In the morning, we woke up after a reasonable night’s sleep on the seafront and then decided to get a coffee and a croissant at the bakery we went to the day before. We thought it would be very expensive, but since we stood up to drink and eat, it was a very reasonable price and was certainly the best coffee and croissant we’ve had – and that’s saying something as we’ve had some pretty delicious Italian breakfasts.

After breakfast, we had a quick walk on the beach before jumping back onto the windy coastal road!

 

Wow, wow, wow, I don’t think we’ve ever said this word so much in such a short space of time! The views were incredible and each town we went through had so much character. We drove through all the popular places such as the Amalfi and Positano, which were beautiful.

 

We reached Sorrento around 2pm, which was a place pretty high up on the list to visit but I don’t either of us believed that we would actually make it there in our little Papaya after all our setbacks. It was a special place to Reece in particular, as Ravello was for me because of my Nan, as it was a town that his Grandfather had loved dearly and had visited often. It was a gorgeous town on the coast with amazing views across the cliffs and a lovely town centre.

Sorrento town centre

Views across the cliffs

We looked for places nearby to sleep for the night and we found a spot near a place called Vico Equense which had a private beach near it and views across the ocean to the port of Napoli and Mount Vesuvius. We had a peaceful night sleep there.

Day One-Hundred and Twenty-Five: Vico Equense – Latina

This is the view that we woke up to the morning after staying in Vico Equense – it was pretty nice!

After another coffee and croissant, which was nowhere near as good as the one we had the day before, we set off back up North to the port of Civitavecchia, which was just above Rome. The drive kept us on our toes, as we now expected from Italy, and we made our way almost four hours north. We reached a town called Latina and parked in a car park just outside their local police station, which made us feel a little safer as it didn’t seem the most secure town ever (especially when we heard what sounded like gunshots not too far away from the van). But we still practised our bad Italian/Spanish/English mixture at our local pizzeria and had our last pizza out of our time in Italy. Then we went back to the van and had a pretty good nights sleep.

Day One-Hundred and Twenty-Six: Latina – Civitavecchia

I can’t say either of us were thrilled to leave Italy, although both of us were looking forward to getting to Spain to see Reece’s parents and have a little taste of home during Christmas time.

Italy was, well is, just absolutely magnificent.

I know a lot of people say they love Italy, but I suppose I wondered how different from the rest of Europe it could be. But wow. Italy is different. There is something just a little bit magical about the place. It’s like all the beautiful paintings of the coast and grand buildings come to life around you and the atmosphere is fantastic and the food even better. Plus, our time in the mountains both in Tuscany and Campania were brilliant and the views were just amazing. It is just a little slice of heaven. 

But I do love Spain and Spanish and the country will always have a special place in my heart from living in Madrid, so I look forward to going back. But we will miss Italy.

The final day we spent driving from Latina to Civitavecchia where we were getting the ferry to Barcelona – we couldn’t bear driving back North all the way through France when we were so far down Italy, so we booked a ferry instead. The ferry was leaving at 11pm, but we got there around 8pm and just chilled in the back of the camper watching Netflix! As soon as we got to the cabin, we just got into bed and slept until morning.

All Roads Lead to Rome

Tuesday, 5th of November

 Day Ninety-Eight: Venice (Italy)

After another restless night sleeping in a service station near Trieste, somewhere in between Ljubljana, Slovenia and Venice, Italy, Reece and I reached Venice around 10.30 Tuesday morning. We booked into a campsite, having been warned by many that Italy has quite the reputation for carjacking and stealing from cars. This is a risk we do not want to take with our little Papaya. So, we found a campsite just a 10-minute bus ride onto the island of Venice which suited us perfectly.  

After making a few cheese and cucumber sandwiches to take with us, we got the bus onto the island! Reece and I have previously been to Venice as an 18th birthday present from my mum in March of 2015, Reece was still 17. We had a wonderful time back then, but I don’t think we really appreciated how special this little island on the water is as much as we did this time around. 

Me and Reece in Venice in 2019

Me and Reece in Venice in 2015

It was beautiful.

Firstly, we walked from where the tram dropped us off and headed straight to Piazza San Marco (St. Mark’s Square), which took us around 50 minutes as, even with Google Maps, we got lost! We thought that this time we were safe – having previously got very very lost on our way to the hotel, we were supposed to get there at around 11pm, but I don’t think we actually reached the hotel until 2am! – but even with GPS, it is hard to navigate around the teeny tiny winding streets of Venice.

The square was as pretty as we remembered and we spent some time just walking around, watching people try to take pictures with the hundreds of pigeons and listened to some bands that were playing to those sat having a coffee on the square. We then decided to get a drink ourselves but living on a budget, not on one of the most famous plazas in Europe. We headed further inland and had our first Aperol Spritz of the trip in a little bar on a side street. 

We then walked and walked around, eating our sandwiches, and chatting as we took in the quaint streets of Venizia. We decided to return to a bar we spent a night in when we were younger, Caffé Brasilia, and had a coffee. Afterwards, we watched the sunset over the Scalzi bridge, which was quite spectacular with all the boats floating in the water and the faded copper dome behind it.

We couldn’t believe that just days after our visit to Venice the whole place flooded, although the sea was high when we were there, we were very lucky that we managed to visit it before this happened and just hope that there wasn’t too much damage to the incredible little city! 

Day Ninety-Nine: Venice – Bologna

We left Venice around 10am and headed to Bologna, opting to drive off the toll roads to save some money. By going this route, we also got to see so much more of the little Italian villages and the countryside, which completely blew us away. It is just amazing!

We had a lovely drive to Bologna, but 20 minutes from the centre of the city, the traffic got crazier and crazier! It was the first time that we’d driven in an Italian city, and it’s safe to say the stereotype of the traffic is spot on with cars weaving in and out of lanes with no warning, scooters shooting past with inches to spare and people running across the road in front of us. But thankfully we reached our destination safely, a lit-up side street just a 15-minute walk from the centre. This was the first time I was really concerned about leaving the van, but all was fine and both Papaya and ourselves asleep were safe there! 

The city itself was a pleasant surprise, we had no idea what to expect, but all the buildings were very pretty and we spent a while just walking around getting lost, which brought us to a very interesting leaning tower, one of the oldest universities in Europe, some beautiful plazas and one of the best pizzas I think I’ve ever had.

With a little research, we found a wine bar just as the sun was setting and the atmosphere was changing for the nighttime, and the place we went to was absolutely bustling with people! This wine bar, Osteria del Sole, was opened in 1465 and is still going today – and they have very reasonably priced wine! We paid €4 for 2 good glasses of sparkling pinot grigio, which was very nice. Afterwards, we went back to the camper and settled in for the night. 

Day One-Hundred: Bologna – Florence

On the morning of our hundredth day, we had quite the panic as I realized that we had actually been uninsured in Europe for 10 days. Our insurance only covers us for 90 days in Europe and our insurance didn’t renew for another week – uh-oh! After a few panicky phone calls to our car insurance who first of all said that they could do nothing, so then to other insurers to see whether anyone would cover us whilst we were in Italy (it’s not so easy to get UK car insurance when you’re not actually there), we finally got our original insurer to cover us for the few days until our renewal date – phew! 

The prospect of being technically uninsured in Italy was pretty terrifying, so we were very relieved, but all the phone calls had cost us the morning. We had planned to leave early to get to Florence for lunch, so we headed to Florence to get there for dinner instead. The drive there was pretty incredible, as seemingly is everywhere in Italy. Driving over mountains and through tiny villages and stone towns, as we reached Florence, the views only got better. 

We reached the city as the sun was setting and driving in was just incredible as we were staying on the south-west side of the city next to the Piazzale Michelangelo, and driving past that during the sunset was just amazing, with all the terracotta roofs glowing in the warm sunlight. Wow. 

We found a secure car park with CCTV, that was actually free and had actually good reviews on Park4Night. We parked up and got ready to have a look around the centre, which was just a short bus ride away and had a great system where you could just use your contactless debit card as your bus ticket (which was very nice as public transport tickets around Europe have been the cause of much confusion on this trip).

We were dropped off right outside the church of Santa Maria Novella, which had the most amazing look to it with a style that I had never seen before, with marble panels in pink, green and white on the outside of the building. Walking through the streets towards the cathedral, the buildings just got even bigger and even more impressive and more beautiful! Florence cathedral, the bell tower and the Baptistery of St. John all next to each other were just breathtaking. All having a similar style to that of the first church we saw. 

Florence cathedral, the bell tower and the Baptistery of St. John

Florence cathedral, the bell tower and the Baptistery of St. John

Santa Maria Novella

Afterwards, we went to another good value wine bar, which again was bustling with people and they had the most amazing red wine which we drank a couple of glasses with some tapas. We then wandered around until we got hungry, so we had some delicious pasta and more red wine at a local restaurant… That meant that the bus ride home at around midnight was pretty fun after around a bottle of red wine each!

Day One-Hundred and One: Florence

After a good night’s sleep (and feeling a little hungover), we were looking forward to getting back into Florence and seeing the city in the daylight. But unfortunately, the weather had other plans, and it rained nearly all day long… 

Nonetheless, we got our waterproof coats on and headed into the centre. On this day, we decided that we wanted to see the Vecchio bridge, the view of Florence from high up at Piazzale Michelangelo, the synagog, the Vecchio palace and some more of the plazas – which is exactly what we did. 

The view from the Michelangelo plaza

The view from the Michelangelo plaza

Walking up to the Michelangelo plaza

Florence Cathedral door

Gelato shop

Synagog

the Vecchio palace

Walking up to the Michelangelo plaza

The rain did make some parts of the day pretty miserable, but the beauty of this city made up for it! 

Day One-Hundred and Two: Florence – Castel del Piano

We woke up on Saturday morning after a great sleep in our safe little car park, but we woke up to a very steamed up camper. The previous evening we were drenched so had the diesel heater on for half an hour to try and warm ourselves up and dry off our clothes a little. Being so drenched it wasn’t very effective, just left all the walls and ceiling damp to the touch. Luckily, we had plans to go to another Workaway host that day, so we weren’t too troubled. So we had a little breakfast, packed up and drove from Florence to the south of Tuscany to a village called Castel del Piano. 

I got a bit confused with the address (which couldn’t be found anywhere on Google maps) and it turned out that Peta, the lady who was hosting us, had left her iPad at home and she was at work until the evening, so she wasn’t receiving any of our messages, so we accidentally went half an hour past the town… But finally we reached Castel del Piano around 2 pm, but we still had no idea where her house was. So, instead of wasting our time cooped up in the soggy van, we went to a pizza restaurant (we are in Italy after all!) and had a Margherita pizza and cappuccino each for only €12! Then, we unsuccessfully tried to find the house again by driving around the outskirts of the village. 

At around 4.30 pm, I managed to get through to Peta on her mobile phone and we finally found the house (it was literally 1 minute away from where we had parked up). We then met another Workawayer who was also staying for the week, Anna, who was from the Czech Republic. We chatted for a while whilst having something to eat, and the host’s cat and dog came to say hello.

Nadina the Italian hunting dog and the cat with no name…

We all found it surprisingly cold in the house, the only heating being a fire which wasn’t lit until the evening. It was also great to meet Peta when she came home from work – a lovely lady who moved to Italy 25 years ago. Her daughter is studying in England, Peta works long hours as an osteopath, so needs general household help, and also with her horses and land. We had tea and chatted until midnight, then Peta made us a hot water bottle so we wouldn’t be too cold in bed! 

Day One-Hundred and Three: Castel del Piano

The next morning, after breakfast, we all went to a chestnut grove with Nadina the dog, picking chestnuts was very therapeutic.  I got to know Anna a bit better, chatting about books, movies, work, university, horses and our lives back at home whilst picking chestnuts. After some gnocchi and pesto for lunch, we chopped wood for the fire, so we could stay warm in the evening. With a chainsaw, we made spikes on the end of some wooden posts which would be used to fence off Peta’s land. (A plot of around 5 acres around an hours walk away/10 minute drive from her house). We also made Apple strudel for breakfast the next morning. For dinner, we prepared an Italian green vegetable called cardo, which has a flavour like an artichoke, and risotto with tomatoes and cheese. With all the firewood we had prepared, the evening was a little warmer.

Day One-Hundred and Four: Castel del Piano

For breakfast, which was around 9am, Peta fetched croissants from the bakery, which we had with the apple strudel. I also had a slice of bread with chestnut jam from the chestnuts we had picked the day before, which I found really tasty and mixed it with the sweetness of grape jam that Anna had picked and made the week before.

Today, we were working on fixing the fence for the horses’ winter field, which was actually just outside the house that Peta lived in. So, we gathered everything together that we needed to do the fencing – the strimmer, rope, eyelets, electric tape, and a couple of mallets and got to work trimming the grass under the electric wire, tightening the existing wire and straightening out all the poles. I’m very familiar with all of this as I do the same for my own horse, Pat the Pony, which made me miss him quite a bit!  

My handsome boy back at home sent to me by Zoe

We then came in for a cup of tea and a snack and of course a chat. Our next task was to roll a huge hay bale of hay down the hill and into the field, which was pretty hard work and great fun at the same time! 

The view from the house

The view from the house

That afternoon, we hoped to go and do some exploring, so we cleaned up everything from lunch (pesto pasta with beet) and headed out. We went to see the castle in Arcosso and a Buddhist monastery in Merigar, but it started raining and when we reached the Buddhist community, it was all covered in mist.

So, although it looked really nice, we bailed from our mission of exploring and went back home and drank tea and made an apple cake and pumpkin soup instead! The soup was our dinner, followed by apple cake with homemade custard and lemon tea made from a herb that tastes like a sweet lemon called Melissa. 

Reece making soup!

 

Day One-Hundred and Five: Castel del Piano

For breakfast, we had a feast of tea, apple cake, cornflakes, bread and chestnut and grape jam. Then, we went back to fencing, planting posts outside the house to stop the horses from getting onto the road. They previously had often escaped from their field in search of grass. Anna and I did the posts whilst Reece used the chainsaw for chopping wood so we could stay warm, although for once we had sunshine in the sky!

This was followed by rolling two remaining bales of hay down to the field to store them outside with tarp wrapped around them. This is easier said than done for sure and it took us around an hour and lots of energy. But it was fun all the same!

Afterwards, Peta returned from work so we all went in for tea and of course a chat. After tea, Peta wished to give us a tour around her land so she could show us where she wanted a fence making. Reece and I loaded up Peta’s little Fiat panda with huge poles and followed her in Papaya, keeping a reasonable distance as the poles were hanging precariously out the back of the tiny car. The land had a beautiful view, Peta outlined what fencing jobs she wanted us to do over the next few days.

The view from Peta’s land

Upon returning Anna had prepared lunch for us – cardo with tomato sauce and gnocchi with pesto, almonds, rosemary and garlic – it was all very tasty! 

As it was a lovely day after lunch Reece, Anna and I got ready and headed out over the mountains in search of some hot springs that Peta had mentioned a couple of days before! Peta hadn’t built it up, so we weren’t expecting much, but when we arrived, we were quite taken aback as it was so beautiful. Reece and I had been searching for a hot spring since the start of our trip, and here we finally realised what we had been looking for, and it truly exceeded our expectations. Both the view during the drive up there and the hot springs themselves. 

Before we got in, we walked around the area and saw the Fosso Bianco (or ‘white whale’), which was a huge white rock-like formation made up of calcium, and many many waterfalls that were gushing over these crazy formations. After our walk, we came back up to the top and jumped in one of the hot spring pools, which was a perfect temperature and a really nice contrast to the cool air outside. We left the place as the sun was setting at around 5pm and arrived back home in the dark. 

Day One-Hundred and Six: Castel del Piano

In the morning, we finished off the work we had to do near the house – fixing fences and chopping and organising the wood. We then had lunch and went out to Peta’s land with the Bongo loaded with tools to get some poles into the ground. 

We got the poles into the ground and Reece had the idea to set them up with struts ready to cement the next day. We also rescued some firewood from a huge pile of brambles and took down the existing fence which was falling to pieces, the jobs took us a few hours to do. 

We got back to the house as the sun was setting and were all very surprised when Reece blurted out ‘Is that a horse?’ as we pulled onto the drive. It was indeed. In fact, there were both of Peta’s horses grazing peacefully outside of her house! This was a surprise to us as the horses had been in a field a 20-minute walk away, we were due to bring them up to the house the following morning now that we’d finally finished the fencing! But, Stardust and Rondinella had somehow managed to escape from that field and made their own way back home for the winter months! Amazing.

Peta’s horses called Stardust and Rondinella

We then had some fun trying to round up the two horses up and get them into the coral outside the house when they more than content eating up all the luscious grass. After a quick phone call to an equally shocked Peta, it turns out the horses are suckers for chestnuts. So, after getting some in a bucket and giving it shake, they charged up towards the bucket and straight into the coral. Well, at least it saved an early morning the day after… 

Day One-Hundred and Seven: Castel del Piano

Although we now didn’t have to go and collect the horses at 6am, we still had an earlier start on the Friday as we were hoping to cement the poles in and get to work building the fence and stile! We had planned for just Peta and Reece to go and pick up some sand needed to mix the cement with, but after talking about how we loved coffee over breakfast, Peta invited us all out for a coffee. 

We all piled into the little Panda and went into Castel del Piano where Peta took us to a bakery to have a coffee and a pastry, which were both absolutely delicious. We took it in the traditional Italian style, standing up and drinking it rather quickly. Then, we went to a couple of shops to look around the local delicacies – biscuits, truffles, olives, honey, spices and dried mushrooms. Afterwards, we went to a woodwork shop where they use olive wood to make different crafted objects, such as spoons, trays, wooden vases and furniture which all had a beautiful pattern over it. Finally picking up the sand then headed home. 

Our plan was to take the horses down to the bigger field where they will spend a couple of months, then go and cement the poles in and begin building the fence. But the weather had other ideas, firstly the rain started, it just got heavier and heavier and the wind began to pick up. Soon enough, a full-blown storm had hit Castel del Piano with the loudest thunder I’d ever heard and lightning that lit up the whole sky, so we all took cover inside and got the fire started. There was a quick break in the storm, where we managed to move the horses, but then we spent the rest of the day drinking tea, making food – risotto and a bean dish and talking about everything. I also managed to catch up on some writing – for the paid articles and for this blog! We then said a sad Goodbye to Anna who was on her way back to Prague in the morning after her 10-month epic trip. Anna had spent time in Canada taking care of horses and sheep and goats, amongst other jobs, and then Italy too where she could practise her Italian. 

Day One-Hundred and Eight: Castel del Piano

On Saturday, our last full day in Castel del Piano, we drove a few big bags of cement up to Peta’s land, cementing the poles into the ground. It took us a few runs up a big hill carrying the heavy bags, we also managed to collect a few pears from a pear tree we came across.

Pretty ponies watching us carry the cement bags up the hill

After lunch, the rain started to come down again, so we decided to stay near the house chopping logs for the fire. In the evening, we packed up the van then we caught up with our parents before cooking dinner for all three of us. Peta came home around 7 and we all ate our last meal together and talked about life once again.

Sunday, 17th of November

 Day One-Hundred and Nine: Castel del Piano – Rome

As they say, all roads lead to Rome. And what a road it has been, from England to Germany to Scandinavia to Estonia to Poland to Slovenia and then into Italy (with a few countries in between) and what a city to end up in! Just as we thought Italian cities couldn’t possibly get any more beautiful, we stumbled into Rome… 

Before going to Rome, we checked Park4Night to see whether we could park in any car parks for free on the outskirts of the city like we did in Florence and Bologna, but after reading the reviews of these places, (which involved a lot of break-ins, carjackings and rude security guards), we decide to pay for a campsite. The drive down to Rome from Tuscany was beautiful once again with rolling green mountains the whole way there and the coast to our right, but the flooding that we came across on our drive was devastating. Whole fields of crops were submerged in water, there were houses with water halfway up the doors, the sea had turned a dirty brown colour from all the earth that had been washed into it and rivers that had turned into huge lakes…

But Rome, oh my goodness, Rome was so beautiful. We first went to the colosseum, although the streets we walked through on the way there were pretty run down and dirty, the colosseum was magnificent. So huge and as impressive as it is in films or pictures. We then stopped for a quick coffee and started walking towards the Roman Forum as the sun began to go down. 

My favourite part of the days we’ve had in all these cities around Europe is usually when the sun is setting, everything has this beautiful glow from the fading sun, and the atmosphere changes as all the buildings light up and the sky stays dark. But in Rome, looking over the Roman Forum, it was particularly stunning. These old buildings oozed such character and everywhere the eye fell was just unbelievably ornate and drenched in history. It felt like we had stepped into a huge movie set. But even more impressive as these monuments are real… 

All around the monuments, there was a gentle ambience as no cars or bicycles could come through the plaza, it was just full of all people appreciating what was around them. And there was so much to appreciate at that moment.

After seeing the roman forum, we looked around the whole of Piazza Venezia, the Victor Emmanuel Monument, Capitoline Hill, The Pantheon, Trevi Fountain and some other beautiful plazas. 

After all this sight-seeing, we were pretty hungry so went for dinner at a lovely restaurant, we had a three-course meal (delicious) and wine (also delicious) for €15 each! We certainly like Italian food and wine, and the prices even more… After dinner, we walked to Castel Sant’Angelo and the Vatican City where we saw St. Peter’s Square and the pope’s house, which was so beautiful and peaceful at night.

After all the sightseeing we were pretty exhausted, so we went on the metro back home to little Papaya and had a great night’s sleep.

I believe we have only scratched the surface of Rome, well of Italy in general, and I know that this is a place where we will definitely return to.  

Our First Workaway Experience

Friday, 18th of October

Day Eighty: Vienna (Austria) – Parndorf (Austria)

On Friday morning we got up early and took a very speedy tram into the centre of Vienna which took around 20 minutes. The day before, we had made our way through lots of busy traffic to a car park at a train station on the outskirts of Vienna. It was a cool day, but the sun was shining and the city looked beautiful. Having decided that this would be our only day in Vienna we wanted to make the most of it.  Through personal recommendations and Google we tagged a few things we wanted to see on a map – the Spanish riding school stables, Hofburg palace, the town hall and St. Stephen’s Cathedral. We began by walking through the centre of Vienna, taking in the beautiful grand buildings and clean streets. As we’d gone into the city early in the morning, the streets were free of tourists and the horses and carriages were just arriving at their posts in a lazy walk with blankets over their backs to shield them from the cold morning

After a little meander around the city, we went to get breakfast – the cheapest one consisted of bread, butter and marmalade with a hot chocolate each. It was very sugary, but tasty indeed. The bread was fresh, warm and absolutely delicious.

After breakfast, we went towards the main square admiring St. Stephen’s Cathedral, saw the horses in their stables outside the Spanish riding school and then went for a walk towards the town hall. Before we got there we noticed an environmental protest in another beautiful square which we went over to, even joining in with one song.

We then continued to the town hall which had a lovely rose garden outside where we sat and relaxed for a little while. Opposite the town hall we noticed there was a gaming expedition going on, which was gratis, so we went in as we were thirsty and hoping there might be freebies (which there was – free iced tea!) as we walked through the expedition I played a game called Concrete Genie which I thought was great. Reece started chatting to he girl working that station who turned out to be German but studying in Vienna. We all had a really good chat or a further thirty minutes about a variety of things before continuing on out of the expedition and back into the central square.

By this time, we were getting hungry again, so we used the app ‘Too Good To Go’ to find our next meal, (a food waste app which allows restaurants to sell dishes that can no longer be sold for their full price for a substantially discounted price). We found a nice cheap one in a bakery which specified that it was vegetarian, so we bought it and began the thirty-minute walk to where it was. After arriving at the destination and desperately looking around trying to find a bakery, I noticed a stall selling pretzels, this turned out to be our bakery… And alas, we got 6 stodgy, slightly stale whole-wheat pretzels – not exactly what we were expecting. But Reece hadn’t given up hope, so we found another restaurant advertising on Too Good To Go called ‘Fresh One Pot’, which I was a little apprehensive about as it didn’t specify that it was vegetarian, but we went anyway thinking that there may at least be something for Reece to eat if not myself. It turned out to be a restaurant serving the most gorgeous, fresh vegan and vegetarian curries, usually priced at €8 per pot, we got one and a half pots for €3! We enjoyed eating these sitting on a bench outside in the sunshine. After we’d finished these dishes, we went to buy a vignette (a toll road sticker which would make our journey to the next destination around 2 hours shorter) and then headed back to the van.

Both my time in the hospital, recuperating and then our subsequent breakdown in the Czech Republic, had blown our budget to say the least. We realised the only way we could continue with our journey was by spending next to nothing but still returning home early or by picking up some kind of work. When living in Madrid during my Erasmus year, I had heard of people partaking in ‘Workaways’ during their time there. A the time I assumed was some kind of volunteering program app, no doubt with some kind of costly catch. Though as I had heard good things from some who participated, did some further research into it. I found out that it was actually a cultural exchange app where ‘hosts’ and ‘Workaways’ (ie. those who are travelling) can make profiles for themselves and are then able to contact each other to express an interest. It is an international platform that allows travellers to pay for their room and food by helping their host with household work needs, projects, or odd jobs. There is a €40 join up fee for a two-person profile, but that is all. We had made ourselves a profile whilst broken down in Czechia and got in contact with a few hosts in Slovenia and Croatia, our next preferred places to explore. A few hosts replied, but one particularly stood out to us, a British family of six who had uprooted and moved to a house that they had built themselves on the top of a mountain in Slovenia. They were looking for help with some building projects, luckily for us, Reece is a fully qualified carpenter!! We contacted them only to find they were going on holiday in eleven days. To enable us to be able to spend some quality time with the family we decided to head there as quickly as possible after Vienna. There being to the East of Slovenia just above the border of Croatia. We made it to a service station on the edge of Austria late that evening and bedded down for the night and had a pretty noisy sleep with lorry drivers coming and going all night long.

Day Eighty-One: Parndorf (Austria) – Regaska Slatina (Slovenia)

We left early in the morning with mini croissants that we’d bought from the service station for breakfast on the go and drove all the way to our Workaway hosts in Regaska Slatina in Slovenia. We were hoping to see some of the Austrian mountains that we knew that we had been driving through in the dark the evening before, but we were welcomed onto the road by a thick fog which persisted the whole time we were driving through Austria.

As we crossed the border into Slovenia, the fog lifted and we were taken aback by the beautiful mountainous and clean country of Slovenia, which as we drove to the Earle’s family’s abode, was bathed in sunshine.

We were quite nervous meeting our Workaway hosts as we didn’t know what to expect from our first ever ‘cultural exchange’ and we didn’t know what they would be like, but when we met them, we knew that we would be just fine! We were met firstly by the hosts Tim and Catherine, who immediately made us feel very welcome with coffee and lunch after our long journey. We enjoyed this on their terrace, which had the most incredible view across the valley.

They then took us into the centre of Regaska Slatina, the family live on the mountains just 10-minutes away, to pick their children up from school, despite it being a Saturday, the children had been on a hiking trip for the day. We had already met Scarlett, the youngest of four, the other three came bursting into the car with lots of energy, but they were all very lovely and polite.

Regaska Slatina is known for its famous medical centre which has curative mineral water and a spa, so the centre is very well taken of due to medical tourism. We had a beer outside on the terrace looking over the main square, which was very pretty in the sunshine and got to know the family a little better and their children.

When we got back from our beer and chat in Regaska Slatina, we walked further up the mountain to pick some chestnuts with Sienna, the oldest and Scarlett, the youngest. The walk up there was beautiful as the sun was setting, and we were even higher up than the family’s house, so it really felt like we were on top of the world. Although the sunset was beautiful, it wasn’t the most practical and by the time we got into the wooded part where the chestnut trees were, it was almost dark. Luckily both Reece ad I had our phones on us, so we used the torches on those, so we managed to still bring back a big bag full of sweet chestnuts, but it was quite freaky foraging through the leaves in a pitch-black wood. The family dog, Saxon, had come with us which made us feel a little safer, we were even treated to a herd of deer on the way back down with their huge eyes reflecting our torches.

When we got back, we sat and chatted and then ate a lovely vegetarian curry made by Catherine and chatted some more and drank some more until somehow it was 2am and we thought we had better get some sleep!

Sunday, 20th of October – Sunday, 27th of October

Day Eighty-Two – Eighty-Nine: Regaska Slatina (Slovenia)

During the week we stayed there, our first task was to help Tim clad a concrete wall that was in front of their house and the first thing you see when driving to their house. Our job was to take large pieces of wood that had once been part of a huge stage, chop it down to size, sand it and paint it, then Tim would put it on the wall with the help of family friend Jan (pronounced Yan). We thought that sounded pretty easy, it might take us a couple of days. However, we started the job on Sunday and didn’t actually finish it until Thursday! Once it was up, it looked really good though and it was nice to make a difference to something that was so prominent to the house. I also really enjoyed learning how to use a belt sander, a new one I can add to my growing DIY skills that I have picked up since the van build!

Luckily, for the first week that we were there, we had the most amazing weather. So, although it was late October, we were both in shorts and t-shirts! And we actually used the sun cream we had brought with us for the second time on this trip, it was amazing.

Our time with the Earle’s family was definitely filled with lots of fun! On Sunday, Catherine prepared a proper Sunday roast with a nut loaf made from the chestnuts we had picked the day before and it was gorgeous – the joys of staying with a British family, good tea and Sunday roasts! This is when we first met Jan, who ended up staying for the whole week with us and was really great company. We also met some other friends of theirs at a bar which had an even more incredible view across the mountains! This was where we were also introduced to the local Slovenian wine, both red and white. We were warned that they make wine to be mixed with sparkling water and then drank very easily and in large amounts, so the quality wasn’t the best – but it was actually pretty nice!

At home, the family had a pool table, table tennis and a dartboard, so during the afternoons, we played a lot of table tennis with the kids, as well as drawing and playing outside with them, they were all so happy, free and genuinely lovely. During the nights (and actually early mornings) was when ‘the adults’ played pool and table tennis with a beer or glass of wine in hand and lots of laughter.

Often, we had dinner late, around 9pm, and during our time there we had some very tasty meals – Mexican chilli with fresh guacamole and sour cream, couscous and beans, carrot souffle with lots of lovely veggies and Jan made a traditional Slovenian dish which was like mashed potatoes with beans and fried cheese in breadcrumbs. On Friday, I made a Greek meze for six of us with homemade falafels, tzatziki, hummus, Greek salad and a huge vegetable moussaka and Reece made some pita bread. It was definitely a week filled with lots of great food.

I think we can say we definitely started to fall in love with Slovenia during this week and truly saw the charm of this beautiful place. It had amazing mountains, lakes and valleys, as well as a culture where building and taking care of your home is really important, as is looking after the land. I definitely will be back to see Lake Bled, Postojna caves, Soca valley and the Lipizzaner stud farm.

The family were due to go away on Sunday, and we had initially intended to leave too, with the plan to travel into Croatia exploring their coastline. The family offered us the opportunity to stay on in their house whilst they were away. As we wanted to explore more of Slovenia, seeing some of the places mentioned above,  and we felt very at home, we made the decision to stay there another week. But unfortunately, the weather turned on that Sunday and as did our luck. Just before the family left they wanted to have a quick look in Papaya, we turned on the van to show them the pop-top, which was all well and good, it was a bit of a shaky start, but not too bad. We then tried to start the car again, but it just chugged and choked and spluttered and would not start. Uh-oh. Not good. So, the family left that afternoon, and we were left with a broken van, once again. I had the number of their friend Jan, so we could get in contact with him if it didn’t work again in the morning and he would contact his mechanic friend.

Monday, 28^th of October – Sunday, 3^rd of November

Day Ninety – Ninety-Seven: Regaska Slatina

On Monday, we tried to charge the car battery up with our solar panel, even though there was not much sun and a ten-degree drop in the temperature outside. But we tried nonetheless but to no avail. Papaya would not start. Thank goodness Catherine and Tim had left food in and a nice warm house for us to stay in, otherwise we would have been pretty stuck. In the afternoon on Monday, after a few more failed attempts, we called Jan. It was time to get the mechanic out. He said he would arrange something for the morning.

Unfortunately, his mechanic friend could not come out to the house on Tuesday morning, so we had to arrange another tow truck with our breakdown company, this was pretty scary as the roof was now stuck open a real nightmare as it’s electric. So, Reece went with Papaya to the garage, keeping an eye on the driver who had strict instructions not to go over 30mpg, as this could seriously damage, if not break our pop-top. Reece returned later with a friend of Jan’s and no Papaya, she had to stay there overnight. So, we got on with some work, clearing rubble out of an old derelict farmhouse that the family own.

The day after, we worked in the morning breaking some wood down and putting them in the barns for winter. We then had a call from our breakdown company saying that our van was ready to be collected and that they would arrange a taxi. So, two or three hours later, around 4pm, the taxi arrived to take us to the garage. When we got there, our hearts sunk a little bit, there Papaya was, boxed in by other cars with her roof still up. We went to ask what was happening and one guy handed us the keys and told us to try the van. She didn’t start. So then was rather a deja by moment waiting at a garage for the van to be fixed. Though this time we were kindly shuffled inside by a lady that worked there and given coffee, biscuits, some kind of liquor and a beer (the Sloves sure like their alcohol) and then told us the prognosis. The van should get us home! We also shakily managed to get the roof down, phew.

Over the next couple of days, we tried to keep the van moving, which was pretty hard as the weather was miserable, and all the shops were closed since it was a two day bank holiday, so we literally drove around, got some diesel and some Smoki’s (crisps that are like Wotsits but made with peanuts – very tasty!) and that was all we could do really. We spent our time watching the families cat and dog play happily together, work some more at the farmhouse and also rescued a baby mouse that the cat brought in.

At that point, we had also decided that we weren’t going to Croatia. The weather forecast there was bad for the next 10 days, so we didn’t fancy sauntering around the beaches in our raincoats wishing for a better day. Therefore, we decided to head for Italy, our following port of call, on Sunday, stopping at Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, on the way.

And that is exactly what we did. When the family came back on Saturday, we had one last big meal with them and on Sunday we packed up very slowly, with help from the kids, and left. It felt a little strange leaving as we felt so at home with the Earle’s, but we were looking forward to getting on and seeing more of Europe and doing more Workaway’s in different countries.

On Sunday afternoon, we found a place where we could park safely in Ljubljana, as long as we ate a meal at the restaurant who owned the land. So we parked up, had dinner and went to bed and had a really good night’s sleep in the van.

Monday, 4^th of November

Day Ninety-Seven: Ljubljana (Slovenia)

On Monday, the weather still wasn’t great, but we walked into the centre of Ljubljana via the castle and we got some pretty impressive views of the city from up high. We walked around the main square and over some bridges and it was all very clean, well looked after and a generally nice city. The supermarkets were also a very good price, so we stocked up a bit then left for Italy!

From Bad to Worse, with Some Fun Times In Between

Wednesday, 2nd of October – Friday, 4th of October

Day Sixty-Four – Day Sixty-Six: Prague (Czech Republic)

We woke up to a very rainy Wednesday morning. So instead of rushing out to see Prague as we had intended, we had a slow morning making and eating breakfast before getting ready to see the city. We took a bus into the centre, which was around 40 minutes away, and went into the heart of rainy Prague.

It was beautiful, but the rain was pretty heavy and spirit dampening, so we decided to head indoors to a pub, and the closest one we could find was an absinthe bar.

On Thursday, we went out for a bit more exploring, seeing the castle from a distance, walking across the footbridge and seeing the Lennon wall.

We met up with my friend, David, who lives in Prague at the national theatre at around 6pm and the beer crawl began! We had such a great night, one of the best on the trip, sampling different beers in many bars around Prague talking about work, history, music, football, British humour, TV, beer and a lot more. It’s safe to say Prague at night is great fun and Czech beer is good!

Saturday, 5th of October

Day Sixty-Seven: Prague (Czech Republic) – Krakow (Poland)
Oh, wait, no… Prague (Czech Republic) – Hranice (Czech Republic)

So, feeling good from a nice stay and catch up with David in Prague, we were on our way for another catch up with one of my close friends from Erasmus, Natalia, who lives in Krakow, Poland. So we packed up and jumped in our van. We booked what we thought would be our last Airbnb of the trip. It had parking and most importantly – it had a washing machine! We had planned to wash all our clothes and bedding in the van, give it a real good clean out and then get ourselves back into van life, heading towards Vienna in Austria, Budapest in Hungary, exploring the beautiful lakes and waterfalls in Slovenia and then finally reaching the beautiful beaches in Croatia!!!

Or so we hoped.

Both of us were full of energy and excited talking about all the things we could do in Slovenia and Croatia as we were blasting (well more like trundling at 50mph) down the motorway when suddenly the van started vibrating like crazy. I laughed and told Reece to drive on the road and not on the rumbler.

He said he wasn’t even on the rumbler.

Oh, right, “well I’m sure it’s just the road”, I said, anxiously glancing over to the car overtaking us on the left which seemed to be gliding across the road perfectly smoothly.

BANG!

Okay, that wasn’t the road. I slammed on the button for the hazards as Reece brought Papya the Bongo to a halt on the hard shoulder. Something had fallen off, and it sounded pretty big. We both got out into the pouring rain and luckily the big chunk of metal that had dropped off the van had rolled onto the hard shoulder. It was a big chunky part and now a dented part. It looked pretty important. Oh no, “Do you think this is it?” Reece said.
No, “we don’t necessarily need a van to travel!” I replied, half-jokingly.

But we did need a van to get us to Krakow. Instead, we stuck on the side of the road in the pouring rain with a van who had part of itself lying on the road next to it.

It wasn’t the best situation.

BUT, thankfully, we did take out European breakdown cover for this trip, and we had a phone signal and even 4G. Honestly, I have no idea what would have happened if we didn’t have these, it was hard enough to arrange anything even with these luxuries.

I quickly jumped up the step of the van, rummaged through the roof bag to find the breakdown kit, we only had one hi-vis jacket and a warning triangle, so we put the triangle out and decided to share the high vis between us depending on who was making a trip to the van. I also grabbed my hat and scarf which had also been hiding up in the roof bag, some thick socks and just hoped we would be picked up before too long as it was freezing cold and raining. We called our breakdown company. They told us to call their European partners. The European partners didn’t answer.

An hour later…

Still no news. Still no answer or call back. We keep calling our UK breakdown, who apparently can’t do anything.

Another hour…

We finally got in touch with the European Assistance. They were going to send someone out to pick us up. Or so we thought.

Another hour…

A Skoda Octavia arrives. An estate car. That wasn’t exactly going to tow our van, even if it is a tiny camper!

The mechanic got out the car, picked up the big chunk of metal that fell off our van, laughed, took pictures of it and finally invited us to sit in the warm car for 5 minutes before kicking us back out and saying a colleague would be back in an hour with a tow truck.

Five minutes later we got a text from him saying no truck was coming, we had to call the UK breakdown again.

Back to square one. By this time, we were getting desperate. We were soaked to the skin, freezing cold and it was misty and dark because of the looming clouds. Yet another forty-minutes passed with frantic calls to both the UK and European breakdown companies.

Now, our battery had also gone flat from leaving the hazards on as we were advised, so there was no way out of here. We decided to jump-start the car battery from the leisure battery in case we had to try to get to the next town before the night started to draw in. It worked.

We called the breakdown to say we had to go. We were getting scared. Not only were we getting colder and colder, but it was also starting to get dark. We just wanted their approval to try to crawl the van the six-minutes down the motorway to the next town. Otherwise, it would be a thirty-five-minute walk straight down the motorway and an exit road with just one high-vis between us. Finally, they said they had managed to arrange a tow truck and it would be there in twenty minutes. We left the engine running just in case.

The tow truck came, and at its wheel was one of the most unprofessional people I have met. We understood there was a language barrier, but we were armed with Google translate. But he was a young lad, completely uninterested and unsympathetic that we had just been stood on the side of the road in the rain for the past five hours. He didn’t ask what transmission the van was, well he didn’t ask anything actually, just attached some electric system to pull it onto the truck without doing anything to the gears. It didn’t work. Reece suggested maybe it needed the handbrake to be taken off and be put into neutral or drive rather than park as it was automatic? Oh yeah, maybe… Eventually, the van got onto the truck and was secured, though I’m not sure how well.

There were three seats in the cab, one of them was taken up by his girlfriend, which for some reason he had decided to bring along on the job, so that meant we had nowhere to sit. He didn’t seem bothered by this and just got in the driver’s seat. When we asked where we go, he shrugged his shoulders. I honestly thought he was going to just leave us there once again. Reece and I decided the only option we had was to get in our van on top of the tow truck. This was easier said than done, but we managed.

Worst. Car. Ride. Ever. If we weren’t being swung round corners swearing the van was going to just plop off the side with us in it, or fall off the back from his accelerating, we were definitely gonna die when his girlfriend nearly took away his ability to drive when she thought it would be great idea to lie over the steering wheel for a cuddle whilst he was towing a car. Oh no, wait, it was the time he went on his phone probably to text his mate and check some reviews on Google not looking at the road at all, maybe THAT was the most terrifying moment. Anyway, as you’ve probably guessed, we made it to the depot alive. Well, I say depot, it was this guy’s back garden with a few ‘Global Assitant’ tow trucks in it and some smashed up cars. Whatever, I was relieved to be off the tow truck and on land. Papaya came off the tow truck, the guy called us a taxi, told us he would take us there in his truck, so we hurriedly got together a small bag of clothes and jumped in the truck. On the way there, some of his mates were blocking the road. They were messing around putting on sirens and flashing blue lights and laughing at each other. Omg, where on earth had we just left our van. Looking back it was pretty funny, but at the time we were mad and shocked at the complete incompetence of the entire ordeal. We were left at a bus shelter. The taxi arrived and it turns out we were just a five-minute drive away from a town with hotels and restaurants. So the taxi took us to the nearest hotel and we called our insurance to see what to do next, five hours after we originally broke down.

Our breakdown insurance/cover is supposed to put us up in a hotel with breakfast and arrange a rental car and any taxis we need. But that didn’t happen and this is where the ‘pay and claim’ saga began, where we pay for everything and just hope we can claim it back. But right then, we booked two nights in this hotel in Hranice and as soon as we got into the room, we were still freezing cold so we turned the radiators on to the highest setting and just sat in front of them. It was what we had been dreaming of the whole day. The heat was sooooo nice. After a hot shower, we realised that we were actually really hungry, and they had a Vietnamese restaurant downstairs, so we ate some lovely Pad Thai and fried bananas for dinner. After such a crazy day, we slept well.

Sunday, 6th of October – Tuesday, 8th of October

Day Sixty-Eight – Day Seventy: Hranice (Czech Republic) – Ostrava (Czech Republic)

It turned out Hranice was a pretty nice place. It has nice buildings, a quaint little square, nice little restaurants, sports bars and very cheap beer, 90p a pint! But it just wasn’t where we wanted to be.

So Monday came around, we were hoping to get answers.

By this time, I had been chatting to people on the Mazda Bongo and Vanlife groups on Facebook, as well as contacting different Bongo specialists by email to see which part had actually fallen off. It turned out it was part of the rear prop shaft. Just a £75 part and a thirty-minute job. Thank goodness. Or so we thought. The thing is, it’s a Mazda Bongo, and in this situation, that’s an issue as it’s an unusual van. And this particular part is specific to Bongos.

There was a lot of miscommunication and some confusion. We thought our van was still at the depot. The insurance was telling us they couldn’t find a garage to even LOOK at our van for another ten-days. We needed to get to the van to get some possessions. We didn’t even know where the van was, and no one could sort out a rental car for us, so we were pretty stuck.

It turns out Papaya had been moved to a Mazda dealer forty-minutes away, so on Tuesday, we got a taxi there. Totally different story. They had looked at the van, they knew exactly what was wrong and had even taken the broken part off, they just couldn’t source the rear prop shaft. Luckily, I could. But first of all, we had to weigh up our options. The insurance said if a part couldn’t be sourced by the garage, we did have the option to get Papaya sent home, and we could continue our travels on foot. But it was just a £75 part, and the garage was going to charge just £15 to fit it. We decided to go ahead and order it. It would just be a six-day wait to have it delivered and fitted. We could even go to Krakow on the bus for a few days to make the wait a little easier. Things were looking up.

Wednesday, 9th of October

Day Seventy-One: Ostrava (Czech Republic) – Krakow (Poland)

Yes, finally! It had been delayed twice now with the hospital stay and then the breakdown but we were on our way to Krakow, one of my favourite European cities and home to my lovely Polish friend, Natalia. We hopped on a bus at 15:30 and got there around 19:00. Unfortunately, it was raining the whole evening on the 9th of October, but it was nice to see the old buildings lit up in the dark reflecting in the shiny cobbled pave stones, even if it did make us a bit cold, wet and miserable. We also ate some pierogi, which was very tasty and if you go to Poland, you have to try it.

Day Seventy-Two: Krakow (Poland)

We had planned to go out around lunctime to see some more of Krakow before meeting up with Natalia, but the apartment was lovely, so lovely we stayed there until 17:00, oops… It had Netflix on the TV and a hob so we could finally cook!

But by the time we’d showered and got ready to go out, it was time to meet up with Natalia! We met her by the Eros Bendato head in the main square of Krakow.

We headed straight to Kazimierz, the Jewish quarter, and a vibrant and quirky district of Krakow. We began by going to a really cool vodka place, Wiśnioffka, where they distil their own vodkas and make very tasty cherry vodka which we had a couple of glasses of on their suspended tables, chatting about anything and everything.

Then, it was time for some €1 shots! You can find these €1 shots, well more like shooters, and wine and beer at Pijalnia. There’s a few around Krakow since it’s a chain, and although it doesn’t have the prettiest decor, it has a pretty cool vibe and is a great place to get some tasty shots. I had Kokosanka, a really tasty coconut and cream shooter, and Chupa Chups, which tastes like the lolly, but with a sprinkle of pepper on top for a twist.

Afterwards, we went to Alchemia (aka Narnia, because you walk through a wardrobe to get to the other room and it’s all magically lit by just candles and they have the best wheat beer ever!) We spent a long time there with the conversations getting deeper and the beers going down very nicely.

Then, it was of course time to get a zapiekanka from the street vendor! Which is like a pizza on a very long baguette (or an open faced sandwhich) with an array of different toppings and sauces. We walked with our zapiekankas to the beautiful Bernatek bridge, which looks amazing all lit up in the evening with the Olympic sculptures eerily strung up in the air.

We had planned to go back to Natalia’s apartment to meet her boyfriend and pick up our parcel which Natalia had been taking care of for us the last few weeks, but it had gotten so late so quickly, so we decided to just meet up tomorrow.

Day Seventy-Three: Krakow (Poland)

So on the Friday, we did actually get up and go out exploring the city. We wandered around the main square, into the market, around the multi-coloured cathedral and then we headed towards the castle, climbed all the stairs and took in the beautiful view of Krakow. We then looked in the cathedral on top of the hill which was beautifully ornate inside and then into the courtyard of the Wawel castle before heading down and into Kazimierz.

We were hoping to get a coffee at Cheder in Kazimierz, but we accidentally arrived at luntime so we couldn’t get a seat, which is a shame as the coffee there is traditionally Jewish and absolutely amazing. Hopefully, I will be able to take Reece there next time… We walked around the Jewish quarter for a little while, taking in all the old, almost untouched buildings of the ghettos.

After this, we went to meet Natalia at work, who had been looking after a parcel for us that my mum had sent over from England with some chocolate, food and things for the van. Goodbyes aren’t the nicest, but I’m sure we’ll see each other again soon!

Saturday, 12th of October

Day Seventy-Four – Seventy-Five: Krakow (Poland) – Ostrava (Czech Republic)

After getting up, making pancakes, watching more Netflix and cleaning the apartment, we headed back to the bus station. We had to get the bus back to Ostrava, a bus that happened to be delayed by two hours. Just our luck!

We had a pretty nice night in a hotel, with breakfast being delivered to our room. But I don’t know whether we’re just in the wrong part of Ostrava, but we can’t seem to find much to do here. It just seems to be very tall buildings, wide lanes and lots of cars kicking out fumes, unsmiling people and cheap beer which seems to be drunk at all hours in the day.

Day Seventy-Six: Ostrava (Czech Republic)

Monday rolled around, the day we were going to pick Papaya up!

But the part hadn’t arrived, so we had to wait until tomorrow.

Day Seventy-Seven – Seventy-Eight: Ostrava (Czech Republic)

Tuesday rolled around, the day we were going to pick Papaya up!

But Papaya’s alternator was lying on the floor in reception. Uh-oh. Not good.

The prop-shaft had been fitted, no problem, just £15.

The week prior, we asked for the battery to be replaced as it kept going flat. At the time they said Papaya didn’t need a new battery. They must have explored the battery issue and found out it was the alternator that had blown, that’s why our leisure battery hadn’t been charging and why the car battery was going flat. They had sourced us a new alternator, but it was very very pricey.

For some reason, it was ordered before we even agreed to it, so now we have no choice but to pay the 11,000 Czech korunas (or £400) for this new alternator. If we’d known before, we would have definitely got the van sent home when we had the choice. Now that choice has been taken away from us and we’re still stuck. Luckily, we’ve finally, after a lot of searching, found a hotel that has a small kitchenette so we can keep our costs down with cooking. Though at least we have been stuck in a place that is very cheap to eat out (approximately £3.50 each for a dish), we have missed being able to cook!

Day Seventy-Nine: Ostrava (Czech Republic)

So, that brings us to today, Thursday the 17th of October. Exactly eleven weeks into our trip.

We’ve had two weeks unexpectedly spent in Berlin for my surgery and £500 on unexpected Airbnb’s whilst I recovered.

Now, two weeks unexpectedly spent in Ostrava for the van breakdown and £500 on unexpected bills for Papaya to get fixed.

But I guess it’s all just an adventure, and I’m sure it will all turn out okay in the end. We’re so lucky to even be able to do this trip, and difficult times were always expected, but maybe not quite so crazy. Our plans have changed and we’re no longer able to go to Greece, but we still plan to see some of Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Italy, France, Spain and Portugal. Now, we’re looking into partaking in Workaways so we can stretch our time out on the road a little longer by working on some eco projects and house builds in exchange for all our meals and accommodation.

But we will see where this next stretch of our journey takes us…

Emergency Surgery in Germany

Friday, 13^th of September

Day Forty-Four – Forty-Seven: Gdansk (Poland)

As we had found a really good spot in Gdansk which seemed relatively safe, very close to the centre and had access to toilets and showers in the daytime, we decided to stay there a couple of nights at least. However, after booking a massage – since we both had been endlessly achy – for Monday afternoon on Saturday, we actually ended up staying for 4 nights until Tuesday morning.

The city was really nice, quite small, but this meant that everything was in close proximity. And best of all, it was cheap! For a meal for two in a restaurant, it would cost us around €10 with drinks! Unfortunately, I still wasn’t very well with what I thought at the time was acid stomach pains, so I was still being careful with what I ate and drank.

During these four days, we walked around a lot, taking in all the grand buildings and also ate in a few different restaurants whilst the prices were low. We were even lucky enough to have good weather during our time in Gdansk, and quiet nights where we slept well. Although one night we did stay in a hostel as I felt so ill, the next night we were back in the van!

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Day Forty-Eight: Gdansk (Poland) – Hel (Poland)

The night in Hel was true to its name.

As we drove up the road on the thin, long piece of land stretching out from northern Poland, the heavens opened, and we were submerged in rain once again. We managed to find a parking spot on a concrete port surrounded by the sea and boats, and an apparently derelict (well, probably just out of season) campsite with caravans stretching as far as the eye could see. We parked up, set up really quickly as it was still pouring it down, deciding to leave the roof down but swivel the passenger seat as we would need to have comfort inside the van as we definitely weren’t going out. Well, that was until I needed the loo so me and Reece went out to face the crazy wind, rain and hail storm that was stirring up. When we got back, we were absolutely sodden, so we decided to get changed and cook some food to make the van a little warmer. Easier said than done when you have two people in such a small space, but we managed.

As we settled down for the night, the winds picked up even more, and it felt like we were trying to sleep on one of the boats docked next to us. The van was being pushed to and fro by the strong winds. It honestly felt like it was going to fall on its side at times. The ships outside were rattling and banging. And the wind was howling past the boats’ masts and the few trees that were surrounded us. All the ground outside the van had turned into a huge puddle from the downfall, so we just stayed put and tried to sleep.

Day Forty-Nine: Hel – Slowinski National Park – Hotel (West Pomeranian District, Poland)

In the morning, after a pretty bad night’s sleep, the sunshine showed its face and from our van, we could see windsurfers in the sea. All the puddles from the night before had cleared it up and the air was less bitter. It was almost if the storm of the night before hadn’t happened. I can imagine that in the summer Hel is a fantastic place, it had the vibe of a really cool little surfer town. But unfortunately, it didn’t seem to be built for winter, and when we did finally emerge from the van, everything appeared to be closed.

After walking a little closer to the beach, which seemed to stretch across the side of the entire outlet of land, we did find a little café serving food and coffee. After a pancake for breakfast and a walk on the very windy, but beautiful white sand beach, we headed back to the van and onto Slowinski National Park.

By this point, as his hair was annoying him so much getting in his face all the time with all the crouched down tasks of van life, Reece and I had made a deal about the sand dunes at Slowinski National Park. Reece had agreed that he would let me take some pictures of him with his luscious locks (which I had grown rather attached to), but afterwards, I had to cut it all off!

It was the first day where I felt really good. I had barely any pain and we went for a three-hour trek to the sand dunes through some pine forests which I managed perfectly fine. The fresh air and walking felt really good after spending so long in the city. The sand dunes were really impressive, all pale white sand, with that fab squishy texture underfoot which leaves a slight concave where you had just stepped. So, after taking some photos and trying to slide down a few dunes (we both just fell over at this attempt), we headed back and got some ice cream on the way.

As we drove off, I felt good and I was ready for a night in the van, but Reece decided that he wanted to get a hotel so we could use a shower and maybe cut his hair, plus it was so cheap we may as well. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise. As we got to the hotel, I still felt pretty good and had no trouble helping unload the van and getting settled in at the hotel, which was actually a venue hotel, quite similar to where I worked before starting the trip, which hosts private dinners, conferences and weddings, amongst other events. The room we got given was huge, with two bedrooms, a seating area and a large bathroom. We were hoping to get food at the hotel, but they seemed to be setting up for a big event, so we just found a restaurant in the town next door and ate some Thai food, which was nowhere near as good any Thai food I’ve had previously, but we were hungry so we ate it all the same.

When we got back to the hotel, that is where it all started. At first, I had similar stomach pains to what I had had before, across my ribs, but I had also developed a sort of cold sweat at the same time. As I sat, the pain only got worse and spread across my whole stomach. Still, I wanted to stick to my side of the bargain and cut Reece’s hair for him, so I got out all the bobbles, lined them for each section. But before I could even finish that, I started to feel awful, and just lay curled up in a ball on the sofa, with the cold sweat making me feel horrible. I decided that a shower might help, and whilst I was in there, I felt almost normal. But within a few minutes of coming out, I was again doubled over with the pain in my stomach. I tried my best to ignore it, trying to watch a YouTube video with Reece, but I fell asleep for around 30 minutes. And that’s when I became incredibly sick. I thought it must be food poisoning, what else could cause such acute pain in the stomach and sickness?

But as it continued throughout the whole night and I could not even keep water down, I got more worried. Plus, Reece felt absolutely fine and we had eaten the same thing, but I could just be more sensitive. The pain got even worse and it seemed to settle itself at the bottom of my stomach. Sleep came in fits. Nothing seemed to ease the pain.

We were ten minutes away from Germany, so I looked into the different options, GP in Poland, GP in Germany, Hospital near the border, Hospital near Berlin. I narrowed it down considering language barriers and the acuteness of the pain. Near Berlin, which was just an hour away, there were two large state hospitals and a GP within 30 minutes of one another. As soon as we had some light, as driving in the dark was pretty terrifying in a different country with bad headlights and no streetlights, I wanted to head towards there.

Friday, 20^th of September

Day Fifty: Hotel (West Pomeranian District, Poland) – Immanuel Hospital Bernau (Germany)

The pain had gotten so unbearable, the idea of going to the GP had left my mind, I knew that I needed a hospital. Luckily, because I had done the research the night before, I just went with the one closest state hospital in Berlin.

As soon as the sun started to rise, around 6 am, I woke Reece up and we quickly packed everything away into the van and left. We were slightly worried that we wouldn’t be able to get out of the hotel as there was no staff around at all, but thank goodness all the doors we came across were unlocked, so we could make a quick getaway!

We drove as the sun rose around us, and we reached the hospital at around 8 am. After parking up just outside and going into different building asking for accident and emergency, we finally found a+e. When we got to the a+e reception, no one understood us, so we got sent to the main reception, who simply sent us back to a+e reception, who seemed to point us towards the exit and say ‘phone’. After trying this three times with no ‘phone’ to be seen, we got pretty frantic and made it clear we didn’t understand at all. Soon, one of the receptionists came back with someone who spoke English, and she took us straight through to the office of an a+e nurse, which was in the direction of where we had been pointed before, but we didn’t grasp what the receptionists meant. After explaining my symptoms and handing over my EHIC and insurance documents, I got taken to a private room with a bed where I saw a doctor within the hour, had my bloods taken and an ultrasound done, which showed something ominous around my appendix. Uh-oh. At the time I wasn’t too worried, this had happened to me once before and at that time the doctors had concluded it was some sort of stomach infection, which went away with a course of antibiotics. So after being sent around the hospital to get an array of different tests and somehow being ‘lost’ by the a+e doctors even though we had been sat in the a+e waiting area for hours and hours…

Finally, we were ‘found’, after going to the receptionist and doctor’s office (just a few feet away from where we sat) a few times to see what was happening. So, 8 hours after we came to the hospital, we got the blood test results, which were inconclusive but showed infection. I was booked in for an MRI scan. After a bit more waiting, I had the MRI. After around 20 minutes, I was given a little CD with my scan results on there and I was told to now wait for the doctor. Thinking I had to show the doctor my CD before anything else happened, I was quite surprised when a student nurse, who had been helping us throughout the day, with broken English told me to follow her and I was presented with a hospital bed. I was told to undress and put a gown on. Assuming that they just wanted to keep an eye on me overnight, I asked if I could just wear my own clothes, but when I was met with a ‘no’, I got pretty worried. Plus, who really wants to put on one the most unflatering piece of clothing ever made? I asked what was happening, but she couldn’t tell me anything. She said a doctor had to tell me. But there was no doctor. I asked if they had the MRI results, which they did. I got even more worried. What an earth had the MRI came up with that I had to be rushed onto a bed just 30 minutes after having it?

After what felt like FOREVER, the doctor arrived and said I was being prepped for surgery. WHAT? She was surprised and said, ‘The MRI shows that you have appendicitis, did nobody tell you?’ No.

I was pretty scared about going into surgery but very relieved that it was nothing more serious. The doctor said I had around 40 minutes before I went in, so I could call who I wanted and sign a few forms. I asked all the questions I could think of:

‘Is it general anaesthetic?’

‘How long will I be in hospital?’

‘Can I see Reece afterwards?’

‘Is it keyhole surgery?’

‘This is definitely a state hospital, right?’

Feeling a little more at ease until the student nurse said, ‘I hope your insurance covers it!’ And suddenly the 40 minutes was more like 15 and I had to sign a million pages of paperwork which were mostly in German, whilst having a brief phone call with my mum letting her know I was heading into theatre (like, right now!) with the pen still in my hand probably signing my life away.

After the phone call with my mum and saying, ‘see you later’ to Reece, I felt a lot better as I was wheeled along the corridors into theatre and even better when a lovely lady came in and said ‘Ah English, no problem!’ amongst the jumble of hurried words I could not understand.

It was the anaesthetist and she explained that she had actually worked and studied in Cardiff for a few years, and her English, like so many Germans I have met, was flawless.

She told me that we were in Eastern Berlin, so most people learnt Russian as a second language in school, not English, which is why there was more of a language barrier.

She explained to me exactly was going to happen and translated everything the surgeon was saying and I felt so much better about the whole thing that by the time I had the sedative which made me feel like I had had quite a few glasses of wine, pretty much all my worries had disappeared.

After the surgery, I had no idea what was going on. All the worries came flooding back. I had a bag of blood hanging next to me and the pain was tremendous. The nurse who was with me didn’t speak any English and I didn’t know whether the surgery had gone well or not. I had heard before that some patients don’t even stay in hospital after an appendectomy, so I was pretty concerned that maybe it hadn’t gone to plan as I felt so awful. I managed to communicate that I wanted my phone. I don’t really remember exactly how that happened as I was so out of it. All I knew is I wanted my phone and some water as my throat was so sore and dry. My phone appeared in my hand; it was almost out of battery. I was denied water.

I managed to message my mum and Reece, apparently quite coherently, and I received the good news from Reece over text that the surgery had in fact gone well. I still had no idea why I had a bag of my blood sitting next to me, but I figured at that point it probably was part of the surgery and that it wasn’t abnormal for a ‘minor’ keyhole appendectomy. I remember at some point seeing a doctor I had chatted to in a+e, I don’t remember what I asked, but I got a smile and a thumbs-up, so my mind was settled further.

I got pretty upset when Reece messaged me saying that he might not be able to visit until the morning, the doctors had said that I needed ‘some time’ after coming out of the general anaesthetic, but I had been told that he would be in the ‘station’/ward when I came out of theatre. I just wanted my familiar in all the unfamiliar.

Reece finally was allowed to come up to the ward about an hour and a half after I got there. I still wasn’t very with it, but it was so nice to have him there. Somehow, a charger floated over to me in the hands of a nurse, I must have asked for one, but I don’t really know when or how. The pain was bad, but I felt better after seeing Reece and knowing I had some way of contacting the outside world. I managed to drift off into sleep.

Day Fifty-One to Fifty-Five: Immanuel Hospital Bernau

I ended up staying in the hospital for five days.

The pain straight after the surgery did surprise me, for some reason I expected the pain to be a lot less than the night before, but it wasn’t any less, just different. I couldn’t even go from lying to sitting in the morning which was pretty horrid. But the second day after surgery, I was able to just about get up on my own. The third day I was finally allowed to eat proper food (I had been on a potato and chocolate soup diet, which was really not good) and that seemed to help my strength a lot. On the same day I had the drainage bag on my wound removed and the pain lessened hugely! On the fourth day, I thought I was going home, but I had to stay one more night as my blood results weren’t quite right. I was managing to walk a bit around the hospital now and shower, yay!

In the end, I was very much ready to leave as constantly being woken up to more needles and more drips and being in bed all day was not my favourite pastime, although I am very grateful for the amazing care that I received at the hospital.

On the fifth day, they let me out!

Wednesday, 25^th of September

Day Fifty-Six – Sixty Three: Hospital – Oder-Spree (Berlin, Germany)

When I got released, I was pretty happy and ready to get to the bungalow we had booked, which was around 30 minutes away from the hospital. But, in Reece’s apprehension to get me out of hospital, he had left the van’s headlights on, and Papaya was dead!

Feeling pretty deflated, we considered our options: call the breakdown company, ask someone in the car park to jump-start us or try to jump start ourselves with the leisure battery.

We tried to jump-start the van ourselves, although since we had a pretty rubbish leisure battery, cheap jump start wires from eBay and a teeny tiny car battery – we weren’t at all hopeful. But nonetheless, we connected everything up and waited for 20 minutes.

Reece turned the key. She was back!!! It had actually worked.

The bungalow we had booked was lovely, with a nice, modern kitchen, underfloor heating and the possibility of some countryside walks – and super friendly hosts! It was the perfect place to recover, and although at the start of our stay there, I was still pretty weak and in pain, but by the end I felt sooo much better and could manage a 30-minute walk outside and pottering about the bungalow with no issues.

The time arrived where I had to hold up my end of the bargain and cut Reece’s hair off. As his hair was so long, we found out that it was possible to donate it, so I followed the instructions on the Little Princess Trust’s website and banded his hair up carefully and cut each section off separately. So, at least the hair that I was pretty sad about cutting off will be going to a good cause.

Shaving it into a flat mohawk before it all came off!

The only real concern now is we have no idea how much the surgery and hospital stay cost us, or whether the travel insurance will cover it, but the invoice is going to my home address, so I guess we’ll worry about that when it arrives!

Tuesday, 1st of October

Day Sixty-Three: Oder-Spree (Berlin, Germany) – Prague (Czech Republic)

It was time to get back on the road and head to our next destination – Prague.

After some debate as to whether we should spend a night in Dresden before Prague to make the day a little easier for me, we decided to just plough ahead and get to Prague, we were in need of some sunshine sometime soon anyway, and the next Airbnb was only three and a half hours away!

The drive went smoothly, and as we reached the Czech Republic, it was nice to see mountains once again. We reached the apartment, which was a lovely ground floor apartment with a garden, at around 6pm and decided to spend the night in since it was the longest day I had done since surgery. We made some fresh pasta and sauce and just chilled out before heading to bed. We were looking forward to seeing Prague in the morning!

On the next blog, I will write about our time in the beautiful city of Prague and our next disaster, which happened just 10 days after I got discharged from the hospital… I guess it’s all an adventure though, and hopefully, we can continue as normal very soon.

Week Six: Baltic Cities and Quaint Towns

Day Thirty-Seven (6th of September): Pärnu County (Estonia) – Riga (Latvia)

After a shaky nights sleep, due to the dripping of the rain on the forest floor sounding like footsteps, we awoke to beautiful sunshine once again. I woke up with some extra energy, so I decided to go for a run, and luckily for me, there was a trail all the way around the lake with the lovely soft ground underfoot. I only got some of the way around, but I felt so much better having actually done that.

I had a bit of article writing to do when I came back, so I got on with that on the chair outside, until I got too cold and decided it was time to get Reece up so we could move on to Riga, the capital of Latvia.

The drive there wasn’t the most pleasant, with the roads being unusually structured (sort of a huge hard shoulder on either side and then single lanes for each direction of traffic), which meant if you drive inside the actual lane – like most places – it is likely that you will be driven off the lane by overtaking oncoming traffic, or even bullied out the lane by those wanting to overtake behind us. So, the road etiquette seems to be to simply straddle the hard-shoulder and normal lane and hope that the lorries don’t scrape the side of the van! Though some came worryingly close… Once we arrived at the parking spot for the night, after getting slightly lost in the ridiculously trafficky city, we were pretty happy. There were a few other campers, and the restaurant we were parked next to had pleasant toilets and free hot showers!!!

Not wanting to wait around any longer, we wandered into the centre of Riga. After nearly getting run over a few times by the crazy drivers who seem to think it’s okay to drive through a red light when people are trying to cross over the pedestrian crossings, we found a lovely park, with a river running all the way through, quaint bridges and water features. We were pleasantly surprised and spent a while walking round in the gorgeous sunshine before heading into the old town.

The old town was lovely, with cobblestones and beautiful buildings stretching across a large plot of land. The best thing – there was no roads or crazy drivers! We found a bar to grab a pint and make plans for our next stretch towards Poland and also find somewhere to get some dinner.

By recommendation from the waitress, we went to a place called Ava for dinner. As we walked down into the basement with crates and beer barrels covering the stairs and hallway, we were a little apprehensive, but as we reached the actual restaurant, it exceeded our expectations. It turned out to be a super-cool underground place, lit by candles and some low lighting at the bar. Unusually for the Baltic countries, whose food generally consists of potatoes and meat, they had a good selection of vegetarian meals. I had a dish with pumpkin, pulses, veg, some gorgeous seasoning and lots and lots of garlic. I was very happy! Reece not so much with the amount of garlic my food consisted… But we both enjoyed the food and also the interesting beer they had on offer, ginger and hemp was the one I went for.

Feeling good after a great meal and nice walk, we watched some Netflix and were just about to fall asleep… that was when the club, well more a gazebo on a pier (no bricks and mortar to muffle the sound) began playing music. Very, very, very loud. And with an incredible amount of bass. So much bass the van shook. Oh, but this wasn’t the usual kind of club that closes at the acceptable hours of 3 am. Oh no, they went on blasting music out until 5.30 in the morning…

Day Thirty-Eight: Riga (Latvia) – Kurėnai (Lithuania)

Somehow, we managed to get some sleep through all the noise, but I can’t say either of us felt refreshed when we woke. However, I must say, having a hot shower in the morning made it worth the bad night’s sleep.

After our morning’s bowl of muesli with fruit, oat milk and soygurt, we went back into the old town for the 12 o’clock free walking tour, which took us away from the old town, which we were pretty disappointed about, but we still got to see some interesting parts of Riga, such as their huge marketplace, the science academy (originally built by the Soviet Union) and the suburb of Moscow, which is home to the memorials of all those who were victims of the ghettos and burnt synagogues of the second world war. It felt like a city still very much in mourning of their dark past.

After the tour, we got a snack, jumped in the van and left for Lithuania. Now, every time we pull up at traffic lights or services, the smell of fresh diesel is so strong and when we drive off, we always leave a puddle of diesel behind. So the diesel leak is definitely a problem that we need to get fixed sooner rather than later! It’s just a case of finding a garage who can understand the problem, understand the van (which is the Japanese import with a mid-engine) and not charge us a fortune for the work.

Since there were barely any places on park4night, we just slept in a restaurant car park opposite a service station.

Day Thirty-Nine: Kurėnai (Lithuania) – Vilnius (Lithuania)

Waking up after both having a good night’s sleep was a nice feeling, we had a pretty early start cleaning the van and eating muesli, then we left for Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, which was just an hour’s drive away from where we had parked for the night.

The drive there was pretty frustrating as a lot of the roads around the city centre were closed, so we couldn’t get to the place we had wanted to park. This left us with little options – go back into the centre and face the crazy traffic and hope to find a space or park outside a funeral parlour which some people had recommended on park4night. As we were sick of the traffic, we chose the latter.

Walking into the centre was really nice, we had parked near a place called Užupio Res Publika, which, although we didn’t know it at the time, is classed as a different country. It is sort of like Christiana in Denmark, but more integrated and they do follow the law, but the area is very artistic and quirky, with prayer flags, sculptures, rustic grand pianos left outside and interesting rules for their republic.

As we continued into the centre, we could see the main square was bustling with people and tents, and we soon realised that we had just walked into the Vilnius marathon! Which also made sense of why all the roads were closed in the way in.

At half three, after having a fallafel wrap and watching the runners, we went on a walking tour around the city. It had quite a familiar history to the other Baltic cities we’d been to, and quite a sad one with the Soviet deportations and Nazi invasion. But the city had rebuilt itself, and it was beautiful!

After the tour, we went for a beer and dinner with a German lady called Christina who met on the tour. The dinner was unusual, consisting of a cold, creamy beetroot soup which you dip boiled potatoes in. Afterwards, Reece had a potato rottie with curd and I had potato pancakes with raspberry jam and curd. It was very tasty, but incredibly stodgy. Unfortunately for me, my stomach does not like stodge.

Day Forty: Vilnius (Lithuania) – Varėna (Lithuania)

We had planned to stay another night in Vilnius, but I woke up feeling pretty terrible, incredibly weak, faint and dizzy with an awful burning feeling all the way across my ribs. It’s a feeling I often get after eating too much rich and stodgey foods, and it certainly isn’t a pleasant one.

Although it got slightly better throughout the day and another pleasant walk around the old town, it was the first time I really couldn’t bear the thought of putting in all the effort to cook in the van, or even sleep in the roasting heat with the pop-top down again, which makes it feel 100° warmer than it actually is. So instead, we looked for Airbnb’s around where we were and found a few that were actually the same prices as campsites in Lithuania, so I chose one that was around an hour closer to the Polish border (which is where we’re heading next) and had parking outside for Papaya to stay close to us as well!

The apartment was very homely, and nice and spacious with a hammock on the balcony. We spent the the rest of the evening relaxing, cooking and sleeping!

Day Forty-One: Varėna (Lithuania)

In Varėna, we simply had a relaxing day. Enjoying the hammock, the huge squishy sofa and the Wi-Fi.

In the evening, we did go for a walk around the area which was noted for its beauty on the airbnb ad., and got lost in the pine forest for quite a while (thank goodness for phone GPS), but luckily we hadn’t wandered too far away.

I was so excited about having an oven for the evening, we made a huge lasagne with lots of roasted vegetables and garlic bread on the side.

Day Forty-Two: Varėna (Lithuania) – Augustow (Poland)

Still not feeling great, we re-packed the van with all the fridge and cupboard stuff and the fresh laundry we had managed to do in the airbnb and set off to Poland. Interestingly, the van seems to have stopped leaking. It’s probably not a good thing, maybe some dirt got stuck in there, but it’s nice not to smell diesel all the time. We are still planning on getting it fixed when I’m better.

We had planned to drive a couple of hours, but the pain got too much and I just wanted to lie down, so I found a parking spot near a hotel and we went there so I could have a nap in the back of the van.

After the pain had eased a little, we went for a walk around the town, and it was gorgeous! It seemed like we had stumbled on a holiday town, just during the wrong season. There was a beautiful river with willow trees lining the sides, and cobbles all around the pretty little town.

After a walk, we went to find some dinner and, thanks to Google, found a cute little Italian restaurant just 10 minutes away from our van. I treated myself to some very plain garlic pasta and a half pint, whilst Reece had a creamy spinach pasta with two pints and the bill came to just £10 for everything!

Day Forty-Three: Augustow- Mikolajki

We left Augustow, having had another walk around and a green tea and strange berry sorbet for breakfast, and we were aiming to get a little bit closer to Gdańsk. After driving for about an hour and a half, I noticed that where we’d stopped for lunch (lovely boiled rice) was just 10 minutes away from a town that my lovely Polish friend, Natalia, had recommended to me. So we looked for a place to sleep and went there.

Again, it was a lovely little old town with just a few restaurants, but this place seemed a little more bustling, even at the start of Autumn.

We explored the town a little more and eventually went for some dinner overlooking the harbour and watched the sunset, which was really lovely.

Apologies for the late posting of this blog, the stomach thing has taken it out of me and I’m still struggling with it. Fingers crossed tomorrow will be the day it goes!

We’re currently in Gdańsk now and it’s lovely, such a grand city. We’ve been here two nights and tomorrow we’ll be leaving and driving to Hel! That is a place in Northern Poland, not the undrworld ruled by Satan… So on the next blog I will pick up from Gdańsk as it’s definitely a place worth writing about.

Our selfie near the wheel we’re parked near in Gdańsk.

Week Five: From Lapland to the City

Day Thirty (30th of August): Vatungin – Marjoniemi Camping (Pyhajarvi)

Hannah and I (Hannah is too busy writing other articles to do the blog this week) have been very much enjoying the surprisingly warm and dry spell we’ve been graced with over the last 4/5 days, but this was no more. I awoke to the rain belting down onto the pop-top, and to an unamused looking Hannah who had just been rained off from her Seaview, article writing set up she had created. “So this is Finland”.

The mood slightly improved after we decided to skip breakfast and hit the road to look for somewhere less soggy; when we discovered that diesel was actually around 30p a litre cheaper in Finland than it had been in Sweden. It improved even more so when we stopped at the services and found reasonably priced coffee, pizza (yes, for breakfast) and a lovely older Finnish lady that wanted to talk all about what northern Finland had to offer, from wild moose roaming around on the streets surrounding to bear and wolverine watching in the forest! We had sadly missed the viewing season as summer is very much on the way out now, so that opportunity wasn’t an option this time.

As I was driving, Hannah found a nice little spot to camp around about an hour away from the services, right on the beach of a lake and a seemingly perfect spot. As we arrived all appeared to be in order, though the crystal clear Norwegian lakes had nothing to worry about; this one had a slightly rusty look to it… But that wasn’t an issue, we set up camp and as the day was still young we decided to make use of the improved weather and get our boots on, and set off for a walk.

We got back to camp and relaxed outside, but it wasn’t long until we realised that the spot we’d chosen was a little more bug friendly that we were comfortable with. It felt like there was creepy crawlies falling from the sky, literally. After a few screams and headbangs, we decided we didn’t feel welcome anymore and wanted to find somewhere with a few more luxuries. That would mean a campsite.

Hannah continued the drive south towards Helsinki as I looked for camping spots. We were in need of doing some laundry and hot showers were essential, but finding that en route and out of season was a bit more of a challenge than I expected. I finally found a place about an hour and a quarter away and it was perfect, even having kitchen facilities. When we arrived we were told it was the last weekend of the holiday season and would be closing down until next summer. They were having a few bands playing over the next couple of nights, as well as a big bonfire and fireworks.

Although a little tired, we quickly found a spot and went out to watch the band. Although we didn’t understand any of what this Finnish rock band were saying, they were very good! The locals were loving it too, and were taking the dancefloor by storm in their couples, but oddly enough there was less air guitar, and a lot more ballroom dancing. It was brilliant to watch. We learnt more about the Finnish culture when we got talking to nice local who picked up on our English at the bar, he told us that in the winter it wouldn’t be uncommon to reach -30°C here. Also, saunas and day to day life go very much hand in hand, and after a few beers we got invited to drink whiskey and experience a proper Finnish sauna for our selves. Maybe it’s because I’ve never been to a sauna after a few drinks before, but I felt like the idea of using the sauna regularly would be something I could really buy into.

Day Thirty-One: Marjoniemi Camping (Pyhajarvi)

Hannah and I had a lot to do today, mainly reorganise the van and get things washed. It was decided that we should stay another night in the campsite as we had been putting off rectifying a lot of niggling annoyances we’ve encountered in day to day life, and this should be the day to do them.

We had also found a leak, assumed to be an oil leak. We mentioned it in passing to the Finn we met the night before, and fortunately said he and his Father-in-law liked to ‘fix up’ cars in their spare time, and would happily take a look to try and work out what the problem was. They came round to our van about midday and gave it a real good look over, and it wasn’t long before they found the problem. Not an oil leak, but a leak from the fuel lines. We weren’t sure if this was good news or bad, but it meant we were going to need a mechanic sooner or later. It was nice to know the engine was not the problem, and decided to keep an eye on the leak until we find a well respected garage to take it to.

After a productive day, we decided to make use of the brilliant campsite facilities, and cooked in a real kitchen! Everything is more difficult in a van, especially cooking and washing up. This was luxury.

Day Thirty-Two: Kirri

It was time to hit the road. Yesterday was the first day we didn’t make any progress on the journey, so today we would drive a couple of hours south, getting closer to Helsinki. Spending so much time on the road, we see plenty of service stations. So far, Finland has definitely got the best! It’s a nice place to be, it’s clean, friendly, they do real food cooked by real chefs, and if you’re really hungry then you can dive into the buffet! Throw in some singing bathrooms and reasonably priced coffee, you have the Finnish service station.

We got down to Kirri while it was still sunny and decided that this would be a good place to spend the night. It was next to a big lake and had beautiful walking trails all around it. After a short walk, we decided to make dinner and have a movie night.

Day Thirty-Three: Kirri – Helsinki

After sleeping in a little later than we had planned we said to hell with breakfast and just had a coffee, it was closer to lunch anyway. We were heading to Helsinki, which was just a little over 3 hours away. Excited to see the capital and to get out of the Nordic countries, which were proving increasingly unviable for our finances, we booked the Ferry to Estonia for the following night. This gave us the rest of the evening and most of the next day to see Helsinki.

Hannah had found a carpark on the outskirts of Helsinki that had great reviews on our camping app, it was free day and night and when we got there it was nice to see some more self built and rustic looking campervans with the same idea. It was a just a short bus trip into the city centre and by late afternoon we arrived in the city.

It was drizzling as we stepped foot in the capital for the first time but we couldn’t complain too much given the amount of sun we had seen since arriving in Finland. We were quite hungry and cheap eats in the city were few and far between. After looking in a few menus and being taken aback by the prices, we got desperate and settled upon a cheap and convenient fast food restaurant. By the time we finished our meals, the drizzle had turned into a torrential downpour, prompting us to use our initiative and log into the WiFi, another luxury we don’t often have access to. I downloaded some podcasts to listen to for our long drives and Hannah downloaded some movies from Netflix. Data gets used up far quicker when you’re dependant on it daily for maps, music, entertainment and hot-spotting the laptop.

It finally stopped raining and we ventured out into Helsinki, it was getting dark so we decided to head to the student part of town to which was a good walk away to grab a beer. The walk gave us a chance to see the city a little better and appeared similar to some of the other big Nordic cities felt to me, clean, organised and pretty. It was a cosy bar that had a great selection of Finnish beers and wines, a nice atmosphere and a friendly pub dog top it off.

Day Thirty-Four: Helsinki – Tallinn

It was our last day in Finland and we were excited that it would be in Helsinki. We jumped off the bus and headed to the main square, stopping a few times to marvel at the architecture around us. The senate square was gorgeous, and the cathedral is one of the best I’ve seen.

We followed the street opposite the cathedral down to the Market Square were we browsed the stalls. When we were finished another cathedral caught our eye, the Uspenski cathedral.

Still wandering through the city, we came across a roof top terrace next to the harbour with a bar and seating, so we decided to have a sit down and regain ourselves while looking at the wonderful view.

Our ferry to Estonia was still a few hours away but we knew it would be docking in Tallinn close to midnight, we went back to the van happy that we had seen most of the big attractions.

The ferry was lovely, we went to the top deck to watch the sun go down and see some more of Helsinki’s shoreline.

Day Thirty-Five: Tallinn

We had no idea what Tallinn was famous for or what would be in store for us, but we were already impressed with the city from our short drive last night. The surprise only grew when we walked into the old town for the first time and couldn’t believe how amazing this place was. Ancient buildings seemed to be everywhere, and the place was bubbling with so much character.

I had seen that there was a famous free walking tour taking place three times a day in the high season (April till late September) so we decided it would be a good idea to get some context behind all the history we were looking at. It turned out to be a great idea, in our short walk around we had only scratched the surface of this tightly packed archaic city. We learnt all about its fascinating history and why so many nations wanted to invade here, as only for a brief period has it been an independent nation of its own.

After the tour, we decided to have a walk down what we now knew was called ‘Long Street’, for obvious reasons. It split into two at the oldest pub in Estonia, and the near two-hour tour had definitely worked up a thirst… We had a lovely Estonian cider and afterwards headed back to the van, we had loved Tallinn.

Thirty-Six: Tallinn to Parnu County

Eager to see spend another morning in Tallinn we got out early saw more of the city. We had somehow missed seeing a large part of the 13th-century city walls, and to see it up close was captivating. There’s even a small stretch where you can go to the top of the defence tower and walk on top of the magnificent wall.

We had a late breakfast at a famous pancake house, loving the fact that we could finally eat out and not worry about our budget too much. Satisfied from our pancakes, we had a final walk around the old town and headed back to the van. After two nights in Tallinn, it was time to move south towards Latvia!

I found a spot next to a lake just a few kilometres from the Latvian border, it was peaceful and scenic, not too much different to what we had been getting used to in Scandinavia.

Week Four: Norway to Finland

Day Twenty-Three: Glava (Sweden) – Oslo (Norway) – Gjøvik Lake (Norway)

Coming into Norway was amazing, you could feel the difference as soon as we crossed the border from Sweden. I don’t know how to explain it, Reece uttered ‘it’s like Sweden, but on steroids’, and as we’d only yet ventured around the south of Sweden where it was flat, I think that was quite a fitting description as we drove over the bulges of Norway’s land.

The views were amazing, rather than red as we had often seen in Sweden, the houses in Norway seemed to be paler colours – pastel yellow and chalky blue – and the hilly landscape meant better views across the amazing lakes and pine forests. The only problem with the hills is that Papaya the Bongo does not agree with them. With her twenty-four-year-old mechanics and automatic gearbox, the usual purr of her engine turned into an angry growl as she tried to work out which gear was best to tackle the incline. All we could think of was the expensive Swedish diesel being gobbled up by the thirsty engine, and what an earth that meant for the mechanical side of things.

Talking about diesel, we were surprised to find that Norway’s diesel was, in fact, cheaper than Swedish diesel. I had been led to believe that everything, especially fuel, was more expensive in Norway so this was a welcome surprise.

Our first stop was Oslo. I have previously been to Oslo before on a Norwegian cruise with my family, and the most memorable thing about the city was the Vigeland Sculpture, which my step-dad and I went to see and photograph in 2016. I remember the city being nice, but preferring other sea-side towns to Oslo, such as Ulvik and Kristiansund. This time around, Reece and I parked the camper in a free car park outside the city centre and walked in, which took around 40 minutes.

The walk began quite pleasantly, with beautiful views across the city and cute houses, but soon became very busy and industrial as we reached the centre. We walked around for quite a while, finding some cute streets and hoping to find somewhere to sit down and have a pint. We both knew Norway was expensive, but when I asked and found out a pint was £10/€10, it was still a shock, so instead, we continued walking. After buying some overpriced falafels, we went to look at the royal palace and then got the bus to the Vigeland Sculpture Park. Around the park, there seemed to be a bit more of a younger scene going on, with a group of teens having a rave in the sculpture park, people skating outside, older teens following guys with huge speaker systems on their backs, shop-bought beer in hand. After seeing the prices of beer even in the shops, £5 per 33cl bottle, I still have no idea how the students managed to afford anything remotely alcoholic!

After the park, we went back to the camper and set off to find somewhere to sleep for the night. We wanted to make our way further up north to see some fjords, so we drove quite a while, in the dark too, so when we reached where we were staying for the night, again found on park4night, we couldn’t see a thing, only that there were other campers and tents there, so we parked up, set up camp, and went to bed.

Day Twenty-Four: Gjøvik Lake – Lovatnet Lake – Kjenndal Glacier

As we woke, the sunlight uncovered where we had parked, and it was even more beautiful than we could have imagined. We were parked on a grassy lawn with mountains surrounding us, at the foot of the mountains was a perfectly clear lake. Wanting to take advantage of the sun, we bathed in the beautiful, albeit very cold, lake after breakfast and soaked in the sunshine afterwards, drying off our swimwear and towels.

We wanted to see a fjord today, so after watching some youtube videos, we settled on a lake called Lovatnet, which although isn’t truly a fjord as it is not an inlet of the sea, it is fresh water, but it has all the other features of a fjord as it is situated in Lodalen valley. Before the trip, Reece had said he wanted to see a glacier as, with the way climate change is going, we don’t know how long the glaciers will last. At the time, we had no idea where we would find a glacier, but as I was searching for a place to stay, the most highly recommended campervan spot appeared to be at the foot of a glacier, which happened to be attached to the Lovatnet fjord. However, I wasn’t expecting much from the glacier as none of the youtube videos had even bothered to mention it.

We both took turns to drive from Lake to Lake and the views along the way were absolutely breathtaking, with lakes and river of all different shades, icy blue, turquoise, some as green as the grass next to them, other lakes so clear they were almost mirrorlike. As we climbed up the mountain on winding roads and through the craziest dungeon-like tunnels, the weather turned, which ruined the view in some ways, but it created for the most peculiar driving I have ever done – crawling around hairpin bends and flying above and through the clouds.

The views only got better and better as we reached Lovatnet. The weather improved, and we carried on towards the glacier. The water of Lovatnet was such a crazy colour – bright turquoise from some perspectives. This colour derives from the rock flour, or tiny peices of rock that get ground up from the constantly shifting glacier, that rest at the bottom of the lake.

As we reached the glacier, we were the only ones there, and it was absolutely stunning, with waterfalls surrounding us and the glacier suspended upon the mountain. It was such a magical place.

Day Twenty-Five: Kjenndal Glacier – Gerirangerfjord – Storfjorden

In the morning, we went for a walk to get even closer to the glacier, luckily for us we had missed both the bus full of tourists and the downpour of rain that took place around 9am, instead we watched out our window, waited for the sun to come out, and went for a walk. We managed to get pretty close, close enough to feel how cold and clear the water was in the stream coming down most directly from the glacier and see the huge chunck of ice in even more detail.

We learnt afterwards that the glacier we had stayed under, Kjenndal, was actually a branch of the largest glacier in Europe, Jostedal Glacier, which is pretty impressive.

After visiting the glacier, we headed back up and over the mountain towards the most famous fjord in Norway, Gerirangerfjord.

On the way down the valley heading towards the glacier, all we could smell was, I assume, the brake pads burning with all the pressure of going down the hill. So rather than pushing Papaya and our nerves any further, we stopped halfway to cook up some lunch, under the watchful eye of a mama sheep and her lambs.

As we reached the bottom, the weather had slightly improved and it was a beautiful view, but not really much compared to the breathtaking turquoise of the glacier lake at the foot of the valley that we had driven through to get to Gerirangerfjord.

One particularly impressive element of the view from the fjords was the ribbon-like road that we were about to conquer. It was very windy and very uphill. We just had our fingers crossed that Papaya could make it, as there was no alternative.

Of course, with her 2.5 litre engine, Papaya had no problem climbing up the hill and, again driving on incredibly scenic roads, we reached our destination for the night. And it was beautiful, at the foot of get another fjord, and incredibly peaceful, and very conveniently located just behind a coop which had a loo with running water. Perfect.

Day Twenty-Six: Storfjorden – Atlantic Ocean Road – Oppdal

The twenty-sixth was the first day I woke up feeling pretty homesick, I missed my puppies and my pony, van life is hard work, and moving every day is even harder, and I just wanted to nip back home for a cuddle. Nonetheless, after getting up, brushing my teeth with actual running water from the coop and having some breakfast with the blueberries we had picked with an absolutely amazing view in front of me, I felt a lot better.
Our aim for the day was to see the Atlantic Ocean Road and then head towards the border of Sweden, which is exactly what we did. The road was a bit of a detour, so it simply meant we had to go over it both ways, which was actually a blessing in disguise as going over it the first way was a little disappointing, but coming back, it was gorgeous and exactly what we had been expecting.

Image from ‘Feel the Planet’ showing the Atlantic road from an aerial view.

The roads from the Atlantic Ocean Road to Oppdal, which is where we ended up staying for the night, were amazing and the sun was beating down on us, making the views look even more glorious.

Oppdal turned out to be a ski town in the north of Norway, since it was summer it was pretty quiet, but there were a few other campers next to us in the Car park, so it served us well for the evening.

Day Twenty-Seven: Oppdal (Norway) – Alsensjön (Sweden)

After leaving the little ski-town with a coffee and pastry each in hand to fuel us for the drive, we were set on getting back to Sweden before the end of the day.

After we got past Trondheim, failing at an attempt to get free parking in the city to do our laundry as we were reluctant to get another parking ticket, so we didn’t stop; but after we got past, we found a crystal clear lake and it was so hot, we just wanted to jump in! However, this was another ‘drinking water lake’ which had a no swimming sign and some other writing in Norwegian next to this. As we were sulking on our way back to the van, disappointed that we couldn’t jump in the lake, we bumped into an older gentleman who lived in one of the houses right next to the lake, we talked for quite a while, it turned out he was a retired English teacher, and when we got talking about the lake, he told not to worry about the sign, he used it as drinking water and it was fine if the odd person went in, just not the whole of Trondheim. So he pointed us to a place where we could get in the lake without people seeing us, with a parting warning that the lake was very cold. We got there and wading into the lake was beautiful, it was peaceful and cold, but not in an unpleasant way. It was a great pit stop.

The place we found for the night was called ‘Uddens Vänner’ and it was sort of like a free campsite, with lovely mown lawns and a great view across the lake.

Day Twenty-Eight and Day Twenty-Nine: Alsensjön (Sweden) – Norsjo (Sweden) – Vatungin (Finland)

Unfortunately, for these two days, there is not too much to write about as we have been pushing on trying to get to Finland and work our way down to reach Eastern Europe as, although Scandinavia is stunningly beautiful, it is pretty cold, but most of all it is expensive. As we would like to make this trip last six-months in total, we are heading towards Eastern Europe where diesel, groceries and everyday living is a lot cheaper than Scandinavia. We have taken the driving in turns, for the first time in the trip, I am usually very happy to be in the passenger seat, and we have reached Finland now, doing around 5 or 6 hours behind the wheel to get from the Atlantic Ocean Road all the way to the top of Finland. This is also why this blog is a day late – I have either been driving or being a passenger, where I struggle to write a lot without feeling a little queasy.

Our plan is now to take things a little more steady, get to Estonia in around four or five days, and then hopefully catch some sunshine and be able to afford to do a little more as we work our way down to Croatia through Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Germany, Czechia, Slovakia, Austria and Hungary.

Last night we stayed in a nice little spot next to a port, which in the sunshine looked gorgeous, but it didn’t look so nice waking up to it in the dreary weather of this morning (30th of August), which made us even more sure of our decision to get back down south!

Week Three: Lakes, Forests and Foraging

Day Fifteen: Stora Kullhög Beach – Kivik – Karlshamn

We reached Kivik quite late on Thursday afternoon as we were enjoying staying by the beach so much. Both Reece and I really like Swedish cider, so my friend recommended the Kivik Musteri to us so we could see where one of the most popular Swedish ciders comes from. It was really interesting to see how all the cider and apple juices are made on such a huge scale, and also how the technique has changed over hundreds of years. Due to the law in Sweden where you can only buy alcohol in one store, Systembolaget (The System), we couldn’t actually purchase any cider from the brewery, so we just bought some very tasty apple juice instead.

In between the heavy downpours of rain, we had a quick look around Stenshuvuds National Park, which had some gorgeous pine trees and sweet, docile cows. After a little walk, we headed to Jenny’s house who lives just on the outskirts of Karlshamn, which was around a 2 hour drive away from the national park.

It was so lovely to be welcomed with open arms, dinner cooked for us, great conversation and cats to cuddle! We even had a bed to sleep in, which was a welcome relief from the camper, which had got pretty soggy and muddy from all the rain.

Day Sixteen: Karlshamn

After a great nights sleep, we planned to explore the area by bike as there was a huge lake around ten-minutes away by foot which we’d had a brief look at the evening before. After making breakfast and having a (hot!!) shower, we went to get on the ones and go for a ride. Unfortunately, that didn’t go quite to plan, having not ridden a bike in around eight-years, I was a little out of practice and all the bikes I’d had previously had allowed me to keep a foot on the floor whilst still being on the seat. That wasn’t the case with this one and I simply couldn’t coordinate pushing off, cycling, balancing and getting on the seat all in one go, so after a good fifteen minutes of Reece desperately trying to teach me, I gave up and decided that a cat cuddle would actually be nicer anyway.

So as Reece went off on his bike ride the heavens once again opened, so I wasn’t too upset that I was inside pottering around tidying the kitchen and sorting out our laundry, until Reece sent me a message saying that he was having the best lunch ever in a vegetarian buffet with all fresh, homemade food in the middle of a forest. I almost jumped in the van and drove there myself, but as I was deliberating, Jenny came back from work early! She’d unfortunately come back because she could feel a migraine starting, but we still had a good chat whilst Reece made his way back from the restaurant in even more rain.

Reece and I then nipped out to the centre of Karlshamn as he has never seen the little seaside city before, I had been three-years prior when I came to visit Jenny before.

After visiting Karlshamn and picking up some cava and wine from ‘The System’, we came back, watched some Stranger Things on Netflix and then me, Jenny and Reece got ready to go to the sauna, which we had planned the day before. I have only ever visited the sauna in the gym and never really understood the appeal, but I was willing to give this sauna a try as it was part of both Swedish and Finnish culture. I’m so pleased I did, it was so revitilising! We did it the proper Swedish way, nude, and it was a strange feeling getting so warm that you cannot bear it, running down some forest steps, then across a little pier, down a ladder and straight into the cool lake. And what a beautiful lake it was, clear water surrounded by an array of different trees and foliage.

We then came back, made dinner and talked ’till the early hours.

Day Seventeen: Karlshamn – Hossmo

We had a relaxed Saturday morning, sleeping and eating a delicious breakfast Jenny and her husband Roger had made for us. We then went for a walk around a little island off the port of Karlshamn, which had an unusual landscape of flat rocks, an abundance of heather and a forest. It was a really lovely walk with the chance to eat some wild blueberries and learn about the different berries and mushrooms we could safely pick and eat on any future walks in Sweden.

After the walk round the island, we packed up all our stuff, filled up our water tub and got back on the road, with a stop at the vegetarian buffet of course (which I was not at all disappointed by). We were heading towards Öland, a large island off the east coast of Sweden.

We stayed just outside the island on another beach by the sea, with quite a few other campers near us – and nice toilets!

Day Eighteen: Hossmo – Öland – Ringarum

After a morning of walking around the beach and little piers where you could go for a swim, we did some yoga on the beach before having breakfast, packing up and heading to Öland.

On the way there, we went over some really impressive bridges, which unusually were toll free. The island itself was motorhome heaven, every other car must have been a motorhome or camper, which was different to the other roads we’d been driving on in Sweden where seeing a fellow camper on the roads is far and few between. The island itself was nice, but the road that goes around the island wasn’t the most interesting, bar the really old, quirky windmills we kept passing by. We had planned to go in the castle, but it was quite expensive and it didn’t look all that impressive, so instead we followed the hiking trail that ran around it, which took us to a cute little beach and through a forest where we spotted a woodpecker.

We wanted to get further towards Stockholm for the evening, so we we hopped in the van and drove north towards a lake we’d found on Park4Night. The drive was beautiful, past sheer rocks, forests and so many lakes. When we reached the place we were staying for the night, it looked nice, but a little dreary in the pouring rain, so we simply cooked dinner and stayed in for the evening.

Day Nineteen: Ringarum – Stockholm

We woke up to glorious sunshine, and the place reflected in the glory. The lake was stunning, with pine trees all around and, again, it was so clear, we could even see pretty big fish scuttling around near the shore. We even had our own small forest with some beautiful colours in the trees on the floor, with different mosses, leaves and heathers.

After breakfast, we went for a swim and both of us were surprised to find that the water was actually pretty warm. It felt so special to be able to swim in such an amazing place with the sun pouring down us. We spent the rest of the morning sunbathing and letting our towells dry, with the solar panel charging our electrics.

After we were dry, we went for a walk around the area. We had parked near a small lake, but there was an even bigger lake nearby, so we had a walk over to that one. The views were amazing, and it was all set up for campers with shelters, dry wood for a fire and even tables and chairs right next to the lake.

We took a walk through some fields and pretty dense forest, keeping an eye out for berries and mushrooms. To our surprise, we actually came across some chanterelles, the golden mushrooms of the forest, which are very distinct in their appearance, almost like a trumpet or a flower, which makes them pretty safe to eat as there’s not really any poisonous mushrooms that look the same. As we continued further round the lake, the views just got better and better, although the terrain did get more difficult to walk through.

As we were heading back from our walk from the lake, we picked the chanterelles and took them with us.

As we were prepping the chanterelles for lunch, a Swiss couple pulled up in their camper and we talked a little bit, and when they noticed the mushrooms, they were really eager to know where we foraged them and then set off in search of their own!

After lunch, we packed everything up and headed to Stockholm, which was around three hours away. I had found a car park we could stay overnight, so we headed towards the city.

Stockholm was huge and very built up, with high blocks of flats, but the most impressive structures were the huge bridges for the trains and trams, which towered high above us, and even the neighbouring buildings. We carefully googled the cheapest veggie food in Stockholm, which led us to a restaurant called ‘Faloumi’, which was still €9/£9 for a falafel and halloumi wrap! But as we walked round to see the average meal in a restaurant is around €18/£18 and a beer, which is their cheapest drink as usual, is €10/£10 a pint, it didn’t seem all that bad. The rest of the evening was spent simply walking into Gamla Stan, the old town, which took us around 40 minutes, so by then we fancied a sit-down and a medieval basement pub caught our eye. Since beer was off the menu in Stockholm, we simply got some non-alcoholic mead which was actually really tasty and just a fraction of the price.

Stockholm in the sunset, and a leg of one of the huge bridges!

The ‘Faloumi’ restaurant

After leaving the medieval bar, back to modern Stockholm, we realised we had walked almost an hour away from the van. The smart thing to do would have been getting the metro home, but the electric scooters were calling us, so we grabbed one each and zoomed pretty much all the way home.

Day Twenty: Stockholm – Aspen Lake (Julita)

We went back into the city in the morning, we had planned to eat breakfast in the van, but as we had been in stealth mode the night before, the van was a mess and we could barely sit down, never mind make breakfast, so we headed to Lidl to get some pastries and cold pizza to eat for breakfast and lunch, coming to a total of €5 for both of us!

The city was beautiful in the day, the sun had come out, and it was shining in all its pastel colours. Again, we headed north to the old town, we had parked our van in the south, but this time we ventured further in and it was so pretty. Cobbled stones, brightly coloured houses, spires, winding streets and large squares.

We then headed even further north, over another bridge and into the more commercial side of Stockholm. It was interesting to see the contrast of the North and South, with the old town bridging the two in the middle. Here were the huge tv screens, bustling streets filled with shoppers and business staff. We did spot a group of five police horses grazing under the shade of some trees in one of the main squares which was really lovely to see.

After walking around for around the North for around an hour, we were pretty tired, so we got the metro home, as we were now an hour and a half walk away from the van, and set off in search of another lake.

After a bit of exploring in the van attempting to find our own spot for the night, we resorted back to using Park4Night and found ourselves by a lake called Aspen with a little beach and set up camp there. A couple of campers joined us, a couple from Flensburg in Germany where we had stopped before heading into Denmark, and an older lady from Sweden with two ex-sledge dogs, Alaskan Huskies, who was travelling around in her micro-camper with a dream to one day move to Scotland.

Day Twenty-One: Aspen Lake – Vänern Lake (Kristinehamn)

The other two campers left early, so again we had the woods and a lake to ourselves. Both of us had planned to go in the lake, but the weather had turned, and the lake didn’t look as appealing as the last, with pond skaters and a slightly musty appearance. Instead, we had a movie morning inside, pulling the bed back down after breakfast and watching movies in bed. A nice relaxing morning after being busy the last few days. We then had lunch, packed up, and headed to the next lake.

We had planned to visit Gothenburg, which is to the south-west of Sweden, but as our ultimate aim was northern Sweden and Norway and to spend as much time in nature as we could in Scandinavia, we changed our plans last minute and we are now instead heading towards Oslo in Norway. So rather than heading south again, we went north of the largest lake in Sweden, lake Vänern, around ten minutes away from the town of Kristinehamn. As we pulled up the place yesterday evening, we were taken aback by just how huge the lake is. It looks like a sea, and as it was windy yesterday, it even had waves like a sea too.

Last night, we cooked dinner using up the last of our groceries from Germany, and went for a walk in the setting sun. There are quite a few campers near us, dotted around the lakeshore and in the woods, but we’ve managed to find a little cove for Papaya. As we were walking, we spotted a couple of blueberries, which we picked and ate (they’re sooo sweet and tasty), and as we looked around, we realised the whole forest floor was covered in blueberry bushes and loads and loads of blueberries. So we quickly went back to the camper, grabbed our colander, and got picking! It was gorgeous to watch the sunset as we were picking wild blueberries.

We will have the fresh blueberries on our breakfast this morning, which usually consists of an apple, banana, peanut butter, muesli and apple juice all mixed together – which tastes a lot nicer then it sounds.

Today, we plan to head a little further around the lake in search of a sauna and somewhere to shower, buy groceries then drive in the direction of Norway.