Well it turns out iPads are rubbish travel companions, so as soon as I’m getting back it’s being sold! Blog posting is a nightmare and video editing next to impossible, other than that everything is awesome!
we did some busking in Dubrovnik and made 11 kroner, about 1 pound! We are all super lethargic due to the heat and the trip is very hard going.
We got to Ljubljana, Slovenia around 6pm and headed off to check into a hostel. We tried one that looked like it was ghetto central. Thankfully it was full. Two hostels later, we were told only 1 had beds for the night. We left our car by the river and walked for 10 minutes down the river, which seemed to be the main focal point of the city… to the hostel.
20 Euroes a night for prison conditions. Madness… but it beats sleeping in the car. I had to share a room with 4 french loud douchebags and a stonned American guy. Who’s conversation went as far as… “I flew to India from America but didn’t have a visa… So I got sent back home… And that’s how I ended up here” …. riiiiiiiight…. Americans!
Hostel was horrible, proper slum. Shower heads were broken so it was just a hose, toilet doors with no locks…. and surrounded by riff-raff.
I now know what life is like on the other side.
We did however meet a lovely girl from holland who was travelling by herself and joined us for a night out.
We ate at a resturant on the side of the river and I enjoyed beer and an amazing posh ocotopus dish over looking a beautiful river surrounded by bars and fantastic eye candy. I can’t get over how insanely stunning every girl is here. It’s like leaving england is the equivilent of taking the red pill in the matrix.
After dinner we headed to a famous Skeleton bar. It’s up a cobbled street with tiny stone heads in the centre.
The skeleton bar is small, but filled with various real and fake skeletons. You enter and walk down some stone steps with skeletons in the walls. Freaky.
When you enter the bar area, theres a glass floor with a half excavated skeleton lying there. Various skeletons in cages are dotted around the bar.
Their shot menu was extensive with some insane sounding shots… and with 2-4-1 cocktails you can’t go wrong.
The bottom of the menu it says “If the waiter doesn’t bring you a bill, you’re not obliged to pay” AWESOME. Our waiter did though 🙁
We sadly ended up being joined by a very drunk, overweight slovenian dude who did nothing for 30 minutes except mistake everything we said as an insult and assuring us he was not an idiot or dumb. Talk about self esteem issues, jeese.
We were joined by another 2 english girls who we chatted with for about an hour. Afterwards we decided to move to another bar for a final drink. The two girls were very keen on getting us to a club with them. However me and Rus weren’t in the mood for clubbing… plus the girls were english and we werent ready to re-enter the matrix. We headed off back to the hostel at 1am which is when the entire city (minus only a handful of bars/clubs) shutdown! 1Am and it was totally dead. Madness.
The lack of intense nightlife and the price of everything has taken Slovenia off the possible relocation list. Even though its cheaper than england… this place doesnt compare to budapest.
The drive in and our of Slovenia was awesome. The views are spectacular. Lovely country roads, mountains and great scenery.
Slovenia nightlife after 1am!
We thought prague was epic… then we discovered budapest in hungary. This place has blown our minds, to the degree we’ve spent the last couple of mornings researching apartments for long term rental after deciding we’re living here next year.
This city is cheap and incredible. The scenery is interesting, tonnes of historic buildings line the streets but over time have turned slightly ghetto. There’s a few absolutely stunning buildings and sights to be seen around the city, but like most tourist cities, these are scarce and dotted around. Everyone here also speaks english which helps massively. Even the locals, so socialising is easy.
Most importantly, the women here are so stunning it’s hard to process. My brain has been in overload since prague with trying to cope the sheer beauty of literally everyone.
We stayed in a hostel while here… my first time in a hostel, you know the type you share a room with other people. I’ve become riff-raff! It was actually good as we met other rallies there and teamed up with a group of irish girls for a night out. Hostels are very sociable, I’m thinking we’ll be sticking to this idea for most of the trip.
This was absolutely perfection. The budapest bath houses are built on the roman bath house ideas. You have multiple pools indoor and out all with various temperatures. There’s also massages, suanas, jacuzzi, ice bath and even a whirl pool for the less mature of us.
I absolutely loved this place. We basked in the sun, enjoyed every one of the facilities and spent the whole time surrounded again by the most beautiful girls I’ve seen. Literally everyone here could be a model, it’s madness…. so I think i’ll fit in well if I move here.
Downside is, being a guy… swimming trunks aren’t the most discreet item of clothing to wear when surrounded with bikini babes.
I can’t speak for the others, but it was certainly long and hard work to constantly be suppressing what could be a embarrassing moment.
The entire hardship of the trip so far was totally worth it, just to spent 5 hours in the Szechenyi bath house.
As you know my life revolves around night life. Part the reason I’m on this trip.
Night life in budapest is quite possibly 60-70% better than Brighton. Budapest is a party city. Fact.
Its full of tourists just looking to let loose and everyone is up for pushing the boundries of whats socially acceptable and have an adventure. Plus, as I said… everyone speaks english, even the locals.
Each night we found the best bars in our area (after going to a salsa night for Andy). Budapest is big on what they call “ruin bars”. Bars that are essentially converted court yards from old historic buildings… little bit grimey but with style.
With our nights out in Brighton, those who join know that we OWN every single night we’re out and this skill is universal … and for the pua guys reading.. so is “the spin” 😉 It was very easy to completely own the bars we were in and become the centre of the party…. (tourists are pussies!) I can only imagine the carnage if all the crew joined for a night out in budapest!
Did I mention its cheap? Also, budapest serve beer thats brewed a different way using less chemicals. I’ve been blitzing it each night and woken up with minimal hangover. Also, drinks like bacardi and coke… served in pint glasses, not the pathetic english sizes!
Budapest know how to party.
Wow wow wow. We made it to split in Croatia yesterday after driving forever and it was amazing. The nicest food I’ve ever eaten, a fantastic party life, an incredible city.
The adventurists threw a cool party in a castle just outside of Prague, filling the place with bars, BBQs, bands and DJs until 2am. When that finished another DJ kicked off outside the castle until daylight but I was well asleep by then. The high light for me was definitely the fire show they out on!
Dan and I bought out the Flowtoys and fire poi and spent an hour spinning in front of the party.
When I woke up on the Tuesday I discovered one of my tent poles had snapped so now I’m on a mission to fix that…. Gonna gaffa tape a tent peg to it….
We drove through Slovakia, then Austria to get lunch. We found a pizza place and i randomly pointed to something on the menu, the. We realised we had no cash so had to bounce to a cash point. When we got back three of the largest pizzas were on the table and yet again I’d ordered a fish pizza. We couldnt finish them all so hit the road to hungary and found a hostel with other rally participants in the Center of Budapest.
In the evening we went to a bar, that I’ve forgotten the name of, which is probably the best bar I’ve been to in my life, so I should probably remember it….
Seeing as I got the most sleep, it seemed fitting I continued the drive in the morning.
Before we left we also stole a towel and toilet role. Why? Because we’re badass! … and forgot to pack them before we left :/
After an early start we got to our destination at around 2pm! “THE RACE TRACK AWAITS” we thought! “The TomTom wouldn’t betray us” we thought.
Turns out… Nuremburg and the nurenbergring race track are 2 completely different things. We were 300 miles off course. Nuremburg as it turns out, is a town/city that was big on its nazi rallies and not as it turns out where the famous race track is.
On the drive down, I was on boob watch so we could use the megaphone as intended… to encourage girls to flash us their boobs as we drove past. Figured it would makes the motorway driving more exciting. As our luck would have it though, it seems cars filled with super hot bikini babes don’t take the AutoBahn to historic nazi rally sites. Better luck in Russia perhaps.
However, we made the most of a bad situation and grabbed a chinese, used their wifi and did a spot of work and booked our hotel in prague tonight! I also found out I’ve ordering rabbit for years in german speaking countries, as opposed to chicken. Chicken is Hahn, not Kaninchen!
So far we’ve:
We blitzed it to Prague, so we had enough time for an epic night out… before we explore the city and have the castle party the following night!
Sadly no pictures today, as I need to charge my iphone.
Prague is outstanding, city is beautiful and the girls are even more so.
We found a wicked hostel for only 20 euro each a night, with wifi!
Once checked in, we headed out straight away! We popped into a czech resturant and had a whole meal of traditional food. Cabbage soup, beef goulash and strudel. Was delisious and SO cheap.
Then we explored the city a little, chatted to the support band for Marilyn Manson after the concert, had guys try to sell us crack and then hit up a club.
One of the girls in the club was telling us about hte glory of Budapest bath houses, so we’ve added that to our to-do list!
…. oh and Andy mistook the brake for the clutch. Essentially did ½ an emergency stop on the centre lane of the motorway. Luckily no cars behind, otherwise we could of died!
Smooth Andy 😉 … Think I’ll be driving the next.
The adventure started after we did our leaving lap of the goodwood race track. On competition we had to pull over to inspect our fan belt… as its making a peculiar noise. Not really what you want happening 1 mile into a 10,000 mile trip! It only happens when we turn the car on, we cant hear it when we’re cruising the motorway, so figure it’s not a big deal. We’ve decided to let nature take its course. We’ve got a spare in the glove box, just no idea how to fit it.
After a lengthy and nerve racking drive as Andy drove us to Dover (Andy attempted blind folded driving), we boarded the ferry. We met some awesome guys on the rally and exchanged details so we can meet up with them in Georgia. We also met a Finish teenager who’s travelling all around Europe and more… completely by herself, with nothing more than a backpack. Adventurer!
People laughed as our car drove off the ferry due to its horrible dying noise…. but we had the last laugh as we bombed it past many of them on the motorway.
Once we reached france, our plan was to just blitz it to the Nurenburgring to thrash the car around a race track before we head off to prague for the 2nd launch party! So we loaded up the coordinates in the TomTom and hit the road! Armed with energy drinks we drove way into the night with a couple of close encounters :-/ One involving partly mounting the side of the motorway, another involving clipping a tree. It was after the latter we decided it would be safer to stop and continue the journey the following day.
It was around 4am, we’d been driving for a further 7 hours since we got off the ferry. We pulled up next to a motel which wanted 60 euro for a single bed!!! Screw that, so we decided to sleep in the car… like posh hobo’s. So we hopped in our sleeping bags, found a dark spot and laid back to sleep. Most uncomfortable experience ever. Only took 30 minutes of tossing and turning before Rus marched into the Motel and got the room. Me and andy snuck in afterwards and managed to get a perfect 2 hours sleep…. before Rus’s iphone which is completely broken due to rain at launch party…. decided it will turn on on its own every 9 minutes for a very loud alarm. This continued until lunch time the following day.
Luckily, as you may know I sleep through absolutely anything. So I was only woken 3 times from this continuous alarm!
We made it to Prague last night and actually did some planning to mitigate the disaster the last 2 days have been 🙂 we ate at a local restaurant around 11pm, 3 courses of goulash, strudel and cabbage soup for about £5.50! Was really good! It’s been nothing but rain still so haven’t been able to do any busking yet.
Today we are going to find a mechanic to look at the fan belt, it’s sounding a lot better so it might have just been wet but it’s not worth the risk, and Ive found an iPhone repair shop so will see what they can do.. The screen just stays black and the camera light remains on forever!
The hotel we are in does a Swedish breakfast? So I’m going to have a shower and find out what that really means!
German autobahns arent all they are cracked up to be, we got 92mph out of the car, with the wind behind us on the downhill, but we spent 90% of the time crawling at 20, the areas with speed limits flowed a lot faster and there was less congestion over all, so don’t believe the hype, sure you can go fast but only for about 30 seconds!
I also managed to burn my back in the shower 😮
After sorting all our stuff out this morning, and a last minute sleeping bag purchase we made it to Goodwood at about 11 am for the launch or the rally! It’s been non stop rain all day so driving was fun, the car will totally do 70 on the downhill but is a struggle on the flat.
After a couple of hours of watching Mongolian wrestling and dancing in the rain we kind of just wanted to get going. Finally 2pm kicked in and it was time to get going. As soon as we got in the car my iPhone bricked itself which is worrying, im hoping it gets better but I might be out of luck for the entire trip…..
As soon as we started the engine my dad noticed a high pitch whirr which was new, turns out we have a lose fan belt!
With a huge cacophony of sirens, horns and shouts the rally started and we joined the queue to drive around Goodwood race track! Andy took that as an opportunity to actually race and overtake people 😮
After the lap my dad showed us how cars work and fan belt things in case we get stuck! I’m thinking garage in Germany to get it looked at!
After actually leaving Goodwood we stopped off at a petrol station to add some air to the tires before finally heading over to the ferry terminal in Dover.
