SUPER VARIO WORLD

Hi All

Firstly, many thanks to our WebMaster Andrew for the previous update. We were unaware of the disaster until we heard from home the day after, by which time we were already in Russia. 

Thanks also for the birthday wishes, it was great to hear from home, particularly on what would become a stressful day. 

So after Kiev we basically just drove towards the border for 2 days. We stopped at some very cute villages and met some lovely local shop keepers who were most amused at our impressions of milk (squeezing teats whilst making a moo noise) and chicken (obviously clucking and doing the arms)! We spent our last night in Ukraine in Hlukhiv, which from experience we were expecting to be a dodgy border town. But in reality it was quite like Cheltenham, lots of lovely parks, well dressed ladies but unfortunately it also had the pigeons. 

After a night in a hotel car park it was up early for Bry's birthday and the challenge of the Russian border. Whilst purchasing Russian car insurance from a very sweet woman, Caroline was told she only looks 27 while Bryan was told he looks liked like Bin Laden - despite this she insisted we should be having children and she loved Bry's "skin painting"!!

Just getting out of Ukraine took an hour, the last of our Ukrainian money and a pack of cigarettes to the border guards - and that was the easy bit. Next was the 4 hour ordeal which it apparently takes to bring a generator into Russia. Initially (via a phone app) we were told it was illegal and they would have to turn us back, despite us having completed in advance the correct paperwork for temporarily importing it. After the guard made many phone calls and us standing our ground, a huge army officer with the dopiest drugs dog ever went over the vehicle and let us through. They made us rewrite all our paperwork with no mention of the generator, stamped our visa and said to Bry happy birthday! We will see if there's a problem later when we try to leave Russia. 

Finally through customs and on the motorway, after half a mile we get pulled by the 'truck' police, but luckily this is just a cursory once over the vehicle and we were on our way - unbelievable that we've managed to drive our own vehicle into Russia!

That was Friday and we're now Sunday evening, 500 miles further on. All that we've seen so far is big flat expanses of agricultural land and huge blue skies! The locals are patient and friendly with our attempts at speaking Russian and the roads range from perfectly flat tarmac to cavernous holes, and that's within 100 yards! Not seen that much wildlife other than stuffed things for sale at the side of the road. Seen plenty of storks and probably a few eagles. "Dead Dog Tally" is currently 4. 

On the domestic front, beer has gone up to 80p a pint, but diesel has reduced to 56p a litre - that's why we are currently driving more than drinking! We have invested in a washing machine (a plastic bowl and a sink plunger) for the princely sum of £2 - anything to keep Caroline happy! We hope that we've sorted the leaks in Mario, but the weather forecast suggests it will be a while before we know for definite. 

We're both getting into life on the road. We had a few days last week when we were struggling mentally, but we're now realising we can actually cope with whatever we're faced with and are now really enjoying it. 

We're currently sat in an American style diner, with what appears to be the Russian version of Live At The Apollo on the massive, very loud TV! We've met our first fellow "overlanders". A couple of Uzbeki brothers visiting the Stans, and a Kazak family. Both spoke excellent English, which although was quite humbling, it was lovely to have a proper conversation with other travellers. 

Finally can we say Happy Birthday to Karen for the 22nd, we'll raise a bottle of piva to you on the day, and make sure we have ketchup with our dinner!

Spakoiai nochi

B&C

 

 

 

 

Caroline and Bryan have been in touch this evening wanting to reassure everyone that they are safe and well, and clear of the terrible events of yesterday in Ukraine with flight MH17, and continuing east towards more adventures...

They said

We're not expecting to have internet access for the next few days but wondered if you'd do a travel update on our behalf re the Malaysian plane ...... awful news but if anyone is worried about us we are safe and well. We entered Russia today and hope to update the website over the next few days.

This tragedy happened 400+ miles south of their intended route but great to get reassurance from them that they are well and moving on.

 - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

So after last night's very wordy update (too much wine at dinner?), this one will be short and sweet! We're staying another night in the hotel, so making the most of the wifi.

We have just got back from a very interesting day in Kiev. Having kept an eye on the news over the last 6 months or so, we were obviously aware of the demonstrations and violent, deadly battles that had taken place earlier this year - but we weren't expecting to see such an aftermath. The protesters have built a shanty town in the main square and surrounded it with barricades of tyres, paving blocks and anything else they could get hold of, blocking 4 of the main roads in the city.

Apparently they are intent on staying there until the new Government meets their demands. It was quite peaceful and relaxed, tourists and commuters are allowed through the area, but the gates are manned, ready to close the barricades if need be. We wouldn't want to hang around there at night. 

At the other end of the scale, we went around St Sophia's Cathedral, which was breathtaking. Although no longer used for worship and now more of a museum, every wall, ceiling, arch and alcove were covered in frescos and mosaics. Sadly, no photos allowed inside, but Google it if you're interested! The rest of the day was spent just wandering around in the sun.

Back on the road early tomorrow, so TTFN!

 

Hello from Kiev!

Yes, we are in Ukraine, no it's not a war zone, yes we are very, very far away from any trouble.

To bring you up to speed we decided to stay an extra night in Krakow and not do anything all day other than sit, read, play cards and dice games! We realised we were knackered after rushing around the city for two days. We spent the evening watching the Germany/Brazil game with a load of German and Dutch guys. They were most entertaining and it was quite impressive listening to them all effortlessly switch between German, Dutch and English, depending on how they wanted to emphasise their words. What was particularly amusing was how they used English to eff and jeff - they all sounded like The Terminator and Jean Claude Van Damme impersonators! 

It was great to have had a day relaxing as the next day was awful. As we left Krakov we got caught in massive thunder storms with the roof hatches open, resulting in wet bedding, tea-towels all over the floor and an allusive leak under Mario's windscreen.  Due to this and the ongoing storms we abandoned our plans for the day and stopped in a services to do a few running repairs, eat and sleep.  We did watch the Italian Job on DVD though, which made a bad day a lot better.

We then moved on to Rzeszow, initially just with the intention of finding an internet cafe but discovered it was a charming little place, with the most amazing flower market. We had a great time just wandering around mixing with the locals, buying chocolate that wasn't chocolate but some sort of 'dessert compound' - no wonder it was only 20p for 100g, it went in the bin after two bites!

Our next stop, thanks to Caroline's Dad's Europe map, was Lancut. This had a 'castle' that was really a grand house, with beautiful gardens set within a star shaped moat and surrounded by a massive park which included two riding schools, two tennis clubs and a music school. We were planning on spending the evening in a bar but a local chap told us about a classical music concert happening that night in the 'castle'. Apparently this happens every evening in July, youngsters from all over Eastern Poland play to show off their skills. It took part in the Great Hall in the 'castle' and whats more it was free! We felt very cultured but a little under dressed, but must admit that after half an hour we left to keep our date with the local bar!

That was Thursday night, it's now Monday night and since then it's just been stress! Friday we got caught in more thunder storms which lasted all of the day and needless to say more tea-towels and gaffer tape were required.  Then, thanks to unclear road signs we managed to drive up to the Poland/Ukraine checkpoint at 5 o'clock on a Friday evening.  We had planned on not trying to enter Ukraine until early Saturday morning to give us plenty of time to clear customs. Not only this but the van was filled with hanging wet tea-towels, loose bedding, a roof blind on the floor and various consumables which we'd managed to pick up from the Polish version of B&Q! And the sink was full of washing up which we hadn't bothered to do because the tea-towels were wet! It was most amusing (embarrassing) watching the uniformed officers and their massive hats ducking and diving under soaking wet tea-towels whilst trying not to trip on the various items on the floor. Ultimately, the crossing process wasn't too bad, it was just time consuming and confusing, we were even refused exit from the compound and had to turn back to get more paperwork stamped.  We would like to think it was a learning process but no doubt each border will be completely different.

With the extra hour difference now added on for Eastern European Time we got into Ukraine at about 10pm but then had to go to the Currency Exchange and then find an agent to sort out some insurance.  This resulted in us breaking our main rule of not travelling at night without a planned place to sleep.  It started raining, the roads were poor and the local standard of driving even worse. After a couple of hours and several aborted stops due to unsavoury characters, we finally found a quiet place to sleep. It had been a long day!

Saturday we woke with good intentions of visiting L'viv, but this was heaving with buses, trams, trolley buses and people everywhere.  Thanks to a diversion we had to drive up a very narrow lane where Mario got intimate with a very badly parked VW Polo, resulting in us soon changing our minds that seeing L'viv wasn't that appealing after all! So we then went to Rivne and promptly got stopped by the police, not for Mario's indiscretion, just a random stop - we didn't understand them, they didn't understand us and once they'd seen our documents they obviously decided we weren't worth the hassle and let us go. 

It seemed that the police were going to be a common occurrence as we were again stopped the next day, but this time 'fined' for speeding - £17.50 straight into their pocket! We knew the police were likely to be a problem and that you just have to treat it as a 'toll' for driving that particular road, but we hope it doesn't happen to often!

We then got caught at a fuel station where they thought we were paying cash, we wanted to pay by card, and after we'd filled up they told us the card machines weren't working.  We didn't have enough cash to cover the bill (thanks to the police fine), they wouldn't accept our Euros or Dollars, so we had a stand off for an hour while their 'techy' sorted out their credit card machines.

Monday morning we're up bright and early looking forward to sightseeing in Kiev, heading for a hotel recommended by Lonely Planet. When we arrived we found the hotel was no longer there, so we drove to the airport to use their WIFI and found a fantastic looking campsite with full facilities only 10 minutes away. 40 minutes later we arrive at the 'campsite' to find it was nothing more than a fenced in carpark with a garden swimming pool in the middle! It basically looked like a travellers' camp.  Check out their website compared to what our dashcam saw!

Another aborted attempt to find a decent hotel near the airport and we finally ended where we are now, a lovely resort type place called Kidev Park, where the restaurant is a series of little wicker huts - very nice in a bizarre way! We are staying tonight (early birthday pressie for Bry) and "doing" Kiev tomorrow. We may stay tomorrow night as well, but they've said Mario will be OK in their car park for the day anyway. First night not in Mario seems strange, but we've had a lovely meal (Bry had Chicken Kiev, obviously) and made good use of the WiFi!

Pictures to follow, further updates when possible!

Love to all xx

 

 

Hello from Poland, or Czesc as they say in these parts! 

We mentioned Olomouc in our last update, which was a lovely little city and a bit more chilled than Prague.  It boasts the biggest single baroque sculpture in Central Europe, the 35m high Holy Trinity column in the middle of a beautiful square with lots of fountains.

Well, we're two weeks in now, so normally we would be thinking about heading home.  It's very exciting to think our journey has only just begun but it has dawned on us over the last few days exactly what we are taking on.  We think we were so busy preparing to leave that it never really sunk in before.  We are of course missing our friends and family and we have had a few teary moments which no doubt won't be the last.

Perhaps a catalyst for these emotions was our trip to Auschwitz.  Needless to say this was a harrowing experience but one we're very grateful to have gone through.  Just being there and seeing the amount of effort and ingenuity applied on such a vast scale with the sole purpose of killing people was unbelievable.  Nothing more really needs to be said but we would highly recommend anyone to visit if they are able.

We are just about to spend our second night in Krakow, which has turned out to be the best city we have visited so far.  It has all the architecture and history of Prague, but with a much more relaxed atmosphere.  When we turned up on Sunday lunchtime they were just starting their Jazz Festival (nice) and then a classic car rally finished in the main square (much to Bry's delight) and then there was a New Orleans Dixie Band style procession - all this before we'd even started to explore!  We won't bore you with too many descriptions of the town but let the photos we've uploaded to the Gallery speak for themselves.

We're not sure where we are off to tomorrow as we haven't yet reached that stage in the evening where we decide. To give you an insight of what our evenings are like when 'in camp', we update our hand written diaries, sort out photos, research the next day's destination, keep an eye on the budget and, if time, we read, play Scrabble, cards, Mastermind, Battleships and even Guess Who?!  We have yet to watch a DVD and are not missing TV at all!

Thanks for peoples comments, sorry for not replying to them but our internet access has been too limited.  Do keep them coming as we do appreciate them and if there is anything you'd like us to include in our updates then let us know.  We are currently getting to grips with our GoPro camera and may do a video diary soon!

Do widzenia (goodbye) for now!