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Up early this morning ready for the trip through Slovakia to Budapest. I am still suffering with this 'travel flu' , Roger seems to be over the worst of it, think we may have passed it along to others on the bus.......looking forward to a restful day on the bus.
We part ways with our new found friends this arvo.
All but 4 of us now join a river cruise to Amsterdam......we will miss their company, amazing how quickly you get used to people being around.
Poland was a surprise to us, don't know what we expected but it was beautiful......walked through the square last night and felt very safe. Very crowded but noticeably absent were the drunks and yobos.
Finally we are travelling through undulating countryside. Apparently we are going on a winding road.
Beautiful countryside dotted with Polish B & Bs, passing the snow capped mountains in the distance.....snow fields.
Stunning day, clear skies and around 24deg........mountains very reminicent of NZ.
Largest number of storks in the world are in Poland.
Travelling through Slovakia, so green - still trying to climb out of Communist rule, became republic in 1990.
Had lunch at Donovaly, a quaint ski field in Slovakia.......... I'm afraid this traditional Eastern European food is not really my quisine, never the less, 'when in Rome'.......
Just found out we are not leaving the rest of the gang tonight after all, we are going to be having dinner with them on the boat for dinner.......good stuff, we will get a look at the river cruise boats.
Just passed a gypsy settlement.....how digusting, very ranshackled.....they originated from India.
Just crossed the Slovakia/Hungary border. The old border crossing looks awful and apparently it was a terrible place to cross during the cold war. Been travelling about 6.5 hours.......heading to 35deg in Budapest! Don't believe it -where are we again??
Hungary was know as 'the food basket' by the Romans and the Turks.
Hungary is know for its wines, mostly reds, and desert wines, also paprika.
Had dinner with the guys that we got close to on the trip, we had dinner on the Scenic Cruise boat with Bob, Maz, Steve, Julie and Sammie, great night, went on a river cruise on the Danube. Each city we see in Eastern Europe gets better.......Budapest is spectular, especially by night from the river!!
We will seriously miss these people, they are great people, hope we will see them again!
Roger's thoughts on the day.......
Driving through 3 countries today.
There are still speakers on the telegraph poles from the Stalin days! It looks very poor and primative.
All over Europe they only farm 2/3 of their land because the soil is not rich enough, so they leave 1/3 of it vacant all the time so it can rejuvinate.
Some of the farmers are still using hand rakes and wheelbarrows in the fields!
- comments
Scott Seems like that part of the trip has been great, hopefully there will be good people on the boat too, i think the borders of Hungary is where people starts to flood out of eastern europe into Austria first off in 1989 to escape Communism