music, girls and run ins with the Police

I am sitting in only the third building that we have slept in in 43 days on the road, wishing once more that Wizz air and Luton airport would get into gear and get their flights out on time. Since Pozega, we have only added one country to our list although sadly, as Serbia is not in the EU, the van was unable to join us for our 6 days of festival heaven.

            Leaving Pozega after only a few hours of wandering around we continued east towards Osijek where we had managed to get in contact with some fellow Couchsurfers who had agreed to look after the van whilst we were away. After a very comfortable night near a supermarket in town we headed to the old side of town to meet our new found friends over a coffee. Mili and Valent proved to be wonderful hosts and looked after us for the 2 nights more that we spent in Osijek and ensured that we were both well fed and well rested before we headed, by bus, to the relative unknown that was EXIT festival in the lovely town of Novi Sad in northern Serbia.

            We arrived at the festival shattered, sweaty and in desperate need of a beer after a 4 hour bus journey and a good 5k walk after we got somewhat lost leaving the bus station. Within an hour of pitching our tent, we had found our way to one of the numerous temporary bars that pop up during festival time, had a pint or two and returned to our tent where we met our neighbours, a large group of Irish girls, 2 guys from England and a Texan.

            The week was spent watching a selection of the greatest live bands and DJs by night with the daytime being spent trying to regain enough energy to do it all again the following evening. I think it is fair to say that we became something close to nocturnal with Chris managing to sleep straight through from our arrival back at the Village at 7am, until 5pm after a particularly long night of music. For those of you interested the highlights of the festival were; Chromeo, Klaxons, Royksopp, David Guetta, Dirty South, Pendulum, Chrystal Castles, SebastiAn and A Trak. It is fair to say that it was one of the best weeks of my life and that we shall definitely try to make it back next year! Our last day saw us stumble back in to camp at around 8.15 hastily pack up and grab a few hours sleep before heading out to a restaurant for lunch before we jumped on the bus back to Croatia. Having come worryingly close to missing the only bus back we ended up getting to know two Osijek locals who not only let us use their phones, but also insisted on giving us a lift back to the garage where the Van was waiting.

            As we left Osijek we had our first major problem with the Van, the lights were not behaving as they should and given that it was already dark, we were forced to sleep in a petrol station before taking on the long road to Zadar early the next day. 10 hours and 300 miles of driving finally brought us to the costal town where we grabbed a good night’s sleep before getting up early once more to meet our friends as they got off the train. We had an awesome last day with our firneds, chilling out by the sea and getting some good pictured of us jumping of high diving boards into the sea - the ultimate festival hangover cure. Saying goodbye to our friends once more, although not before the van got its fair share of new hand prints, we headed to bed by the sea, only to be rudely awaked by the local plod at 5.30am. They seemed remarkably relaxed that we had been sleeping there and we were simply told not to do it again in Zadar. We knew that we would get caught at some point and, looking back, we were sleeping in a very risky place and probably deserved to get caught. It was frustrating however, to see people peacefully asleep in sleeping bags only meters from the van whilst we were hastily moved on.

            A few pretty uneventful days were spent edging our way closer and closer to Split where we eventually met up with a few school friends before the family arrived on the Sunday. We have had some very restful days on the beautiful island of Brac with the exception of one very long and very memorable night of partying on the mainland with more Exit friends.

Stats of the moment:

Days on the road: 43

Miles covered: 3100

States visited: 6

Nights not spent in Van: 8

Run ins with the Police: 1

Money spent on accommodation: 0.00

On into Croatia

Chris and I now find ourselves in the town of Pozega in north Croatia. After a solid three weeks on the road we have crossed 4 states and are finally out of the relative safety of Western Europe.

            After a few days at the lake in Italy we continued east and were in Slovenia before we headed to bed in what we knew was a mountainous area. We awoke to find ourselves in a beautifully green and very friendly country where petrol was not only cheap but the roads were well maintained and people spoke very good English. The capital, Ljubljana was amazing with narrow winding streets with a small town feel to it. After an hour or so on the internet and a few hours wandering around we continued east and found ourselves worryingly close to the border with Croatia. We decided that we could not possibly leave the country without at least having one beer so we stopped in a town for a few drinks. The town we chose appeared to be pretty big on the map but when we got there all we found was a huge car park and one bar (not much, but if there were to things for a town to have..). We ended up chatting to 2 locals, one of whom had just crashed his car, and stayed there for an hour or so enjoying our one and only Slovenian beer.

            After around half an hour on the road we found ourselves at the Croatian border which we managed to get through with all our dairy products at only the cost of a 1 for 1 exchange rate at the first, unavoidable, toll booth we met around 300m into the country. The capital city of Zagreb was our first stop into Croatia and although much, much bigger than Ljubljana we found it an friendly enough first stop I the country we have been dreaming of reaching since the beginning of this trip. We managed to find our way around without a problem and wandered around both the beautiful cathedral and the markets which fill the area just north of the main square.

            We left Zagreb with a replenished food supply and, after having failed spectacularly to find a local lake, found ourselves in the small, off-the-map town of Nova Roca. We found a great spot to park and headed to the local for a drink. A few hours, a few friends, a few beers and a lock in later we headed back to the car having spent the grand total of 4 quid for a litre and a half a beer each! The next morning we headed back to the bar for a coffee and a map update and managed to get the bar lady (who refused to let us pay for anything) to not only tell us where we were but also to join the elite group of our official friends by signing the van!

            After such a good start to the day we spend the next few hours driving on rocky, dusty and generally pretty incredible roads before heading to sleep in a large lay-by. We woke up this morning feeling the need for a shower and successfully proved that a litre of water and shampoo is all that is required!

            From here we plan to continue to Vincovci where we hope to meet Durdica from couchsurfing who has helped us out so much before heading north to Osijeck where we will leave the van and catch the bus to EXIT festival in Serbia.

Stats of the moment:

Days on the road: 21

Miles covered: 2200

States visited: 5

Showers taken: 13

Run ins with the Police: 0 (touch wood!)

Money spent on accommodation: 0.00 (excluding Le Mans)