Back to Poland

Well we'd overstayed our time in Vama Veche and after one night and a morning in Cernivci it was time to leave- stocked up on cheese, we were told how to hitch out of Cernivci by our host, after a couple of minutes a Lada Riva stopped and the driver a Russian/Ukrainian/German/English speaking guy from Cernivci who worked as an agent for an Austrian timber company was nearly driving to Lviv.. perfect... a 300km ride. He was a fast driver and unfortunately after about 70km the Ukrainian police pulled him over, he refused to sign the documents and so they wanted to take him to the police station. We got out and began hitchhiking, his car broke down and the police had to push him to get him going before running into their car to take him to the station... quite entertaining.

We were stuck in the middle of the Ukrainian countryside, on a fairly large road but it was filled with full minibuses and the occasional truck, after 30 minutes.. a guy with a mad moustache stopped and took us all the way through Ivano-Frankivsk and dropped us on the road to L'viv by a gas station.. after a few seconds, a man came running towards us and pointed to his car.. he took us to a city 30 or 40km away called Bielszyn. The locals seemed quite worried about us and were trying to explain to us we were in the wrong place for the bus to stop.. we explained we were hitchhiking and they tutted their head.. but after a few minutes an elderly wealthy man stopped in a brand new car.

This guy was Ukrainian with Russian parents and was going somewhere near the Poland border.. he dropped us off north of L'viv about 20km from Rawa Ruska, a young man in a Lada stopped immediately and the guy didn't really know where in Rawa Ruska he was going for.. so he took us to the border, we offered him our last 10 hryvnas but he turned them down.

The Ukrainian border guards told us we had to get in a car to cross the border and that no one was allowed to walk over, despite Sylwia waving around her Polish passport when knocking on people's windows (all the cars were polish).. no one would listen and some wouldn't even open the window. Eventually a father and son, bringing alcohol and cigarettes from Rawa Ruska to the other side of the border took us over.

From then on.. things were simple.. one lift by a funny Italian guy and his polish girlfriend (who both lived in London) to Tomaszow, where we met some people hitching to Ukraine in the other direction, immediately an old guy stopped and took us to Zamosc, then a guy (with excess gas to share... :0).) in a Mercedes took us rapidly to Lublin.. and the last ride was from a trucker who took us close by our house in Warszawa. It was 12.5hrs from Cernivci to Warszawa.. not bad.

Cernivci

The hitch the next day was one of the easiest, we had a little picnic in Adjud then left around midday... the first car stopped and an elderly woman took us to Bacau, to the correct hitching place to Roman and Suceava. Romanians are wonderful, they're very helpful and friendly to foreigners. Once again, the first car stopped and took us all the way to Suceava...this time it was a young English speaking couple, when we got to Suceava they told us how to get through the city to a good hitching place. It took a while but we stopped a car that took us to Seret, the guy surprisingly asked for money - the first time it ever happened to me in Romania.. we had no romanian lei or any other currency so we could only offer bread or water. He wasn't too happy, we walked a little bit and then stopped a Ukrainian car which took us to and over the border, helping us out with the immigration cards.

He was only going to the exchange offices on the other side and we hitched a romanian who was going to get diesel from Cernivci because it's half the price. Cernivci is a nice Ukrainian city, the old town is untouched from the war and the people are friendly, the roads and transport incredibly old but it's cool. Our host - Zetlee, was a really nice girl who cooked us Borsch, showed us around the city and helped me to buy some things.

Adjud

We left Vama Veche at around 2pm, got a ride immediately from a german guy to Mangalia and had to wait there for some time to get a car to Constanta.. an army officer who took us to the right place to hitch to Bucharest and a small truck took us to along the highway, we jumped off on the junction where the road goes to Slobozia... here we waited for a few minutes before a truck took us up to Focsani, a huge thunderstorm began and the sky was really beautiful on the way up, anyhow the week of partying had taken it's toll and we both fell asleep. Waking up at around 10.30pm in Focsani, we waited in a petrol station for a while until the weather calmed down. We started to hitch and a car soon stopped, some rich romanian who worked in Italy was driving an empty minibus.. he dropped us off in Adjud, we couldn't get a ride to Bacau because the cars were limited and those that were there were full. The weather was bad, so we found somewhere to sleep - the whole town was filled with loud music and wedding parties.

Vama Veche

Hitching to Vama Veche was not too bad, some bulgarian hippies that we had met by the fire one night took us to Sabla.. although there was about 4 more people than capacity in the car, it was just about possible. From Sabla, someone moved us to the correct place to hitch and then we got a van to Durankulak, where a Romanian couple took us to the border, we walked over.. had to wait a bit.. bloody hot, 40 degrees. 1km over the other side of the border and we are in Vama Veche.. we couldn't find the hc members but we found two metal bars, where we spent most of the night - we decided to stay in a house for a change.. it cost 5 euros per person.. the water there was nice and the beach (another nudist colony).. was pretty nice. The next day, in the evening..I saw a girl with an HC t-shirt on and finally we met some of the people who were there before the HC meeting. We had a good evening in a bar on the beach, reasonable music.. lots of people partying on the beach and quite cheap beer (from 2zl to 3zl for 500ml). We spent the week camping on the beach with the hc crew, swimming, drinking (mostly).. that metal place was a godly bar.

It's fair to say that a week of such high alcohol content finished in a bit of a mess, we managed to get both phones wet, lose our camera with all the holiday photos on by leaving it in a bar and receive several injuries.

Kamen Bryag

So.. the reason I haven't updated the blog for a long time is the lack of internet connection.. we stayed in Kamen Bryag for 5 days.. Kamen Bryag is a wild place in Bulgaria where you can camp on the cliff or stay in caves.. there is a small village near by where you can buy food and also rent houses for around 3 euros per person. There's also a bar which is nearly always open - supplying you with coffee, food and also showers. Over 20 years ago, the Bulgarian government were looking for gas supplies, they discovered small reserves here but decided not to use them.. a small pipe goes into the ground and there is a small fire burning 24hrs for the last 20 years from natural gas.. perfect for cooking muscles or potatoes. There are also loads of archaeological ruins from people who lived in the caves here some hundred years ago.

Snorkelling is quite nice in the area.. we made the mistake of going to Russalka one day.. this is a nearby place... 8km by road, we thought we could camp there but it turns out that it was just a small beach which we could use, the rest was controlled by two hotels (one resort).. staff were rude and unhelpful bastards, Russalka is also the name of the local toilet paper - quite appropriate.

We had problems to hitch out of Kamen Bryag, we tried to go Sabla and eventually a car took us.. they were also going in search of a Bank Machine, when we got there.. our cards didn't work and the driver kindly took us 40km extra to Kavarna to get money there.

Varna

Hitching out of Bucharest was no problem, we got a car that was going to the coast along the motorway and managed to get off at Lehliu Gara, where we walked a few metres and managed to stop a truck going to Calarasi. For some reason, I think that this guy has taken me before - either that or he just has a friendly face. Well, who knows - we hitched a working truck to within 2km of the border.. the whole road is being repaired (or destroyed?!), immediately switched trucks and that one took us to the river. We just missed the boat across the danube, so we went to the bar for a couple of beers.. a couple were wandering around panicking.. trying to find out if they should buy tickets.. no one else seemed to care (I've never bought a ticket or seen anyone buy one, but there is actually a small Kasa). I noticed that these panickers had a polish registration, so Sylwia went over to thave a word with them.. they agreed to take us as far as Golden Sands, this dreadful resort a few km's north of Varna. It was good that they took us but they were very irritating, complaining about everything.. the lack of signposts, the condition of the roads, the time waiting at the border, the romanian drivers.. fuck knows why they decided to come by car through Ukraine, Romania and Bulgaria if they are complaining about all that!

The woman was a dreadful map reader and the guy quite a clever little shit, I tried to direct them.. because I've been that route several times, but they weren't really listening to me and insisted on turning back, driving around roundabouts about 233 times and moaning about everything, including the hot weather now..anyway we got the bus from the outskirts into the centre of Varna.

Our host in Varna was not an HC member, she was a french girl called Helene.. I sent her an sms asking for a place to stay and she replied telling me.. "Who are you, a friend of Caro maybe?".. Caro is infact an HC member who was working as a volunteer in Varna, however she returned to Germany and gave the sim card to Helene. Helene knew nothing of HC or who we were but still agreed to host us. When we met her, she turned out to be a very nice girl who told us she didn't know what she had done agreeing to let us stay - maybe we were from a highly religious community! haha

We;ve stayed with her for two days, drank beer together and she introduced us to a great beach called Galeta which is quiet, nice and clean with warm water just a couple of kilometres south of Varna. If you want to go there take bus 17 from the cathedral or train station, get off at the last stop.. walk back a bit, turn right, keep right, go straight and eventually you will come to some stairs,, walk all the way down and dah dah :-)

Varna is a bit of a noisy resort town with shit music and dirty beaches but Galeta is paradise, anyway we are off to the north today.. a bit of hitching then camping, exploring villages and the coast..

Vive Le Placebo... :-).. Cluj and Bucharest

That night in Cluj was good fun, we went to visit our hosts grandparents who were quite well travelled and a really nice old couple, living in a small village on the outskirts of Cluj. Her grandfather picked us up in this very old army van with space for all the troops in, by then we'd met another active Cluj member - Luciano. After being loaded with palinka, homemade turkey sausages, bread, vegetables and some amazing paste made from ground up marrows, we were all given insanely large pijamas in err vibrant colours. I thought that I looked like an ageing jazz musician but Sylwia just defined it as stupid, meanwhile the Romanian girl described me and Luciano as teletubbies :-(. Haha

Hitching down to Bucharest the next day was fairly easy, we didn't leave until 2pm, first getting a ride to Turda.. waiting there for a while and discussing with the old bloke where we were from and where we were going,he was eager to point out that he was Romanian and not a foreign hitchiker.. I would never have guessed.

From Turda we got a massive ride from a guy going to Pitesti, driving like a mad man and playing the same 10 songs incredibly loud for about 4 hours. We ate our packed luinch in the car, which supergranny had given us :-). Hitching to Bucharest from Pitesti was easy, we got a lift from a nice couple but the road was being repaired, so we crawled for 40km into Bucharest.

After asking people in the streets, we eventually got to Piata Romana where we were supposed to meet our host after the Placebo concert. We just waited for a few hours, whilst drinking some of Bucharest's beer supply.

Olivier, our host - a guy from France who has been living in Romania for 3 years, was a nice fella - keen to give me a few tasters of some alcohol he kept in a cabinet. Have to say the French one.. of which I can't remember the name, was pretty goodf stuff. Certainly slept well.

Earlier than expected in Cluj-Napoca *11/12 August*

We expected to arrive in Cluj tonight but we already arrived this morning. Setting off from Warsaw, we were a bit late after a late night the night before.. on the road at 9, there were 3 girls hitchhiking, followed by 2 polish girls - they both got rides before us.. finally after an hour, we got a ride to Radom.

Hitching from Radom was dreadful, firstly we were waiting in a rather poor place, just near the roundabout to hitch to Warsaw but in the direction of Rzeszow and Lublin, then we were told by a guy to get the bus no.21 until the roads seperated, this was a good piece of advice and recommend it to anyone else! Anyway.. it started to rain and no miserable Radom kurwa's wanted to stop.

After 3 hours, a Ukrainian truck stopped, a nice guy who offered us lots of sweets and biscuits, whilst playing mad Russian music.. he wanted to take us to Rzeszow but a smaller truck decided to stop directly in front of him, we had to swerve and managed to miss him more or less but destroyed the wing mirror on the truck, this pissed off the truck driver, he lost his concentration and that resulted in us getting lost.

The weather was bad, the roads were flooded and at 5.30, the truck had to stop for a few hours, so he dropped us off about 65km from Rzeszow at a petrol station, I managed to convince two guys to take us to Rzeszow...we waited there for about 15 minutes and no one stopped, so we went for something to eat and some beers and then I just stuck my thumb out at the end of the carpark as a joke. The car stopped and took us a few km's out of Rzeszow.. we then got a ride to Dukla by these insanely slow drivers who apparently were hospitality club members. Although they didn't offfer us any hospitality (apart from the initial lift), they dropped us in the middle of nowhere.

We were cold and tired and considering putting up a tent in the dark, Sylwia (who incidently is being a very well behaved girl..) begged a truck to stop.. and sure enough it did. A Turkish guy driving to Istanbul, he took us through Slovakia and Hungary through the night to the Romanian border by Oradea. A really nice, calm and old guy who unfortunately was fined 15 euros for having two passengers by Slovakian cunt border guards. He was going to sleep just after the Roomanian border, so he dropped us there at 4 am ( 5 am romanian time).. we changed some money, went for a piss and had some drinks then started hitching again.

Waited a while outside this dodgy "nightclub" with some of the laziest dogs hanging around in the road and almost getting run over all the time, finally a custom officer stopped and took us to the other side of Oradea. After about 30 minutes, we got a lift all the way to Cluj from a Hungarian/Romanian guy driving his BMW insanely fast through all the mountain roads.

We hit Cluj at 10, now we're staying with our host from HC.. off to Bucharest tomorrow. Must have had about 2 hours sleep max because I was sitting crushed on the floor of the truck but the Hard Rock Cafe calls.

Little Round-Up....

Not updated this for a while, not really been anywhere. Just in Warsaw.. spent the first week with Sylwia and then she went up to Olecko for a voluntary camp, I hosted about 25-30 people in a 2 week period..generally had 2 or 3 guests every day. All of them nice, in their own funny way.

One chap, a Siberian hitch-hiker introduced me to the world of Russian hitchhiking.. it's much more organised than it is in Europe and there is a lot more information on it.. it's all in Russian though. So I better improve my Russian skills. To all my guests over that fortnight.. thanks, it was nice having you here :-). I also discovered that I had two HC neighbours.. Zosia and Jacuzz.. quite pleasant people really! Also, Julien my old flat mate moved back to Warsaw and lives just a few metres away!

My parents are supposedly coming from the UK today but there's all this insane terrorism stuff happening in the UK. They've unfoiled plans to bomb 10 planes.. madness. They're coming over here to visit Poland and look after Sniffy while we are away. I'm leaving tomorrow morning with Sylwia..heading for Bulgaria. We tried to find hosts in Croatia but nobody replied.. Toni had the same problem. I don't expect every HC member to host hundreds of people in their house but I think that a quick fast reply is just politeness!