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European Van Trip 2022
  • Lucy Wignall
  • Chris Brace

European Van Trip 2022

A 117-day adventure by Lucy & Chris Read more
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  • European Van Trip 2022

    The Blue Danube

    September 27, 2022 in Hungary ⋅ 🌧 14 °C

    The 2 videos are exactly the same 😂 I just had an afterthought that I really should have used the blue danube as the music so for all you classical music fans out there you have both to listen to 🤣

  • European Van Trip 2022

    Budapest Metro

    September 27, 2022 in Hungary ⋅ ☁️ 13 °C

    This is the second oldest underground line in Europe (after London) and the first electric one.

    It's a world heritage site and it does feel nice and quaint, but still all in very good condition and full use as though it's nothing special to the locals💁🏼‍♀️

    At £1.56 for us all to ride the full length of the line home, quite a bargain! 😂    Read more

  • European Van Trip 2022

    Budapest Walking Tour and Parliament

    September 28, 2022 in Hungary ⋅ ☀️ 15 °C

    The walking tour here was one of the best of the MANY we've been on! We felt stupid to Budapest is in fact 2 places... Buda being the rich area out of the touristy center, and pest being the more working class and commonly visited part.

    Pic 3 is Mr Beans Teddy bear as a statue 😂 I was proud to recognise him when she asked if anyone knew who it was 🙈😂

    The shoes by the river are symbols of all the Jewish lives lost, taken to places (Auschwitz being the main one) to be killed. A 'popular' way to kill them was to have 2 people put together and stood in front of the river, so one bullet would kill the first and their weight would drown the one at the back as the bullet actually wouldn't go through 2 people. Just absolutely awful. The shoes are of all sizes from babies to mens, heels, boots etc to represent the entire communities lost 😭

    There are a LOT of pictures of the parliamentary building as there was just so much of it and it was so impressive.

    It was actually a competition between architects to design that building, but the second place of the competition they liked so much they built it opposite and its the one 4 pics from the end.    Read more

  • European Van Trip 2022
    1Lennon asked to hold his Dad's hand 😍😭🥰
    1

    Szimpla Kert & Downtown

    September 28, 2022 in Hungary ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    The first 8 photos are just walking to Szimpla Kert.

    The rest are Szimpla Kert. An abandoned Factory building which has been turned into a tonne of bars. Its literally held together with chains in some places, apparently every item in the place is junk found on the streets so as you can see from the pictures it has a very out there look 😂Read more

  • European Van Trip 2022

    The Bear Cave

    October 2, 2022 in Romania ⋅ 🌧 10 °C

    When we woke up this morning, to Lennon's joy there were cows passing the window, and we had some stray dogs outside too. To Ringo's joy (not) we gave the dogs some of Ringo's treats, they looked fed and happy enough.

    There were a couple of old ladies (you can kind of see in picture 2) who spent the 2 hours we were in the van picking mushrooms and also collecting walnuts from the ground all around where we were parked. Brace got us one walnut while he was out 😂

    The video is our mate who kept very gently biting Brace's ankles...

    Then we got to the bear cave. We knew the tour would be in Romanian and no English option but wanted to go and look anyway. When we entered there were about 30 Romanians... Everyone was staring at us. It felt so uncomfortable, I felt really unwelcome and started worrying about whether Lennon was going to be noisy on the tour etc.

    How wrong we were! Everyone was so friendly. Lennon was kissed by a man and almost all the women 😂 a lovely couple started talking to us to before we actually entered the cave. When we started the tour, we followed along at the back, not understanding a word but in awe of the cave! We were not allowed to take photographs, but the first few minutes walk the floor was just covered in huge bones and animal skulls, apparent prey of the bears. Thousands of bones. The cave itself was just as mad, definitely the most striking cave I've seen the millions of stalactites and stalactites ranging from cm's to full floor to ceiling thick boulders which would take 28 thousand years to form!!!

    Some of it was beautiful, some of it was eerie, and then we got to the main event, the full bear skeleton 🐻

    After the tour guide had done his bit, a lovely old man came and asked us if we had understood the guide, so we said no not at all. He then re told all the stories we had missed, and stayed with us for the rest of the tour translating the guide and chatting to us in between. He recommended his town to visit (which just so happens to be where we are going next) and took a photo for us as well as with us at the end.

    He said they have found the remains of 141 bears in the cave, the bears were pre historic bears and thousands of years ago, rocks falling trapped them all in leaving them to die trapped in. The bears were 3m tall. The cave was only discovered in the 70s, accidentally when they were using explosives to mine rock. It is always 10°c no matter what time of day or year, it never changes! To creat 1cm² of stalagmite it would take 100 years! The highest point of the cave is 27m. So very big and grand for a cave.

    At the very end, we were allowed a few photos but it doesn't do it any favours.

    When we left the tour the street was lined with stalls selling home made things. Our none tour guide guide recommended we bought what we thought was plum wine. The woman selling it gave me a taste and it wasn't wine at all so I ended up having a very strong morning shot 😅 then he recommended we buy something else, a sort of fried flat bread.

    We had a lovely morning, 3rd day in Romania and so far it's just been the most friendly and welcoming place 😊    Read more

  • European Van Trip 2022

    Sighișoara

    October 4, 2022 in Romania ⋅ 🌧 11 °C

    A historic walled town, in the Transylvania region of Romania, supposedly where Dracula was born and raised... It was very colourful and not the sort of place you imagine creating a blood thirsty mass murderering monster 🤔 (the huge loud swarms of birds/vampire bats circling overhead at sunset when I was sat alone outside the restaurant waiting for our food were a little creepy though 🤣)

    Interestingly, King Charles owns one of the houses here... We don't know which 🤔 odd place for him to have a holiday home 💁🏼‍♀️ but maybe he has a keen interest in vampires.

    Very pretty in a run down way, and our cheapest round yet at £2.80. We couldn't find any Romanian food but had an amazing pizza 😂    Read more

  • European Van Trip 2022

    Going on a bear hunt

    October 6, 2022 in Romania ⋅ ☁️ 9 °C

    Beware of the bears, every sign and internet review tells us.
    Stay in after 7pm sunset for your own safety, says the park ranger running the campsite. "Yes there are many many bears in the forest, but only 3 who tend to come to this camp" he says when asked about them...
    Bears are not tourist attractions. Bears are a real danger. Bears are deadly. Bears live in this forest!!

    "How do we get to the lake please?“
    "oh you just walk through the forest"
    🤣
    "Oh OK! Do we get any sort of protection, or a lift in the minibus perhaps? Bear spray... A whistle?"
    "No basically just walk through the forest. If you come accross a bear just be very careful to face it, but not look it in the eye, walk away fast but NEVER run, make loud noises but DO NOT shout. Beware of the deadly bears but make sure to stay completely calm and relaxed. If they attack you, stand tall and proud but if they touch you drop into the fetal position and cover your face and neck. Understand?"
    "ok"

    So I sang 100 green bottles, to make sure the lovely friendly deadly bears heard us coming and were not startled by our sneaky appearance... It must have worked because we were the first walkers of the day and the fresh clear bear prints we saw has evaporated by the time we walked back (ie they are purely water marks not mud, aka they were fresh only seconds before we got to that bit of road!)

    We were comforted by the 2 big dogs who chose to befriend us all the way down, and one all the way back 🥰 but it was arguably even scarier when one just stopped in its tracks and then ran away 😅😅😅

    Sadly/luckily no bear sightings but we did find a few pieces of evidence!    Read more

  • European Van Trip 2022

    Fun Guys

    October 6, 2022 in Romania ⋅ ☁️ 9 °C

    Tried to go foraging for some safe edible mushrooms... There are SO many types here... I thought we'd got some but we checked with a park ranger who gave them a good inspection and said he wasn't sure 😭 so our mushroom dream lives on to be fulfilled another time.Read more

  • European Van Trip 2022

    Campsite & Tour

    October 6, 2022 in Romania ⋅ ☁️ 13 °C

    One of the coolest camps we've stayed at, not because it had many mod cons, but it was just exciting and interesting. We were alone from sunset (7pm) in pitch black. We knew we were surrounded by a LOT of bears and wolves, but we also knew we had an electric fence protecting us. It was hard to fully trust that little wire though given the state of lots of things we have seen in Romania and the level of health and safety here 😅
    We had been told not to go out after sunset and nothing would have got me out to be honest warning or no warning 😂

    The park ranger went and lit a fire and told us the shower would be usable in 2 hours. It was freezing but you could hear the lovely crackle of wood burning behind you while you froze to death 🤣

    Anyway the fear of being bear food kept you warm enough 😅    Read more

  • European Van Trip 2022

    Bran Castle - Transylvania

    October 7, 2022 in Romania ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

    Bran Castle. Home of Dracula. Biggest tourist attraction in Romania. The Castle itself is impressive and interesting, secret passages etc, but sadly it was crammed so full of tourists you couldn't move sometimes, taking pictures was difficult and many of the displays were cheap and gimmicky... Which was a shame.

    On the way in we saw the biggest frog/toad I've ever seen. So that was good 😃    Read more

  • European Van Trip 2022

    Lennon at the bar

    October 8, 2022 in Romania ⋅ ⛅ 12 °C

    Lennon was making friends with everyone at the ski bar 🤣 first all the young ladies, then 2 boys arrived and so he went over to them instead 😂 everyone in the bar was watching him and saying goodbye etc 🤣 and if they weren't looking he would shout clap and wave at them until they did 🙈😂Read more

  • European Van Trip 2022

    Wild Mushrooms

    October 10, 2022 in Romania ⋅ ⛅ 12 °C

    Tried to buy 10 lei's worth of mushrooms from some gypsies on the side of the road, but it was 1kg or nothing... 🤣 So with a full carrier bag of tiny mountain mushrooms I went and explained to Brace we were having mushrooms for the foreseeable

    They were lovely, but they went mouldy before we ate more than a handful 😭

    Also featuring Lennon looking like a thug in headphones    Read more

  • European Van Trip 2022

    Elliott came to stay!

    October 10, 2022 in Romania ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    Elliott came to stay for 3 nights, here in Bucharest! Lennon adored him, wasn't shy of him at all and just spent most his time staring at him 🤣

    We were far too busy having fun for me to remember to take many photos 😬

    So night one, we were in the air bnb, Elliott got locked in the bathroom 😂 we tried everything but nothing worked, so we had to call the landlord, who tried everything but nothing worked, so he had to call the locksmith who smashed the lock in 🙈

    Then in the night I felt itchy and had some lumps appear like I was being bitten and then I felt like there were things crawling all over me. I tried to ignore it thinking I was imagining it because of the bites. But later the next day Elliott showed me he also had a bite... The boys checked and there were bedbugs all in the bed me and Lennon had slept in 😭😫😭😫😭

    The boys said they didn't really mind and would just stick it out until Thursday 😫 as the one petrified of bugs and also the only one covered head to toe in itchy bites, it was an absolute no.

    So poor Brace had to take every item of material we had taken in there (which included all our bedding and blanket and clothes and Lennon's teddies and me and Elliott went accross the road to another air bnb we booked    Read more

  • European Van Trip 2022

    Air Bnb take 2

    October 11, 2022 in Romania ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

    Bit of a mix up really, as so few photos and so much went on 😂
    Here is Lennon enjoying the bath of our second air bnb... The photo of the meal is earlier at lunch, we ate all the foods recommended by the tour guide at a restaurant in the old town also recommended.

    So the second air bnb was much nicer than the first, more spacious, modern and just better. In our haste to get sorted Brace drove off leaving me and Lennon with no food, clothes or toys for the baby 😂 so I collected some bits and bobs from round the house and plonked him in the bath for a while.

    All seemed well, and a better night sleep was had, no itching or bites.

    It wasn't until the next day due to a confusing message from the landlord of this air bnb, Brace admitted he had seen cockroaches in the bathroom the previous night 😭😭😭 the same bathroom he then let me go for a nice relaxing rare bath in, the same bathroom I sat on the floor for ages bathing Lennon. Also we slept on the mattress on the floor that night so Lennon wouldn't fall on the floor, not to mention Lennon was constantly eating bits off the floor 😭😭😭
    Well that was the final straw, I am not good with any creepy crawlies, ever. But the 2 sets we'd had those past 2 days have to be up there with my absolute all time worst nightmares 😫😫😫

    So tears, and a mad collection of all mine and Lennons things, we were going back to our safe lovely beautiful little van. No more air bnbs for us. No thanks.    Read more

  • European Van Trip 2022

    Obor Market

    October 12, 2022 in Romania ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

    Went for the least English "full English breakfast" I've ever had... Then we went to Obor market for some beers, honey, Kürtőskalács (the large tube dessert we've been seeing everywhere but decided to wait until Elliott came to try one with him)Read more

  • European Van Trip 2022

    Bucharest Night Out

    October 12, 2022 in Romania ⋅ ⛅ 13 °C

    We went to a lovely restaurant with an uber friendly waiter who had lived in England for 7 years. Matthew, a local Brace met mountain biking came to meet us for a few drinks after and took us to his favourite bar, then we all went back to the van for a few drinks until me & Lennon were falling asleep so the boys went back out riding scooters and getting Kebabs like cliché brits abroad 😂Read more

  • European Van Trip 2022
    2

    Therme

    October 14, 2022 in Romania ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C

    We actually went here yesterday with Elliott but didn't take our phone in. This is one of the best places I've ever been in my whole life. We liked it so much with Elliott we decided to back again today and we will also spend the full day there the day before we set off back to the UK. (I only took a few pics at night will try and remember in the light next time)

    A million pools, indoor and out, naturally heated, pool bars, jacuzzis, saunas, steam rooms, waterslides, spa treatments, crazy showers, restaurants, infrared light treatments, massage beds and loads more.

    We happened to go during a month long festival, the sauna festival. Where each hour there different shows and experiences in various saunas, ranging from dancers, music and aromatherapy to really obscure things like towel waving performers and herb dancers. It was so crazy and different to anything I've ever experienced.

    THEY ARE BUILDING ONE IN MANCHESTER!!! So you know where to find me once it's open! 😍 (though something tells me it won't be quite as affordable as the one here in Bucharest)😂    Read more

  • European Van Trip 2022

    Azuga Mountain

    October 16, 2022 in Romania ⋅ ☀️ 10 °C

    Just before lunch Brace called and suggested we go up to the top of the mountain for lunch... "why don't we make it a rule for every time I do a mountain bike day? You get to come up for a nice lunch!?"
    Great plan 🤣 shame he only thought of it during his last mountain biking day of the trip 😂

    We went up in the Gondola and had lunch at a pay what you like café. The lovely couple who run it, also maintain all the mountain bike trails on the mountain, they take donations for the food and use the money to pay for the upkeep costs. The food is mainly picked fresh from the mountain, the mushrooms in our stew were picked yesterday. So lovely.

    We were also with Matthew, our Romanian bestie    Read more

  • European Van Trip 2022

    Driving in Moldova 🇲🇩

    October 23, 2022 in Moldova ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

    Well going into Moldova was an experience in many many ways

    After almost missing Moldova out of our European tour due to it being so small we just didn't notice it on the map 🙈 luckily we noticed in time to make a quick one day trip there!

    Crossing the border we met the funniest border control man ever, making jokes about Victorias Secret and when we declared no drugs or guns he said "oh really why!?want to buy some!?" 🤣

    We were chuckling all the way into Moldova, we thought, until we were met by the Moldovan security (the first guy was just the Romanian exit guard we realised) who was much less friendly and much more thorough... We eventually got through, and began the short drive to the winery we were booked at, the road quality made a short drive take a lot longer.

    We pulled over to make breakfast, and it wasn't until Braces was already frying himself garlic and tomatoes (he normally only has porridge) and the smell wafting out of the window, that we looked out and realised it was wafting straight into a huge refugee camp 😭 the border we entered was the point between Romania, Moldova and Ukraine, so there was a huge area of tents and toilets (with police, fire and ambulance people too), all with Turkish flags and AFAD on, which I looked up and found out is a crisis prevention and intervention organisation from Turkey. This particular camp was home to of course women and children who have fled Ukraine, though around 95% of the 250,000 refugees here in Moldova are in fact housed in family homes.
    When you see how poor Moldova is, and how modest the homes are, it really makes you realise how much impact this would have on your average Moldovian family.

    The video of us driving, is on one of the main roads... So think the m62 🤣

    Aside from the refugee camp and lots of small one storey houses, we mainly saw a lot of nothing and animals as most the road to the winery was through countryside.    Read more

  • European Van Trip 2022

    KaraGani Winery

    October 23, 2022 in Moldova ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    I had been talking to the owners of KaraGani Winery for about a week via WhatsApp, and we had booked to come here for a tour of the winery, and a wine tasting lunch at 1pm.

    When we arrived, we couldn't find anyone, just cats everywhere lazing about in the sun in silence...

    We knocked on various doors and waited around, eventually we found a door that was open with a table laid for 2 people we assumed must be us 🤣 so we waited some more and then the friendliest man ever appeared. He didn't speak a word of English which was surprising after the WhatsApp conversation... But he was just the most jolly, positive man we've ever met 😆

    His wife spoke no English either so we weren't exactly sure what to do. We'd come expecting a tour followed by lunch but we were signalled to sit down so we did. Occasionally the lady came over and spoke into her phone in Romanian for it to translate to us...

    "what are you having for lunch?" she asked us 🤔😆 which amused us greatly, we of course didn't know, we asked for a menu, there was none 😆 I said "anything!" (we later half suspected she thought I meant everything 🤣)
    Well they kept coming and pouring us new wines, and bringing more and more food 😆 we made peace with the fact we were never going to get a tour because we simply couldn't communicate at all. We didn't mind, the food was all incredible, the place itself was lovely,relaxed and comfortable but just fancy enough to feel special, and the wines were great so we felt like we had had a fantastic Moldovan experience regardless of the fact it was different to what we'd planned...    Read more

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