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Balkan Express 2019
  • Yannick Loonus
  • Katharina Wendler

Balkan Express 2019

August 2019 Read more
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  • Trip start
    August 22, 2019
  • Balkan Express 2019

    Day 1 Recap

    August 22, 2019 in Czech Republic ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C

    Day 1 is in the books. Today we....
    Met our fellow teams ins Dresden
    Exhanged a paper click for a banana
    Crossed into the czech republic and had some local beer and sausage
    Followed a goddess through the country side
    Visited castles and rocks near Jicin
    Finally made our way to Olomouc    Read more

  • Balkan Express 2019

    Day 2 recap

    August 23, 2019 in Hungary ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    Long long day, 10h of driving, super tired right now and camping just across the hungarian border.

    Today we...
    Traded our Banana for a bottle of water, some paper and the new testament
    Enjoyed beautiful Slovakia
    Katharina hugged a bear
    I missed third gear
    We switched co pilots with another team
    Cooked dinner in the darkness    Read more

  • Balkan Express 2019

    Day 3 recap

    August 24, 2019 in Romania ⋅ ☁️ 22 °C

    From Esztergom to Beius we covered almost 500km today. No time to complete any challenges, getting here was one in itself. :)

    Today
    We had breakfast from the car roof
    We did some sightseeing in esztergom
    Katharina put in here first hour of driving
    We crossed into romania without problems
    We had a roadside heavy metal lunch
    We are camping close to Beius    Read more

  • Balkan Express 2019

    Day 4 recap

    August 25, 2019 in Romania ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C

    As we get more used to road conditions and drivers, Romania is starting to show its beauty. Today also brings together the full field, as we meet near Eisenmarkt for the first party of the trip. For us that is an opportunity to fulfill one of yesterdays road mission and visit the Ice Cave.

    Today....
    Katharina made delicious breakfast
    We climbed our first Romanian mountain
    Visited the ice cave but learned nothing (all i. Romanian)
    Made some roadside friends and offered them a drink
    We told Berti and Klausi manta jokes until they let us sit in their car
    Heard a band nobody could see    Read more

  • Balkan Express 2019

    Day 5 recap

    August 26, 2019 in Romania ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C

    Another day in Romania took us from Eisenmarkt to Bucharest and wow is this country stunning.
    We are in love with Romania and how different it is to anything we have experienced before. The driving also got a little better as we decided to fit in with the locals and take traffic rules as mere recommendations.

    Today...
    We tested the little citroens offroad capabilities the first time
    We met most of the potholes in transylvania in person
    We drove the highest paved road in all of Romania
    Survived rush hour chaos in Bucharest and enjoyed the old town

    To    Read more

  • Balkan Express 2019

    Day 6 recap

    August 27, 2019 in Bulgaria ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

    We are starting get the hang of this... Less stress, more km covered (560 today with no highways), more excitement. Crossed from the spectacular and chaotic romania into Bulgaria. Which was a big surprise! Great infrastructure, sensible driving, a landscape that kind of looks like the german eifel region and they even use the same traffic signs. Felt like a return to home... If it werent for those fascinating remains of socialism.

    Today...
    We found the heaviest building in the world in Bucharest
    We traded our Bible for a little steam train childrens book, which took a nearby box by surprise
    Katharina entered a church and immediately pulled out her wallet
    We visited draculas grave
    We crossed into bulgaria
    We found an ufo. Unfortunately it was leaking badly
    I had to use the high suspension setting the first time. Only two non offroaders dared to go up their, the other guys list their exhaust =) (video has terrible sound)    Read more

  • Balkan Express 2019

    Day 7 recap

    August 28, 2019 in North Macedonia ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

    After spending the night close to sofia airport, we made our way to the nearby countryside to visit the golden bridges, a river of rock that is a wondeful playground. We then pressed on to the west and headed to north macedonia. First to skopje, the millenium cross and finally lake ohrid

    Today...
    We climbed some rocks
    We arm wrestled ivan and ogi
    We enjoyed the macedonian landscapes
    We made our way up mount vodno to see the millenium cross and skopje    Read more

  • Balkan Express 2019

    Day 8 recap

    August 29, 2019 in Albania ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    After arriving in the dark yesterday, we realized in the morning our campground was right next to lake ohrid. Great opportunity for a morning swim. We made friends with a Moldavian family and got invited to a delicious breakfast. So delayed departure again, but only 15 km to the albanian border.

    Today we...
    Traded our little steam train book for a cap and a bottle of wine
    Drove some beautiful but really rough roads
    Tried ro have lunch in tirana but got stuck in a traffic jam for 90 min at 45 degrees heat
    Got lost so bad on a shortcut, a local farmer jumped into our car and guided us for 30 minutes
    Se up camp at kep i rodonit

    Most tiresome day for us so far and more or less wild camping at the of the day, stray dogs barking all night, trying to access our tent. The adriatic sea made up for it though and what was a tough day at first will become one of the most cheerished memories.    Read more

  • Balkan Express 2019

    Day 9 recap

    August 30, 2019 in Montenegro ⋅ ⛅ 32 °C

    So camping at the adriatic coast sounded very romantic. In reality it was a total lack of comfort, loty of ants and stray dogs. The latter taking a special interest in our tent at night, scratching, barking and keeping us awake. With very little sleep in the bag we took to the Albanian streets again to head to montenegro. The only goal of the day was to find the campsite that would host the second partx event with a little detour to see the old town of stari bar.
    Coming from albania to montenegro in many ways is like a return to civilization. Roads, standard of driving, shopping opportunities, they even use the € as currency albeit not being an EU country.
    Not many pictures taken that day :)    Read more

  • Balkan Express 2019

    Day 10 recap

    August 31, 2019 in Bosnia and Herzegovina ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    Last night we befriended Colin and Chris, a father & son team from the uk driving a beautiful Citroen BX Gti. After an hour of what Katharina called 'citroen nerd talk' it was decided to ride together the next day.
    Day 10 saw us drive the beautiful single file roads of montenegro, cross into bosnia and end up in sarajevo.

    Progress in Montenegro was initially good, until we ended up in a traffic jam. Turned out a bus driver decided to go up the same road in the opposite direction. Took him a while to reverse into a spot where we could pass.

    Montenegro is incredibly beautiful!

    Crossing in to Bosnia took us quite a while, boarder guards where unhappy with our expired green card and the insurance sales man was not at work that day. After hanging around 30 minutes it was decides that the only way forward was to 'exchange favors'. 40€ went their way so they would look away while we drive past. First time I ever encountered such a situation and it was quite amusing.

    Things went a bit downhill for the BX Gti in Bosnia. In a long turn oncoming traffic decided to go for an ill advises overtake. I breaked hard, the BX behind me lockes up and slid into the guard rail, denting and scratching the passenger side. Turned out Chris had removed the abs fuse and did not tell his father who just stepped on the brakes hard expeting to be still able to turn. I witnessed the whole thing in the rear mirror and it was quite sad to see.

    Once in Sarajevo we went out for dinner and started to joke about the whole situation.

    Sarajevo has some nice night life, but many parts of the city can be quite grim at night. Also quite a few scars left from the war.    Read more

  • Balkan Express 2019

    Day 11 recap

    September 1, 2019 in Croatia ⋅ ⛅ 32 °C

    The plan for the day was to visit the ruins of the 1984 winter Olympics that can be found nearby Sarajevo. And this is where things went a bit downhill.

    Waking up I felt a severely unwell. We streched our check out time until 12:00 and decide to head straight to Croatia not fulfilling any tasks that day. After 30 min on the road things got worse. I just could not keep any water or food in the system and was feeling more and more dizzy. A quick decision was made to visit a local hospital and get hydrated again the fast way. After that we made it to the closest major town, Split. In the evening Katharina was feeling it as well but had a quick turn around. We treated ourselves to a beautiful room and 11 hours of godsent sleep awaited us.

    Quite scary feeling sick in the middle of nowhere in Bosnia! Very happy with our overall decision making, keeping a cool head and looking after each other.

    Reading the Rally group chat the next morning we learned 40+ other people had symptoms of food poisoning as well... What a coincidence after the Montenegro get together =/

    No pictures taken for obvious reasons.    Read more

  • Balkan Express 2019

    Day 12 recap

    September 2, 2019 in Croatia ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    Feeling much improved today, albeit still quite tired. Food is not disgusting anymore, so we do our best to recharge. Only very short drive on good roads, going from Split to Zadar. Feels like we are so close to home already =) Also, i have one hell of drivers arm!Read more

  • Balkan Express 2019

    Day 13 recap

    September 3, 2019 in Slovenia ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

    The last true stage, the last chance to score some points. We originally planned to go to the Istria region and spent another night at the adriatic sea. But an opportunity to fulfill more challenges appeared and let us to Ljubljana in the end. Relaxed 380km, good Airbnb, nothing extraordinary to report.Read more

  • Balkan Express 2019

    Day 14 - The last day

    September 4, 2019 in Austria ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C

    A short trip from Ljubljana to Salzburg and the finish line awaited us.
    We spent some time musing about what we learned during our trip... And we learned absolutely nothing. Which in itself is a great insight. Everyday we would get up and feel ambitious. Everyday we would set off and feel happy to be back on the road again... Forget to eat, get stressed, underestimate the time needed to complete a challenge, be frustrated and tired, end up somewhere else than planned. And then look forward to do it all again the next day.

    We are who we are. The same need for achievement, struggle, inaptitude that we notice about us in our everyday lives followed us every step of the journey. Only time will tell if we are all the better for them.

    Tonight all we can do is celebrate with Berti and Klausi and their bright organge Opel Manta... They won the whole thing and lived the spirit of the rally. Congratulations to you, more than deserved!

    Will we be back for another rally? We tell each other 'maybe', but deep inside we already know...    Read more

    Trip end
    September 4, 2019
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