Hungary and Romania

Hello People,

Sorry for the delay in contact. Can be hard to find the internet and the time to update my blog. Today I am in a smashing Bulgarian campsite ready to tell you about my adventures in Hungary and Romania.

First of all, here is a link that will show you my route on a map. Its a bit behind and maybe not be 100% accurate but its good:

http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0nreeXaLcgGS6xkCr8fF5IvdI1BAZEevv

So anyway.. arrived at our campsite in Budapest late afternoon. Being kind it wasn't the best one we've been to. More like a driveway full of wrinkly Italians with weird dogs. We camped up in the trees but it looks like a taster of whats to come.

We had a few drinks before bed staying up till after 12 to see in Jen's birthday.

The next day we headed into town. Took the bus into the city centre. About an hour in, rain.. DISASTER in fliup flops!! Yok! Decided to take a bus tour around as the weather was dodgy. This was a bad idea as it was windowless which made it cold.

Aside from the bad weather which cleared up in the afternon Budapest can only be described as a beautiful city. From the top of the hill over looking the city, the views were breathtaking.

We had traditional Goulash soup for lunch which was good. Waitor came up with the best joke of the country:
Paul: "Does the soup come with some bread?"
Waitior: "No, I come with the bread"
Genius..

We headed back to the campsite and had dinner in the bar with the wrinkly Italians followed by a few bevvies.. We headed back to the truck for an after party which serves as an excellent bad weather drinking tent!

The following day saw a 12 hour drive to Romania where we bushcamped near Turda Gorge. Crossing the border from Hungary was a real shock. Hungary was flat agricultural land, Romania was huge derelict Communist buildings, Prostitutes on the side of the road and random people sitting there staring at you with no place to go. Romania feels like the first proper "foreign" country we've been to. When we crossed the border we saw a frickin sheperd herding his frickin sheep.. a sheperd?? Now I'm foreign!

Turda Gorge is a magnificent example of unspoilt natural beauty that has yet to be discovered by tourists. We had a local guide take us around for a trek that took a good 5 hours. We're talking savage views here people.Take note.

The evening was spent making as much noise as possible as there were no neighbours for miles. Singsongs were had.. Club Calypso was born.. (Calypso is the name of our truck)

Next moring, with talks of "are we alcoholics?" we headed for our first Hotel in Sigisoara. This was bliss! First shower in 3 days felt fantastic. Also, me and Denis shared a bed! We looked around the town which was the birth place of Vlad Dracul who was the influence of the Dracula stories. We had a look around and visited the church where he was buried.

Another hot shower the following day and we arrived in a lovely campsite in Bucharest. I always like to see a city by night and day so we headed into town in the evening. It was great because my fellow Irish compatriot Aoife had a friend in Bucharest so she showed us around. We all met up with her the following day as well and she showed us all the sights. I had positive impressions of the city. It was a strange atmosphere. The people didn't seem the friendlist but the whole place gives the impression that they are still recovering from Communism. The city is full of beautiful buildings mixed with ugly Communist ones. Its also full of what can only be described as "random" churches. Apparently the Communists hated religion so they would keep moving them. Therefore you get churches down small alleys and any random place you might find. Aoife's friend Christina told us all sorts of storis about how she used to get ice on her homework because the Communists banned central heating in the winter to save money.

I feel like I've caught Romania and especially Bucharest in a transitionary period. There is a huge amount of construction going on and the country seems to be determined to move on from its difficult past. Give it 10 years and it will rival Prague for its beauty.

Currently in Bulgaria heading to Istanbul next week. Its starting to get interetsing!

Prague!

Hello People,

Prague! Good old spot now has to be said. The session in Bamberg the night before didn't materialise so we decided to get pissed at the campsite bar instead. After an 8 hour drive from Bamberg we arrived at the campsite after a trip to Tesco to stock up on supplies and getting a bit sunburnt sitting in the car park. We arrived in the campsite late afternoon and had dinner.

Coming into Prague you can really see the difference from Germany. Germany is all modern, precise and secure whereas Czech is all high rise buildings and Eastern Bloc like buildings. It definitely doesn't seem as prosperous as Germany but its quite expensive so it seems to be doing ok.

 Managed to get a crew together and headed into town for a few drinkies. Went to a bar on the Old Town Square where the smell of weed was shocking! The guy behind the bar was off his tits so we all decided Prague was gonna be a fun spot.. We got out after one cos it was getting dodgy and walked around. Prague by night is beautiful. The buildings are all lit up and its definitely the most attractive place I've seen yet. We necked a couple of more beers then headed to a lovely respectable night club. 5 stories.

Ground Floor: Strippers.
1st Floor Dance
2nd Floor Golden Oldies
3rd Floor RnB
4th Floor Hip Hop

So we steered Denis away from the Ground Floor and rocked it out on floors 2 & 3 for the night. Had a good buzz including dancing on a balcony overlooking the dance floor that you wouldn't get away with back home! Apparently there's a video of me doing YMCA so you can look forward to that!

Few sore heads this morning but we were up early for Russel "the bear" Reid's awesome Candian pancakes and syrup. A sugar buzz was BADLY needed at that stage.

So headed into town to see the sights. Again, frickin beautiful city got some great shots.

Walked around and saw the sights. Mainly the Palace, Cathedral, Bridge and Jewish district. Was completly nackered by the end got the trams back to the campsite.

Had a pint in "the oldest pub in Prague" with a medievil theme where the waitress wore a frilly old dress and dumped the beers on the table

Heading onto Budapest tomorrow for another 2 day stop over so looking forward to more of the same from Eastern Europe before Bulgaria and Romania where I don't know what to expect..

Right off to eat Curry so will update about Hungary asap!

Belgium & Germany

Hello People,


4 days in and having a rockin time!

Got the bus from London Sunday morning. Was late for the pick up cos I decided to have Breakfast but I was only about ten mins late so it wasn't too bad. We got a coach to Dover where we met up with the truck. What a machine. Massive Mercedes Benz truck 20 seats huge Diesel Engine it'll be my home for the next 4 months till we reach Calcutta and its one hell of a machine.

Have to say everyone on the trip is dead on and I was surprised that by the time we reached our first camp in a little campsite in Tournai in Belgium we were all buddies. CJ and Jim are our two guys. They both would fall into the "legends" category in my book. CJ does the talkin and Jom drives the truck! We had Spag Bol for our first night in the camp. The truck is all kitted out with cooking equipment so its easy enough to get a meal together.

I'm sharing a tent with a Scottish bloke called Denis. He's a mad Scotsman in his 50s but I think he's perfect to be bunking with. Mad for a pint. Typical Scot. Today is day 4 and not only are we sleeping together but we're doing our washing together and I'm also giving him a haircut tomorrow so... keep your jokes to yourselves bitches. We had an unsuccessful attempt to find a pub in Tournai. We wondered around for about an hour. The only place we found was a Casino that only served Coffee so as Denis put it "Fuck tha' " So we went off to bed..together

Early start the next day saw us take a 5 hour drive to Cologne. The weather was frickin unreal so we set up camp.

The campsite was right on the river Rhine and it was spectacular. We had a quick lunch and strolled into town to see the Dom Cathedral which was brilliant. It was a 5km walk from the campsite along the Rhine. We took the 509 steps up to the top of the Cathedral the views over Cologne were brilliant.

After the Dom we went out for a group meal where we had a great time supping German Beer. I shares a foot long German sausage with 4 of the girls. Again.. jokes to yourself!

I washed the sausage down with a good few German Beers and a handy session in a Bar with a mental German Jazz Pianist.

The next day we had an 8 hour drive to Bamberg. The drives are quite relaxing. Jim takes it handy and we stop every 2 hours or so. Germany's infrastructure is astounding. Huge Highways, massive suspension bridges. Everything is precise and perfect. One of the cool things about Germany (and I'm not joking here) is the toilets. You have to pay 50 cent everywhere you go but strangely its worth it as everything is electrical and they clean them selves after you use them really weird and cool. Took advantage of this the day after the session. Pleased to say the Sausage was still intact...

CJ and Jom told us the toilets are only gonna get worst from here..

Arrived at a fantastic Campsite in Bamberg. We stayed in for the night when we arrived as were all wrecked from the night before. Today we strolled around Bamberg. Its a beautiful city. Its a World Heritage protected town. All the buildings are old and protected.

So we're heading off to Prague tomorrow looking forward to that. Not before a nice session in Bamberg is had. Details to follow...

London!

So stop number one is thew capital of Engerland, London!

In a word: Love it! Ok thats two words but its a rockin city loads of stuff going on!

Took the ferry over Thursday morning. Quick and painless journey over the Irish Sea. Emotional enough sitting on the ferry before leaving if I'm honest. Suppose I was like "Oh shit I'm ACTUALLY doing this!"
Had a nice sleep on the ferry. Woke up towards the end, went into the toilet: massive drool stain on my T shirt! No wonder the woman next to me was staring at me when I got up I thought she was checking me out..

As we were exiting the boat they had a cool little sniffer dog sniffing all our bags individually. That Tommy Tiernan sketch came to mind where when you're going through security checks you're convinced you've got drugs up your arse even though you don't remember putting them there... It was like that. The dog spent ages on my bag with my sandwiches in! I was thinking "Get the f**k away from my sandwiches you little shit!" Then I was laughing to myself at the laugh Christy would get if he knew I was getting aggressive at a dog for going for my sandwiches... I don't share food!!

Managed to get to London easy enough. Got on the train in Fishguard and the nicest Welshman checked my ticket. I immediately thought that all Welshmen were nice friendly people.. I know of course that is not entirely true but it made me think that that's what we should have in Ireland. Compare that to the fella who greets you at the train in Limerick Junction and you see why we have no tourists!

After a slight grapple with the underground I made it to the hostel in Victoria. Was a nice enough spot, clean anyway. Full of Americans and Canadians and these Nordic people who I think were Swedish but not sure. Went to bed early and slept like a baby.

Went out into the city on Friday, took a open top bus tour around the city. Have to say its an awesome plaxe in my opinion. Incredible buildings and loads of history and culture to see. There's adverts for Musicals everywhere the place is musical mad. Apparently me singing wasn't what they had in mind. Saw all the sights Big Ben, Tower of London, Trafalgar Square etc etc.

Took a boat tour up the river. The guy dong the commentary was funny. Had a great joke where we went past this big glass building and he was like "This is the headquarters of the British Window Cleaning Association" Hahaha. Funny right? Well I stopped off and decided to take the boat back along where I'd come to meet up again with the tour bus. Different guy this time...but SAME jokes! I had to laugh to myself. It was like a comedian robbing another guys jokes. The question is who wrote them first? Or is it like a script that all the tour guys come up with together? They get home after the day and are like "How did the window cleaning joke go?" "Ah ya it went well but the Tower Bridge one bombed we need something new for that!"

London appears to be a place that is long out of recession. There's cranes and roadworks everywhere and everything costs a bomb! There's loads of preparations for the Olympics going ahead and this wedding that's happening in a few weeks there seems to be an excitement around the town.

Oh and get this. On the bus stops, there's actually maps showing where the buses go!!! I know!! Amazing huh? Thats not all... the buses often have a screen showing when the next bus is due... I know I couldn't believe it either its amazing what technology can do...

Meeting the other guys on the tour for a few drinks tonight so gonna finish up here now. I brought my camera along to the Internet Cafe but didn't bring the right connection so I will put photos up next time I am online.

Leaving at 7.30 tomorrow to head to Belgium.. Let the festivities commence!

Its Finally Here!

Hello People!
So Welcome to my travel blog! Here I will be telling as much of my adventure as possible to those of you who can be bothered to read it and also those of you who may be planning to take the trip next year and have decided to stalk a couple of this years group. Which is fair enough as we've all done it!
Ok so first of all. What am I doing??? Yes you've listened to me telling you in the pub or on Facebook but you weren't listening or you were Facebook perving your friend's girlfriend or something so you didn't take it in.
So I will try and explain, now! I am taking a tour bus starting in London this Sunday 17th April and will be travelling overland as far as Kuala Lumpar and then flying to Australia where I have a year's working holiday visa so will hopefully stay for a good bit. You're like: "What?" But yes its true the Bus takes six months to go through 26 countries and I will be on it with 20 strangers...and I can't frickin wait! Check out the route maybe it'll make more sense

Still lost? Check out the website http://www.odysseyoverland.co.uk/

Now you're like: "What, a frickin Bus??"

Ok its more like an off road truck with massive wheels and cooking equipment and a sit-on-able roof etc. Feck it. Here's a picture.

And yes yes there IS one flight between Calcutta and Bangkok yeah yeah whatever smart arse I'm goin on a bleedin bus! I'll be staying in a mixture of campsites, hotels, hostels and just plain camping!

So its been quite an ordeal putting this shit together. Since I finished college 2 years ago (christ!) I've been wanting to do something epic instead of just goin to Oz and getting drunk (which I will be doing at some stage!) but I didn't know what. Until one day about 3 months into my new life as a grown up person I was talking to this old guy in the sauna in my local gym and he was telling me about these "convoys" you can join that go to all crazy places and go all the way to Oz I was like "Whaaaa? No way man" A few days of searching on the net later and I was sold! Decided not to look for a good job and to stay in what I was doin and save save save. So living like a hermit began and lasted over 18 months. Although I must give a mention to my sponsor: My Great Uncle Alan who is part funding me, without him none of this would be possible so cheers Uncle. You'll be getting psotcards every day!

So what am I leaving behind? Well I know my Mum is gonna miss me and I'll miss her and all my family alot. I'm missing my brother's 18th, My Mum's XXth and my uncle Alan's 80th birthdays. So yeah family.
I'm also leaving behind a secure dead end job which are pretty rare these days and which (as everyone keeps telling me) I was lucky to have. Which I was! And thankful for it cos without it I wouldn't be able to afford this trip. I'm gonna miss all the lads I worked with they were all great people and good friends and I hope if some of ye are reading this that ye will follow it and I'll be back someday for another session in Spratts! I'm leaving the lads behind. Good friends that you couldn't ask more of that I've been mates with since school but it would be gay if I said I was gonna miss them so feck off. Although I have the hip flask to remind me of them, cheers lads!
I've been building my stand up act slowly over the last three years and ironically 2011 has been my best year yet with some really good gigs with Cahir Comedy Club one of the highlights of the year. So I will be leaving my comedy behind and the adrenaline buzz that goes with it but hopefully I will get plenty of material from my travel experiences and hoping to gig in Oz when I get there. Also, leaving my fellow comics behind especailly those on the Cork scene so lookimg forward to gigging with those dudes and dudettes again some day. I'm hoping to write a one man show based on this trip, so lets hope interesting stuff happens!

Its been stressful gettig all this orgainzed.

Here is a list of everything that has pissed me off so far:
- The fact that I have to collect my passport in London on Friday cos the Azerbaijan embassy was closed for a week
-Some dum b***h in Bank Of Ireland who forgot to order me new credit cards and therefore my credit card will expire half way through my trip
-My car failing the NCT and the NCT phone people unable to get me a retest so I couldn't sell it and ended up having to get my mum to beg the guys in the test centre to give me an emergency test so I could sell it cos everyone knows mechanics only help women and not men cos they're pervy
-The fact that I haven't packed yet
-The fact that I never won the lotto despite doing it three times a week for the last year and as a result will have to work again at some point

Apart from that its been plane sailing and I know it'll be worth it and the experience of a lifetime. Please follow my blog as I'll be pouring my little heart out and telling you all thats goin on..

So I've sold my car (sniff), I've left my job, I've had FIVE going away sessions and leaving for London on Thursday...

Here we fuckin go....