Three country's in one day....

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  Zadar, Croatia
Thursday, September 4, 2008

Where do we go from here, where is our next destination? It's fun, exciting and feels very adventurous being in the situation where its destination Bulgaria but how the hell are we gonna get there....

From lake Como we decided to head to lago di Garda - I felt this would be good to us as Garda means police in Irish - well you could look at it in two ways, either we will be protected or there will be trouble so what with me being an optimist we decided to go with the former! So off we went through the Italian country side - our trusty tomtom leading the way however it quickly transpired that tomtom didn't like Italy!!!!
He told us to take the next right and with that we were in the middle of corn fields not even yellow roads this time but roads not even on the map! At first we though it was lovely winding through the Italian country side with the smell of the corn and the small villages but after an hour it kinda lost it appeal - with me getting stressed and the sun going down it was up to poor Ned to find us a way out and bless him he did - back on the red road to lago di Garda - we were happy once more.

We hit lago di Garda after dark 10pm to be exact, breaking yet another rule - 'find a park up by 8pm'. So we stopped and asked the divine for the perfect park up and had a fag - well I find it easier to connect to the divine when I'm not desperate for a fag!!!
We started Randon up and drove for all of about 2 mins when we see a parking for motorhomes sign and it's not for a Butlins style €50 a night place - it's for a council motorhome site, we had heard so much about these...

A break from driving

Now I know it's breaking yet another rule... 'no camp sites' but we were tired and more importantly curious, what kinda people go to these places? We wanted to meet 'normal' motor-homers....
So we followed the signs and paid our €16 a night and boy it was amazing - we were right on the lake with great views, fresh drinking water, loos that Ned didn't have to empty, showers with an endless supply of water and all for €16 a day - hooray as I said my thanks and drank my wine!

We spent 3 days on the the edge of lago di Garda - reading books, taking in some rays, playing battle ships and counting rule breakers.....
You see on this camp site there were rules - lots of them.... No cycling, no music, no dogs, no fires, no bbq's, no tents, no ball games..... But no-one obeyed them - yes Ned and I were certainly in the right place.

There were people with dogs and cats, the men cycled down to empty their loos, kids played net ball so under the cover of darkness we had a BBQ, drank wine and watched the stars to the sound of Marvin Gaye and the lapping lake - BLISS!

After the lake it was destination BEACH so we tapped in nearest beach to tomtom (what the hell we still loved and trusted him, he was a man after all so directions ain't always his fortee...) and off we went. Because we had left late it wasn't long before the sun was going down so I asked for the perfect park up, actually I sung a little song! and around the next corner was the perfect park up! harrah - take table and chairs out, drink wine and thank the divine - you know the drill.

This park up was sooooo perfect - right on a river complete with men quietly fishing, old Italian geezers playing cards and drinking grappa as the sun set and decking, yes another perfect park up! We stayed there for 24 hours and then headed to the beach.

We headed for Eraclea Mare which turned out to be a seaside HELL HOLE, we headed to Caorle which was even worse and then I started getting stressed so Ned took the lead, we were loosing the light but we decided to head to Bibione who knows why, must have been the divine looking after us again cos as we were driving thought the fading light the road suddenly turned into a gravel track and at the end of it was a massive lawn with a few motorhomes parked on it! Harrah for the divine, lets have some wine!

The next morning we woke to discover we were about .5km from the beach and the only way to get to it was thought the pine woods next to our park up and on the other side of the woods was miles and miles of un-spoilt sandy beach with only a few people on it.

Are they after us???

That night we had a BBQ, watched the sunset as we drank some wine and thanked the divine. We stayed at this beautiful beach for a few days well I needed to get to work on my tan!!! and after I was happy with the colour of my skin we decided that it would be fun to get a ferry from Trieste to Zadar so we drove to the ferry port in Trieste only to find it closed well it was late and was getting dark again so we needed to find a park up fast and we couldn't park at the port as it's in the centre of town....

We drove around for a bit and I spotted a big disabled bay, big enough for Randon! This was the strangest park up to date, it was a Thursday night in the middle of town and town was hopping... so we decided to check out the city of Trieste and we were after all parked right next to the central square so it seemed fitting! We put on some 'town' clothes and went for a wander around the beautiful central square with people eating outside to live music, it felt like we were in a dream having just spent 3 weeks being 'hippies' on the road....

Sleeping that night wasn't easy with all the boom boom boom music and the revelers reveling around Randon but we didn't mind it was a laugh looking at them from the comfort of our home on wheels.

We woke the next morning surrounded by police and army guys.... yes I'm not joking they were everywhere and Ned was convinced they were after us.... I on the other hand was a tad more non-plussed, I was convinced that if they were after us they would have woken us up so we tatted down ready to move on quickly, Ned's motive was cos they were there for us mine was cos it was Friday in town and just time to move! It soon became clear as the next bus load of army guys arrived with machine guns swinging that there was some sort of parade or presentation happening in the square that day! So we drove around the corner to the ferry only to discover there were no ferry's from Trieste to Zadar so we would have to drive, as you can imagine after 1500km I was not impressed but what to do Eastern Europe here we come....

We drove from Italy through the southern most tip of Slovenia to the Croatian coast - this was and is the part of the journey that I was most looking forward to...

Stelth BBQ...

Eastern Europe seems so far from Islington and to arrive in a country that has over 1500km of coast line and over 1000 islands, this I was looking forward to and I wasn't let down...

As we drove in to Rijeka it felt like India, the brightly coloured dilapidated and graffiti covered buildings, the street sellers and the smells that you only get in cities where it's 40 degrees! As we drove out of Rijeka the roads became that of what we were used to by now, roads built over hills and rocks that wind and twist. However the Croatian roads are as good as German roads thanks to good ol' EU cash and even better the speed limit is 50, 60 or 80km per hour so although the hills are hell you're just meandering along them and the coast road is really on the coast I mean you could jump outa the door and you'd be tumbling down to the sea!

We had a random park up by the sea but moved on the next day, we got a ferry to the island of Pag were we know we would find the perfect park up and boy was it perrrfect, we found a small wooded area that went directly onto a lagoon and here we stayed for 3 days topping up the tan, swimming in the crystal clear waters and having bbq's. It felt like Paradise with the perfect sunsets and star filled sky's however as much as we would have been happy to stay there forever, we had just over 2 weeks left to get to Sofia in Bulgaria, our deadline of 15th September was looming and the toilet was full, we needed water and supplies so we headed to the town of Pag.

As we left paradise the fan belt started screeching and the clutch started slipping - SHITE....

Enjoying our spontainous city break

we drove to the town of Pag and got supplies and when we are coming back to Randon I noticed the exhaust was hanging off - SHITE we must have done some damage driving into paradise the irony!!!

Well as you all know I'm miss super organized and had gotten maga everything insurance for the trip so I knew that we would be OK, Randon would be fixed and we would be put up in a hotel so I called the breakdown people and they sent a truck from Zadar to collect us and they booked a self catering apartment for us too and the best bit... they were picking up the tab!

So here we are in Zadar in a tourist hell hole with a fair ground across the road but we are in a comfy bed with air-con, lots of water, a bathroom and the best bit is I've finally got wifi and Ned even has a TV.... We are going to be here for a few days so it'll be a quick dash to Bulgaria.....

Oh and by the way it's 40 degrees xxx

P.S. Thanks to everyone who has sent us emails and comments and sorry for not getting back to you to date but we have been having to do the blog in Internet cafes as I haven't been able to get any wifi and the only other spare time left in the cafe's has been spent emailing my accountant my company's taxes are due!
Big love till the next installment xxx

Post your own travel photos for friends and family More Pictures

Enjoying sunset of the beach	From pardise to this!!!!	Ummm must get outa the sun	How come he's still soooo white
Yeah I have a tan...	Lake di Garda camp site	Leaving Italy for Eastern Europe	Oh it's a hard life doing the taxes!
Oh looks it's Pag town buthow do we get down!	Well there are some good things about cities.	Our first Eastern Europe sunset	Paradise found
Randon is rescued...	Spot Randon!	The beauty of Trieste at night	The woods by the wonderful beach
Another perfect park up	Yeah thank the divine and have some wine	Yeah we made it to the beach...

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