Week One

Before I start off with what’s been happening the last week I’ll just explain something first. The trip consists mostly of two types of camping...bush camping and camp sites. Camp sites are designated camping areas with amenities such as toilets, showers, laundry and wifi...bush camping is stopping somewhere suitable along the route we are on. Bush camping does not have any amenities so it really is roughing it ya might say! Just so everyone knows what exactly I’m talking about when I saw bush camping! Also I got a little travelling mascot from my little cousins so if you come across random pictures of a cute teddy you will know I haven’t completely lost it!! Anyway to get on with things....

Week one has been a fun one! After the tears of Dublin airport and looking like the most depressed person in the world on what was quite obviously a predominantly business flight I made it to country number one...England! Hopped on a train to the city and found the hostel I was to stay in. I was about to walk out the door when a girl saw me and called my name...let me tell you it’s quite confusing to have your name called in a city where you know you know no one!! This girl was Dee and through the power of Facebook she knew I was on the same trip as her! After this first introduction I then discovered there was a few of us staying in the same hostel so off we went for a drink! Was a good chance to get to know people and feel not quite so lost and upset!

Next morning was an early start and a short walk to the hotel where we were meeting the truck...and what a sight to behold when we got to it! The truck is exactly what it looks like on the website except bigger than I thought...but just as orange!! There were more introductions then of people who hadn’t stayed in the hostel and once we were all packed up off we headed!

Day 1 consisted of travelling through 3 countries...UK, France and Belgium...and out first camp site was at the side of a lovely Belgian motorway! And so setting up camp for the first time began! There was kitchen construction and tent pitching....which included the pitching of the toilet tent! After dinner we headed to bed early enough as we had another early start the next day. Which made it time for the first sleep in the tent...only one word to describe this experience FREEZING!!!!!

Next day we hit 2 more countries; Holland and Germany. I won’t lie, I got a little flutter in my heart when we crossed the German border! Kept seeing signs for Berlin and willing the truck to follow the signs (it didn’t!). We made good time that day and so instead of stopping at the schedule campsite we drove on....and ended up camping in a field just outside a tiny little German village called Bad Langensalz (or something along those lines!). It was as very happy coincidence that the field we found was just across the road from a  nice little pub! So after dinner we did the polite thing and went and paid the locals a visit! We pretty much took over the pub, which wasn’t a problem as there was no one in it! The staff gave us free shots...think they thought Christmas came early that day when we all walked in. When we were leaving they also gave us a huge pot of goulash too...so the Germans are nice people despite what some people may think!! I should also mention at this point that after another freezing night I stumbled across a Penny Markt that happened to be selling sleeping bags and so I got one to try not turn to a block of ice that night (it worked!!).

We also thought we were going to get kicked off out campsite twice that night. The first time a guy from the pub came across to tell us we were parked right beside a gas supply so we were to light no fires. Of course this is what we understood after some miscommunication when for a moment we thought what he was trying to say was that we had camped on an airstrip...the joys of foreign languages! The 2^nd time was a lot more worrying when the owner of the land drove up!!! This rather scary looking man hopped out of a 4x4 and marched over to us! After telling him we were only there for one night and that we wouldn’t leave any rubbish he seemed happy enough...and the slightly puzzled as to what the heck type of vehicle we had with us! This has actually offered me quite a bit of amusement over the last week! It’s hilarious watching people’s faces as we drive by with an expression that quite clearly says “what the f*** is that”!! Never gets old!

The next day we headed for Prague...this was going to be our first camp site stop and God were we all looking forward to a shower!! When we got to Prague we had a wee bit of a problem finding the right exit for the road we needed to go on! So after doubling back a time or four we arrived! Tents were pitched in record time and then came the showers! Never felt so good to wash my hair!! We then headed into Prague to find some food...but as it was late we ate from a street kiosk and then stopped somewhere for a beer. Then it was off back to camp for the first proper sleep!

The following day we got a whole day in Prague which was really nice. Although I’d been there before I enjoyed wandering around and seeing it all again. By far the most interesting thing I saw in the Czech Republic came on Day 5 when we were brought to the Bone Church. Which is quite honestly the freakiest thing I have possibly ever seen! From the outside it looks like your run of the mill Church...but once you step inside it changes to anything but normal! All the decor inside the Church is made from human bones! There is a bone chandelier, bone candle holders, bone garland type things even big massive bone pillar things! The story is that the graveyard got so full that they dug up all the bones and an artist was commissioned to decorate the Church with the people remains! It’s difficult to describe exactly how weird this whole experience was...there was skulls EVERYWHERE...along with femurs, vertebrae, hip bones and I’m sure if I knew more about bones I could have identified more of them!

After the Church we hit the road again to head to country 6 (I think!!) which was Austria. We were staying in a little town about half an hour outside Vienna called Klosterneuberg. There was so much to see even in this little place, which had a beautiful Church and Monastery in it. We also had our own little corner of the campsite to make as much noise as we wished! It was kind of windy at this stage and after pitching our tents we were all standing around chatting...when a big ass branch fell off the tree that I had my tent under! It fell the opposite side of the campsite fence but I had a small fear I was going to get squished in the middle of the night (the tree didn’t lose any more branches and I survived the night...obviously!!).  We headed into the town that night on the hunt for a pub...and after a bit of a trek we found a nice little pub to park ourselves in for a couple of hours.

It was an early start the next day to head off into Vienna. Vienna is beautiful but holy God our feet hurt at the end of it! One of the first things we did was go up the steeple of St. Stephens Cathedral. This involved climbing 343 steps up a spiral staircase...which in itself would have been a challenge...but throw in the fact that we were going up and there were gaggles of school kids coming down and you can only imagine what chaos ensued! Was it worth it when we got to the top? In a word...no!!! There were four little windows...one looking out each side of the tower and that was it! So after sticking the camera out each window it was time to go back down....which meant more school kids! Once that experience was over we wandered around and found some nice sights to look at but by far the best thing was going to the Summer House. The building in pretty bloody impressive (1,441 rooms or something ridiculous like that!!) but what took my breath away was the gardens and Gloriette. And when it say it took my breath away I am talking figuratively and literally as the Gloriette was at the top of a big hill...so up we hiked...and was it worth it? In a word...yes!!! We got an amazing view over the whole of Vienna and sat in the sun enjoying it for awhile. We were all pretty shattered at this stage so headed back out to the campsite for dinner and an early night!

And so we are on day 6 (which is today) and I am in Budapest, Hungary. We are in the cutest little campsite with our tents pitched on little platforms at the side of a hill. The campsite is quite small and after a little look around I stumbled across some pictures that seemed to show some sort of animal sacrifice...so I will be sleeping with the torch on tonight! We are heading into Budapest tomorrow to see what exciting things we can find there before heading into Romania for some more bush camping....one of which is near to Dracula’s Castle as far as I know!

So there is week one of UKtoOz in a nutshell!! We have been fortunate with the weather so far and are hopefully going to be heading into even better weather...which is the part I am looking forward to! Also found out that I am probably going to be spending my birthday trekking in Nepal or Kathmandu...one to remember!

At the moment I am really enjoying the whole camping experience...we will see how long that lasts if we get to shitty weather! For those of you worried that I was going to starve to death because of my pickiness, I was given lessons at home in how to just try things and I’m doing Ok so far! I’ve had spag bol, beef straganof, thai curry, sausage casserole and fajitas! Granted for some of these I have left a pile of veg on my plate after picking them out but I am going to give myself a big pat on the back for eating the rest of it!!!