Home, sweet home

We moved to Krakow after the trip and we know it took us way toooo long to finish all posts but it was always a pleasure to refresh the memories of this journey :)



to be continued...

Serbia through windows

We continued hitchhiking but after some time decided to move. That's when we got a ride from a Bulgarian who didn't know what he was doing (since we had '5 KM' written on a paper). We asked for Niš or Belgrade and he said he'd take us a bit. Then in the car we talked (he spoke English well) and we found out that he's going to Belgium. We stopped the conversation after mentioning that our destination was Slovakia and waited patiently till Belgrade to find out how far is he eager to take us. There he offered a ride to Budapest. Since it was much more than we expected and very very kind, we accepted.
26.9. We stopped on highway around Budapest yesterday evening. It was dark, cold and rainy. Our driver left us near a hotel he liked. It was supposed to be cheap but not for us. We found out that the very cheapest room was 46eur and the receptionist was very unpleasant. Anyway, we took the room although she didn't want to sell single room for two people. At least she didn't argue. And it was good to finally take a hot shower.
Room itself was small, with one cupboard, a bed, a chair and TV. Not much for such price..
In the morning we packed our stuff and tried hitchhiking in the rain. We had a good spot and first car we stopped took us to Mosonmagyarvar. There we walked on wet grass and my shoes were soaked. Our spirits rose when we saw Slovak cars going our way. But what we stopped was not a Slovak car. It was a Polish truck. We saw it on a crossroads. It had red light so i ran towards the driver and asked if he's going to Bratislava. He agreed to take us and we went with him to the border, then got out to try another car while he was buying a vignete and got in again because noone would take us.
In Bratislava i bought my favourite roasted chestnuts and we had halusky and kofola for lunch. Then we went to Poprad by train. I got the last ride with 50% discount (my Slovak ISIC expires in a few days).

The Catcher in the Rye

When we started hitchhiking near the border, we saw many Turkish trucks that reminded us of cities we've visited.
Since no one wanted to take us from the border, we walked a bit further. We passed first village and continued. There we got a ride to Plovdiv with volvo V40. We stayed there at night somewhere in the fields close to the end of the city. It was very comfortable, soft and was perfect save mosquitoes.
In the morning we got up, found a nice spot and after a while got a ride to Sofia. I think our driver was a WizzAir pilot, that would explain his uniform.
We spent 2 hours trying to get on the way to Serbia and we managed with the 2nd car. The lady took us till the border and gave us water. It felt like Turkey :)
Again, crossing the border was quite fast and custom control ended with few questions.

Last party in Istanbul

Again in Besiktas. We stayed there two nights, met more Besties, including Tony's new flatmate and two people from Warsaw. After welcome party we went to Grand Bazar for a quick shopping. We bought water pipe tobacco and Backgamon :)
In the evening i managed to meet with Ayser from SAS 2008. We talked a bit of SAS, our friends from there and nearest journey plans. We parted early because we were all supposed to get up early in the morning.

It was rather hard to get out of Istanbul. We tried hitchhiking, then took a bus to what was supposed to be a better spot and got stuck somewhere in the city. I almost lost all hope when a nice sibling pair stopped to help us out. Help was not quite what we expected. It was so much more. They took us to a bus station and bought us tickets to Edirne, the last town before the border. At the station Mato met a boy, around our age, whose brother works in Bratislava. What a coincidence.

In Edirne we walked to a better hitchhiking spot. One local man took us from a gas station to the Bulgarian border and we got to EU.

Bye bye, hospitable Turkey!

Around Black Sea to Düzce

During our passport control, Tony talked to one driver and arranged us ride to another few clicks.
Later we stopped for a break and hitchhiked by 7 more cars till Giresun.
The driver in the last car with his friend took us to bus stop and almost force us to go by bus to another town and not to hichhike anymore. When we told them we don't have money for bus, they were eager to pay for our bus. We were stubborn and wanted to hitchhike anyway. It took us some minutes to get away. The bus stop was located in worst part of the city. Far away from some good spot, so we had to walk quite dangerously around the road.
 
Two men were trying to almost force us to go by bus and wanted to pay for it but we were stubborn and hitchhiked. When we got to Giresum, it was getting dark but boys decided to take one last ride. Jackpot. Tony found people from Bolu at the traffic lights and they took us! They just rearranged some stuff in the car to make space for us. They couldn't believe we're not hungry and bought us dinner.

Tony's father took us from Bolu to Düzce. We spent there one day resting and the next day in the afternoon we went to Istanbul.