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We tried to stop in Serbia, honestly we did. We tried to stop in Nis and see the “skull tower” but couldn’t find the city. Really! We tried to stop at the new, modern campground in Belgrade but….. We tried to stop in Novi Sad but missed another big city next to the freeway. We made it to the border and after spending an hour of going from row to row because they couldn’t decide if we are a bus or a truck or a car we left Serbia. Without meeting a single friendly person we left Serbia. Just must not be our time for Serbia. It was almost like we were chased through.
After no mans land. BtW TJ loves “no mans land”. She will scream out “are we in no mans land? Yea!… we are nowhere!” We made it through the border and I saw lots of little stalls selling vignettes. We weren’t sure what a vignette was but, learning by experience, we stopped the car and looked in our handy, dandy guidebook to see if we needed one. We did need one. It is a compulsary highway tax. We have been fined before for missing a highway tax in Austria and decided to get ours ASAP.
We made it through to Hungary in the evening. We were tired and Hungry (he, he, he, really we were). We went to the first city/town in Hungary. The first campground was closed. Probably due to flooding. 10 km to the next campground. Ooops! It is for naturists (nudists). Naw. not right now. Third one is a spring.
The kids have now declared this to be their favourite campground ever! We are having a nice relaxing Sunday with a beautiful roast chicken.
A spring-fed pool with a couple of slides.
An adventure playpark. TJ and Hannah running back and forth between the pool and the park. Yelling out as they change their clothes from bathers to shorts and back again, “This is the best day EVER!”
Tall trees.
A roast chicken dinner slowly cooking away in the oven. You savour the aroma as you wait for the taste on your lips. Mmmmmm.
Abigail pops peach muffins in the oven when the chicken comes out. Made with fresh peaches from the side of the road.
Birds singing and little hedgehogs moving about in the grass.
WIFI.
Toilet paper and sit-down toilets.
You know sometimes it is the simple things that make you happiest.
These places always seem to come at just the right time. Right after those terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days.
Hope your Sunday is as nice and relaxing and refreshing as ours.
We ended up behind a bus at the Macedonian border. The bus was having problems getting through and angry bus passengers were everywhere. We showed our updated car documents in a fancy plastic folder. Andrew noted before that the truckers show a plastic sleeve with insurance documents, listing the names of the countries, showing on one side and ownership papers showing his name on the other. Andrew organized his paperwork accordingly and handed over the car documents and passports, including the dog passport. We got through the border without being asked to pay anything extra – including the special truck insurance they were asking for at the other border. I think we have been going through too many borders lately.
We have finally made it to Macedonia. Andrew will have his meeting and we can slow down the pace a bit.
His meeting is at Lake Ohrid. We spent the day in the town of Ohrid. Food is cheap here – even restaurants.
Saw some fun signs. Should we show it to Sam or do you think it will go to his head?
All the locals recommended staying at camp Gradiste about 30 km from the town. WOW!
Not too shabby of a campsite eh? When we came into the campsite we asked how much. He said he normally charges 10 euro for 2 people and a camping car. Andrew said, “we also have children and a dog.”
“Ahhhh, that’s ok, 10 euro”.
Oh yeah! 10 euro for this!
The facilities are pretty basic. We have electicity, washing up facilities, squat toilets, hot shower (notice I say singular hot shower, there are also 2 cold showers and 3 non-functioning showers). As we have noticed this seems typical for the post-communist world – the facilities can be a bit old-fashioned and run-down but it is very clean, inexpensive and run by people who are friendly and wonderful.
Had an amazing day. Taking out our little blow up boat on the lake and hiking around the coast.
There are these small areas along the coast connected by small, rickety bridges. In these little areas We found such great treasures.
There are clubs in some that open up for 2 months in the summer. If I was in my 20s I would love to discover such hidden clubs for hanging out with the locals. These clubs will start opening up in about a week. The only access to these clubs is the rickety bridges or the narrow stone steps leading up the cliff.
It was great going across these little walkways around the rocks. At one we found an old chapel. How old? Oh, only 1500s!!!
We lit some candles in there. Andrew said that he was lighting his for peace among religious people around the world.
The girls have spent alot of time by the edge of the lake.
and in the lake.
We have also spent alot of time in our little blow up boat. Even Inigo has gone out with us in the boat.
This morning me and Abi got up around 7 and took the boat to the town about 2 km away for groceries. Tomorrow it is Hannah and TJs turn with dad.
What a great place to spend a bit of time. It is beautiful, inexpensive, a bit rough and reasonably undiscovered.
Albania, just the word brings questions and fear. Stories of the poverty. Stories of the horrible roads. Fear of the unknown. Excitement and wonder of the unknown. You might find this hard to believe but me and Andrew have both been intrigued by Albania since before we knew each other. Something about what grows in the dark and in isolation. So Albania has always held a special place in our hearts. The “most closed of communist countries”. The “poorest country in Europe”. It also had this “familiarity to us. Sometimes reminding us of our beloved Czech Republic, that we lived in for a few years, and sometimes of Morocco, still very dear to us.
First of all, the border. We get to the border and handed over our, ever decreasing, wad of passports and vehicle papers. He asks us to go over to the side to the bus lane. While we are waiting a couple of nice men come up to my window and start chatting. I thought they were bus drivers because they had tags around their necks. While I am chatting with these friendly men the Montenegro man brings back the passports and says we are finished. The man I was talking to asked us if we had our passports now and bid us well. Andrew was shocked. Looking for another border crossing to enter Albania and it wasn’t there. We realized the men I was chatting with WERE the Albanian border officials. When Andrew realized this, turned around the truck and went back to the border to buy insurance from the shacks on the Albanian side. He remembered that our insurance policy for our truck specifically mentions Albania as a country that they never cover. After chatting with the nice man in the booth for a while and handing over 27 euro he emerges with a very official document that declares us insured.
Lots of animals on the road.
and everywhere.
Sometimes the road here – well – just changes. Sometimes a new road starts sinking into the swamp it was built on or sometimes it is just gone. I think I can sum up some of the road problems with this quote from TJ. “Dad, where did the road go?” Perhaps there is a new fancy road and then it is just gone. We went on a divided highway with cars going both directions on both halfs.
Andrew had a boyish fascination with the Albanian “for sale signs” signs.
Look closely.
 Now we are not yet in the habit of picking up a lot of hitchhikers but this guy – well, we just had to pick him up. We saw him first in Montenegro. Apparently, when he sees a full vehicle that has no room he is in the habit of stretching out his arms and giving them a big smile. He did the same to us, not knowing we actually had room. We thought, “what a nice young man. Andrew added, he looks british”. The kids really wanted us to pick him up but we were looking for a place to stop. An hour later we saw him AGAIN! Hitchhiking on the side of the road with his big pack. STILL, we didn’t pick him up because – well, surely we will find a place to stop soon. The next day in Albania. WE SAW HIM AGAIN! Yeah, I know, we are travelling at the speed of a hitchhiker. We pulled up to give him a ride but the horse and cart ahead of us gave him a lift first. “Well”, said Andrew, “I think we will see him again. And sure enough, several hours later, there he was on the side of the road again!. Weird huh! His name is Will. He is from Stirling, Scotland and just as nice as he looks. I mean, look at this face – could you resist?
So, after picking up Will we went into Tirane.
       
We found some amazing apartment buildings. Never seen apartment buildings painted like this. I love it. Without much money for remodelling you can make even the most run down and mundane of apartments into a work of art. Abi took just a few photos.
Driving through the middle of Tirane we meticulously followed signs to Ebanese until there were no more. Apparently, sometimes they just start ripping up roads with no indication of where to go. After circling the town and finding lots of really great painted apartment buildings we could only find signs out to Durres. Figuring out that sometimes the quickest way to your destination is the opposite way we went towards the coast instead of Macedonia in an effort to take the LONG way around the capital of Albania.
We found a very nice campground down 5 km of crumbling road going through a drained swamp. The campground itself will be great but the road there would probably ruin a white plastic. The only other campers were in 4 wheel drives, for some reason. The campground owner was friendly and wonderful. Dang, we have yet to meet an unfriendly Albanian.
On our way to Macedonia – We got a great meal at a tacky roadside restaurant.
Got some puffy pillow cheese things from the bottom of a woman’s house and practiced English with her young daughter. Bought some Turkish delight and ice cream from a village shop.
Got our car washed.
We must come back! We went to the border. Left Albania, Were refused entry into Macedonia. Turned around, re-entered Albania. Went around the lake. Waved to some dutch people we met the nite before. Went to a village at the bottom of the lake. Found an internet café. Printed off more car documents. Met more nice people. Bought Elizabeth a condensed milk tin with a panda on the side, we collect the strangest things. Went towards the Greek border and left Albania again.
You see, Albania loves us to. They welcome us back again and again.
Went thru Western Europe.
After the Dali Museum we dropped off Alana in Italy. We miss giggly, colourful Alana. Now we are only 5. Such a small group. So much less than the 9 we were just a short time ago.
We stopped off in Venice. Dad took lots of touristy pictures of the younger girls feeding the pigeons.
 I took the girls to the Leonardo Da Vinci. There were all sorts of machines created from his drawings. We got to touch them and crank them and go inside some of them. Quite fun. We expected Hannah to be in heaven. TJ looked for bones, again, and found them on the wall in some of the paintings. We told her about how DaVinci opened up dead bodies to see how peoples bodies worked on the inside. She thot that was great and would like to do that as well if they let her keep the bones.
 We saw some amazing masks in Venice. We bought some plain ones and painted them ourselves.
 Andrew has been working on the car electrics. Mixed success.
Abigail got my attention at the grocery store. “Mom”, she said, “That guy is named Jesus”. I told her how that is a reasonably popular name in Spain and Italy. One night in Italy we were parked in one of the really small and overcrowded rest areas in Italy and this truck driver told us a much better, hidden place to park. Later, we looked at his truck, It said Jesus on the side of it. Thot that was funny so took a photo.
 We are now in Croatia. We love Croatia. Not much internet. Sorry for the sparse blog entries. We were last here before TJ was born. We have made it down to Dubrovnik this time. It is a great old city but way too many tourists. We kinda like the hidden fishing villages and the deserted areas best. We found one campground, north of Split, that only cost us 13 euros, no passports needed, no electricity, no trash. Just a couple of clean toilets and a solar shower. An old olive grove. Nice people. We liked that place. Took our blow up Canoe out into the crystal clear water.
We head for places beyond tomorrow. Getting closer and closer to Macedonia. We need to be there by the 9th.
So this is where we have been on this last leg – Spain, France, Monaco, Italy, Croatia and Bosnia/Herzegovnia.
Highlights.
Spain – Dali Museum, Beneficio, Salami.
France – great picnic areas to stop at for the night, Motorhome shops, FOOD.
Monaco – well, didn’t see much of it, couldn’t find where to park our big truck – but we went through this tiny country.
Italy – Lasagna, Pizza, Pizza, Pizza – always great pizza – we love pizza – Venice – ice cream – food – downside, can they make their rest areas any smaller. We had to stop so early in the day just to get a spot to park at the rest areas for the nite – poor truck drivers.
Croatia – bakeries, small cheap campgrounds, crystal clear water.
Bosnia/Herzegovnia – we only went through about 7 km of it but it was quite thrilling it being in the news and all. We saw gunshots in a sign. Ooooooh! We saw a bolder in the road and the car that hit it. Ooooooh! What excitement!
What fun. Bit tired. lLots of driving. Looking forward to staying put some when we get to Macedonia. Also, looking forward to seeing some friends.
 Spent the morning studying and writing then took off hiking in the afternoon. We hiked through the farmland to get to the famous waterfalls. BTW that is a real, live kitten sticking its head out of TJs backpack. It is not our kitten. She is Karim’s. Her name is Karima.
 Hannah quickly took over the lead when she found her walking stick. She was living out her alter-ego of Indiehannah Jones.
 After about an hour we got to the top of the falls. Andrew stopped to take his epic Hasselblad (old school medium format camera)photo. You know, nothing prepares you for a sight like that. Seeing photos we think we have seen it all but to see a wonder like this up close and personal. I guess it is awe but it is also a lump in your throat or takes your breath away. All these statements seem inadequate because they have been cheapened by overuse. So when I came back down to earth I was keen to get the kids away from the cliff edge so the rest of us walked ahead. We walked for a bit then waited and waited…. and no Andrew. The rest of the day was a constant game of “Where’s Andrew?” I don’t worry about Andrew when we lose him. We lose him alot but today it became a game, a treasure hunt that kept us going.
So, Karim asked one man if he saw the tall man with the green backpack. The man said he went down the hill with others. Great. We were going down too. We weaved back and forth down the hill. Finally catching up to green arrows painted on rocks to a place called Du Vue. Not sure what it was but it was down.
 The last step to Du Vue was a rickety bridge.
 Oh yeah, your eyes are not deceiving you this rickety bridge is made out of recycled crates etc. Just like in the movies with the hero standing at the edge of a suspicious looking bridge. I guess I have to admit, our drop would not be as severe, but, quite adventurous feeling all the same.
 The man at Du Vue had seen the mysterious man with the green backpack. Apparently he stopped for a cup of tea, checked out the camping for future reference and continued across THAT bridge. But THAT bridge is the one that the kids saw and said “Well, good thing we don’t have to cross THAT bridge it is much longer and more rickety looking.”
 Cross THAT bridge we did and continued our treck. As we trekked closer and closer to the falls we passed wonders like heart shaped leaves and fig trees and lots of bamboo. We also went through more very amazing little campgrounds. Ones that you would trek down the falls with your tent on your back to stay in. Ooooh! What fun. As we got near the base of the falls and felt the overspray we caught a little pontoon boat across the river and found.
 Monkeys!!! Actually mountain baboons. We spent ages watching these two. One grooming the other. We really felt like tourists, Oooohing and Ahhhhing, but none of us had ever seen monkeys or baboons of any sort in the wild before. Only in the zoo. As time goes on I enjoy the zoos less and less as I see animals in cages. Even fancy cages – they are still cages. But these baboons weren’t in cages they were frolicking about on funny looking rocks.
 Another thing we found on the other side was stairs. All the way up to the top. How boring it would have been to come down the stairs when we had such an adventurous route. It was nice to climb up the stairs as it was getting late.
Oh yeah, Where’s Andrew? I almost forgot. We were so excited about the baboons. The man with the pontoon boat said that he saw him about half an hour ago and he went back up the cliff on the same side. We thought if we went up the other side we would be able to see him better as there are too many paths going up and down – or we would have seen him before. We decided to go up the other side. There were also those beautiful stairs.
When we reached the top on the other side we still could not find Andrew. As we were hanging out by the road Karim heard some of the locals yell out “Here come the hippies!” And in drove Andrew in our truck. Just like the cavalry. You see, by this time it was dark. We had a great time telling stories to each other about our day.
 Andrew told us about the HUGE snake he saw. When we asked how big he made a circle with both hands. Uhhh. yeah. I am sure this is not one of those fishing stories.
We told him about the baboons. TJ emphasizing that the baboons have hands just like us and that one kept smacking the other on the but (said with great animation) and kept finding bugs on the other and eating them. Yuck!
Well, I just have to say that I am glad we found baboons instead of snakes.
We had a semi-warm hammam before going to bed. Haven’t been able to clean up since… hmmm…. I think Safi. We feel clean, and tired, we slept well. We will need to go back up to the German family as Andrew left some things behind there and the other german family we met in Tagazout have arrived and we want to quit just crossing paths and spend some time together.
I will end my post with my wish for you from the wall of the “Bob Marley Paradise ” we saw at the most extreme edge of our days adventures.
SEIZE THE DAY! Oh yeah! We have but one life – let’s live it!
TJ has been having a great birthday. We had to do alot of driving on the actual day so we did as we do so many times when we cant fit everything in and have made TJs birthday 3 days long. So, on the day we drove alot while the girls watched a movie on the computer and ate popcorn.
We arrived at a very special campground and waterpark. Yeah! a waterpark. Bright colours and lots of slides and water. We decided to wild camp, as the campground is really expensive, when you count how many people we are. They want to charge the same for all the kids and adults. We will come back in for a full day of playing in the waterpark. Some of our friends, Ales and Karim, have come with us so that makes it a birthday party. TJ has been to pools with slides but never a waterpark. This is TJs big birthday gift – a birthday party at a waterpark.
The wild camping was great. Karim found it. We are just north of Tagazhout (really nice surfing town) at some ruins on the beach. There were lots of little fishing boats out last night as it was a full-moon which apparently makes for great fishing. Abi and Alana made apple pie.
We all ate it from the tin.
Some other wild campers came up in their van to camp with us last night. Melle is a fashion designer. Very cool clothes but a bit fancy for me. She has been living in her van for 5 years and has fixed it up real nice. She doesnt have alot of suff so her van feels really spacious. She sells clothes through her website and her mom sends things out to people. I looked up her website at www.rhizome-fr.com and it doesnt seem to be working right now. Maybe later
It was a great nite. We had great food, great friends and even a guard dog that loyally sat outside our truck all night. When it got dark, Karim made a huge bonfire – as he loves to do and we finished off the night with some jamming.
We are just outside Guilmim in Morocco. We are borrowing a “dongle” for internet. We have not managed to buy our own. Always ” a day late or a dollar short” as my mom used to always say. They just seem to be waiting for some more every place we go to. Anyways.
Saw a beautiful bunch, herd, flock, whatever, of camels today along the road. We are at a hot spring tonight. The last few days we have been staying at a few campgrounds the last few nights. They are only between 4 and 11 euros a nite but I have been quite enjoying hanging around hippies and travellers. Andrew says I am becoming a snob.
I think part of my snobbery comes from a nice Moroccan man I was talking to last week.
He asked me if I was a tourist or a traveller.
” I dont know”
He looked at me intently and said, “Do you like the Moroccan people?”
“Oh yeah”
Do you like to go out alot and meet people and try new things? You do dont you. I think you are a traveller. Tourists just sit like this (he stretched out his arms, closed his eyes and put his head facing the sun like someone sun bathing) and they do nothing. He looked intently again and said, “Yes, you are a traveller”.
Dang, wow, Yeah. A traveller. Loving and experiencing new cultures and making friends. Problem is now I have snobbery issues with hanging with “White plastics”.
How lame am I. OK I need to try not to be a snob and I need to love all cultures – even the white plastic/tourist culture. They are normally very nice and dont deserve my snobbery. They travel with cute little travel sized dogs, take pictures of flowers, read lots of novels and have great tans. Deep breath. Tonight we hang with white plastics and some nice surfers in an old beige plastic with a bit of personality. Perhaps tomorrow we will venture out to the uncivilized hot springs, 4 km from Fask. Apparently we need to drive to Fask and find a guide as there are no roads going to the uncivilized hot springs.
TJs birthday is coming soon. She turns 8 on the 28th. We would like to take her on a camel ride for her birthday.
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