Week 6 Four Countries Four Currencies (Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania)

Heading to Krakow was one of our spontaneous ideas, maybe too spontaneous this time. But more about that later.

The campsite was again within walking distance of the city center and was located directly on the Vistula River, which divides Krakow into two parts. With the temperature dropping to 4°C at night, we were glad to be connected to electricity and to be able to use the stand heating at night. Still freezing cold. We quickly used the washing machine, but had to dry the clothes in the bus for once, which was extremely annoying.

Never mind... after some research, we quickly made plans for our stay in Krakow. Besides exploring the city, we wanted to visit the old enamel factory of Oskar Schindler, known from the movie Schindler's List, and the former Auschwitz concentration camp the next day.

We started off in the rain to the old town of Krakow. It would have certainly been beautiful in sunshine, but honestly, it didn't impress us that day. Also, Olli couldn't find any Krakauer sausages anywhere and was deeply disappointed :-(. We followed the tip from Lukas, who had recently been to Krakow, and quickly made our way to Kazimierz, the Jewish quarter, which was its own city until 1800. Today the district is quite hip and multicultural, as it magically attracts foreign tourists with its unique shops, restaurants, and cafés in antique style and kosher food. There are still seven synagogues and a Jewish cultural center. But it seems to be more made for tourists, as allegedly only 120 Jews live in Kazimierz. We definitely liked it there.

Unfortunately, the enamel factory that we wanted to visit afterwards became the first victim of our spontaneity. When we arrived there, all tickets for the Oskar Schindler exhibition were already sold out for the day. Sold out. A look at the online reservation also told us that there wouldn't be any available tickets for another 3 days. What a pity. We decided to treat ourselves to a good and hearty meal and instead checked if it was possible to visit Auschwitz without a reservation. And no luck... not possible. It is even recommended to make a reservation one or two months in advance. Okay, that didn't fit into our 'spontaneous' mentality. Somewhat frustrated, we made our way back, but were still able to catch a charming view of Wawel Castle in Krakow at night.

The next day, somewhat unprepared, we continued on with the hope of finding better weather further south. We crossed the border into Slovakia and climbed a few meters in the Carpathian Mountains. In the afternoon, we arrived in the High Tatras in the village of Tatransky Lomnicky in bad weather, but still planned an extensive hike for the next day. We needed some exercise after all the driving. And the weather was supposed to improve again. We found a great campsite with a view of Lomnicky, which we wanted to climb the next day.

After a cold night at around 3°C (our neighbor Jacky from Scotland was determined to lend us blankets, because: nobody has to freeze!!), we were super happy in the morning with the great view and the perfect weather. Sabine would say, 'fortunately, there is luck'!

Quickly put on our hiking shoes and off we went. We could take a lift to an intermediate station and start a strenuous hike from there. The summit of Lomnicky can also be reached by lift, but that would have required a reservation again, or by hiring a mountain guide for professionals. We settled for the summit of the little brother and were rewarded with the most beautiful views of the High Tatras on one side and the Carpathians on the other side.

The view of the Lomnicky summit from below

Our summit of the day (Lomnicky in the background)

It was a complete climb on scree

And paragliders above us again and again.

In the evening, we had the typical hiker's meal in the neighboring village and a Slovakian 67% tea liqueur.

The last view of the mountains was also beautiful.

The next day, we visited an ice cave in the area. We went about 50 meters downhill and then through various cave rooms. The ice layer was 26 meters thick and shaped in a peculiar way at some points.

We continued our journey inland in Slovakia. There are fewer campsites here, so we had to do some more research and plan our route accordingly. The villages here look a bit more run-down, and there are many corrugated iron huts on the outskirts where people live. We felt a bit uneasy, but when we arrived, it turned out that the campsite had a beautiful location on the mountain slopes and was located in a huge private garden. The operators spoke good German, as he originally comes from the Netherlands and she is a local. We were the only guests, but everything on the site was lit up and prepared for us. We felt very comfortable here.

Now at the end of the season, we were allowed to help ourselves in their garden and take as much fruit and vegetables as we could consume. The selection was large, especially because of the at least 20 different apple trees. But there were also pumpkins, plums, and walnuts available.

Even though the place was beautiful, we didn't stay longer in the area of Slovakia and continued after 2 nights. We headed further south, and it slowly started to get warmer again. We quickly reached Hungary. After much consideration, however, we decided to just pass through Hungary at this point in the journey. We will probably visit the western part of the country later, but a stop at this point would have meant exchanging money, as Hungary uses the Forint for payment. But it made a very inviting impression on us. We drove through some wine regions and leisurely meandered along the gentle slopes, as there were only small hills in northeastern Hungary compared to the north of Slovakia.

We drove through Hungary completely without a highway vignette, and we also planned to do the same for Romania. The navigation system then led us to a border crossing shortly before Carei in Romania, where we wanted to spend the night on a campsite. But after driving through nowhere for ages and finally arriving at the border, we were surprised by a dead-end sign. And about 300 meters further, we saw the problem... the border crossing was closed.

And the next problem was that the next crossing, about an hour's detour away, could only be crossed with a valid vignette, which we didn't have. Not quite sure if there would be any gas stations where we could buy the thing, we then found out that we could also buy it online. It was directly linked to our license plate, and when the camera captures it, it is recognized that we have a vignette. Hopefully... 🤔 otherwise, we'll get a fine. So, now it's off to Romania. And bam, next thing we didn't have on our radar. Time change. Again the EEST, as in the Baltic states. One hour ahead. Now it was already 6 p.m. And to complete the disastrous day, all 4 campsites in Carei had already closed. By now it was dark, and if there is one thing we have been repeatedly told, it is 'don't drive a car in the dark'. For one, there are incredibly large potholes, and secondly, there are many stray dogs running on the streets. And since we couldn't get a proper impression of Carei in daylight and also not of Romania in general, we quickly checked into a small hotel for the evening and parked the van in an illuminated parking lot. The night was okay, and the next morning we continued. We covered a lot of ground to get to Transylvania. There were also campsites that were still open. We planned various excursions for the next few days. But more about that next week.