24th Baile Hercules Romania

Wedding procession

Badly in need of renovation

In the process of renovation

A spa experience

Hercules (it was his favourite spa location)

Diana

We woke up and decided to have breakfast at the campsite restaurant as well. We sat down and the German came out to ask us what we wanted, after ordering ham and eggs and chips (Bek swears this is breakfast, lunch and dinner in England) we watched him leave with his back and brow dripping in sweat (it wasn’t that hot btw), after hearing copious amounts of coughing he then disappeared for a while and came back looking much better so we assumed that his wife was trying to poison him or he was suffering some ill effects from tying one on the night before! Baile Hercules is famous for Hercules and the thermal springs as well as medicinal Roman baths, so off we set on our bikes in search of these; by the smell of sulphur in the air we assumed there would be plenty of options. We stopped first of all at the tourist information and attempted to communicate with a young guy whose English wasn’t the best and whose knowledge of the area seemed to require a little brushing up so we headed out on our own to explore. The town had some lovely old buildings that badly require renovating, most unfortunately were derelict and abandoned. We saw a wedding in the town centre, the procession of cars for the wedding must have been about 50+ and all were beeping their horns continually which seems to be a tradition here, it was rather noisy to say the least! We rode to The Roman Hotel to go to the Roman Baths, the hotel appeared to be having renovations carried out as there were no cars in the car park and workmen seemed to be coming and going, however the receptionist never mentioned this and said the baths were on the 2nd floor, were open and the price was only 2.5 euros and we were to pay after so off we trundled to find them. When we got to the 2nd floor it was very dark with no lights bare wires hung from the ceiling on the floor there were ladders, bags of rubble, pots of paint and general rubbish .There were no signs for the baths and after entering many empty rooms we found the baths. The water was hot and there were no other people using it so we decided to stay, we also had chairs on the balcony which faced a stream down below and the mountains above. Bek got electrocuted in the shower although lived to tell the tale! On our way back to the campsite we stopped at another market for fruit and veg, we were less than impressed when a lady tried to rip us off by charging 2e for 4 pieces of sweet corn. That night there was a huge thunderstorm, the thunder echoed off the mountains, we were quite pleased though as it drowned out the noise of the discothèque next door and the sounds of YMCA could no longer be heard!

23rd July Donji Milanovac Serbia to Baile Hercules Romania

Spa wear

Romanian face carved in the cliff

Iron gate

Hay fields

A serbian cat

We woke up and peaked out of the campers curtains, we weren’t expecting to be greeted by a completely chock-a- bloc car park and we were literally surrounded by vehicles in every direction. Turned out it was local market day and we were in its car park, maybe next time we will pick a better place to free camp. We had our first proper wash in days in the outdoor shower and had a wonder around the market while contemplating how we were going to get out of the car park. As luck would have it we went back to the camper and a couple of nearby cars soon left so we were able to manoeuvre our way out and head to the Romanian border crossing. We caused a huge tail of traffic at immigration in Serbia as Beks passport hadn’t been stamped when entering Serbia, we also had a small hold up in Romania as customs found a gun in the car in front of us. The customs officials must have thought they had done their days work as we were waved through without insurance document or drivers license checks. The first thing we noticed about Romania were the crazy drivers, after the border crossing there were lots of single lane roads due to road works and the drivers didn’t believe in stopping at red lights, we even saw coaches and cars towing trailers skip them. More often than not our lights would turn green and cars would continue to pass from the opposite direction, we went through on an amber light once and counted 12 cars follow behind us!
We got slightly lost finding the campsite in Baile Hercules and drove through a thermal spring area which was absolutely full of local people all of who were staring at us and many were dressed in clothing which didn’t leave much to the imagination. All along the road the verge was full of cars and caravans and people selling towels, popcorn, fruit, ice cream etc there were even make shift washing lines hanging from tress which people had erected. We finally stumbled upon our campsite which was surrounded by mountains in a nearby area but more civilised (read only 2 other vans there and they all had their clothes on!) than the thermal spring area we had passed through. We had dinner that night in the campsites restaurant the shared mixed grill was lovely but we kept getting a smell of burning and couldn’t figure out where it was coming from. After some time we realised the 400+ moths which had been flying near the restaurants outdoor lights were diminishing in numbers, we then saw smoke and realised the moths were getting burnt to death as the outdoor lights had no cover. We both felt tipsy by the end of the meal after the German owner insisted on us having shots of local brandy with him, this tasted pretty gross! The owner was the only waiter working but he was very drunk and we could hear him in the kitchen arguing with his wife.

22nd July Lake Grilsko to Donji Milanovac, Serbia

Thats a fairly big bath

Sunset over the Danube

I spy Romania

High tech header

We woke ourselves up with another refreshing dip in the lake, while we were swimming a shoal of flying fish flew past us and we wondered what large fish was swimming after them for its breakfast. Once again we had eggs (our favourite) for breakfast and were prepared to spend most of the day driving. After a scenic drive we arrived at Donji Milanovac late afternoon and parked in the car park in the harbour next to the Danube river and Derjdap national park (no mozzies though). After 4 days of not washing our hair with shampoo it had become rather oily, we were going to have a dip in the Danube and wondered if we could wash it in there. We decided to use a little amount of shampoo (not being Eco friendly we know) and be discreet in its use, there was no need for discreetness however, as Bek was washing her hair we looked up and 2 men were on the side of the river with a large bottle of shampoo covered in lather. The small town was bustling with people and we spent the evening walking along the boulevard and watching fishermen on the rivers edge, we spotted a few seals as well as an outdoor shower. We slept the night in the car park and the car next to us boom box was blaring music until 2am and a nearby restaurant had a band playing until 4am…no rest for the wicked ay!

21st July Nis to Lake Grilsko, Serbia

Is this really a road?

Tortiose and another lake

The road

Is this really where we are meant to be?

Hard at work

The next morning we ventured to “The Red Cross” which was one of the countries most notorious concentration camps back in the Nazi era. We had to dodge the wasps nest in the attic where the torture prison cells had barbed wire on the floor.
Nis market was on so we decided to get some food supplies for the journey to Lake Grilsko which lay ahead and also for dinner, among other things we got a kilo of peaches from an elderly lady who’s scales looked antique, we got 12 for only 40 cents and wished they would cost this back home.
On our way to Lake Grilsko we stopped off at Felix Romuliana which was a Romans Emperors palace built in the 3rd and 4th century.
Lake Grilsko is listed in a tourist guide to Eastern Serbia however there were no signposts for it and we spent a while driving down single lane dirt tracks before stumbling upon a farmer who gave us directions. We love finding places which haven’t been touched much by overseas tourists and we certainly found this here. The camper wasn’t so appreciative though and tortoise now has a few more dents and scratches from the trees overhanging the road. We parked up next to the lake for another night of free camping, the lake was lovely and after a refreshing dip we drank the fresh mountain spring water and read while watching our mates aka the huge flocks of swallows which were eating all the mozzies from the surface of the lake!

20th July Nis Serbia

Roman ruins

Our lunch spot

Nis didn’t have a campsite and one hotel wanted us to pay 10euros for the privilege of parking in their unguarded car park 9km out of town 20m away from the main motorway (it started out at 5 euros and then when another worker got involved in the transaction it turned into 10 lol) so we parked the camper in a residential area where we were to sleep for the night and then walked into town. Our first port of call was skull tower, in 1809 the Turks defeated the Serbians at the Battle of Cegar and to deter the Serbs from future rebellion they beheaded 952 men and embedded their skulls at skull tower. The walk from the city (in a very humid 37c) took approximately an hour although the girl at the tourist information said it would take 20 minutes by foot. We arrived at skull tower very sweaty to say the least and thought perhaps the tourist office lady was one of those marathon speed walkers!
After taking in the sites of Nis including the fortress we went for dinner. We both ordered a salad, although Bek thought she was being clever by ordering a Captus salad. When the waiter brought out our salads he handed Bek a plate of cabbage and Cass a plate of the tomato and cucumber salad which we had had at Borsko Jezero lake .We couldn’t stop laughing and soon figured Captus meant cabbage, the lady at the lake didn’t give us captus salad after all!

18th-20th July Borsko Jezero Lake Serbia

Savaca Mountains

Savaca landscape

Carting hay

Lake Borsko

Setting up camp, with all the locals

The tortoise and the lake

Some lovely locals

On our journey to Bor the poor Tortoise gave a few coughs and splutters before coming to a halt and conking out. The location was gorgeous, we were at the peak of Mount Savaca with its sheer rock cliff faces and we were surrounded by fir tree forests, lakes and green countryside. Although the location was gorgeous it was not such an ideal place to break down as we were on a bend on a hill and approx 40 km’s from civilisation. Luckily we figured the problem was the fuel filter (flipping dodgy Bio diesel) so we flushed it (after starting the laptop and opening up the manual that we had purchased – thank god) and after a few tense minutes we were on our way again.
We entered the campsite to be greeted with crowds of staring faces, the campsite was teeming with people although there were no other foreign tourists and no other motor homes present (there weren’t even any pitches, everyone else was accommodated in static vans). We think the staring was because both campervans and foreign tourists are a rarity in Serbia; anyway we were given prime position right by the lakes water edge which was very picturesque and had the Savaca Mountains in the background. After setting up our table and chairs we promptly lit a mozzie candle and coil and did the whole spraying ritual, this got us a few odd stares too and after a few minutes we realised there were no mozzies – hooray! Now it was time for our dot to dot of mozzie bites to subside. The lakes cold temperature seemed to help these bites die down also the campsite didn’t have a shower so we spent a fair bit of time in the water, and the drop toilets were rather unspeakable as well.
On the second night we went for dinner next to the lake, the menu was written in Serbian and the two owners in the restaurant didn’t speak a word of English. The lady was very friendly though and read out the whole menu (in Serbian lol), we both fancied fish to eat and were pointing to the lake while doing fishing rod actions , Cass even drew a picture of a fish . We weren’t sure if the lady understood us although she continued to talk ten to the dozen while flinging her arms around like a crazed Italian. In the end we played it safe and opted for goulash and salad as we were afraid of being handed a plate of offal or some similar local delicacy which we would have had to have been thrown in the lake while the lady wasn’t looking. Bek thought the lady called the salad Captus which turned out to be tomato, cucumber and onion with a cheese topping and was quite tasty. We were glad not to have been given cabbage as we got this with nearly every dish and it wasn’t agreeing with us, hmm lets just say we were both capable of propelling Tortoise along by the cabbage diet alone !

13th-18th July Belgrade Serbia

Sava temple

The big pink bus

Danger lol

Citroen rally

Belgrade and the Danube from the fortress

Storks above the monastery

The heat at the exit camp finally got to us so we were thankful to move on to a hopefully cooler Belgrade, on the way we decided to visit a monastery as the area was renown for them as the Serbs had built lots in an 83km radius to try to protect their culture from the invading turks. When we arrived at the campsite in Belgrade a beaten up old Volkswagen camper pulled up behind us. We recognised the unmistakable van and when a French couple got out we realised the same couple were parked across from us at Exit. At night we were sat outside having dinner when Cass said to Bek “does that chair look familiar to you?” and pointed to the French couples camping chair. Turned out they too were Eco Warriors and had acquired the hazardous flowery camping chair which Bek had abandoned after the near impaling incident at Exits chill out area!
We were very tired when we arrived at Belgrade due to lack of sleep at Exit , we were looking forward to a nice quiet night with no loud music and were commenting how quiet it was at the campsite, just as we said that a huge pink bus full of Swedish travellers turned into the campsite. The bus left the next morning however that evening a convoy of Citroen 2cv cars arrived as they were taking part in a rally they were much quieter however than the bunch of Dutch boys we had next to us at Exit who had a generator and sound system pumping out trance music non stop lol
One day we ventured out to find a laundry which was 8km away from the campsite, after two hours we were still driving around (passing the same places on a few occasions) so opted to hand wash instead. Directions in Serbia are very hard as firstly our trusted sat nav doesn’t pick up roads (Cass still isn’t talking to him), secondly hardly any roads are sign posted and thirdly the writing is in Serbian Cyrillic (like Russian lettering).
One night we had a gorgeous dinner in a place called ‘Little Bay’ the interior of the restaurant resembled an opera seating gallery with royal boxes, staff dressed in 18th century costumes and a live pianist and violinist. This is much more up market than our usual travelling eateries; Bek ordered the recommended wine and thought she was going to have to perform CPR on Cass. Cass had got the currency conversion muddled and thought the wine was 167 euros a bottle! It was infact 16.70 euros which was the price of our two starters and two mains combined but was a treat from our usual 1.50 euro 2l bottle of beer. The meal didn’t contain any garlic so when we got back to the camper we each chopped a clove in half and downed them like a tablet with water. The mosquitoes were particularly viscous here as we have found them to be anywhere on the Danube, we were eating copious amounts of garlic with every meal (including breakfast) as a form of mozzie repellent along with the coils, candles, net, spray and it appeared every time we killed one a thousand took it’s place.
One day we were exploring Belgrade and were holding a map looking for The Republic Square, after 5 or so confused minutes we realised we were actually at the square! The fortress in Belgrade was nice and is situated on a hill over looking the Danube River, the local men were playing chess and one of the market stalls was selling a 500 billion note from the time of the largest hyperinflation in history in 1993. We also walked 7kms in sweltering temperature to Sava Temple which is the largest place of worship in Serbia and can hold up to 10,000 people; this was however being refurbished lol.

5th-13th July Novi Sad/Exit Festival Serbia

Playing to no one!

Novi Sad main street

Mika performing

Yeah boi!

Novi Sad and the Danube from the fortress at dusk

Chill out zone at exit camp

Charming exit

The camp ground before the influx

The campground full up

Laughable antics

We decided to get to Exit Festival early as we wanted to avoid the queues and get a good shady camping spot. On arrival Cass was ecstatic to find out that we could park our van in the camping ground (for an extra fee of course) this meant no tents, our own bed and our own toilet: we were one of the posh camper’s lol! Although there were only two other vans at the campsite when we arrived we decided to make a grand entrance. There had been recent heavy rain and the ground was full of hay which had been put down to stop people getting stuck in the mud. The hay sounds like a good idea but combined with patches of wet clay ground it provides no grip for tyres. This meant we entered the campsite in the van doing wheel spins and skidding from side to side and then came to a screeching halt by getting bogged. One of the campsites workers managed to rustle up 8 burly men but they just seemed to make the problem worse and tortoise’s wheels sunk even deeper into the ground. We were eventually helped out of our bog with the assistance of a tractor as well as the 8 burly men pushing! After much sweat and a very tired revved out van engine and a broken tow rope strap we were free to set up camp for the next week.
Exit was a little crazy with the usual shenanigans of a festival, we left the camper one morning/afternoon to find a guy passed out under our bicycle rack and another morning a guy was passed out next to our generator. On one of the last mornings our neighbours were packed up ready for their flights back to the UK, they had little time to spare but their mate was AWOL, they were rather anxious with all scenarios running through their minds. Their mate eventually turned up all jolly and said he had just woken up in the bush outside the campsite as he passed out there the night before while clambering out of a taxi - the mates looked less than impressed, hopefully they didn’t miss their flight! One night we saw a man fall into a urinal while in the process of having a wee, he walked up to his friends soaked in urine as though nothing had happened!
Mika and Royksopp were our favourite acts although Missy Elliot’s performance was so terrible it was extremely entertaining (especially for Cass who didn’t believe hip-hop was a genre!). Missy spent ages signing trainers which she then threw into the audience (Bek was hoping to get one for Ebay) then 10 minutes was spent clearing a path in the crowd so she could walk through it (for 30 seconds), that was in between a Michael Jackson tribute speech (well we think it was about MJ but couldn’t be too sure!), three costume changes and about 10 minutes of terrible singing/wailing. She then just disappeared 50 minutes into what was meant to be a 2 hour performance! Sadly even though there were in excess of 180,000 people attending exit some acts played to no one, especially when the big acts were playing!
We stayed at Exit after the acts had finished and we both became Eco Warriors and turned others unwanted possessions into our treasure, among other things we acquired (ahem rehomed!) an awning, mosquito net, a football, 3 lilos (for Croatia and Albania), two beach mats, new (unbroken) camping chairs and a gas cooker. Bek acquired a flowery camping chair one day and we headed to the chill out area to read our books, Bek soon left it behind though as she nearly became impaled on a faulty leg. The music at Exit didn’t start until 7pm so most days were spent relaxing in the chill out area. One day a gorgeous puppy came into the area and pounced on a girl who was asleep in her sleeping bag on the floor. The girl was sat next to us and sat bolt upright and looked at Cass with a filthy look. Cass said “puppy dog” and pointed in the direction the puppy had gone, the girl looked less than impressed and appeared to think Cass was hallucinating or was making up a huge elaborate lie, it didn’t help as we were both chuckling as the puppy had disappeared at this point and we realised the explanation of (it was the) ‘puppy dog’ did appear far fetched as puppies are generally not seen at festivals.

4th July Subotica Serbia

Today was our first regulated border crossing since France as we were leaving the EU, as we were lined up for passport control we saw signs which said only 1 litre of spirits allowed, the amount of beer and wine allowed was small too . We hadn’t thought about border control when we purchased wine in Eger and had forgotten about the bottles of Absinth, whisky, Guinness and beer in the back of the camper. By this point it was too late to do anything as a customs official promptly asked to search the camper. Cass opened the back door for the customs official and the camper’s metal step fell out onto his foot. This seemed to be a good move as he didn’t bother to search us and quickly hobbled off, probably because he was in too much pain and was scared what else would fall out and injure him!
When we arrived in Subotica the campsite we were going to stay at was closed-we think we are jinxed when it comes to campsites! We finally found a place to stay in a hotel/bar car park, when we asked where the washing facilities were he pointed to an outdoor shower (so long for a nice shower before Exit festival), the toilet wasn’t much better either as it was in a unisex toilet block in the locals bar which seemed to be open 24 hours and was full of people playing poker and drinking 50% proof local spirits. This included the local cops who like the locals were smoking like chimneys, smoking seems to be the national sport, everyone from ambulance drivers to cooks appear to be chain smokers!.
Although the local cops were at the bar the staff still failed to register us despite this being a legal requirement in Serbia.

3rd July Szeged Hungary

Synagogue

City centre

Our supposed campsite lol

We arrived here to find our prospective campsite under water as the area had flooded a few weeks previously. At least this makes a change from turning up to the campsite being bulldozed! There were some signs around the town for another campsite 9kms away so we set off there. When we arrived it turned out the campsite was located at a natural spa site called ‘Schzinfurd’ and with our camping pass we could get free admission to the spa. We were excited about this and as soon as we were parked up we went to look at the spa. The excitement soon faded as we were greeted with nothing more than a muddy cold water pool; needless to say we politely declined a dip and opted to venture into town instead!
Szeged is full of pedestrian areas with lots of sidewalk cafes; the main square had three walls with 80 statues of Hungarian notables although we only recognised a few lol. The new synagogue was lovely it is supposed to be the most beautiful Jewish place of worship in Hungary; the interior was painted gold and blue in an art nouveau style.

Saturday 2nd July - Eger to Kecsemet (and then to Kisunmajsa)

Motorways of Hungary lol

Sunflowers and vineyards - is this the new (and affordable) Tuscany?

After packing up once again we were on the road heading towards Kecsemet where we were expecting to set up camp and see the town the following day. When we pulled up to the camp address all that was left was the reception building and the rest was being trampled by bulldozers (ala Wroclaw). Back to the camping books to realise that there was nowhere else to camp in Kecsemet so we headed off to what we thought was the middle of nowhere about 40km away, when we arrived we saw that the place was literally swarming with German tourists, the campsite we were heading to turned out to be full so we pulled into one advertised on the road and it turned out to be empty and perfect (even when two minutes later it started hailing!)