Joe and Gem: Euro-Adventures In Time and Space!

Just One Massive Golf Course

2009-10-12T10:43:00.000+01:00

After Slovenia, we were in a race against time to reach Munich to meet friends. This meant zipping through Austria as quick as possible, which turned out to be just dandy, because Austria is Über-expensive. Even our as-then diet of cold tinned lentils mixed with paprika and dried bread would be unaffordable in Austria.

Austria is riddled with hidden fees, tolls and costs. To travel on their main roads, you have to buy a sticker for your car that costs 30 Euros. Roads have barriers and toll booths slung across them wherever the road had cost that little bit more to build. Strange unexpected additions appeared on bills. A tiny cardboard tray of chips cost 3 Euros.

The good news is that Austria is the most beautiful country in Europe. Austria has greedily grabbed all the best bits of the Alps, ensuring actually breathtaking views from any given point. The mountains shoot out of the ground and tickle the sky with their needlepoint peaks. Austrians must have permanent cricks in their necks from spending so much time craning eyes up at them for a better look.

Pootling through the valleys, we became vaguely aware that something weird was surrounding us, but couldn't quite put our fingers on it. After a day of driving, we figured it out. The hillsides, the mountainsides, the farms, everything was kept in pristine condition, like a giant golf course, or a massive National Trust garden. We saw men mowing hillsides en mass. Austria is a country that likes everything just so.

It lent everything a creepy Twilight Zone feel. This was exacerbated when we were asked to pay 29 Euros - 29 Euros! - to travel down a mere 13 Km of Alpine road by a man in a toll booth. Gem pointed at our map. There was a road along the valley parallel to ours. 'How much is the toll along this road?' she asked.

"Oh - that one's only 10 Euros," he replied with a cheerful shrug. We jabbered incoherently, swung the car around, and drove to the valley that is apparently only worth 30% as much as the first one. After that nightmare toll experience, Austria had a final joke up it's sleeve: to get into Germany - that is, to get out of their country - you had to pay an 8 Euro toll fee to trundle a couple of kilometres through a tunnel.

We shoved money at the manically laughing woman in the booth and got the hell out of there before we had to sell blood to survive any longer.

Yes, It's Small

2009-09-23T12:03:00.000+01:00

Slovenia is tiny. You probably guessed that. But it's surprising just how small it is. You can drive through it, from north to south or east to west, in an hour or so. We excitedly passed through the border checkpoint.

A nice Slovenian man in a very starched uniform didn't check the car for contraband, smuggled immigrants or looted Yugoslav plutonium, as I'd hoped. However, he did firmly remind us that in Slovenia, headlights must be used 24 hours a day. Even their crime concerns are small-time.

Within about 25 seconds, we'd crossed half of the country and camped in another beautiful forest next to another beautiful river, near Ljubljana, Slovenia's capitol city. As we drove, we listened to my favourite radio station ever [see picture].

We visited Ljubljana in search of tasty food. By now, our money supply was virtually non-existent, and our staple diet was lentils and large hunks of bread, so the prospect of a snack composing mainly of saturated fats and/or sugar was exhilarating.

Ljubljana is hilariously tiny. It's about the size of Crewe, but with exactly all the charm, beauty and culture that is absent in Crewe. The city is built around a lovely river criss-cossed with lovely bridges, and the streets were trampled by unlovely tourists. However, if you ignore the swaggering tourists and the surprising number of Irish pubs, the city is a delight. If Disney made European cities, they'd look like Ljubljana. We ate pizza slices by the river and watched the world go by.

After a couple of days though, we'd seen almost literally everything in Slovenia. Austria awaited.

Squid For Tea x 10

2009-09-10T10:11:00.000+01:00

We were later told by a barmaid that Senj 'was for old people,' and that we should have gone to Zrce, on Pag Island - 'the Croatian Ibiza'. Thus 'old' Senj suited us just fine: we were tired, poor and looking forward to a nice rest.

There was a small, cheap campsite with it's own shingle beach, and we quickly camped up and dived in. The Adriatic is crystal clear and as cold as ice - perfect, as the sun was hot enough to cook eggs on the car bonnet, and if we'd had enough money, this tasty protein-packed theory would have been tested to the full.

We were just happy to be able to sunbathe on a beach, something that Croatia's coast is strangely lacking in. Instead, Croats and German tourists jostle for sun-soaking space on large, specially-built concrete beach-jetties. They looked like langoustine on a griddle. In many ways, they were just that, oiled, pink and crispy.

After a long, cheap, satisfying rest on the beach, and many meals of grilled squid or burek - large quarter-circles of puff pastry filled with local sour cheese - we rattled up towards Karlovac, home of Croatia's main brewer of lager, Karlovacko. We stayed on another lovely campsite (a generally oxymoronic description), then spent a day next to a large, swimmable river, drinking the beer. The next day we visited Zagreb.

Croatia's capitol is small but large, local but bustling. The architecture indicated Austro-Hungarian wealth from the past, and the cheap, hearty, tasty food suggested Croatia's recent, poor, rural past. I had a vast lake-like bowl of bean and sausage stew for about £3, and Gem took another opportunity to gorge on grilled squid. We bought bottles of local, ultra-bitter Croatian aperitifs, cedar-wrapped cigars and visited ex-Croatian footballing superstar Zvonomir Boban's bar. It was a great day.

After spending twice as long in Croatia than we had reckoned, the race for our ferry in Calais was on, and Slovenia, Austria and Germany were inbetween us. The Micra was pointed for the hills.

Lard and Wine For Breakfast

2009-09-03T10:14:00.000+01:00

Well, we slept when we arrived in Bologna - for precisely three hours - and then put on our dandiest clothes and caught the bus into town. Bologna is beautiful, like Italian cities are, and it has not one, but two, leaning towers. They stopped half way through building one because, due to subsidence, it was (and still is) leaning precariously.

It says much about the Italian predisposition for chaotic organisation that almost immediately, another, taller tower was commissioned to be built ten yards away from the first. It now leans at an even more perilous angle.

We spent the next three days hassled by benevolent Italian mosquitoes (the worst we found anywhere), and eventually gave up in an itchy, bite-fuelled huff and headed north to Schio. We found the cheapest campsite within 50 miles, which was up a mountain near Schio. It was staffed and populated by pensioners, none of whom spoke English, but all were thrilled by the exciting addition of young foreigners.

They demonstrated their pleasure at our presence through gifts of food, wine and by putting up with my garbled attempts at Italian. On the 1st of August, we were woken up at 9.30 and beckoned over to the social room, where everyone was sitting around tables, drinking litres of frizzante white wine and eating lard sandwiches. This, it was explained, is an old yearly tradition. Eating the cured pork fat sandwiches and drinking wine prevents snakes from biting you for the a whole year.

This seemed as good a reason for drinking at that time in the morning as any I'd ever managed to conjure up, so we joined in (see picture), and by 11.30 were full of lard and hopelessly drunk, and so went back to bed. Lesson learned: OAPs have lots off boozy fun. We stayed at the campsite for five nights, due mainly to the persuasive attention of the old folk.

In the end, we escaped for the border, through the delicious town of Trieste, and free-wheeled into Slovenia, hoping the petrol would be cheaper. It was, and, car topped up to overflowing, we gunned the mighty Micra for Senj in Croatia.

France Owes Us

2009-08-18T19:19:00.000+01:00

We must have passed through some sort of electrical storm in the mountains, because my iPod suddenly died. Then the super-hi-tech phone that I found in the mud at Bestival which was acting as our GPS also died. Then the 12v-240v transformer that we'd been using to charge all our gizmos exploded in a cloud of acrid smoke. All within two hours. Bummer, dude.

We stopped for a few nights in the Pyrenees, and camped in a cherry orchard next to a man called Pascal, who spent his days talking to himself and whittling miniature chairs out of cherry wood. He was charmingly crazy, which may not be unconnected with his admission that he smoked 'great Lebanese hashish' for 20 years. We found a lane where we finally resorted to scrumping - picket apricots, cherries and plums off trees.

We left and headed to a small village called Blauvac, chosen, as all our campsites are, because it was the cheapest possible in the area. It turned out that we were right next to where the Tour de France finished - Mont Ventoux, and on the strength of many breathless descriptions from fellow campers about how INCREDIBLY AMAZING the experience would be, we went along, with a picnic.

Well, it was a fabulous experience after all. It was a bit like a theme park - maybe Middle Aged Obscure Sports Enthusiast World or something - where you could imagine what it was like to live a dull, mainly meaningless existence where waiting five hours - five hours, mind - for the infinitesimally short moment where a bunch of sweaty, grim-faced men whistle past at light speed, and then rushing for the car to beat the traffic constitutes a Good Time.

We moved on again to the Alps, and then into Italy, where the roads have been signposted by blind people, and ended up driving for another 24 hour stint, because the two campsites we headed to were 'Campervan Only'. By the time we'd been rejected for the second time, we decided to head to Pisa, to see the tower, and to see what would happen. Pisa was lovely, and I have no idea how the damn tower is upright, such is the crazy tilt. We mingled with The Kids by the river and got back into the car at 3am, and rattled away to Bologna, wondering when sleep might grace our lives again.

Another 24 Hours

2009-08-16T18:57:00.000+01:00

We drove out of Yecla with heavy hearts, but light wallets - we had 'enjoyed' Spain too much and blown a disproportionate amount of cash there. 'It was all worth it, though,' we told ourselves, as we pootled on petrol fumes north up the coast. Alex's mum had cooked us a truly wonderful meal before we left, and, having stuffed ourselves, we weren't worried about needing to eat for another few days.

We were concerned about paying for pricy Spanish campsites. We were heading for Peniscola, in order to consummate the heavenly Coke-can/Male groin photo opportunity, but when we got there, it looked average, and we made a split-second decision to eschew the knob-gag and gun it for Barcelona.

We arrived in Barcelona and found the world's most expensive car park at the bottom of the Ramblas. It was dark (midnight-ish), and all other parking places were full. We got changed in the car and strolled, sophisticated, into Barcelona. We had enough money for drinks in three bars, but found that prices had rocketed since we were there a year and a half ago, and we only just managed two. The barmen had to prize the money from my fingers, and the grinding noise from my teeth echoed loudly.

We spent the rest of the night wandering around, being hassled by hundreds of Indian hawkers, all selling the same cans of beer for a Euro a pop. Just before sunrise, we went to the beach to watch it rise with the other Eurotrash drunks, slept for exactly 15 minutes, and went for breakfast.

We then made another (architectural) pilgrimage to the Sagrada Familia, drank enough caffeinated beverages to stun Amy Winehouse, got back in the car, and drove, exhausted, to France. We swore never to do anything like that again. A week later we did exactly the same thing, but that's a different story...

Heat, Road Movies and Extreme Kindness

2009-08-15T17:00:00.000+01:00

Grenada was JUST TOO DAMN HOT. So we drove out of town, took a left and swung through what turns out to be the driest, hottest part of Europe, and where they filmed the Good, The Bad and The Ugly. It was thus hot, dry and had lots of straight roads through scrubland. I imagined we were in our own version of Vanishing Point, the ace 70's amphetamines and desert-speeding movie, and I felt ALL MANLY doing it.

Unfortunately, without the necessary Amphetamine-hard-liquor-and-fiery-death that would have completed my Vanishing Point dream, we pointed the Micra north, towards Yecla, a small town in the south east of Spain, where our amigo Alex Gil lives.

We stayed with his family in a spare apartment above the bar that Alex's dad owns. For the record, let me state that Alex's family are the most lovely people in Yecla, if not all of Spain, and they welcomed us into their home like long-lost relatives. It was wonderful.

Yecla is a hot town in the hills (I think), north of Murcia. When we arrived, frazzled and crispy round the edges, Alex whisked us off to a local spa, where for a few Euros, we lounged like sea lions in warm spring water all day. Alex and I fell asleep in the bubble pool, and Gem cruelly took photos.

Later, Alex took us around Yecla. He knows everyone. Sorry - I meant, Alex knows EVERYONE. A normally quick stroll across a quiet plaza involves people dropping shopping, babies, or anything else they might be holding and rushing over to chat with Mr. Yecla, who greets all and sundry with a cheery "Hey! Que Pasa?" It must be murder for him to get out of his seat in a busy bar to go to the toilet.

Alex's parents fussed around us, making sure we had enough to eat and drink, of which we had plenty, what with living just above their bar. Alex's brother, Victor, was there too; he is a supremely nice guy, and happens to be dating the most beautiful girl in town. And Alex's sister, Maria, is the cutest child of all time, without question. It was all just lovely.

In the end, we tore ourselves away, a day after eating a Paella served in a pan the size of a garden pond. It was excellent, and had a whole, chopped-up rabbit (head and tail included) in it, as well as snails. I hate snails, but Alex and his friend Reuben forced us to try them. So here's the verdict: the sauce the caracoles come in is delicious, but the mucus-like beings themselves are, well, mucus-like.

So we headed north, aiming to stop halfway up the coast, at the town of Peniscola, for obvious reasons. Oh, how wrong we were...

NORMAL SERVICE WILL BE RESUMED SHORTLY

2009-08-14T16:03:00.000+01:00

Christ, we haven't been able to find any internets whatsoever in Italy or Croatia. But now we're in Slovenia, reknowned technological enclave, and there's wi-fi everywhere.

So we'll bring you up-to-date with the last month or so's goings-on, possibly in one, huge, migrane-inducing MEGA POST, but more likely in a series of small ones over a long period of time.

10-4 old buddies,

Joe 'n' Gem

Porto and on and on and on

2009-07-20T21:16:00.000+01:00

After Porto, there was Guarda, the highest town in Portugal. We drove up and up and up, literally into the clouds at the top of the mountains. The campsite comprised 90% dust and 10% irritating flies, but was also only 9 Euros a night, and after the ridiculously inflated prices of Spain and Porto, it became an imaginarily lush, green vale of delight. We meant to spend one night, but after wandering round the nooky streets and making cooing sounds at the views, the curiously rock-bottom-cheap wine, we immediately decided to stay longer.

We ate the best food OF ALL TIME - a Francesina, which is basically a meat sandwich covered in cheese, a fried egg and soup, which sounds grimmer than a Spam croissant, but was a truly wondrous discovery. I didn't take a picture because I was too busy eating.

Then we thundered (as much as one can 'thunder' in a Nissan Micra) through the badlands of Extremadurra, and the rest of the south of Spain, to Granada, where we decided to stay in a hostel because it was scarcely more expensive than the stupidly pricey Spanish campsites. And when the temperature is 41 degrees Celsius, a tent sounds as appealing as a Spam croissant. Wait, I've used that one already. Anyway, proof:

In Granada, they can't help giving food away, and lump a huge plate of tapas in front of you with every beer you buy. The beer was necessary because the heat was so fierce, it was like being repeatedly punched in the face by a very hot and angry person.

We duly filled our boots with the beer and food, and hit the road again, to save our sanity from the MENTALIST heat.

Vigo Nearly Killed Me

2009-07-13T15:43:00.000+01:00

We've been here a month now, and it seems like only five minutes since we arrived in our first town, Peronne, gently sobbing because of the weather. At the same time, Peronne could be five years ago, such is the difference of the environment we're now in. People, weather, food, towns - are all totally unlike everything else, and next month, it'll be different again. You only have to travel a few miles, or cross one border, and suddenly life is filled with surprises.

For example. We went out one night in Vigo. It was messy. We got back to the tent 16 hours after leaving it, having 'popped out for a quick drink'. This is one of two photos that survived:

It was taken at 8am, as we went on to another club. The other is in a post that will appear on ANBAD on Friday, in a post that covers Vigo's nightlife in more 'depth', including info about a scrape I had with a Russian mobster/pimp, and his mother/prostitute. Stay tuned.

Vigo was great, but now we're in Porto and - holy crap - it's the most beautiful city in the world. It's like stepping back in time, to when Portugal clearly had all of the money that had ever existed, and decided to plough it all into making every building in Porto wonderful.

After a while, you get gorgeous building fatigue, and have remind yourself that the run-down and crumbling house on a narrow street in Nowheresdistrict over there is actually so architecturally delightful that if it was in any other city there'd be books written about it, but here it's just a cobbler's, slowly run by an old man smoking a tiny cigar.

Here's Gem standing beside the most ugly building in Porto.

Seriously. They cover every other building in colourful tiles, so that even the dull ones look zingy and alive. And the cakes! What they lack in style they make up in sheer... custard. And don't get me started on the Bacalao - smoked cod. I've eaten my bodyweight - twice over - in the stuff. Good times. Two months to go...

A View To A Kill

2009-07-07T17:00:00.000+01:00

This was the view from our tent in Leketiu, near Bilbao. The town's name may also have been spelt Lekitio, Luketeio or Lekutiu - I just can't remember, because it was so difficult. but the view, and the town, was lovely.

In Other News: Here's two posts on 'sister blog', A New Band A Day, which is, frankly, A New Band Every Other Day at the moment, but who's counting?

A blog post about the lovely, and slightly middle class Cahors Fete de Musique.
A blog post about Euro Pop, and it's hellish qualities. (You might need to scroll to find that post. It's the July 6th one)

They're probably worth a read, and apparently, this counts as 'cross blog marketing', which is apparently good for a CV, if I ever get a job again.

Yet More "Aren't These Foreigners Funny?" Stuff

2009-07-04T17:00:00.000+01:00

Except this time, that sound you can hear is a barrel being wholeheartedly scraped.

Here's a town that almost has a funny name, but doesn't quite:

And here's a bar which might want to rethink it's 'branding strategy' (click for bigger):

No more now, I promise. It's getting a bit xenophobic and I don't want to end up with Jim Davidson as a subscriber.

The Greatest Town Name Of All Time, Ever

2009-07-02T18:53:00.000+01:00

Oh, please. This is just getting silly now.

Once again, we drove a day out of our way just for these photos. You just don't usually get opportunities like these you know.

San Sebastian, or Urkkkzz Zkuuzkkzz

2009-06-25T09:22:00.000+01:00

Here in Basque country, the language is crazy. It's like a more obscure version of Welsh, with plenty of U's, K's and a whole ton of Z's. It's a lovely contrast to Biarritz, only 30 miles away, which is the worst place in the world.

I discovered a new, deeply enjoyable sport in Biarritz, which involved wandering from bar to bar, pausing to allow one's jaw to jar again and again against the pavement at the genuine ridiculousness of the prices. One was charging 2E50 for - brace yourself - 150 ml of lager. That's about a half a thimbleful.

But San Sebastian is cheap(er) and deeply lovable. We drank lots of vine, beer and cider and ate tons of tapas. As such, we didn't take any photos, busy as we were, fillingn our faces. So here's a picture of Gem beating me at Mini Golf on a campsite in Cahors instead.

This Photograph Needs No Caption

2009-06-25T08:52:00.000+01:00

Or accompanying text.

Yes, we did drive 50 miles out of our way for these pictures.

Martel (not the Cognac)

2009-06-19T13:57:00.000+01:00

After several days of MASSIVE CAKE CONSUMPION and travel through France, we made it down to a place called Martel (near Cahors). It's very hot down here, and we've camped in the one emplacement on the campsite that has no shade whatsoever. I have to keep going for lukewarm showers and lying in the shade cast from an open car door.

Still, the most important experience in France is eating the vast array of incredible cakes. Here is a photo of a Religieuse:

Which is probably named because only God him/herself could fit the gallons of gloopy chocolate custard that abounds within the choux pastry. The Best Cake Yet is the amusingly named Un Gland, which is as delicious as it is hilarious. There is no existing photo of un Gland, as I eat them faster than even the fastest camera shutter speed can hope to manage.

NEWS OF INTEREST ONLY TO MEN, PROBABLY:

The in-car 12v -> 240v 3-pin plug converter/adapter works a treat
The penknife is currently the most useful tool for day to day man stuff
The Nissan Micra has had no major incidents so far, exept for the windscreen, which is now a dead bug graveyard/slaughterhouse.

Finally, here's a picture of us on a bridge somewhere, and one of Gem eating the Best Nougat Ever, from Sancerre, which was so good, you'd kill your grandma for it (and probably would have to to get the money to afford it).

Il pleut...

2009-06-11T18:08:00.001+01:00

So yesterday, on the day when we drove for ever and ever and were up for about 20 hours, we arrived in the Somme and guess what? It was raining, a bit like it does in the Somme. In fact, it was torrential. So we stayed in a cheapo inn and drank Pastis with a guy at the bar who engaged me in a long conversation about pomme de terre in French.

But today it's sunny. Proof:

and we're staying in a campsite with a swimming pool and a bar with wi-fi (hence post). There should have been a photo of Gem jumping into the pool, but I forgot to press the button as she was jumping.

Now we're off for snacks and wine, and hopefully no rambling conversations about root veg.

A Bientot!

PS: If you acxtually want to keep up with events as we infrequently post them, but can't be bothered to use the internet, enter your email address into the box on the right and get it whizz-bang automatically!

Not Gone Yet...

2009-06-09T16:55:00.000+01:00

But we have spent many hours trying to cram all our ~~crap~~ stuff into the car. And guess what? After only four hours, it all fits! We left out unnecessary items, like food, bedding and the camping gas cylinder.

Most exciting moment was when Joe managed to enable the car radio code by mistake, and then couldn't unlock it again, and then spent an hour panicking about the premise of three months with no music before the kind lady at the Nissan Garage calmly sorted it all out, and then Joe had a lie down in a dark room where there was whale sounds playing.

Leaving tomorrow at Stupid O'Clock!