Summer holiday 2005, part 1 of 2
This year, we’re going a trip down Europe, stopping by Opatija in Croatia and Zalakaros in Hungary. And in case you’re wondering, I am writing this while on the road. God, I love my new laptop. And while I’m at it, I’m also using Microsoft AutoRoute 2005 to plot out the actual route we’re taking, and Jasc Paint Shop Pro to output the maps to a save-able image file. Let’s just see how far I can keep this up.
And just so you know, we left town on the first of July, meaning that each day count also represents the day of the month of July 2005. Nifty.
Day 1 started off early for the first stage of our trip. If you ask me, it was way too early for me, since I had watched The Abyss on DVD the night before. I kinda stayed up late on purpose to force myself into a deep sleep while on the road. I think all the driving is boring, so I really prefer being asleep for most of the ride. And just because of that, the driving stages of our trip won’t be as documented as the rest of our vacation. Starting off at 8:15am from Ålesund, we made stops at Åndalsnes and Lillehammer (you know, home of the Winter Olympic Games of 1994), before getting caught in a laser traffic control a little north of Minnesund at around 4pm. You could say it was quite a party-pooper on an otherwise speedy first stage. At a speed of 95 kmph in an 80 kmph zone, the fine amounted to 2600 NOK, which according to the (somewhat hot) female officer would’ve been 1000 NOK extra if we had been caught at 96 kmph. I guess you could call that “lucky”… And to add to the “luck”, we had been randomly picked out of a long line of cars travelling at about the same speed. Bummer. (And yes, I was so flustered about being pulled over that I forgot to take a picture of the female officer.) We continued on through Oslo, making a short stop to chat a little with my sister, who had been on vacation there for a week’s time. And to say our hello’s and goodbye’s before moving on to the general direction of Sarpsborg. Originally, we had planned to stop in Skjeberg (about 10 km further along the way from Sarpsborg). After some thought, we wanted to make sure we had a certain level of standard where we were about to stay, since it had become somewhat late in the day when we arrived at about 8pm. So much for that day. At least we slept with the comfort of a hotel.
Photos:
Typical Norwegian rest stop
My mom returning from a bathroom break
My mom and stepdad at the rest stop
Enjoying the scenery while passing by
Enjoying the scenery while passing by
Enjoying the scenery while passing by
Enjoying the scenery while passing by
On the road again
Day 2 also started off early, as most of our driving days on this trip. Not surprisingly, I was asleep for most of the trip. We originally planned to make our final stop for the day in Flensburg, right across the border to northern Germany, but as with most of the trip, nothing works out quite as planned. Well, at least for some of the trip. We only managed to get as far as Odense, birthplace of Hans Christian Andersen (Danish author, mainly famous for fairy tales such as The Ugly Duckling and The Little Mermaid). This time, we chose to overnight at the local Radisson SAS hotel. Luckily, our room was close enough to a wireless hotspot of “Odense kommunes frie Internet” (translates to “Odense community free Internet”), which enabled me to catch up on some of my backed-up e-mail and comics reading. Another “eventful” day.
Photos:
About to cross the border to Denmark
Waiting in line for the Öresund bridge
Waiting in line for the Öresund bridge
Crossing the Öresund bridge
Crossing the Öresund bridge
Entering the final tunnel to Copenhagen
Day 3 started off, well, you guessed it, early. Another early day. My eyes still hurt from staying up late, getting up early and sleeping while on the road. I never noticed passing Hamburg and Hannover. I think I was awake when we did pass Hamburg, but I can’t be sure; I was probably asleep and dreamed some of it. I did manage to watchMen In Black II on my laptop while on the road. That was kinda neat. Getting to do that, I mean. Battery power on this thing lasts anywhere from 3 hours down to 2.5 hours when fully charged. As with previous parts of our trip, we didn’t get as far as we originally planned. My stepfather had thought we would reach as far as Nuremberg, but alas, no dice. It was late already when we reached our makeshift destination of the day, which became Kirchheim, about 240 km from our original daily destination. At least the motel (which we thought was a hotel until we reached the room) had a swimming pool, allowing us to cool down. It was freezing cold when we entered the pool, meaning that we were probably way overheated by sitting in a hot car with the sun shining for several hours. I finished the day a little over midnight by watching The Matrix Reloaded, which I had brought with me on DVD.
DVDs I managed to fit into my backpack and which were chosen to come along for the trip:Die Hard With A Vengeance, Equilibrium, I, Robot, The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix Revolutions, Men In Black II, National Treasure and Underworld. Nice to know.
Day 4, another hellish, early, driving day. Apart from the other days, we chose to eat breakfast in our motel room, since their usual breakfast was oddly enough not included in the overnight price. If we wanted to take part in their breakfast buffet, we had to pay about 9 Euro extra. Each. Expensive breakfast. At least, today’s driving stage was going to be the last one for a couple of days. We passed alongside Nuremberg (Germany), Munich (also Germany) and Ljubljana (Slovenia) before arriving at our final destination at around 8pm; Hotel Kvarner in Opatija, Croatia. Too bad the Microsoft AutoRoute map I had on my laptop didn’t include Slovenia, Croatia or even Hungary (which we would go to after leaving Opatija). Okay, the places we were going to and pass through in these countries were marked on the map, but the roads we were about to travel on weren’t. Checking this later, it appeared that the only road maps included in this edition were for countries in Western Europe only. Bummer. Ah, well, at least I’m not planning on driving through Australia or USA in the near future. And speaking of driving, I think I’d rather take a airplane flight next time I’m going down here. Paint Shop Pro came in handy when drawing out the direction maps manually, though. Time for another dip in the hotel swimming pool to cool off after a long day in a hot car. Finally, we could relax without having to think about getting into the car for some time. We were going to stay here for 3 nights, what a great thought. We went off for a quick dinner at a pizza restaurant across the street from the hotel, and went to bed. At last, it was a more relaxed way to finish off the day.
Photos:
Driving at speeds over 160 kmph
The big open Autobahn
This is me most of the trip
We're up to here with fucking castles
Ah, the view of the Adriatic Sea from our hotel
The Adriatic Sea and the outdoor swimming pool
Another shot off The Adriatic Sea at sundown
My hotel room
My hotel room
Relaxing at the restaurant across the street
Tips when in Opatija, Croatia: Try one of the pizzas offered at various restaurants in town, they’re as close to Italian-style pizzas as you’ll get. Perhaps at times even better (I don’t really have a reference point). Also, I’d recommend a stay at Hotel Kvarner, pick a southbound room for the best view. If you’re hungering for Internet access, look up the Havana Club on the main street in town. They’re located on the upper floor (west end of the building), they open at noon, 1 hour of Internet access costs 30 Croatian kuna (at the time of writing this, about 3.75 Euro), 20 kuna extra if you bring your own laptop and want to use that instead. Drinks and sodas can be ordered in the adjoining room.
Day 5 didn’t quite start off as planned. Rain poured down, and thunder was roaring through the sky. What a way to start our relaxation, eh? All this time we were driving through endless sunshine and warm weather, only to get bad weather the day we were going to rest. Good thing we found an Internet café nearby where I could park my ass and my laptop for a couple of hours. Making it run on battery seemed like a good idea, since it would only last for about 2.5 hours, and that would be my signal to unplug. It’s not a good idea to spend most of my vacation plugged in to an Internet café somewhere, even if it was pouring down outside. Two hours of Internet time along with the fact that I was using my laptop (which was 20 kuna extra) came down to 80 Croatian kuna (HRK). Luckily, it wasn’t pouring down all of the time, and I could get from the hotel to the Internet café and back without getting wet. A few days offline and then getting signs of withdrawal may be a hint to cut down a little on your online time. I spent most of the day relaxing in my hotel room, watching The Matrix Revolutions, and then going to the Internet café at about 3pm, meaning that I managed to waste away this rainy day in some way or another. We did get some swimming pool time in the indoor hotel swimming pool (yes, they also had one in the basement) before going for dinner at about 7:30pm.
Day 6 was, at last, the day to take in some sunshine. And according to the weather forecast, it was going to be the only day of sunshine during our stay. Oh, joy. Well, at least I got to fry some bacon (and I’m not talking about food here) for a little bit before noon, which was going to be the time where the sun would be frying too much for anyone to really take in the sun. We alternated between licking some sun and dipping in the outdoor hotel swimming pool to chill down. While passing on into the afternoon, I spent some more time in the Internet café (reading e-mail, reading comics, chatting a little bit, getting weather forecasts for the next week on the road, and then some) before finishing off the day (before dinner time) with Equilibrium on DVD. My legs hurt like hell. Looks like I got a sunburn at the bottom of my legs shaped like sunscreen not rubbed in far enough down on my legs. Yay. Out with the Aloe Vera lotion, I guess. We took the evening a little further away from the hotel, where I also bought a triangle-shaped painting from a seaside vendor (which was painted by the vendor’s brother). That was nice. The vendor was kinda pushy, though. And excited as hell about the paintings. No wonder, since the artist was a very close relative to him. I’ll return with a photo of the painting I bought later on.
Day 7, another day for thunder and rain. Yipee. And I mean that. Not. Even so, I did have an excuse for not taking some more time in the sun. Two excuses, I mean. One being the rain, the other being sunburned the the bottom of my legs, alongside my arms (a tiny stripe that hadn’t been covered with sunscreen) and along the spine of my back (which my mother has to be blamed, since she was the one putting on the sunscreen on my back). Make that three excuses; the rain, the sunburn and the fact that we were moving on to our next destination – Zalakaros, Hungary. The trip through Croatia, passing by Zagreb (the nation’s capital), and crossing the border into Hungary went along pretty uneventful, with the exception of my friend Lars calling me while we were crossing the border, unaware of the fact that I was on vacation. He hadn’t been in town for some time, and we don’t talk much, since he’s studying computer engineering in Trondheim nowadays. Anyway, we decided to stop by the McDonald’s restaurant in Nagykanizsa (which apparantly is the only one in the area) for a quick bite before ending the day in Zalakaros, which is about 5km north-east of Nagykanizsa (pronounced “Nadj-kanisha”, for your non-Hungarians). And let me just warn you a little when passing the thermal bath in this town: it smells like rotten eggs. I guess that goes for all the thermal spas in Hungary as well, the smell of rotten eggs when getting closer than 100 meters of these spas. Another nice fun-fact. We arrived in the sun, found some rental appartment to stay in, and turned in for the night after a quick dinner at a local restaurant. What we consider to be a small amount, seems to be a big amount around here. The dinner cost us a little less than 300 NOK, which consisted of three plates of venison, wine, soda and the after-dinner coffees, drinks and tea (that last one was for me). We even left about 1000 forint (HUF), which is not more than about 30 NOK, as a tip, and they appear to be eternally grateful for it. Nice.
Photos:
Sunburnt legs
Passing Zagreb, Croatia
I'm sleeping again
I'm sleeping again
Going to Zalakaros: You can get by with speaking German around here. Most shops and restaurants include texts and menus in German as well as Magyar (which, by the way, is the Hungarian language). Most restaurants come with someone playing music to your meal, so don’t be surprised. The polite thing to do, is to leave a 500 forint-bill (or more) for the music player when you leave the restaurant to show your appreciation, even if you were eternally annoyed by the music. Regarding accommodation, it’s very easy to find in Zalakaros. You will usually see a lot of people by the road with small signs advertising in German “Zimmer Frei”, “Haus Frei”, “Appartman Frei” or even “Wonung Frei” (which, in that order, translates to “room available”, “house available”, “apartment available” using an alternate spelling and “apartment available”), which they proudly displays to any non-local car that passes by. I’d estimate about a third of all buildings in Zalakaros has areas inside which are put up for rent during the tourist season (which seems to be all of summer and most of spring and fall). Not including the 6 or 7 hotels in town. Accommodation costs from 30-40 Euro per night, depending on who you go to. Basically, what I’m saying is, don’t bother to make reservations when coming to Zalakaros. Accommodation is very easy to find.
Day 8 included a lot of clouds, even though we were greeted with the sun when we first arrived. Even so, we decided to take a day in the thermal spa for a visit to some of the many swimming pools it provides (which isn’t just a spa, by the way). I think it can be considered to be an indoor/outdoor combined thermal spa and water park. We started off in the one indoor pool which includes a water current pathway in the pool. Fun stuff. This particular pool also has a stair in one end that takes you directly to an outdoor pool. I spent some time in there too. After the pool time, I took off some time off the cloudy day to watch Underworld on DVD. Later on, we also discovered a DVD rental place that also includes a computer with Internet access just across the street from our accommodation. I didn’t get the chance to do just that today, since it was already late in the day when we found it. And we were heading for dinner at the time, this time at another restaurant nearby. I had a variety grill plate with fries. Yummy!
Photos:
Cloudy overview of Zalakaros from our apartment
Cloudy overview of Zalakaros from our apartment
A slightly bigger room for me
Waiting for dinner at a restaurant
Day 9 provided us with some more time in the rain. A whole lot more rain. We basically just took a trip to a shopping mall in Nagykanizsa to kill some time and to do some shopping. We also decided that this was the day for a home-cooked meal, so we got the groceries we needed to get something other than restaurant food for a change. After that, we drove back in the driving rain and started making the dinner. From what I could tell, we had some sausage-based course with potatoes on the side. Interesting, but homely, selection. We played some cards and then I finished the day by watching Die Hard With A Vengeance on DVD. Just another rainy day, I suppose.
Day 10 had sun for us at last! Even though I was still sunburnt, I still had the chance to get some sun for the rest of my body. We took another trip to the thermal spa, and this time around, we started with the outdoor pool we had been in the other day. Sun, fun, water – what’s not to like? Days do seem to pass by fast when you’re not bored, and since we went for a late lunch at a restaurant inside the thermal spa area (pizza), we never got around to eating a big dinner later on. What’s weird, is that the owner of one of the spa restaurants (who was also waiting tables) recognized us. Last time I was here, was 3 years ago, and he still remembered us. Amazing. We did also stop by Janos Papp, a local bar owner who’s of the nice and cuddly kind. Even he remembered us (somewhat). From what I could tell, he felt that the faces were familiar and started going through his photo album to see if he could find us (he did take a photo of us when we took one of him last time I was here). Anyways, a couple of hours later, I ended the day with another DVD flick, this time going for National Treasure from my backpack. I’m down to my last unwatched DVD now.
Photos:
Sunny overview of Zalakaros from our apartment
Day 11 turned out to be yet another rainy and otherwise uneventful day. At least I got the chance to catch up on my holiday diary writing and on my photo editing. The pictures I’ve taken are quite big, so I had to scale them down to two sizes; one for the thumbnails and another for the “full-size” ones (which were originally over 4 times the size). Quite something. At least the rainy day didn’t go to waste – I had a week or so backed up on my vacation writing. Writing a little bit each day, my ass. Good thing I seem to have quite a memory. I did take a few moments away from the laptop to watch the rain rolling in and to take some pictures of the event. I had no idea the weather could be so fascinating. The pictures below are taken roughly 5-7 minutes apart, so I’d say the weather was coming about pretty quickly. Just insane, if you ask me. I even spotted three ladies playing cards on a balcony across the street, even when the rain was pouring in. It took them about 15 minutes from when the rain started before they finally gave up and went inside. I wonder how much they were playing for? I mean, no card game can be that interesting, right? Too bad I forgot to point my camera at them while they were sitting there. Anyway, we decided to grab dinner inbetween showers at the closest restaurant. My treat of the day was turkey breast with a fruit sauce and rice. Mmmm, s’good.
Photos:
A vine crop of some sort below in the backyard
There's a thunderstorm a-comin'
The unsuspecting good weather at the other end
There's a thunderstorm a-comin' even closer
Rollin', rollin', rollin'...
And that heavy rain follows very close behind
Here comes the rain again
Day 12 was, and you guessed it, another raincloudy day. With showers inbetween. I’ll tell you, we’ve been quite unlucky with the weather the entire vacation trip. We had sunshine and hot weather the entire time we’ve been driving, as well as the day we arrive at our two destinations, only to have it rain from the second day. When we were in Croatia, we had one lousy day of sunshine, not counting the day we left, and here in Zalakaros, we’ve had sunshine two out of our ten days here (including the forecast for tomorrow). It almost feels like the weather is mocking us, considering the weather reports from home, which talk about sunshine and hot weather from the day after we left town. Great. Just great. At least we’ll have the chance to take in some sun tomorrow before leaving the day after that. I chose roasted gooseliver on toast for dinner today, and I also had enough room for some dessert. Mmmm, strawberry pancake. Delicious.
The story continues here:
Article: Summer holiday 2005, part 2 of 2