I hear sirens, so off goes the music. Maybe it’s the firemen can’t be arses to talk room to room so use loud speakers.
We’re 100m from fort myers beach playing a cardgame: shithead and we’re almost out of wine, all of the cider having been drunk down on the beach.
Fill in; today was a boring 400mile drive down Florida.
We arrived here in time to have a swim in the sea while the sun was setting.
Alan is afraid of the sea, even if it is 2ft deep! Creepy crawlies nibble away your extremities?
It is wonderfully warm here, in the sea and out.
We tried having a pic nic dinner on the beach, but due to the serious amount of mosquitos attacking us, we retreated from the water to drink and play cards.
Alan picked the game, won initially, but that didn’t last long.
So i’m sat here with wine, cards, bread and humous while he’s off buying liquor.
I could cheat and change his cards, but is it worth it?
We’re going to sleep in the tent tonight. There are no camp sites, we’re not allowed to sleep on the beach, so upon the recommendation of a local, we will stay in an RV park, and see what happens in the morning, maybe the owner will wake us us and give us trouble, if not, then Bingo! Free night
Oh and it’s beautiful here by the sea, damn these demon insects.

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite

Up to you.
It’s late and I’m trying to wait as late as possible before going to sleep. I have a Super thin sleeping bag, no pillow and no roll-mat/matress so it could be as uncomfortable as when we slept in yosemite. A few beers and thirty odd rounds of rummy and I don’t quite feel ready for this.
Today has been cool, so cool that it didn’t sink in until it was over.
So to start off we sent sone post and bought breakfast, uneventful, buuut then we went to drive and again the car wouldn’t turn over. Luckily enough the only garage in town was 2 doors down so we mosied on over to get a jump, and change of battery, lovely mechanic, red neck but friendly. He was even doing up an English taxi from 1960, pretty cool. So now we shouldn’t, hopefully, have and more car worries.
After that drama was over we drove up to Grand Canyon national park, and did the touristy stuff, photographs, rock hopping n yeh, got sick of it, and we drove south.
We enjoyed the sunset over Sedona, magical.
So now to camping and getting to sleep.

the song lyrics we were played while we were in a reggae squat club, everybody keeps repeation, slowly, raggae style,a nd is stuck in my head.

so we are back at alex’s house, and i’m even writing on my mac, god it’s nice to use a real keyboard!

so this morning after everybody awoke, we went to the pool, and were messing about on the slides in the camp, and i accidentally managed to hospitalise courtney. i landed on her at the base of the slide. so being that she has sclorosis, she was freaked. but it’s ok, she;s drugged up and in a neck brace and should be fine In a few days. thank fk!

(damn i try pressing space twice to get a . like the ipod does)

so it’s been stupidly hot, mid 30’s all day, and i’m sunburned. well so are harry and christian. but i slept 2 hours last night, and need bed. but first alex’s mum is cooking dinner, so yum yum:)

So we spent a somewhat crazy, sleep deprived, drunk, hot, sunny, long weekend at the 24 hours of le Mans.
Friday we arrived at the city at about four, to congestion. All day we’d been seeing racy cars, and the reception was of no exception, Jérémy clarkson in a ferrari included. Tickets €25 each check, camping for group of six €49 check, so far so cheap. Off to the supermarket we fill a shopping trolley with booze. I made my concerns over the lack of alcahol known, but this and a bit of soup, cheese, and dried mash potato was to be our staple for 3-4 days.
So to the track, we missed our turn off and raced along the track, and back, before finding our campsite. We were late arrivals so camped so far from the action the field was relatively empty. Still a strange site it was to see fields of tents with porsches, ferraris, atoms, tvrs, kit cars, well every boys dream, all polished on show, and being covered in dust. Some people had been there since Monday so the piles of beer bottles/cans were already geting artful.
We throw up our tents and get drinking. A quick watch of some vintage cars on the track and back to eat mash and meet fellow campers. Some crazy French guys next to us, a bit of football, Dutch blowing up plant pots, some drunken joy rides and I woke up Saturday morning, just blurred memories.
The frencies passed me some whiskey, I have a beer, eau d’vie and pastiis, an go to watch the warm up. Then after some quick food I head to the track to watch the start at three pm. I was toasted but managed to find the Dunlop bridge. It was quite exciting, but the alcahol in my system, along with the fact that I was without my chums made it less that it could have been. Still it was awesome to see these cars that I’ve read about all of my life, and for the fast ones to lap the slower some after three or four laps. This a 13.6km track. These guys were doing 3:26 laps, averaging 180kmh!
So I wonder to the camp, nobody, walk to visage arnage, nobody, bus to musanne, I necked 2l of water an chill on the back watchin the race. There are so many amateur camera people going snap, snap, snap for every car.
Finally I found the guys back at camp, alex is put for the count. We stop by the track pay an extortionate price for a cold beer and watch the cars into the night. Dad said we’d never see a crash, but we did get to watch an audi take the corner too fast, and smash backwards into the tyre barrier. I think we left after midnight, for more madness in the campsite. So several joy rides on the van, some kebabs, close calls, but the sequrity loved us with their camera love, and again I wake up in a haze.
So I started Sunday off with no booze, and check that the cars are still going. Just an escape really, as how can I not tell, being camped in the track?
I suggested that we all pack up and drive to the mulsanne corner, to avoid the rush to leave at three.
So the peugots are in the top two, a mazda goes hard into the barriers, safety car out, an Aston blows up entering the pits. It was too hot and I almost pass put. For the last three laps the cars bunch together, peugots, corvettes, audis, ferraris etc. The race is for all intents over, peurgot hdi’s first and second and sixth, audi tdi third, Aston fourth, and lolo fifth.
I rooted for aston, being british, and audi because i’m an audi driver and born in Germany. So not a bad finish, allez les bleus!
So we got away nicely, I felt sick and passed out to wake up by la Rochelle. We had a lush meal here on Ile de Re. It’s been fun, time for longfggggg sleeeeep.
Good night.

I’m laying in the tent paranoid as f. There are millions of Mosquitos tonight. Maybe there is one in the tent here. Maybe there isn’t. But a bit of red wine and every itch, every movement of fabric and I can’t help but swat.
Sleep dammit!

Sonsy, of large bosom and pleasant curves.
I’m laying on the zebra in France.
We saw the worlds largest cuckoo clocks, and visited house of 1000 clocks, and refused to pay €3 to see some little waterfalls.
We passed through Strasbourg and saw the ‘bridge’ of the EU.
So now I lay in a campsite in France.
We’ve almost come full circle, and have visited over 15 countries in a month.
I’m sick of the van and how uncomfortable it is with six of us on a six hour drive, though she has been good to us.
I’m looking forward to 24 du me mans!!

We’re camped atop a hill in the black forest maybe 50km south west of Stuttgart. The area is very pretty, nut this hill seems to be prone to taking the weather hard. The rain comes and goes, wind flattens our tent, and sun roasts us, so I’m up and in the safety of the loos.
The previous night we stayed in Munich. In a giant hostel, jaeger’s hostel, forty bed basement, it would be in our least favourite two. We didn’t meet any nice people, but we did find a nice eat out. A local brewery/eat house. The food was plentiful and cheap, the beer was plentiful and tastey, and it felt like bavaria.
Yesterday we found a go kart track. Ian, harry, Christian and I managed to scrape together €20 each for a 15minute run. The track, Austrian karting, was good, purpose built in the woods. But we all started at different times. Ian and I were racing but three times I spun off, never managed to catch him, but it was fun all the while. I have a hugely bruised right hip to show for the action.
Maybe I’ll go and sit in the van with my book.

We’re now in Prague and we’re now six.
Christian is with us, and it’s going to be a week and a half of solid drinking.
The previous night, we camped in the woods by a lake Blair witch style. Then we headed for kutna hora. Still an awesome town. Quiet, historic, beautiful and eerie.
Last night we had some local cuisine then went to the beer factory. Stupid and drunk we walked out on the bill, so we won’t be going back there, good.
Am still in bed, ready to roll.
Oh and our seven euro hostal, yes €7, has a sauna and pool!!!

We’re still in krakow, but not for too much longer.
We picked up a new hostel, drank a bottle of vodka, and ventured out into town to meet up with some guys doing an organized bar crawl. We saw a local bar, a rock bar, and ended up in a big club. The night was great, but after ian bought a bottle of vodka in the club, all is a bit hazy for all. Vodka is crazy cheap here. Nights out are crazy cheap. Krakow is an awesome place to party!
Yesterday we took our hangovers to the aquapark. We spent 4 hours riding slides and playing tag. No more hangover, and tired out, wet through, we found this campsite nearby.
The night consisted of wine, vodka and cards.
And I did my first load of washing, for free! Four weeks on the road and I was just about out of clean enough underwear.
Things are going great, and the vam’s about to get even tighter with the arrival of ian’s brother Friday in Prague.

Monday courtney had her first drive. So it’s cool, she’s a bit jerky in first, but now we all get to drive a little less.
And she got us to bucarest.
So now it’s almost June, and we had some difficulty finding a hostel. From fully booked, to shut down, to plain abandoned, finally just as the sun was setting, we found a nice pension.
A local meal and few beers in town and we were done for the day.
Romania isn’t anywhere so crazy as I remember from when I was a kid. I can’t judge bucarest based upon a few beers on a Monday night, but friendly people, cheap food, drink and accomodation along with a pinch of character make it a cook destination.
So early rise yeasterday, Tuesday, a I take to the driving seat, destination Belgrade. We’ve heard great things from other travellers.
After an hour on the nice highway, we veer off towards criova. I was following a navy passat, and suddenly a young police lady pull both of us over. At first it seemed that she was pulling over several cars as a routine check. But she came over to my window and said, well I hadve no idea because I don’t speak Romanian. So I ask if as speaks English, and unfortunately she says yes. No doubt my faces slumps. So supposedly I was clocked doing 93kmh in a town, 50kmh limit. What with her pulling so many more people over, writing tickets, we wait for a long 20 minutes. All the while she has my documents, and the car documents, and I’m a little worried about the possibly outcome. But she comes over with a report, and asks me if I have any objections. What can I say but “no”. So she tells me to write ‘I have no objections’ gets me to sign and she says “I am nice, no?” so I tell her she is lovely. And we are free once more.
2 hours of driving through the interesting Romanian countryside, strewn with Roma camps, giant industrial cities in decay, and green rolling hills, and we make of to the border crossing over a massive dam.
As i drive to the passport control, an old man starts screaming at us, so I pull aside. He asks for “Romanian tax? Vignette?”, to which I tell him that we were never sold such items upon entry. These first two questions were the bulk of his English vocabulary. With much arguing over the cost, mainly due to the fact that we were staying in Romania for just 20m longer, we agree to pay. What choice have we? The whole form process takes almost an hour. Then we have to wait while somebody is found to convert our euros, as she had no more lei, leaving the country.
So we follow some Dutch in an audi to the eu passport control line (did I mention that we have not been anywhere on our roadtrip and not found Dutch people???). So I present the four passports, and upon request car documents. All well apart from my passport. After 15 minutes looking at my picture, (I felt like a westerner trying to leave berlin before the wall came down) and he disappears off with all passorts. We have a friendly guard chatting to us in french putting us at ease for a few minutes, but things didn’t look too good. Then left alone at the border, stuck in place by a big gate, we make jokes to ease the situation. Maybe 30 minutes later every boarder guard come out and we are told to get out and empty the van. We don’t know whether they were making calls or just eating lunch. But the even checks inside the engine. Out came a sniffer dog and alex says, “let’s hope me or my dad never lost any hash in the van” great way to relieve the stress! So nothing found and finally we can drive away, across this enormous dam.
So at the Serbian border there are a couple of friendly guards. All passports fine, no need for visas, and we show the car documents. So a few countries back we had found out that the green card that alex’s dad left in the van was for the old set of plates, causing us trouble at borders, resulting in having to pay for locals insurance for entry into countries. Alex’s dad had emailed a black and White scan. So they say “this is not original document” to which we plead that we have original in France, and will only stay one day. But stubborn as vomit on a White wall, we were refused entry to Serbia. No Belgrade, no bragging about visiting Serbia today, and no acdc concert!
Back to the Romanian border, I am thinking about what if we don’t get back into Romania? Call the British embassy?
They look at us and say “why are you back?” an lost for a new excuse we tell them the truth. Well that worked, not!, and they say that we can’t enter into Romania on those documents. So now what? I guess they dicided that we can’t be left in ‘no man’s land’, we promise to drive straight to Hungary, no stops, no collecting 200 lei.
Free at last
We ended up stopping here in timisoara, ‘little Vienna’. It’s nice, cheap, camping, cute town, and girls to match.
I’m sat in the sun, one arm covered up due to getting burned on my left arm, driving yesterday, waiting for the others to wake up.
We hope to gain entry to Hungary today, and get to lake balaton. Fingers crossed!

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite