Turkey and it’s friendliness

Il pezzo in italiano non lo ho ancora scritto…ma arriva entro stasera…promesso!

Km 4510, 10th day, in country number 10

Enjoying a rest on a black sand beach on the Georgian coastline, it’s difficult to think back to the last few days…

Last report was from Amasra, last Friday, on the Turkish coast. Beautiful touristic town, nice beach, friendly people, amazing setting. A small peninsula, a castle on top, a nice promenade, fish restaurants, souvenir stalls. It really felt like in any Italian seaside town. Unfortunately we got there later than expected due to our small issue… We were stopped for speeding, argh!! Sandy was driving (can you imagine a german speeding??), police said we were at 67km/h, we think we were max 61km/h but you never know. We think they were stopping only foreigners cars as they had also stopped a german car in front of us (one of the many in this side of Turkey…seems like all the turks who live in Germany return to Turkey by car for the summer holidays…). We got the fine and we decided to go and pay it straight away at the police station they pointed to us. But the office was closed, damn! Luckily Sandy met this very helpful policeman who spoke few words of English and who took her around town (and he wasn’t on duty anymore, just trying to help us, great guy) to find where she could pay the fine…No luck, everything was closed, but she managed to get invited to stay at his place that night…she declined, maybe too much of adventure, ih ih.

So in Amasra we enjoyed some good fish, a cold Efes, the colorful and surprising Amasra salad and a nice3 dip in the water the next morning. Ah, forgot to mention that even there we managed to become friends of the police…we asked them directions to our hotel but could not find it and ended up driving in front of them 4 times, they were laughing at us and finally asked us to meet for a coffee later.

Saturday we ventured on the small and winding road between Amasra and Sinop: 320km and 8 hours to do. All along the coast, nice view and nice bays with sandy or pebble beaches. Yes yes we’ll go there for lunch…the road is steep but ehi, Versina is strong and I know how to drive on these roads uphill…well it turns out that I don’t, or better I cannot get off potholes, and the 2 of us are not strong enough to push the car out. Damn! We’ve got to find some kind Turkish machos to help us, isn’t it? First car we stopped…was an ambulance carrying someone who had to go to the hospital. Using hands (this time being Italian helped!) we explained we were stuck and they promised to call for help but they had to go (of course!). Just when they were going, we stopped the second car…2 guys from Belgium…come on, there are about 10 cars passing this road an hour…and we get the Belgians!! They immediately say they would help us, but there weren’t really the big Turkish machos we expected so I said we should wait for another car and then our savior came: a turkish guy with a Hilux, he can definitely can get out of the pothole, he can pull us out. No no, he is a MAN and he has to show off: he just gets into Versina and drives it up to the main road. We couldn’t stop thanking him.

Next stop was a cold coke on the beach together with the Belgians…and the discover that Nathan has been living in my same street basically the door opposite mine in Etterbeek…carramba. Once back to get into the car, the owner of the small “I sell everything” shop where we bought the coke called us inside and showed us that he had checked our website and he wanted also to follow us on FB, amazing, he was so impressed! For the night we stayed in a camping close to Sinop: on the beach, there was just us and a german couple who has been touring turkey and Georgia for 3 months now. I wanted to eat Manti but with the Ramadan everything is shut and around there were no restaurants and just a small shop where I bought bread and tomatoes for a bruschetta, and a cold beer, we deserved it with that long drive! But the camping guy offered us some food he had prepared and also some watermelon: we are amazed by Turkish hospitality!! Less by their roadsigns: no chance to understand what’s the speed limit of the road but we managed to go through the country without fines and troubles. Highways this side of the country are a joke: they go through cities, they have traffic lights and everybody crosses them on foot. I’ll never get used to this!

The day after another long drive and the only report is about our lunch: we stopped at the back of a gas station and started eating, when an old grandma came up to us with the brightest smile and started to talk to us. Of course there was no way we could properly communicate but she hugged us, she made her understand that she was doing Ramadan so she could not eat, but she offered to go and pick up some chai (tea) for us and she did. But because of Ramadan, the gas station didn’t serve drinks so she came back with a chair instead. And sat next to us, hugging, smiling and telling us whatever she felt like.

Then the husband got back and he sat with us too, she explained him about us (gosh knows what!!) and kept smiling. She was so cute, and she wished us goodbye when we left. This is what we mean by the friendliness of the people, amazed. And it wasn’t all for that day!!!

We made it by evening to Trabzon, I wanted to stay there because I always liked the name…in Italy we have a saying “loose the Trabzon” meaning losing your mental direction, I had to go there. We easily found a place for the night and then we asked the guy to tell us where we could eat “kuru fasyola” (curry beans) a specialty of the area. He as well explained us (of course all in Turkish!! Another 10 days and we would be fluent in turkish) that everything is shut because of Ramadan, but he knew a place where we could eat. He made us understand that we had to hurry up and follow them. So we start wandering through small and strangely empty streets till we get to a restaurant with lots of food on display.

We enter and notice we are the only girls there. We sit and our hosts order for us. Food and drink come but the guys cannot touch it, it’s still 10 minutes before 8pm, the end of the Ramadan day. We are sweating so much but for respect we do not touch drinks nor food. And then we hear the muezzin sing, and people avidly drinks a glass of cold water and dig into their plate…they have not been drinking nor eating since 3.10am that morning, and outside it’s 30/33 degrees…how can they do I ask myself… It’s the first time I am part of the Iftar, the evening meal. We eat soup and beans, all very good. What impressed me? The speed at which everybody ate…most of the customers were out of there by 8.10pm. And also it was strange to see that now the streets were full of people when only 20 minutes before everything was so quiet and empty.

The next morning we had to cross into Georgia. But before that we have accomplished so many things that we were quite surprised ourselves: we had breakfast with burek (ohhhh I like it so much!), then we get out in search of the police station to pay the fine. We find the Gendarmerie, and a nice Gendarme who took pity on us and walked us to a couple of places till we found the right office to play the fine. He was doing his military service, he is from Istanbul and hated being in Trabzon. He was cute and he could even speak some English so we know that he is a business man and he travels a lot to China…  It’s strange how all the people tends to tell you all about their life, even if the language barrier is big! Next step that morning was to get a spare tire…Here I need to explain to our followers that we do have a spare tire, the normal small one, but we know that 1 might not be enough on some of the roads we will drive through so we wanted to buy a second one, a proper one. At the second try we found this small “lastik jant” shop (jant=wheel, lastik=no clue but we had realized that workshops with “lastik” were selling tires and wheels) where we made the guy understand what we needed. Of course there was one old man who lives in Germany and was there for the holidays and who spend the day at the cousin workshop…she things got easier, we explained our trip (all impressed) they asked us where was Tomek and we got our tire and wheel wrapped and placed in the car. Now we are really sorted!!!!

Last thing we did in Turkey is to visit Sumela, a monastery up high on a mountain, it seems it is carved in the mountain, small road to get there plus a short 10 minutes hike but so worth the deviation: nice frescoes, amazing view, we were wandering why the monks decided to build it up there. But I am sure they loved their view back then 😉

 

It was then time to say goodbye to Turkey and get to the more interesting and unknown part of our trip: we were entering old Russia…we were entering Georgia that day! But this is next story!!

 

And if you’ve made it reading till here…you are awarded with the link for all the pictures!!!!

https://picasaweb.google.com/2vagabondsandayak/July232012?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCNWfoayQ2fSxYA&feat=directlink

Km 3552, 6th day, 9 countries behind us – Km 3552, 6o giorno, e abbiamo già attraversato 9 stati

Italiano più giù

Km 3552, 6th day, 9 countries behind us

Refreshed by the jump in the lake we set off for another long stretch…direction? Still we hadn’t decided…Sofia or Skopje? We enjoyed so much the lake that we thought it would be nice to set foot on the Mediterranean sea…tough decision..naaaaaa easy one…Greece here we come!!! Ok this means a longer drive on Thursday but we want the sea!

So we find ourselves driving small roads in Hungary and then crossing Serbia north to south. We will discover later on that a car with a curious couple drove behind us for long time in Hungary and got curious about our car and our adventure. She noted down the website (good idea to put it on the car!), checked it when home and then wrote us telling she was surprised to see a small car on the way to Mongolia in Hungary. We were touched!!

Serbia was smooth, again on random gas station we met other ralliers, germans this time, and free wireless, civilized world. Lunch was at one of these stations…we set the table cloth and had amazing scrambled eggs. Dinner was at a roadside restaurant not far from Macedonia…Ajvar and Cevapcici, jummy.

Macedonia welcomed us by giving us a bed in a motel…we were so tired that we just crashed without noticing the rundown condition of the place. Thursday was a long drive so we set off pretty early (well 9am, way too early!) and we crossed amazing scenery in Macedonia…they have small canyons and lots of vineyards. Greece welcomed us with high temperatures and a more familiar landscape. And amazing view of the sea, this is what we were looking for! We stopped for a swim at Nea Karvali, small town, not too nice to be honest, but a beach, warm water and a very welcoming tavern that for almost nothing served us greek salad, fish and a glass of cold wine. We even gave them 30% tip and still we paid nothing. The rest of the journey was smooth but long. It took us 2 hours to cross Istanbul, and we even didn’t get so much traffic. The big achievement of the day has been not to get lost in the city, we did pretty well. And we arrived to the warm smile and hug of Ece, a glass of cold water, food and a nice and cozy place to rest.

And today we are off again, towards the black sea, we want to make it a short driving day, rest on the beach, good food, and maybe organize a bit the car, right now we cannot find anything anymore 😉

We are a bit surprised not having met any other car in the last 2 days…well I guess we have been the first ever car of the rally to cross into Macedonia and Greece and probably we are either too slow for those who have too short time for the trip or too fast for those who want to stop in Istanbul and discover the city. We instead prefer to discover places we haven’t been before, hence the black sea!

Today it’s the start of Ramadan and the area we are going to it’s very religious, hope we can easily find food as Ece suggested us so many good dishes to try!

We drove about 450km, saw TMMT (the Turkish Toyota plant), good memories. And then off to the Black Sea coast, very nice indeed, good suggestion Ece. We are now spending the night in Amasra, a lovely beach town, touristic for Turkish, it feels like holidays here.

Today we had a bit of an issue…I can only say that we learnt that people is so very helpful here, policemen are super nice, they will go the extra mile to make sure you get things done, and that speaking german is an asset… I won’t say more… I leave it to you to guess what has actually happened…the winner will receive a postcard from one of the T-stans…so…go on with the guessing!

 

ITALIANO

Km 3552, 6o giorno, e abbiamo già attraversato 9 stati

Eravamo rimasti a mercoledi mattina e al tuffo nel lago Balaton. Proprio questo contatto con l’acqua ci ha fatto venire voglia di andare al mare e così abbiamo cambiato il nostro piano di viaggio…niente Sofia ma Skopje e poi Grecia!! Mercoledi abbiamo viaggiato davvero tanto, attraversando la Serbia da capo a coda ed inoltrandoci in Macedonia per poi fermarci in uno squallido motel vicino a Skopje. Non molto da dire della nostra giornata se non che l’idea di mettere il website del nostro blog sul portellone dietro della macchina…una coppia ungherese che tornava a casa dalle vacanze ci è stata dietro per un po’ e lei si è incuriosita nel vedere le varie scritte ed il website e ieri ci ha scritto un messaggio, bellissimo!! In Serbia abbiamo incontrato un paio di altre macchine del rally e da allora più nulla. Ma la cosa che ci è più piaciuta è il wifi gratis nelle stazioni di servizio, mitici!

Ieri la giornata è piuttosto lunga, ci abbiamo messo 12 ore e mezza ad arrivare a destinazione…La Macedonia ci ha stupite, bellissimi paesaggi, gole strette, colline ricoperte di vitigni, gente ospitale, paese da scoprire. Poi la Grecia, calda, con spiagge meravigliose. Era proprio loro che volevamo. Ci siamo fermate per pranzo a Nea Karvala, paesino persino squallido, ma un bel mare caldo, tranquillità ed una taverna che ci ha servito un pranzo buonissimo per un prezzo irrisorio…gli abbiamo lasciato il 30% di mancia tanto siamo state bene. La strada per Istanbul è stata lunga e davvero calda. Qui in città il traffico è una tragedia, ci sono troppe macchine e solo due ponti per passare dal lato europeo a quello asiatico…non vi dico, persino arrivare alle 21 non ti fa evitare il traffico. Ma la ricompensa c’è stata…Ece che ci ha accolte con un sorriso e col suo bellissimo gatto himalayano.

Quest’oggi ci siamo districate per le viuzze di Istanbul e siamo riuscite a raggiungere il Mar Nero. Primo highlight della giornata…passare davanti a TMMT, lo stabilimento turco della Toyota…quanti ricordi. Poi raggiungere il mare, evviva, adesso ce la prendiamo con calma e ci godiamo sto viaggio. Invece…beh abbiamo avuto un “incidente” di percorso…niente di grave, tranquilli. Vi dico solo che abbiamo imparato che la gente qui ti aiuta davvero se hai bisogno, i poliziotti sono davvero gentilissimi e farebbero qualsiasi cosa per aiutarti e che parlare tedesco aiuta davvero…non dirò di più…tocca a voi indovinare cosa è successo…e chi indovina riceverà una cartolina da uno dei T-stans. Avanti, fatevi sotto!!

Alla prossima!

Km 1420, 3rd day, 5 countries left behind – Km 1420, terzo giorno, 5 paesi già attraversati.

Italiano più sotto

Km 1420, 3rd day, 5 countries left behind.
6.49am, Balaton Lake, Hungary. Sitting on a bench facing the lake, sun is shining, the only noises are the bells of the small harbour and those of the swans. What a difference from the last 2 days at the Czech Out party, the official launch of the rally.
The start has been…wet I’d say. We hoped to escape the rainy belgian summer but we ended up in stormy Germany and rainy and grey Czech. The first leg of the journey has been fine, about 800km, bit of traffic and mad excitrement when crossing the first other rally car or seeing a dutch couple admiring our car at a gas station to then find out they are also ralliers.
We easily arrived at Klenova castle, somewhere lost in CZ near the german border, a big space with a fair amount of pimped up cars (oh dear…most of them have at least 4 spare tires…we have none…argh!). Still not believing we were really doing this, we reached our parking spot, set up the tent with the help of a dutch coupld (driving to Tokyo in a Smart!!), set our table, our table cloth (oh yes, even in such a journey you’ve got to keep up your standards!), our sunflower (thanks Cam!!!) and had dinner. We then joined the bar where at first we felt a bit out of place, but then we noticed some guys that must have been belgian and we chat them up…they had noticed us already..we were drinking Maes! We had been in contact with them through Facebook, cool. Just before going to bed I also bumped into Samuele, we had been so much in contact on FB during these months that only then I really felt to be on the rally.
Monday was the Launch Day: the official start, the car passerelle and moment of glory and the big party. We got to know plenty of ralliers, heard their stories, told them ours… all impressed by our car, our mixture of nationalities and by being 2 girls who thought it’s of the outmost importance to have a flower on the table. We hang around there the whole day, we made our first 2.4m of tagliatelle (training for the challenge), we cursed the cold and rainy weather, met all the other dozen of italians, received 3 pairs of t-shirts from the organization and other teams, showed off our flower and the pasta maker on the stage and got ready for the Czech Out party. We had our dates for the party…the 2 belgian guys of the “inglorious drivers team”, good guys, good chat, 6 spare tires (tried to trade at least one in in exchange for freshly brewed coffee and tagliatelle, but didn’t work out, sigh) and unfortunately a different route…they could have been great to convoy with! The party wasn’t that fun to be honest, maybe cause it was bloody cold.
Tuesday it was the packing up and leaving day: slow start for us (are we in a hurry?), nice breakfast with the guys, waved goodbye most fo the teams, packed in our very disorganized (italian) but actually very organized (german) way, made sure our flower was correttly and safely sitting in the car and off we go, the journey really starts today. 550km, mainly small country roads, lovely landscapes and very nice church architechture. We crossed Czech, then Austria, then no more than 20km in Slovakia and finally Hungary. What to report…uhm…a nice lunch and super cheap somewhere in CZ, but, ehm ehm, probably we should mentiond the miracle of “Mary 3 Oaks” 😉 We stopped in front of a nice pink church, hanged around there and when it was time to get going..ehm ehm…the car didn’t start. Shit. Right, no panic, we’ve got out Haynes manual (thanks Steve!!!! and all of the guys at the launch were laughing at us…they’ll want to borrow it along the way!!) tried to understand what could be the possible breakdown (the starter motor?? uhm…that would be painful), asked help to people living around, called our super expert mechanic in Brussels (thanks Bart!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and finally it was just a flat battery. Got the car started with cables, went to a car spare parts shop, bought a new one and I changed it myself: oh yes guys, I’m a woman to marry, I can change a car battery!!
Let’s see it the positive side…now the battery is new, now we know how to use the Haynes manual, now we know that I do not panic if something happens and Sandy is very good to go and talk to people, now we’ve had the first breakdown so it’s the turn of other cars, right??
The Balaton lake is still very quiet, I guess I’ll jump in for a swim (good to wash after 3 days!!!). No other ralliers met on our way yesterday, but confident once we get to Istanbul we won’t be alone, all the cars are so easy to recognize. Me and Sandy are getting along pretty well, she had her first few driving experiences (crossing a police car, aquaplanning, driving on the highway…) and she is doing very well. It’s time for the swim now (Sandy is already in) and then off for the next long drive…Sofia or Skopye tonight? we’ll see!
ITALIANO

 

 
Km 1420, terzo giorno, 5 paesi già attraversati.

Sono le 7.40 del mattino, e sono seduta su una panchina sulle rive del lago Balaton in Ungheria. Il sole splende (finalmente!) e gli unici rumori che sento sono le campanelle delle barche e i cigni. Che differenza dagli ultimi 2 giorni in Repubblica Ceca alla partenza ufficiale del rally.
La partenza è stata…bagnata. Speravamo di lasciarci dietro la pioggia dell’estate begla ma ci siamo ritrovate negli acquazzoni tedesci ed il grigio piovoso ceco. La prima parte del viaggio è andata bene, 800km, poco traffico e grande eccitazione quando abbiamo superato la prima altra macchina del rally o quando la coppia olandese che ammirava la nostra Versina ci ha detto che anche loro partecipavano al rally!
Erano le 21 quando siamo arrivate al castello di Klenova,in culo ai lupi in rep. ceca, un grosso spazio con tante macchine decorate e visibilmente partecipanti al rally (mannaggia, quasi tutte hanno 4 ruote di scorta…noi nessuna…). Io ancora non ci credevo che stavamo davvero facendo tutto questo…ma eravamo li, abbiamo trovato un posticino per la macchina e la tenda, ci siamo sistemate (con l’aiuto di una coppia olandese che va fino a Tokyo con una Smartr), abbiamo aperto il nostro tavolo, messo le tovagliette (eh si, mica abbassiamo i nostri standard, eh?), il nostro vaso col girasole (grazie Cama e Chris) e abbiamo cenato. E poi via al bar per conoscere qualcuno. Mi sono sentita un po’ sola all’inizio…tanta gente ma nessuno conosciuto. Ma poi ecco spuntare dei belgi con cui eravamo già stati in contatto su facebook (ci han viste bere una lattina di Maes!!), e poi Samuele, fiorentino, con cui sono stata un sacco in contatto negli scorsi mesi. Li si che ho capito cosa voleva dire far parte del Mongol Rally!
Lunedi era il giorno della partenza ufficiale, la passerella delle macchine per qualche istante di gloria e poi la super festa. Abbiamo conosciuto tantissimi rallisti, ascoltato le loro storie, gli abbiamo detto la nostra…tutti stupiti del nostro mix di nazionalità, del fatto che siamo due ragazze sole (eh si, Tomek ci raggiunge in Tagikistan) e che per noi avere un fiore sul tavolo è la cosa più importante!! Siamo rimaste li tutto il giorno, ho cucinato i miei primi 2.4m di tagliatelle (allenamento per la sfida), ci siamo depresse per il freddo e la pioggia, incontrato tantissimi italiani, ricevuto 3 paia di magliette da altri tems, abbiamo mostrato il nostro fiore e la Imperia durante i nostri 2 minuti di celebrità sulla passerella della partenza e ci siamo preparate per il Czech Out party. Avevamo anche degli accompagnatori…i due belgi del team “Inglorious drivers”, simpatici, con 6 ruote di scorta (abbiamo cercato di convincerli a darcene una in cambio di caffè e tagliatelle ma non ha funzionato) ma che sfortunatamente fanno una strada diversa, peccato sarebbero stati dei bei compagni di viaggio. La festa in fin dei conti non era un gran che, forse perchè faceva troppo freddo e il posto era troppo dispersino, boh.
Martedi c’era da caricare la macchina e partire: noi ce la siamo presa con calma (mica dobbiamo guidare 16000km, no?), colazione con i belgi, salutato chi già era in partenza, impacchettato tutto in maniera disordinata (italiana) ma in definitiva super organizzata (tedesca…), trovato un posto perfetto per il fiore e via…qui il rally comincia davvero. Abbiamo percorso 550km lungo piccole stradine, paesaggi incantevoli e belle chiese e campanili. Abbiamo attraversato la Rep. Ceca, l’Austria, qualche km di Slovacchiane poi Ungheria. Che dire di questo viaggio…uhm…uhm…forse del buon pranzo ceco oppure, ehm ehm, magari mi tocca parìlare del miracolo di “Maria 3 gufi” 😉 Ci siamo fermate davanti ad una bella chiesa rosa, siamo state li nei dintorni e poi al momento di ripartire..argh, la macchina non parte. Merda. Ok, niente panico, diamo un’occhiata al manuale Haynes (grazie Steve!!! alla faccia di tutti i ragazzi degli altri tem alla partenza che ridevano del manuale!!) per capire cosa poteva essere successo (il motorino di avviamento??), chiesto aiuto al nostro mitico amico meccanico Bart (grazieee) e alla fine scoperto che era solo la batteria scarica. Un signore gentile ci ha fatto ripartire la macchina, e poi io stessa ho installato una nuova batteria…sono da sposare!!
Vediamo il lato positivo di tutto questo…adesso la nostra batteria è nuova, adesso sappiamo come si usa il manuale, adesso sappiamo che io non sono in panico se succede qualcosa e Sandy è brava a chiedere aiuto, ed ora abbiamo già avuto il nostro piccolo incidente…ora tocca agli altri, giusto?
La riva del lago è ancora molto tranquilla, adesso mi metto il costume e mi ci butto (così mi lavor dopo 3 giorni!). Ieri non abbiamo visto altri rallisti, ma sicuramente dopo Istanbul sarà più facile riconoscerci. Con Sandy va tutto bene, lei ha avuto le sue prime esperienze di guida (in autostrada, l’ aquaplanning, una macchina della polizia…) e sta andando alla grande.
Sofia o Skopye stasera? vedremo!
Ed ora…mi tuffo!

it’s time to leave… partenza!!!

in italiano più sotto 😉

So, the DAY has come, we are all set and ready to start this adventure. It is somewhat scary but at the same time it’s so so so exciting!!! 16000km, all kind of roads, a ferry, 17 countries, plenty of people and cultures to know. We’ll have the time of our life, and I hope you’ll be following us.

I want to thanks you all the people that supported us so far, family and friends, all of you who were at the party last friday, all of you that signed the car, that wished us goodbye…THANK YOU!!

We’ll be posting here our updates, and at this link you can follow us on the road, the route is automatically updated so at any time you can see where we are. And if you realize we are lost…just let us know ;))

http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0qkrcR0Bx6US7kjU8TbB45TQhLKV4FJpS

Off we go!

Eh si, é arrivata l’ora della partenza. Tutto é pronto, la macchina é riempita (ma quanto abbiamo???) e noi non stiamo più nella pelle, si parte!!! Da una parte sono un po’ spaventata ma dall’altra sono eccitata all’idea della partenza, del viaggio.

16000km, 17 nazioni, un traghetto, tante persone e tante culture da conoscere…sarà memorabile!!! e spero che voi ci seguirete 😉

Vorrei ringraziare tutte le persone che ci hanno aiutato fin’ora, gli amici e la famiglia, tutti quelli che erano alla festa venerdi sera e quelli che ci hanno lasciato parole stupende sulla macchina…GRAZIE!

Seguendo questo link potrete sapere ad ogni istante dove siamo…e se vedete che ci siamo persi, fatecelo sapere!!

http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0qkrcR0Bx6US7kjU8TbB45TQhLKV4FJpS

Si parte!

1 week to go…

Oh yes, departure is approaching and tension is raising…tension just because I am not sure I can manage to do everything I have to do before leaving…well…I’ll just leave some things undone, what’s the problem ;-)))

As far as our preparation, I think we are in a pretty good condition. Yesterday we 3 met to finalize latest issues, buy some more tools and finally stick the stickers on the car. Isn’t Versina beautiful now??? I do think so, can’t wait to drive it around and show off ;-)))

I bought some Nutella, Tomek is making sure he has coffee and Sandy is obviously the most organized of us all! Today I searched the flat for coins, and found rublos, florint, liras, korunas and yans…I feel rich, I probably have up to 20 euros total, ah ah, they won’t even be enough for a day, but at least I can use them to bribe guards at the border (dream on Ren, ih ih). ah, we also checked the FM transmitter to be able to listen to our favourite music…IT WORKS!!!!!

Next bit of technology is the HD video camera Tomek bought, mCanon EOS 60D (and finally the lens as well!) and the SPOT Connect…oh yes guys, you’ll be able to check at ever moment where about in the world we are, and please…if you see we are lost, tell us!

That’s about it for today, time to upload a beautiful picture of our sticking the stickers yesterday and off I go.

Ren

2 weeks…

Less than 2 weeks to our departure and exactly 14 days to the official start at the CzechOut party at the Klenova castle in CZ Rep.

Everything seems to be in order. Versina (the car) works wonderfully, we now know how to change a fuse and fix the roof rack (thank you “Kit” for giving it to us…ndr: Kit was my amazing Lancia Prisma, 300000 km and still going strong, she is the one that brought me to Belgium!!), we know the gas cooker works (and I can have breakfast in my new flat!), we have vaccinations (well, Sandy does!), emergency kits, a small compressor, a driver wiper, all the stickers (but still to be stuck on the car!), guides, map, visas (me all, Sandy missing 2, Tomek…not known) and… we just can’t wait to go!!!!

 

 

Fundraising is going very well, thank you to you all for the huge donations you are doing. We have now 16 globes to give out (hurry up, 3 left!!), plenty of bets for the Tagliatelle Challenge and still many kinder surprises to be given to kids along the way.

 

For those in Brussels or around, don’t forget to join us at our Leaving Party on the 13^th july at Bonnefoi, in the city center. You’ll have the chance to wave us goodbye but above all leave a sign of your friendship and support on Versina. Isn’t it worth?

 

Finally be ready to follow us online, on “de wereld morgen” (in Flemish) or on the blog of Guide Marcopolo (in Italian). For the English, this blog is the best place of course!

And it’s 27 days to go…

The departure is getting closer and closer…

In 27 days we’ll be well on our way to the (in)famous Mongol Rally Euro Launch in Klenova Castle in Czech Republic.

Are we gonna be ready? Yes, I think we will be!!!!!

In these last 2 weeks we did lots of things. Most of the Visas are sorted, only Russian, Tajiki and Kyrzgy ones to be done. We have bought the first batch of camping stuff: a table, 3 chairs and a water canister. Also the spare parts for the car: engine oil, duct tape, jerry can and of course a front wiper (don’t ask me why!! Have you ever had to change a wiper because it got broken??)…

Stickers for the car are also on order, sponsors will be happy then!

Next, we are sorting out our route till Istanbul (as afterwards it will just all be by chance!)… day after day I’m discovering I know plenty of people along out route so… maybe we’ll stop in Germany for a drink (but he doesn’t know yet!), in Hungary for an aperitif with a Scots, a party with a serbian and then surely in Istanbul for a dinner with the girls. Who else in on the way??

Last couple of things to be done before the start are…well…Sandy got to get used to driving, I need to get used to german strictness and polish “things will be all right” while they need to get used to Italian mess and talks; maybe we should learn a bit more how a car works but above all…we should plan our leaving party!!!!!! Of course…do you really think we would leave without waving everyone goodbye??? Stay tuned!!

Adopt a Globe!

We, at 2 vagabonds and a yak headquarters, have realized that we are gonna travel 1/3 of the world in this adventure. We feel lucky, because we know how big is the world and we have traveled it extensively. There is people less lucky than us, like some of the kids we will meet along the way. We want to teach them something, giving them a tool to dream, to open their horizons… what’s better than a globe? Probably an inflatable globe ;)))

So this is what we want to give along the way to the kids. An inflatable globe which they can also use to play.

Like the idea? Then ADOPT A GLOBE!!! With only 10 euros you can have a globe you can personalize as you want, with your name, highlighting your country, something written in your language… dream on and give a small kid the possibility to dream!

How to do:

1) You can make a direct donation to the charities through our team fundraising page.

2) Alternatively you can also make a bank transfer to our account nr. BE37 3770 2921 5528, BIC BBRUBEBB on the name of Renata Riva and with specified that it’s a donation for “Adopt a globe” and please add your name and e-mail address too.

The tagliatelle challenge – The bids

As part of the fundraising activity we had on Tuesday 29^th may at the Six Nations pub, we have also advertised our Actions: the Tagliatelle Challenge, the “Adopt a Kinder Surprise” and the “Adopt a glode”.

For the Tagliatelle challenge, the point is to bet how many meters of Tagliatelle I (Ren) will make “home made” (flour and eggs) along the way, at least once in every country we will cross as of Turkey.

So, these are the bets so far:

Corona & Edo = 50m

Isa, arco, Ale & Leo = 100m

Vito = 140m

Italo = 85m

Mischa = 75m

Kris = 72m

PE = 535m

Kosta = 327m

Marco = 120m

Domenica = 63m

Silvia = 132m

Giacomo= 96m

Emanuele = 75m

Maribel = 160m

Steve: 46m

Sachin & Lara: 76.6m

Cheh-Chiah: 88m

This is a big challenge…who is gonna be the winner? I’ll keep everyone updated along the way, but only on 24^th august we will have the final answer!

You want to bet? It’s easy: you can transfer us 10 euros (BE37 3770 2921 5528, BIC BBRUBEBB on the name of Renata Riva and with specified that it’s a donation for the Tagliatelle Challenge and please add your name and e-mail address too.) or donate in our Virgin Money page.

Come on, don’t be lazy, and challenge me 😉

Ren

Thank you all for this epic Pub Quiz and Auction!

Last night was a huge success by all means: Our fundraising Pub Quiz and Auction attracted about 60 players that raised in less than 4 hours almost 900Euros! Our quiz master Ian had everyone’s brain smoking – but it was all about the fun anyways, right? 🙂 Thanks to Six Nations Pub where we hosted the event, even drinking beer raised money for our charities!

The highlight of the night was definitely the auction! Thanks to our friends, we had a Dj-ing course, an Italian cooking class, a 3-course dinner for two..and much more on offer! 

Thank you all for coming out and for helping us out and supporting our trip!!!!

 

P.S.: Photos from last night will be posted here asap!