Eurotrip 2017 - Conclusion

To be done:

• stats (road tolls / fuel)
• other notes / remarks

Eurotrip 2017 - Day 10-11

Day 10-11 - Slovakia, Bratislava

Surprisingly, Bratislava exceeded my expectations (I had none). I mean, it's not fancy, glamorous or anything, but it had a good 'vibe'. And it was actually cheap (not 'Budapest cheap', Budapest didn't feel cheap at all for what it is), and cleaner than Budapest. Ok, I admit, my hotel choice was not good (actual time to reach center by bus was like ~40 minutes in rush hour instead of advertised 20, add walking time from/to bus stop on top of that), but nevertheless. So my first impression of the city was good, would gladly visit again.

Eurotrip 2017 - Day 8-9

Day 8-9 - Budapest

The road

Hungary motorways were surprisingly empty, like you could drive for several minutes before seeing another car 😊 It was a strange feeling indeed. Tolls - you have to buy 'electronic vignette' for motorways - they just register your car's license plate in the system and give you the receipt.

The city

Oh well... I don't know where to start. To put it simply, Budapest is a beautiful city but it's dirty as soon as you're off the tourist paths.
First of all, I made a silly mistake entering the hotel address into GPS (misspelled one letter), and drove to the other end of the city. When I was driving away from the center, that should've given me some hints, right?

Anyway, when I parked the car not far from the hotel, got out, and saw garbage everywhere, I was like "is it even safe to leave a car here?". It was really messed up by my standards. Guess somewhere in India it would be considered normal?
Fun fact: beer glass in restaurant had 'Made in Russia' stamped on it.

Bottom line is - I didn't like the city, and don't want to visit it again. Not anytime soon.

Eurotrip 2017 - Day 6-7

Day 6-7 - Graz, Austria

Nice city overall, though there isn't much to write about it.

• Wasn't exactly crowded, which is a good thing
• Great trams (and you can by tickets from the machine inside the tram)
• Reasonably priced fast-food place near Uhrturm
• And beer was good as well
• Hotel choice was really spot-on this time. I'd go so far saying it was the best hotel I've stayed in a while.. If you disregard the location.
  

Eurotrip 2017 - Day 4-5

Day 4 - Berlin - Munich

My paranoia level about engine oil level reached it's peak, so I finally decided to buy some (my timing is always perfect, right? 😀). Engine oil prices on gas stations weren't welcoming at all (something like 32 eur / liter 😒 Seriously?), but by pure randomness I've found major spare parts ('telie' in German) shop, and sure enough they had oil with necessary specification, made in Germany (surprise), and price was reasonable as well. Added a few hundred ml's, and my paranoia was silent for a while.

Fun fact: in Germany there are 'emoticons' on roadwork signs - face smiles more as you're reaching the end of the stretch.

Hotel in Munich had it's own garage (quite unusual among hotels I've stayed in so far) and you had to enter same code as for your room for the door to open. Even considering it was an Oktoberfest time, garage was quite empty (like 25% full).

Oktoberfest

well... I knew it would be crazy, but I didn't expect it would be THAT crazy. And it's certainly not an event for introverts 😃
Finding a place to sit in a beer tent isn't trivial (and this was during the week, not a weekend!). But locals said like - "oh, this is ok, but on weekends it gets real crazy". Well, I don't wanna know how crazy it gets on weekends then 😕
Still, it was worth visiting, even considering I almost got hit by flying 1 litre mug filled with beer 😑

Fun fact - you don't need a map to reach Oktoberfest place, just pick one of the metro stations nearby and go with the flow, you won't get lost 😀

Daily distance: 602 km
Driving time: 7:20

to be continued...

Eurotrip 2017 - Day 1-3

Day 1 - Estonia - Poland

Because I started in the afternoon, there was no chance to reach Warsaw at reasonable hour, so my plan was to make overnight stop earlier, just before Lomza. Anyway, day 1 was ok, some inevitable delays due to roadworks, and minor detour due to my mistake.


Driving time: almost 11 hours
Daily mileage: 792 km

Day 2 - Poland - Germany

Weather wasn't very welcoming in the morning, rain and stuff. Motorways in Poland are still cool, though payments are kinda annoying. After reading stuff on the internet, I was a bit stressed about an emission sticker ( Umweltplakette )
NB! You're required to have it (even if vehicle is registered outside of Germany!) if you plan to drive in 'Umwelt' zones (many big cities have those zones, usually in city center and around). 
Because getting this sticker requires some additional logistics (cheapest way is to visit some TÜV station) and both of my hotels were supposedly outside of this zone, I decided not to bother.

Long story short, I successfully reached Berlin.

Driving time: 8:20
Distance: 722 km

Day 3 - Berlin

well, one thing to remember is that U-bahn / S-bahn trains stop working not long after midnight.

to be continued...