quinta-feira, junho 21, 2007

Eurotrip, day 12

Ljubljana by day is quite different than by night, but almost as interesting. We took another walk around the city, then a train home, and now it's all about packing up again. We move in the morning to more expensive places... Rest is over, we'll be back on the road - under a heat wave in Italy, nice!

Eurotrip, day 11

Bitchy morning. Waking up early was terrible, but Rezna was finally checked out by a mechanic. Maybe she'll live through. In the afternoon we went to Ljubljana. Great place, great nightlife, great people. But again, waking up early in the morning is a bitch.

Eurotrip, day 10

First real day of rest! We saw Velenje, and the biggest statue of Tito in the world, and also went to the top of the nearest mountain, and we all had lots and lots of rest. And homemade food. Cry, suckers.

terça-feira, junho 19, 2007

Eurotrip, day 9

We left Budapest in the morning, and the water pump blew up again, early in the morning. Again, doubts about the effectiveness of my homecoming plan. We just kept filling it with water and stopped in very gas station on the way. All good. Exit Budapest, lunch in Gyor, on to Austria, all the way south, coffee break in the mountains, into Slovenia. We had to wait until Slovenia, after crossing 5 other borders, for someone to ask what the hell were a Portuguese, a Slovenian and a Belgian doing in a Latvian car. Anyway, Zhiga is a native, he explained the whole deal, and then he took ushome, where we ate like kings and will now rest for sometime - us and the car!

Half of the trip is done!

Eurotrip, day 8

Budapest is great. Beautiful, with its Citadelle, the Castle, the Church in the cave and the millions for Asian tourists. Quite a long day, visiting all this, because the city is quite big and the Duna doesn't make it fresher. In the evening, Hungarian food, very nice aswell, and then another amaying bar, huge place inside an old abandoned building. To top it the best way, I actually slept twice in the same bed! Also, I managed to fix the thing with the thing, so I expect the car to run without problems... It's a long way to Slovenia.

Eurotrip, day 7

What a long day. We left Krakow, moved to Slovakia, dropped the girls off (and their 439,516 kg of luggage), had lunch, rolled across the country, into Hungary, got lost trying to buy the vignette for the highway, then we roamed the streets of Budapest without a clue, until we bought a map of the place. Upon getting the map, we used GPS: Gregoire Positioning System, when Frederic takes a light a guides me through the traffic. We found my friend's flat, I start parking the car just in front and the water pump goes kaput. All day praising the fact that the car moves much faster, and that the roads are good and whatever, then Rezna scares me likes this. I admit I had doubts about coming home. Past the shock, we had homemade dinner and went to a great bar, on the roof of a building, where some imbecile waitress didn't know Russky Standart was a vodka - written on their wall!

Eurotrip, day 6

So I thought that staying one more night in this hostel would mean sleeping one more night in the same bed. Wrong. We had to move to a new room... Anyway, we saw the Jewish quarter, with its synagogues and its flea market and its crowds of Jewish American tourists who all sound like Woody Allen or Jerry Seinfeld, then we visited the Wawel castle, the Cathedral and wandered around, getting a few souvenirs for the family. Fred and I, after my kebab poisoning, returned early to prepare to trip the next day, while the others went out clubbing. They were kind enough to wake us up. Just like in Reznas, but this time they had a key or the room...

Eurotrip, day 5

We moved to a hostel called Goodbye Lenin. As I said, never sleep in the same place twice. Then we met the belgians in Auschwitz, took a guided visit and everyone got a bit more heavy memories from there. Back to Krakow, by night, we met some native friends who took us to a nice polish restaurant where we ate like animals and saw our colesterol skyrocket. Nice! By the end of the day we decided to stay longer in Krakow, because the city is great but we never see it during the day, for some reason.

quinta-feira, junho 14, 2007

Eurotrip, day 4

After a good night sleep, we left Lodz under an amazing thunderstorm, with half of the city flooded. Quite a driving challenge, but Rezna took 3 hours to complain about it. The way to Krakow was long, and finding a hostel proved to be quite difficult, but eventually we settled for a room just across the street from the Opera House. Great location, not so inviting prices... The girls still took a walk at night around the center, but the men need some real sleep.

The idea of spending 2 nights in the same city is so far from our minds that we probably move to a different hostel in the morning.

We hired a bum to watch the car for 5 zlotky :)

quarta-feira, junho 13, 2007

Eurotrip, day 3

Today, the car did not complain. Amazing, considering that our trip has passed the barrier of 1000 km. We left the motel in the morning, and spent most of the day on the road, all the way to Lodz. One of my friends lives here, in a huge and very very nice dormitory, where the rooms have bathroom included. Not complaining about common shower in Reznas. There's like a small city just for the University, with the faculties, dormitories, pubs, clubs, supermarkets, pizzeria...
Not complaining about Maskavas Forstate, or about catching two trams to get to Fizmati, or about the distance to the nearest safe place to drink, or about sharing the neighbourhood with some bums, NOT AT ALL. I would never complain. Like the car.

Two final thoughts: nothing like a roadtrip to make your appreciate a shower, and nothing looks nicer than the trucker-tan I have on my left arm :)

Eurotrip, day 2

Vilnius is great, I highly recommend. We spent the morning there and then off to Poland, with a few stops on the way, because Rezna complains a lot. The lithuanian roads are not so good, and they are full of lithunian drivers, that should all be shot for the kind of things they do at the wheel.

Eventually we made it to Poland, passing a line of trucks about 30 km long at the border, and had to stay in Bialystok, where there were no rooms. We found a roadside motel and crashed there. The girls were happy about the price, until we explained them that the place was actually a bordello
. Tough luck. After all, a roadtrip is a roadtrip.

domingo, junho 10, 2007

Eurotrip, day 1

It's amazing, but we made it to Vilnius. The trip was long and mostly boring, mostly because the lithuanian landscape is boring. Flat, green, forward. Still, we stopped in Bauska to have lunch and see the castle, almost ran out of fuel in the motorway and, when we arrived, the car was doing those alarming noises again. Tough luck.

Now for a late shower, some dinner a perhaps a drink.
Tomorrow morning we're off to Poland, hoping the car we'll live through.

Greetings from all of us!

Eurotrip about to begin

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls,

unlike the usual system, this blog will now be written in English for the next three weeks, which is to say, for as long as we're on the road. This is mostly because contacting people while crossing Europe can be a bit difficult. But in any case, my Latvian phone will be active for as long as the roaming allows, just for SMS. E-mail is also a good possibility, as we should find internet access along the way

Anyway, I'll try to keep a regular update on how the trip is going, keeping it short, keeping it real, and in the end I might just feel like telling the whole story with some nice photos on the side. We'll probably issue a DVD.

About the ride: my faithful VW Caravelle, which has been named Rēzna, will be incredibly loaded. Still, we'll get to our destinations. Or not, but that's what's fun about this. You can find the itinerary here, and even though it's in Portuguese everybody should be able to get the point.

In just a few hours, we hit the road. Nice!

sábado, junho 09, 2007

Visitas incómodas

Chega a ser triste o esforço feito para acomodar um hóspede durante um curto período. Ainda por cima um tão burro.

http://dn.sapo.pt/2007/06/09/internacional/seguranca_obrigou_bush_a_mudar_rotei.html

quinta-feira, junho 07, 2007

Eurotripes - itinerário

Para quem não sabe, comprei uma carrinha e vou voltar para casa ao volante. Levo uns mânfios e umas mânfias no bote. Tenho 48 horas para tratar de milhentas merdas mas sinto-me imparável. A aventura começa sábado de manhã.

Para quem precisar mesmo muito de mim, deixo aqui o itinerário previsto. Assim podem saber onde estou em cada dia deste mês e comparar atentamente com as primeiras páginas dos jornais.

10 - de Rīga (LV) a Kaunas (LT)
11 - de Kaunas, por Warszawa (PL) e Łódź, a Wrocław
12 - pausa em Wrocław
13 - de Wrocław a Kraków
14 - pausa em Kraków
15 - de Kraków, por Námestovo (SK), a Budapest (HU)
16 - pausa em Budapest
17 - de Budapest, por Győr, a Velenje (SLO)
18 - pausa em Velenje
19 - de Velenje a Ljubljana
20 - pausa em Ljubljana
21 - de Ljubljana, por Venezia (IT), a Bologna
22 - pausa em Bologna
23 - de Bologna a Torino *
24 - de Torino a Marseille (FR)
25 - de Marseille a Barcelona (ES)
26 - pausa em Barcelona
27 - de Barcelona a Madrid
28 - pausa em Madrid
29 - de Madrid, por Salamanca, a Aveiro (PT)
30 - de Aveiro a Leiria

* possível pausa em Torino, veremos

Realcei as pausas por nenhuma razão em especial.

quarta-feira, junho 06, 2007

Excesso de tempo livre

Sinceramente, não compreendo para que raio serve o Parlamento Europeu. Já tentaram banir a matança do porco e a colher de pau, entre outras imbecilidades, continuam incapazes de produzir legislação séria, e continuam em cruzadas estapafúrdias:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6725161.stm

A propósito, será que, entre 785 cabecinhas pensadoras, alguém terá estado alguma vez num laboratório de termodinâmica? Chupistas.

terça-feira, junho 05, 2007

Portugueses libertados

Os dois portugueses e um espanhol que ainda estavam detidos foram finalmente libertados!

http://dn.sapo.pt/2007/06/05/sociedade/portugueses_detidos_foram_libertados.html

Mas devo dizer que a opinião dos letões com quem tenho falado é bastante negativa. Vieram sacar bandeiras para um dos piores sítios possíveis...

sábado, junho 02, 2007

Manifestação de apoio aos portugueses detidos na Letónia

Conforme referi há uns tempos, um grupo de portugueses e espanhóis foi detido em Rīga há algum tempo, por roubarem uma bandeira numa bubadeira. Neste momento a coisa escalou de tal maneira que o caso está nas mãos do equivalente ao SIS aqui da terra.

Dois já regressaram. Declarações ao DN

O tratamento a que estão a ser sujeitos é grave e inaceitável.

Fica aqui um apelo à participação numa manifestação, enviado por um amigo destes jovens a José Milhazes, que podeis consultar no blog Da Rússia. Lá estão outras informações de relevo. Transcrevendo:

"Conheço directamente uma das pessoas que ainda está detida.

Infelizmente, há que criticar nestas situações. De facto a idade não é de 15 anos, mas sim 25, e a responsabilidade deveria pesar.

A questão importante neste caso, é o modo como foram detidos, acusados, e aparentemente condenados.

O problema é que a acusação está a envolver alguns aspectos políticos e as coisas podem alcançar proporções despropositadas. O tratamento que estão sujeitos na prisão em Riga é preocupante.
Como podem ver no mail abaixo, está a ser organizada uma manifestação amanhã em frente à embaixada da Letónia em Lisboa. A ideia é tornar o caso mais mediático de forma a que exista alguma pressão política que possa pelo menos garantir que eles não são mal tratados.

O objectivo não é desculpar, mas sim que sejam garantidos os seus direitos. Confirmo que as autoridades os agrediram e que os ameaçaram com armas.

Ricardo

> A situação já foi notificada nas noticias, hoje sexta feira vai haver
> uma
> conferência de imprensa no aeroporto com um dos Portugueses já
> libertados às
> 18h. Pretende-se fazer uma manifestação em Lisboa junto à embaixada de
> Lisboa este Sábado ( não será o melhor dia devia de ser durante a
> semana,
> mas o que acontece é que à mesma Hora às 17h vai haver uma também em
> Madrid,
> quando for o jogo Espanha-Letónia), segunda feira de manha deve de haver
> uma
> outra, esta em conjunto com pessoal em vários países da Europa.
>
> O que peço é que consigam falar com o máximo de amigos do Paulo e
> passar a
> mensagem, para estarem no Sábado em frente à embaixada da Letónia em
> Lisboa!!!!"


Não sei que complexos nacionalistas e que movimentações políticas estão por detrás disto (a eleição presidencial foi esta semana), mas protesto contra esta situação perfeitamente absurda. Tratassem de criminosos a sério, que os há muitos por aqui.

Espalhem a palavra e manifestem-se!