Birdie is driving around East Europe!

[BrutalBirdie]

Road Trip 2025 - East Europe

Cloudron Forum

For the amusement of some people here, I will share my road trip.
Starting today I will travel for two weeks (+-) in East Europe.

The approximate route will be this:

Almost 5000 km in 14 days including a ferry.
I will not be traveling alone, 3 of my best friends are traveling with me.

What to expect from this topic?

Pictures from all over East Europe and little stories about what is going on.
We booked no accommodations at all and will dynamically find what ever suits us.
Budget planned for each person is €100/day.

Mobile Data?

Since I need mobile data for my phone I did some research (yesterday, one day before departing ) for a digital SIM card with unlimited bandwidth and no throttling for Europe.
After some research I found https://www.esim.net/eu-unlimited?country=europe

Including the following countries:

Coverage in Albania, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia. Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Moldova, Montenegro, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, and United Kingdom.

LGTM!? Right?

After reading through the whole contract and TOC/TOS especially the part about "unlimited" data being truly unlimited and not like many others do it, 3GB a day and after that throttled to 1 Mbits.
I found out they are doing something called Fair Usage Policy which is still very vague even with the full description in the TOC/TOS.
But, I will report how it will work out, so you people may have a valid reference of use.

I will also track my daily mobile data consumption and provide this in each update post.
Starting note, even in Germany this eSIM has better data coverage then my primary one !

When to expect new posts?

I will try to write a post every evening. Big emphasis on try!

Car used

We are traveling in a brand-new VW Passat B9 with all features.
Don't have a picture right now since we will pick up the car later this day.
For reference, looks something like this:

[fbartels]

Sounds like a fun trip. How fixed is your route? A college once recommended to me to visit https://titosbunker.com/ if I am ever in Bosnia & Herzegovina.

[jdaviescoates]

@BrutalBirdie enjoy your trip! I'm just back from a 14 day interrail adventure with my family. We went Brussels -> Rotterdam (actually stayed in Ooltgensplaat on a friends ship) -> Berlin -> Prague -> Amsterdam - was great!

[timconsidine]

@BrutalBirdie Awesome !!

Good luck and keep us posted.

I have used Holafly as en eSim for Europe travels.
I can't say it is perfect because I have not been off-piste much, but it works most of the time.

Also Nomad worth checking out.

Look forward to the updates

[timconsidine]

@BrutalBirdie given your departure point and route, you probably won't need them, but I always find Roatel good for cheap overnight stays (roatel.de)

[andreasdueren]

Enjoy your vacation and don't get trafficked!

[robi]

Nice, lots of Croatia coastal soak time.

You may want to consider short trips inward for some contrast as there are exciting gems not on that route, such as Plitvice. (Cascading lakes and waterfalls)

And as @fbartels mentioned Tito's bunker is on the way to Sarajevo which is another treat if for nothing else than their famous Cevapi.

Then there's the Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun not far from there. A must see.

UPDATE:
Croatia just extended their Digital Nomad Visa for up to 3 years.

[BrutalBirdie]

Day one - Czech republic - Prague

Data used 2 GB - issues? None.

Steps taken ~25.000

Food and drinks, very good.
Prague's street life is alive and well.
Hotel cost ~100€ for 4 people, pretty affordable.

Plans for next day two, private tour of Brünn from one of our gaming buddys who lives there and after that to Vienna in Austria.

PS: I very much dislike writing on my phone

[BrutalBirdie]

Day Two - Czech republic - Brno and Austria Vienna

Data used 5.61 GB, still all good.
Steps walked, ~29.000 and a lot of uphill and downhill.
Our local guide was awesome and we got to see a lot.
My favorite was the castle on top of the mountain and we had luck, there was a medieval event there.

After all that we drove to Vienna and now I can finally sleep in a nice Hotel

[BrutalBirdie]

Day 3 - Austria - Vienna

Data used 12.5GB - all good
Walked ~30.000 steps

Vienna was amazing.
Every 100 meters there is something worth seeing.
The inner city has loads of free public water fountains and even more water vaporizers to cool down the city and the people.

Was Great! Can recommend it!

[BrutalBirdie]

Day 4 - Slowenia - Soča

Data used 15.52 - no issues
Walked ~30000 and 300 meters up the mountain and down again.

Close to:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/bBpPYhBoejbR8d5FA

This was a tough route for me but I powered through it and got this awesome picture and many more as a reward.

I must say, Slowenia is such a beautiful country so far almost like a fairytale.

Now finishing the day in:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/twrX1h45Qc4L673w7

Looking forward to some good Slowenian food and after that my bed.

[BrutalBirdie]

Day 5 - Slowenia and Italy

Data used - 22 GB - all good
Walked ~30.000

We stayed here:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/G1QSkyKy8dADZVkDA

And I can recommend this place.
Lovely people, great food and everything is local.
For the local breakfast you pay 18€ and you get with that breakfast payment:

• tour of the city loper capodistria
• beekeeping bencic Istrian Honey with Aroma therapy
• Sweet waterfall dries fruits tasting and discovering the Istrian Village of trebese
• vino veritas organic wine tasting
• herbal labyrinth learn about the traditional Istrian herbs and spirits
• organic olive growing bocaj extra virgin olive oil tour and tasting

Amazing!

And the night sky!!!

[BrutalBirdie]

Day 6,7,8

Data is a problematic in Split Croatia don't know why.

Croatia has been very good to me.
Very friendly people that like to help.

Walked ~30.000+ just in Split and rented my self a 50cc scooter.

This is my trip from Split.
We hiked a lot but it was awesome.

Here you can see me after a long hike up and down relaxing.

And cicadas everywhere! I did not measure the DB level but it was a constant buzz.

Talking of a buzz, some local grandpa invited us to drink his home made wine and beer.
Very good

Before Split we where in Rijeka and enjoyed a thunderstorm.
But Rijeka was really just a stop and go.

Tomorrow more

[BrutalBirdie]

First an apology, that last 7 days of the road trip where very intense, and I did not get the time to post.
So now my follow-up.

Day 9 - Dubrovnik Croatia

Data was still problematic, the contacting of the support was not as smooth as I hoped.
But after a very detailed and specific mail the refunded my money instantly.
I was able to book the same data plan again and had no more issues ever since.
After that we used about ~30 GB of traffic so all in all ~55 GB traffic used by 3 to 4 people (used my phone as a hotspot all the time).

The Dubrovnik old town is full of "Game of Throes" stuff which I can not relate to.
Never watched it, not going to.

The old town is very impressive, and I got to see a lot.
Even a real Croatian Wedding progression in the Old Town.

Day 10 - Ferry Dubrovnik to Bari Italy

The Ferry was boring. Nothing more to say.

Day 10 - Bari Italy

Italy shocked me with how dirty the roads are, especially the entries and exists to the "Autobahn".
Every entry and exit seems to be used as a competition who can throw his trash the furthest.

And the drivers. . .

Turn signals, speed limits all the rules for how to act on the street are more recommendations than rules to them.
We figured the "right of way" Italian style.
Jerk your car forward a little and pretend you will just drive but quickly break again.
If the other party breaks, they lost the "right of way" and now it is your time to go.
Don't forget to look smug out of the window while doing so.

If someone is driving the legal speed limit, almost ram into the back of the car and constantly flash hour headlights and start honking, even if there is no way for the car in front of you to switch the lane to the right.
This is viewed as a friendly reminder that just because YOU want to follow the rules, they don't have to and you should NOT block them. (sarcasm)

Roundabouts are a free-for-all. Get in there, force it, don't use the turn signal, ever!

If you use your turn signal, god forbid, leave it on for until it turns off automatically when ever.
Switching the lane to the left with a signal, keep it on, drive 15 km like that, suddenly jerk the car into the right lane, turn signal still going left.
Leave the "Autobahn" to the right while keeping the left signal going.
Just drive, ignore the clicking sound of the signal.

But the food. . . is just awesome and south Italy is very cost-efficient compared to the north.
In Bari we got 10x starters, a pizza, drink of choice, dessert and aperitivo for two people for €22.
For the drink we chose 1L of red wine.

[BrutalBirdie]

Day 11 - Pompeii // Mount Vesuvius // Naples

Pompeii

Was impressive and pretty big.
The most interesting things to look at from my point of view are the old paintings on the walls.

Wooden doors turned to stone

or some mosaics carefully handcrafted 79 AC

Pretty much wow.

Mount Vesuvius

A still active volcano that destroyed Pompeii and lastly erupted March 17, 1944.
To think that the pictures from before is the city destroyed by the same mountain standing on and looking down in to Naples.
Made me think about what will happens to Naples when it happens again

To get a feeling of the scale of this crater, from the picture above a section with arrow

This is a tourist shop with railing where people are standing.

Naples // Bagnoli

We visited the "Diego Vitagliano Pizzeria" the 2° 50 Top Pizza World 2024 where we had to wait 1 hour to get a table, but it was worth it.

After that we also had to visit the Murale Diego Armando Maradona - Quartieri Spagnoli for our football fan in the group.

[BrutalBirdie]

Day 12 - Rome

6 hours of walking in 35ºC in the shade and ~45ºC in the sun.
Exhausting!

The Colosseum, so many basilicas I lost track of them, the Vatican City and the Saint Peter's basilica.

We sadly missed the secret German entrance to the saint peter's basilica by 10 minutes.
"Secret German entrance"? You might ask?
Yes, Germans go up the Swizz Guard at a specific place and ask them a specific German phrase to get entrance into the Saint Peter's basilica without waiting like all other tourists.
You will have to prove German citizenship, and you will still get checked for weapons and such.
Sadly, only from 7:00 to 13:00 and we arrived at the spot at 13:10. Sucked, but it is what it is.

Also, there really isn't a "secret German entrance" to St. Peter's Basilica, but you can gain access to the Campo Santo Teutonico, a German national cemetery adjacent to the Basilica, by asking a Swiss Guard for access to the German Cemetery (Campo Santo Teutonico) at the Piazza del Sant'Uffizio (in German language).
But while you are in there, you can ask for further entrance into the Basilica and if the time is right and with enough luck you get a private tour from a German Bishop.

[BrutalBirdie]

Day 13 - San Marino

We stopped here because the gas prices are way cheaper and we could buy €280 worth of anything tax-free.

Not much to say.
Food was okay, the view was nice.
But nothing super awesome.

[BrutalBirdie]

Day 14 - Venice

Venice was impressive, but we ran out of luck and a storm with heavy rain made the visit a little unpleasant.

[BrutalBirdie]

Day 15 and 16

Driving.
Back to Austria, Bavaria and Germany.
We stopped in Bavaria for the night to visit a common friend who even celebrated his birthday this day. (we did not plan for this )

We went to a "Kirmes" and drank some Maß Bier and enjoyed the last real day of our road trip

The party ended around 03:30 in the morning, and we had to walk ~30 minutes to our hotel.
But a German saying, "Der Fußbus fährt immer"!
Meaning, no matter the time or day or blood alcohol level, you can always walk.

After that, we drove home.
And with this Fußbus image I am done reporting :).

[humptydumpty]

@BrutalBirdie said in Birdie is driving around East Europe!:

7dfe8cf4-9afa-4902-8405-3ec90a4cb5fb-image.png

The detail in this mosaic! You can see the rosy cheeks from where he slapped that a**