#Thereisnorush

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Budapest marked a serious of firsts. The first month of our journey completed, the first things have started breaking, the first country we visited that neither of us have been to before, the first time we didn’t book accommodation in advance and nearly ended up on the icy street when we arrived on the bus at 11pm. But all ended well and at 1am we were sound asleep in a private room in Bongo Hostel in the centre of Budapest. We started off our first day with a trip to the Széchenyi thermal baths. Europe’s largest natural hot spring and medicinal baths. Tom enjoyed the saunas and jumping in the freezing cold pools after, whereas Anja preferred to soak in the hot outdoor and indoor pools. For both of us the highlight however was a private beer bath spar, with a mixture of hops, yeast and salts in a wooden hot tub and a beer tap next to it with as much beer as we wanted to pour for ourselves. After the baths we visited the Buja Disnók Market and had a schnitzel at lush pigs that was easily twice the size of my head! In the evening we had a drink in a ruin bar around the corner called Szimpla Kert, which was a great and colourful experience with its varying levels of artistic bars. The next day we went for a long walk and visited Buda Castle. In the evening we went for dinner by the Danube Riverside in the Esetleg Bisztró and had some very tasty traditional Hungarian stew, followed by some incredible gin and tonics at Kiosk. After which we decided to catch the bus up to Matthias church where the famous Austrian emperors Franz and Sissi were married (this probably only means a lot to Anja and her family who watched the movies countless times)! The church itself is absolutely beautiful though and the view from the hill that it stands on is breathtaking by night. We couldn’t get enough of it and decided to walk down to take it all in, despite the cold. And some very cheap but tasty pizza found on the way home warmed us both up again. Thank you so much to Tom’s friend Peter for all the amazing recommendations of where to go, eat and drink in Budapest. Every single one of them was top notch and made it a lot easier to see this huge city in such a short space!

[motherearthastrology]

. The Moon🌙 has now moved into fiery, warm and expressive Leo♌️ . With a radiant fire🔥 trine between the Moon🌙 and Venus today, there's been a beautiful energy✨💖 around. . Did you feel it? . Tomorrow may feel different, especially in the morning, as the Moon🌙 will move to trigger the recent Saturn/Chiron square. . Watch for increased sensitivity💝 and any self worth issues, feelings of inadequacy, struggle😣 or burden that may still be hanging around (see last post). . Always a good time to reach for a pen and paper📝 and to vent your feelings if you're affected. . You can burn🔥 the paper afterwards to release the feelings, which can be quite cathartic😌. . A Moon/Neptune contact tomorrow afternoon advises going with the flow🌊 and despite possible relationship👩‍❤️‍💋‍👩 friction, a sextile to Jupiter should raise the mood, increasing optimism 🤗 . Try to remain patient; especially If you're feeling that things are taking a great deal of time right now⏰💤 . Mercury is slowing down🚶🏼 ready to turn direct early Thursday morning, so it won't be long until you can expect some swifter forward momentum👣. . I found this beautiful rock last week when I was feeling a little tender😥. . I was sitting by a tree🌴 with my eyes closed and when I opened them, there it was👀 . Hearts💗 always appear to let me know that everything's okay👌🏼 and with Leo♌️ ruling the heart, this is a beautiful time to share it✨ . Hearts💕 remind me that I'm exactly where I need to be and that I am completely supported🙌🏻 No matter what is going on or how I'm seeing things. . I'm sure that you are too 💕xo💕 . Much Love, Toria xo✨💖 . . . #Astrology #Leo #LunarLore #LetYourselfBeVulnerable #PatienceMayBeRequiredALittleLonger #Release #YouHaveToFeelItToHealIt #TheMoon #ThereIsNoRush #GoWithTheFlow #Signs #Symbols #Heart #MercuryRetrograde (at Mother Earth Astrology & Natural Healing)

[thereisnorush-blog]

On the 8th of May we navigated our way through the street works outside our hostel and drove to a nearby cave. After a quick lunch from the shade of the car we went investigating. Devetashka Cave turned out to be more of a gigantic dome like structure, with a river running through it. It has a bat cave in the back, which is one of the most important and diverse bat cave sanctuaries in Europe, and for that same reason nobody is allowed into the deeper depths. So in comparison to the cave that we'd stumbled upon at Emen Canyon, which was deep, pitch black with unexplained buildings inside it plus bats, Devetashka Cave was more of a beautiful, unique scenery from a Lord of the Rings set. From the cave we drove about three hours to our next wild camping location by Montana Lake. We found the lake flooded, full of frogs and its embankments dotted by the occasional camper / fishermen. We found a nice secluded spot and set up camp. At sunset we heard the jackals howling on the distance. After sunset we were surrounded by the chorus of the frogs. We managed to make another campfire, despite the slightly damp firewood. And when we'd gotten snug in our tent we were paid a short visit by a slightly lost frog on our porch. It was a slightly cooler night and sadly Anja woke up pretty bunged up (pretty sure we caught it from the snoring liverpudlian guy from the previous hostel). So we decided to take it a little bit more easy and book a room for the following night.

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The top features a photo of our lunch spot with a view onto the lake and Toms toes trying to dry in the sun. We realised pretty quickly that we were hiking over little rivers as they were melting underneath the snow. It was fascinating to walk over a snow pain to suddenly have it turn into a river. We weren't the only people hiking along this path so we assumed it was safe. Around the mountain refuge, our starting and end point, most of the snow had melted giving way to endless fields of crocuses.

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One of the many snow melt rivers connecting the seven lakes.

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Some more photos of our view from the Strasbourg cathedral (over 300 steps up and down), le petit France canals, and the beautiful stalks in their huge nests.

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1: Lisa getting very excited in the car 2&3: very photogenic mushrooms 4: Lisa posing for the camera 5&6: pretty things found on the forest 7&8: Tom fitting on a mushroom and the entrance to an abandoned mine shaft 9&10: group photos in the forest

[thereisnorush-blog]

Odessa, 26th - 28th May In Odessa the convoy rented out almost an entire guest house on the outskirts. We managed to get a very nice room to ourselves with an ensuite with a bathtub! Pure luxury and privacy! There was a mad rush for the washing machine as almost 19 people tried to wash their washing at the same time. After we all had gone shopping the two of us enjoyed a bath each and then went out with a few others to watch the champions league final in the city centre. The taxi rides there and back were more than exciting! The next morning we had a lie in. As the rest of the convoy decided to go into Odessa early, we set off later on our own. We walked through the park opposite our guesthouse where the locals were celebrating palm Sunday. On the other side we walked for a while until we encountered a working tram. Although it looked like it could fall apart at any moment, the tiny tram even had free WiFi and only cost 10 cents! In the City centre we had lunch, accidentally walked into a beautiful orthodox church, saw the opera house, and many other beautiful old buildings and parks. Odessa has a very nice, relaxed vibe. It’s architecture reminded us somewhat of Vienna, but without any of the masses of tourism and the rush that comes with it. When we got back we decided to have an early night as it was going to be another early start the next day.

[thereisnorush-blog]

Berlin, 6th - 9th July We got to Berlin via DB IC Bus, which have a pretty decent film and TV show entertainment system. In Berlin Anjas friend Anifa received us at the bus stop. Together we went shopping and then on to her home, where we spent the weekend. Anifa lives in a big allotment complex, where she owns her own allotment with a lovely little house. Her boyfriend Marc owns another allotment a few rows over where they both live permanently. Usually Anifas brother lives in her house but he was so incredibly kind as to give us the house for the weekend. The whole allotment complex is situated on the outskirts far away from big roads, next to a river, which makes for a very quiet, green, relaxing and overall unusually positive experience of Berlin. In the evening we all ate together in the garden and shared our polish vodka, which only cost 4€ but tasted better than any vodka we've tasted before. On Saturday we had an accidental lie in till 11am, which however turned out to be the best preparation for what lay ahead of us. We had our breakfast in the garden and then went to Cafè am Neuen See in the Tiergarten to watch England beat Sweden on a big screen, outdoors in the sun with plenty of beer and pizza. We also met Ana there, a previous course mate of Anja. Together with her uncle and aunt, who were also visiting from Sheffield, we had a great time and got completely lost in conversation until we had to run off to meet Anifa for our favourite sushi at Aiko. Still full from the pizza and beer we only managed one course of veggie crispy rolls. However, knowing exactly what they love the most about this restaurant, Anifa and Anja proceeded to order 6 deserts between us! Feeling extremely full and somewhat unwell we headed towards Anifas friends place. At Daniel and Izzys flat we had a few beers and more great conversations. Around 11pm we grabbed a few more beers for the road and made our way to Kater Blau. We queued for over an hour and after the most fashionable bouncer agreed to let us in, we had put stickers over all of our camera lenses. Kater Blau is a popular techno club for all ages by the river. We met some very interesting people as we talked the hours away and our agreed upon time of departure got pushed back from 4 till 8am. Naturally we spent most of Sunday asleep inside, apart from when we went over to Marc's house for Anifas amazing home made pizza followed by a wonderful walk along the allotment complex and adjoining river. We said our hearty goodbyes that evening as both Marc and Anifa would have to go back to work Monday morning. Us on the other hand had another lie in, packed our bags and said goodbye to Anifas lovely home. We nearly made our way to the wrong bus stop but caught the mistake just in time and now we're on our way to our final location: Cologne / Köln.

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Tiraspol, Transnistria 28-29th May

Leaving early, as usual, on this day the global convoy had planned to go through 1 border from Ukraine to Maldova. Driving not far out of Odessa, we hit a border and waited in a queue for 2 hours, in the hottest part of the day. Upon getting to the front of the queue we found out it was the wrong border and we didn’t have to go through it. Driving 30mins more we arrived at the correct border and crossed into Moldova. We drove off again, with the plan of staying in Bender just before the transnistrian border and then crossing over into Transnistria on foot the next day. However, what nobody else apart from Tom seemed to have figured out in their preparation was that Bender is a border city already controlled by Transnistria, even though the ‘official’ border is drawn behind it. So, on the outskirts of Bender we arrived at another crossing which turned out to be the Transnistrian border and thus we crossed our third border of the day completely accidentally! When we crossed this one we entered a country not formally recognised by the UN. We did a lot of driving on this day. Transnistria is technically a region of Moldova, which under the rule of the USSR became the economical capital of Moldova, leaving the rest of the country as a 'corn chamber’. After the dissolving of the USSR Moldova went back to adopting Romanian as its official language and became one of the first former USSR countries to make an agreement to join the EU. However at the same time Transnistria produced 25% of the countries GDP and 90% of its energy, whilst only holding 17% of the countries population. Feeling a greater connection to Russia, Transnistria declared its independence, with its own currency, flag and head of state. Supported by Russia it has won a war against Moldova and survived until now, although it is formally only acknowledged by further breakaway states such as Abkhazia and Tskhinvali in Georgia. The people we met in Transnistria felt very strongly that they are their own country however. And although it formally is supposed to make a decision by the end of the year on whether it wants to be part of the EU or the greater Russian expansion pack, it is difficult to believe that this will be a deadline that will be kept. After accidentally crossing into Transnistria the convoy decided that we might as well carry on into the capitol of Transnistria, Tiraspol. The city of Tiraspol was pleasant and ironically reminded us of some sort of American suburbia with wide tree lined streets and white picket fences. It is probably the closest we have got to a Russian city. We collected some money including an official plastic coin and a 1 note from a country that doesn’t exist, to take home. And we watched a chain ferry with no motor glide across a river. However for a country that doesn’t exist the city was pretty boring. Arriving far too late as ever, we made food in the dark, paid for camping and set off early the next day without really having seen enough of the country to fully comment on it.

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The following day (29th), after a very restful nights sleep, we drove to our next stop, the Central Balkan Mountains, which is the name giver to the whole region of the Balkans. On the way we stopped off at Plovdiv and had a little walk up to a view point over the city and its surrounding mountains and countryside. PS by Anja: we have seen many foals along the way and every time I have to think of how my little sister would love them. So here's some photos of horses for Fiona.

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On the morning of the 28th we drove to the chair lift to the rila 7 lakes. It was Toms first drive in the mountains, which he enjoyed thoroughly. The chairlift takes 20 minutes each way and elevates you around 800 meters to just below 2500 meters above sea level. On the way up it was beautiful. On the way down it was terrifying! (Hence there are only photos going up) The ever changing landscape and increasing amount of snow was slightly concerning for our planned hike but absolutely beautiful.

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Sophia, 26th April 2018

We took the coach from Thessaloniki to Sophia it was 5 hours but beautiful very very green, a different fuller and richer colour than the other landscapes we had seen. When we arrived in Sophia it felt like a relaxed city almost immediately. We went to our airB&B, which was a little less than we expected because we didn’t have access to the kitchen so we went out for food and the centre of the city was lively and lovely. The next day we walk around on an unsuccessful attempt to find a hiking book for Bulgaria. Instead we found a busy park which had a fountain and everyone there was relaxing and talking. In the evening we ate sushi which was very tasty! On our last day (although we will return to Sophia) we hired a car from the airport! The car is a brown Skoda, it’s much bigger than we were expecting because of the price. It’s the biggest car either of us have driven, much wider than we are used to! We have hired it for two weeks so that we can get to the hiking areas in the national parks which are difficult to get to by bus. We have much more freedom with a car to go where we want, when we want to. We then drove to the Rila national park, south of Sophia, and visited the Stob Pyramids. The pyramids were created by rain washing away the soft earth, the towers that survive are capped by a hard rock boulder which eventually falls when it is not supported any longer. And then we drove to our Eco hotel just outside the Rila Park.

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Berat, 12th April 2018 We came to Berat via another minibus, which dropped us off on the outskirts of town. The driver pointed to the side of the road, shouted bus at us and sure enough two minutes later the local bus turned up to take us to the centre. We stayed in a lovely little hostel, in a traditional old house with a very nice host. There was only one other guest who walked up to the 2000 year old castle with us and later up the hill on the other side of the river. Both little hikes offered incredible views over the surrounding area, especially the mountains in the distance. There is an old tale of Berat, which states there were two soldiers who fought over a woman. One had a sword and the other a whip. When the women couldn’t decide between them and saw the two men fighting she cried so much she created the river running through Berat and drowned herself in it. The gods got so angry over this that they turned the two men into the mountains either side of the river and to this day one mountain bears the cuts of the others sword whilst the second bears the mark of the others whip. We walked up the latter and saw the mountain with “the sword cuts” in the distance. We were both impressed with the seemingly even cuts all along the mountain range. We had a really nice time in Berat and were a little slow/reluctant to leave the following day.