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In
the photo section, we put all the daily albums of
SUDELESTE 2007, with a sum-up of all the main
interest points of each week.
1st Week-
Portugal to Slovenia by Truck
The first day of SUDELESTE was marked by the
premature abandon of one of the travellers, Ivo,
caused by something unplanned at the Spanish border.
The rest of us, Diogo and Luís, continued in
direction of our first destination, Slovenia. For
that, we hitchhiked through Spain, France and
northern Italy. In Italy, for not being allowed the
traffic of trucks during summer weekends, we were
taken off the A1 highway for 2 days, but we kept in
mind the wonderful memories of helping each other,
of the company and humanism of the two Romanian
lorry drivers who shared with great satisfaction,
these two days of their life with us. Anyway, at the
end of the 6th day, we hitchhiked to
Slovenia from Portugal, in less than a week: so, we
achieved our first goal. Also, that day was our
first
couchsurfing hosts, in Postjana, in a
magnificent house of a really nice and welcoming
couple. The last day of the week finished in beauty,
with a live and free concert of the French band,
Un Swing de R'tard, in
the centre of Postojna.
2nd Week - La Dolce Vita
in Slovenia and
Hungary
During the second week, while we crossed the small
country of Slovenia, we discovered that cleanness,
organization, beauty and intact full of green nature
were common all over the country. And that was not
all, Slovenia is where are found the best ice-creams
in the world (made by the Albanian community) and
where one has on open-mind, where hitchhiking is an
extremely easy and efficient way to travel. The
positive highlights of the week were the long and
well-deserved afternoon in a spa in Maribor, a
student city, and, although the lack of people
during the summer, the surreal
couchsurfing meeting in
the same city, and the ride we caught with a Spanish
couple from Maribor (Slovenia) to Siófok (Hungary)
via Croatia. The negative side was Budapest,
historical and must-see city, that did not satisfy
us, because there were too much tourists in the
city’s main zones, it was too dirty and chaotic in
the rest of the city and because of its high density
of population. The week’s madness was walking 10 kms
under buckets of rain and with our backpacks on our
backs, near the border between Hungary and Romania.
3th Week - Merge la Romania?? Da, da...
At
the beginning of the third week, we went to
Cluj-Napoca, in Transylvania, Romania, where a
pleasant surprise was waiting for us: an official
couchsurfing meeting.
Cluj-Napoca is a city with the most lusophone
football team in Romania,
CFR Cluj, with 8 Portuguese
and 2 Brazilian players in their main squad. It’s a
city of contrasts, where Ferraris cross street
children on roads with no asphalt and full of holes.
These contrasts are all over Romania, who is in an
economic turbulence: for example, it’s cheaper to go
to a restaurant than to eat at home. From
Cluj-Napoca, we went to Sibiu, 2007 European Capital
of Culture, and city of the usual: when we arrived
at the couchsurfers who were hosting us in an under
construction apartment, hot water, a bath, a sofa
and even a chair were demands impossible to reach.
And, the other guests revealed to be unusual: a
Brazilian with a serial- killer kind of look and a
travel bag bigger than himself, and a couple Finns
who had two strange umbrellas (a pink one and a
light blue one). Unusual without a doubt were also
the hyper-salted lakes that are in the Baile Ocna
Sibiului, and the sunset in the south of the city,
with a heard of sheep and an abandoned war tank in
the picture.
4th Week - Durmiendo por la calle...
Before leaving for the unplanned adventure, spending
8 days sleeping anywhere we could, because we were
not able to find another couchsurfer to host us, we
couchsurfed in the beautiful and quiet city of Pécs,
Hungary; its small and pleasant surprises gave us
the impression that we had to come back one day, and
they compensated the negative image we first had of
Hungary after visiting the capital Budapest. Paradox
or maybe not: this week turned out to be, without a
doubt, the one that gave us the most beautiful,
interesting and special experiences of the whole
trip. Stopping to sleep in an under-construction
football stadium in Slovenia to the sound of the
torrential and unexpected rain. The two nights spent
on the snob beach of Nice (the first with a group of
young Croatian tourists and the second with a group
of French who were saying goodbye to a friend
leaving for Ireland). The fantastic adventure with a
crazy Czech lorry driver who picked us up at night
in Italy and took us to Catalonia and the 4 hours
spent looking for his delivery point: after, we had
a well deserved swim at night in the warm water of
the Mediterranean, at Arenys de Mar. This week was
also the relaxing and unforgettable day in Monaco,
especially the nice sunbathing and swimming that we
really enjoyed.
5th Week - Rojões
e Arroz de Marisco
If
the mythical José Cid had joined us on our journey
through unknown Europe, and being homesick while
going back home, he would probably ask for
broadbeans
with chorizo (Favas com Chouriço)... We, Diogo and
Luís, keep our wish of having, respectively and
humbly,
Rojões
from the north and rice with seafood from the centre
of the country... Just joking. The two last day of
our SUDELESTE 2007 adventure was marked by two
things. First, we walked 6 km on the Valencia-Madrid
highway under an exhausting 40ºC, without any shade
and with our backpacks on our backs. Second, there
was the shameful behaviour of the old security guard
of the Valencia bus station who did not allow any of
travellers, waiting their buses (and who had already
bought their tickets), to lie down or sit on the
floor in order to relieve the weight the clock
already had (3 AM) and, even less, to sleep on the
benches, although there were plenty of free spaces!
Even closing your eyes on a bench gave you the right
to a severe reprimand. Mental insanity or the
remains of the peninsular dictatorships, who knows…
The positive side, going back home. |
