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Day 4 - 4 capitals of 4 countries in 1 day

Total miles: 1,300 (approx.)

Following on from the last blog....

It was the morning after the Czech Out party; Will was the first up, at a relative ungodly hour of 8am. Not just the first from the Scilly Mission - pretty much the entire camp. On a regular day, the hundreds of intrepid travellers would be up, washed, and packed by 8 - but not today. For but a few hours ago, the Czech Out party had finished and many a stumbling participant eventually navigated the maze of wrong tents and guy lines to get home.

There was a great deal of hangover in the air - early risers moved that little bit more slowly than usual, and the water bowsers were taking a hitting. I woke up about 8.30am, luckily without a bad head or any sign of the debauchery of the night before. Will, at this point, had already washed under the fresh water tap and started making a coffee (only for himself, though).

Not long after, the campsite heard a noise. Heads from countless teams snapped round to their team mates with that inquisitive look - eyes slightly wider, eyebrows raised, mouth slightly ajar but then again pulled in tight. The noise… there it was again… something between a stirring volcano and a hungry bear. If you've seen Cloverfield, it was that sort of thing. After we'd adjusted for a few seconds, trying to work out where this abominable sound was emanating from, all eyes were drawn down to a tent. A Gelert Solo, in particular. In no time at all, the tent started pushing and stretching, as if 9 months pregnant and very ready to deliver the kicking and punching offspring.

The zip was lowered from the inside, and Mackey's head was delivered into the bright, fresh, morning world. 

Mackey was awakening. And boy, was he hungover.

Will and I relished in the fact that we were without indications of the previous nights drinking, where as Mackey and his wifebeater looked terrible, and acted the most grumpiest since we left Tresco. One eye open, one eye still firmly shut, depth perception lacking as he deflated his mattress.

We were in no real rush to get packed and moving, and spent the next hour or so slowly packing up the Solo's - Will and I both hoped for the last ever time. We foresee a horrible fire taking place, unfortunately reducing our tents (which would be suitable for a single night's camping) to a pile of polyester ash. We made a coffee on the stove, which we're loving, and I began the morning shift and headed out of the still packed field.

Our direction was the first capital of the day - Prague. As per usual, we understood the roadsigns and which turning was ours, shortly after passing it. And here begins our first accidental cultural tour of the city. I blame it on the fact that they were relaying a good kilometre of the motorway, and we bought a proper map of the area from a service station. This proved to be a great idea, and offered much greater level of detail than our £4 map of Europe.

We cruised through Czech relatively fast, and most of it was good driving. Moods weren't overly high though - it had been about 8 days since we'd all slept in beds. A bit of sleep deprivation was always there, even after waking up, and even after our post-driving sleep. No arguments though, just the lack of singing along to Take That and cheesy pop songs in the car for a few hours, driving within our own worlds, contemplating our own thoughts.

Next on our whirlwind tour of Eastern Europe was Austria - again,a very quick dip into the country, scooting past Vienna and onwards. Yet again however, a combination of completely illogical junction numbering and crazy place names meant we again took a city centre tour of the 2nd capital of the day.

Only spending a few hours in Austria, it was a lovely place as far as we could see - which is the only real bad point in this challenge, there just is no time (at these early stages) for sight seeing and touristy things. The closest we get to a local is paying for fuel at the service stations and asking directions!

Slovakia was next on our list, and we headed towards the 3rd capital, Bratislava. This place strikes you as a stereotypical Soviet stronghold - regular, ugly blocks of flat in those ugly colours; disgruntled beige, depressed lemon, disconsolate grey. 

You could tell that we were leaving the relative of the luxury by our fellow motorists; no longer were the large majority of cars shiny and efficient. Instead, their poorer ancestors filled the now questionable roads - Opel Kadets for example still held their own against the numerous Audis and BMWs. Driving rules went out the window by this time, which just adds to the level of concentration needed to stay safe yet stay moving - overtaking happens wherever and whenever, usually missing on coming traffic by seconds.

We saw our first few crashes - in Bratislava city centre, the main street through the communist metropolis was home to lone wheels, crumpled arches, and angry combatants where there were no winners. Will caused a little fender bender by pulling out in front of some traffic, which resulted in the photo i'll soon upload. Don't worry, he didn't get in to trouble. Pete the Saxo was easily able to get away before the Slovak local could give chase, even if his car was able. Good Pete the Saxo.

East, and onwards, we continued, through the Slovak countryside and entering Hungary. The difference between the neighbouring countries, their borders entwined within each other, is astounding. Austria & Slovakia, for example, are worlds apart; Austria being well built, clean, a joy to drive through. Slovakia, on the other hand, seems like a 2nd world country , looking more Beirut than Birmingham.
By the time we'd found our 4th capital of the day, Hungary, it was about 10pm-ish and we were all tired - and we'd made the unanimous decision to get ourselves a hotel. As Will said on the way into the city, "Hotel or not, i'd rather sleep in a shop door than another night in those tents". Hotels were all well signposted - the army of street signs on the entering motorway held dozens of 'bed' icons, with arrows pointing in our three directions. We picked one, and followed it. Which turned out to be much harder than we first thought, and went through about 6 different hotel signs, each desperate to attract your weary wallets, before finally finding one. This one, up little windy side streets of the old city, began us to question what  sort of quality we'd be receiving for our money, but the general consensus soon became one of 'just get give me a mattress and shower".

As it turns out, the Hotel Budai was a sight for sore eyes - 3 glorious stars of hotel quality, offering clean beds, a power shower, even free wifi! (Which they pronounce wee-fee. Confused the hell out of us when they started shouting about that). Will was the first to jump in the shower, and Mackey and I set about uploading the first few days worth of photos. As it happens, the laptop, despite being on charge in the car most of the day, had been unplugged and gave us just 15 minutes of power before sleeping until next fed. This was just enough time to upload the last blog, but fear not, pictures very soon. I jumped in the shower, and after Mackey, the three of us quite possibly the happiest and most comfortable we'd been in a long time. We send our belated apologies to the night manager of the Hotel Budai - his water bill will be astronomical this month.

Settling down for the night was an equally glorious affair - the only room they had left that night was an apartment style room, with a double and a single room. Due to the fact i'd probably kill one of them whilst catching up on a week's worth of sleep walking, the cousins shared the bigger room and I had the smaller. Within seconds of hitting the beds, we were well and truly asleep. The cost, 50 Euros for all of us, was the best money we'd ever spent.

It seems strange how we've traversed 4 countries in a single day; 12 hours of driving can take you through a quartet of countries so very different in everything they are. The locals, the history, the culture, the architecture, the past, the present, the future. Our only regret I guess has been scratching the surface, nay lightly brushing the surface, of so much potential - just driving by at a solid 100kmph and almost hoping for a traffic jam, purely to give us time and a chance to take some of the essence in.

We're glad that so many of you are checking our progress on the live map - once again, our huge thanks to Sam at the Worksmart Group for providing such an awesome piece of kit. We do wonder, when dancing around the city centres in a completely random pattern, whether you've realised we're very lost, or you think we've gone on a deliberate exploration! 

Also, a huge thanks to the GoSim people for providing us with a global simcard, the bit that allows you to send us text messages. We are LOVING them - actually get a bit excited everytime the phone goes off. To answer Ross's question, we should never be completely out of range with the phone. Just like strolling up around Borough, we might lose signal, but will get it eventually, along with all those texts you send. Just click the link at the top of the page and send us one. Why not do it now? Remember to sign your name or initials, and feel free to make it a regular thing. Daily perhaps? Even hourly would be extremely welcome.

Until next time, our magnificent followers....