It took 5 days, but when the sun finally shone over Thassos Island, without a cloud in sight, it was hard to believe it was October. We headed straight to Giola, a large natural rock pool which you get to from walking 2km along a dirt track. We were the first people there, and the…
Author: laurenwinslowllewellyn
Sleeping under Olive Trees on a Greek Island
As soon as we crossed the border into Greece, everyone looked Greek. Tanned and hairy would be the best description. They look like they’ve spent everyday of their lives basking in the sun and eating fresh food. Oh, and there are olive trees and cats everywhere. Greece was never really on our planned route, I…
2914m above Bulgaria
Bansko is a major ski resort in Bulgaria, and the mountains around it are part of Pirin National Park. We hated the town as soon as we arrived, it was over developed and ski villages look crap without snow. We managed to find a road that led up the mountain, to nearly 2000m at the…
Painted Monastery and Spikey Hoodoos
Rila Monastery is a unesco world heritage site and definitely on our agenda for Bulgaria. As we drove towards it we saw a sign advertising Stob’s Pyramids, so we turned off to check them out. The village of Stob was really sweet, everyone seemed to have a grapevine that spread over the pathway creating a…
Incredible views in Bulgaria
We crossed the mighty Danube river into Bulgaria and did a wonderful quiet drive through an area of forested hills, rising mountains and prostitutes. There seemed to be a hooker every 2km, waiting in truck size pullouts. We started playing spot the prostitute ‘there’s another!’ ‘We got panties on show to the left!’. Some were…
Romanian Rumours
We wanted to get a good vantage point of the mountains in Retezat National Park, and after our unsuccessful hike the day before, we took the southerly route into the park. The road led through a beautiful valley, it would’ve been a lovely drive, had it not been for the grotty area. One town led…
Stray dog security guards
A small brown dog scurried towards my window as soon as we pulled up at a rest-area for the night. It had the most impassive face I’ve ever seen, it was as if he’d found a rubbish bag outside a clinic and accidentally jabbed himself with used Botox injections. Then another two dogs appeared, one…
A unique look inside a Gypsy Mansion
As we approached the end of town we spotted the tell tale silver roofs of the Gypsy mansions we’d seen a couple weeks back in Western Romania. Then there was another and another. All painted bright colours, with three stories, Chinese style tiered roofing and aluminium decorations. This time we took our time and stopped…
Diving through snow in Tranylvania
We wanted to make the most of the Carpathians so decided to drive the Transfagarasan route which is the 2nd highest mountain road in Romania and plies through the Fagaras Mountains. It started off really dramatic, we could see our road ahead of us curving around a sheer wall. It was like being back in…
Dracula’s Castle and a drive through the countryside
Driving around Zarnesti was a nightmare, it was Sunday market day, music was blasting out a speaker and men in matching hats were wasted by 11am in the pop up pubs. I loved it though, it reminded me of the markets in Central America, bustling with colour and culture. But, it meant certain roads were…
NON STOP TRAVELLING 