Czech Republic

Yep - In another country today. Slovakia and it's people have been stunning. As we were having breakfast, a tiny child walking alone on his way to school said the hello greeting as he trundled by. He was so young his backpack was nearly as big as him! I wish we'd have learned some greetings, hello/good day sounds something like doobra-dien. Breakfast was a full breakfast of bacon, eggs, toast and tomato. The bacon was... in the words of Kramer "so thinly sliced that the flavour had nowhere to hide".

We drove through two tunnels today! Might sound boring, but I've never been through a tunnel that was maybe 10KM long! It was an unexpected European treat. I had a suspicion when we went through several points at which our height was checked, with numerous bollards and signs that something big was coming up.

Charne, (Cassie's Mum) loves castles. We saw four today! Some are perched so precariously in places where the river just squeezes past. You can imagine arrows flying from their turrets at people trying to sneak down the river.

Afternoon tea was celebrated after a successful border crossing into Czech Republic. We drove past two or three tracks that lead into the most stunning of forests. After you miss one, you think, oh well, too bad. But after the third missed turnoff we had to turn back to check it out. Really tall trees with light green leaves let no light through to the forest floor.

We were stopped by 3PM today, so shade was high on our list of wants out of our camp. We found shade, tucked away in a far corner of a golden valley. We have the best view and a cool breeze is taking away the apparent 30 degree heat. One of the pictures is our view.

Cassie:
Far out the border crossing was intense! Seriously the most difficult one by far. It started out that we were happily cruising along and then BAM, we found ourselves in Czech Republic! Haha, had you going there didn't I!? There actually was no border crossing presumably because we're in the EU. There was a sign that said we would be approaching the Czech Republic in 1km. Ok then, I got out our passports and car rego in the usual preparation for a border crossing, next thing we past a teeny tiny sign that said Czech Republic then....nothing. I said to Graeme, "Ummm, I think we're in another country now". I guess those of you reading this who either live in the EU or have been to the EU are laughing yourselves silly right now at how naive we are, but we honestly didn't know what to expect. We guessed that maybe there would be something like a toll booth setup where you drive up to the window, get your passports stamped and keep on driving. Coming from Australia, and only ever h
aving flown into another country before this trip, it's a totally foreign concept to us to just simply drive into another country without any customs process. It's a lovely experience. Apparently we're now 8hrs behind home.

Yikes, we just heard a bit of a weird/unsettling animal sound in the area we've camped. It sounded somewhere between a dog bark and I don't know what. We tried to capture it on camera but it hasn't made the sound again. Isn't it often the way that by the time you get the camera out the moment has passed. Oh well, I don't particularly want to hear it again if I'm honest.

Mum, you would absolutely love all the old buildings we've seen today. And the castles! They're amazing. I'm sure we'll visit one before our holiday is over. They're everywhere here!