Prague

Cassie: Here’s a perfect example of one of the amazing roads – like the inside of a non-stick pan. Admittedly, not all the roads are this superb but they’re all pretty darn awesome in their own right.

In Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, and to a lesser extent in Ukraine, the UAZ van (or Bread Loaf as we like to call them) was the predominant car of choice. Particularly in eastern Russia. In CZ the Skoda is the new UAZ. Not surprising I suppose considering the Czech Republic is the home to Skoda and UAZ is a Russian brand. Still there’s a heck of a lot of them! There’s so many Skodas here that you could be forgiven if you tried to unlock the wrong one.

Our hotel seems to be smack bang in the city. For the first time this trip we have to pay for parking. In fact, I had to stop typing mid-sentence just now to pop downstairs to chuck a couple more coins in the machine to buy another ticket. We’re paid up for the rest of the day now. We’ve snagged a spot on the street right outside our hotel that is for a maximum of 6hrs. Seems to be quite the score because everywhere else we’ve seen so far seems to be a maximum of 2hrs…and the parking is full. Unfortunately, it means we’ll have to get downstairs by 8am to pop some money in for the first 6hrs and make sure we’re back from sightseeing in time to top it up again, but oh well. It’s better than having to top it up every 2hrs and it’s the price we have to pay for the convenience of having our car with us.

We’re totally in holiday mode now. We’re researching places to visit along the way and are putting together a kind of itinerary as we go. It’s so much fun. We’ve got together a strategy for finding good hotels at a reasonable price. We stop somewhere on the highway at a McDonalds before we reach the city so that we can have a break and utilise their free wifi. That’s one thing that McDonalds is great for, you can rely on them having wifi and clean toilets if you need it. We then jump on the ‘net to find a good deal on a hotel located in the middle of a city, make the booking online, get the address, wack it in the GPS and off we go. It’s all very civilised really. In far eastern Russia, Mongolia and Kazakhstan the usual ritual was to drive “into the guts” of a city and then start looking for a hotel, find one, walk in and ask what the cost is per night, do they have wifi and is breakfast included. A bit laborious but really the only way we could do it because the websites that allow you to get good deals on hotels don’t list many, if any, hotels in the areas we were. Now, it’s dead easy. The most difficult thing is deciding which awesome hotel to stay at!

I’m pleased to say that for the first time this trip, there’s absolutely nothing amiss with the bathroom. It’s all wonderful and clean and it doesn’t turn into a swimming pool. Graeme coined it well: “Best. Shower. Ever.”

The shower is a room all of it’s own, as is the toilet, and the basin is kind of in the bedroom. Difficult to explain, but a really nice idea. I’ve included photos below to show you what I’m trying to explain. Another interesting aspect of the wet areas is that the doors to the toilet and shower are acrylic. Very cool indeed.

Graeme:

Opal Senator - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opel_Senator You’ll see in our video, we spotted one of these. I’d seen one or two in Australia, but seeing something that looks like an old VK commodore in Kiev was worth a video.

The unsung hero of our trip has been our GPS. More recently, the turn-by-turn section. In Australia and Russia, she is ok, but in Europe, she’s amazing! From the blurry screenshot below, you can she she tells us what lane to be in, the buildings, street names, and currently she’s displaying ATM locations and accommodation. She’s very quick to criticise our speed, but without her we’d be lost - no doubt about it…. so she can stay.

One little clue on there, is the 2200KM remaining to Southampton. We’ve already driven ten times that figure which is mind blowing!

After some deliberation, we’ve chosen not to hire a car in the UK as we already have one that brings cheap, convenient accommodation and transport, luxuries we’re not inclined to give up just yet. We’ll drop her off at the dock before we head to London for touristy activities.

It’ll mean exceeding the service interval by ~2,000KM, but surely that won’t be a problem? Will it?
It’s fully synthetic oil and oddly enough, isn’t as visibly polluted black as the mineral oil is by now.

If it’s not raining tomorrow, we might do a tour of Prague on Segway. We did these once before and they are awesome at helping you cover ground between attractions that you’d be too lazy to walk. Plus, who doesn’t want to speed around on fandangled two-wheeled gizmos?

Replies to comments:
Chris - We think the sound was the sound baby chicks make when competing for the mothers regurgitation.
Everyone else – cheers