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[Roadtrip] Where East Meets West - Part 1
January 8, 2015
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We started our journey quite late which was nearly 12am of Tuesday. Before driving out of the town, we checked our stuffs all over again, especially the car. We made sure we had spare tire, the wipers are functioning, the car temperature is good, the mirrors are adjusted, the lamps are working good. Well, the journey was estimated to be more than 4000km; a very far and long journey!
GPS; another important thing! We realised it was not charging when connected to normal car charger! Ouch, how can we drive without charged GPS. My friend tried to call the owner of the car, but seems he already sleep; it was 12 am though. :p After some time exploring the dashboard, we found another power source; the USB. Alhamdulillah, using the USB for camera, we can charge the GPS! First problem solved!
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| Shake it off T_T |
It was my friend's turn to drive the car. And the destination was to Budapest, Hungary (via Bratislava, Slovakia). It was approximately 480km with the estimated duration of 5 hours 30 minutes. It sounds crazy right? T_T But no worries, we stopped somewhere to rest ourselves and the car itself after hundreds kilometers; just to make sure the car was not overheating.
By the way, to go to Hungary, it was like crossing 2 countries - Slovakia and Hungary.
Just to let you know, we need to buy Vignette (it is like road tax) and is currently used throughout Central Europe. It was not that expensive and easy to buy. Before crossing the border, just stop at any petrol stations to buy. For some countries, you can still buy it within few kilometers after crossing the border :)
Vignette for Slovakia = 10 Euro for 10 days
Vignette for Hungary = 2 975 HUF (~ 9.5 Euro) for 10 days
Like highways in Malaysia, we need to pay the toll every time we use highways. It is different with Vignette. Pay once, then use it within the period of time throughout the country. :)
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| Vignettes - Credit; Google |
Aha, by the way, RnR here don't really have stalls to sell food (not so many). So, don't expect to see people selling fruits - ciku, papayas, guavas all that. But, the best part of stopping by RnR with petrol stations was that most of petrol stations; they provide free WiFi! The toilets are inside the shop; very clean. And you can buy coffee or some hot drinks as there are also cafes in the petrol station's shop.
And they don't ask you to leave if you park there without buying the petrol :)
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| OMV - one of the common petrol stations here :) |
The journey was smooth at this time; except that we are not used to stay in car in cold weather. Aha, I forgot to mention, it was snowing that morning T_T I was so nervous because it could affect the road. But, alhamdulillah, so far everything was still good :)
Make sure to bring some pillows and 'comforters'. So that you will not be frozen in the car and you have 'comfortable' place to sleep. At that time, we tried to divide the four of us into 2 shifts; each with a driver and a co-driver (to make sure the drivers not to be sleepy - by giving food, water and have conversations). So, while one of the shifts take over the car, the other one need to take the opportunity to sleep. That's the reason why we managed to be continuously on road for 2+2 days!
We arrived Budapest nearly 7am.
But, what made this part of the trip interesting was that; we had the opportunity to watch the sunrise! And read al-Mathurat together in the car :)
That's lovely enough for me. Weee.
I'm sorry if Part 1 sounds boring; I guess it was more to technical stuffs; as this was our first long roadtrip. But maybe it can be helpful if you want to travel in Europe by car :)
Heee. Will share more interesting stories soon ;)
v Khaulah,
140108
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