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Unbroken

Godspeed to Olympos, Tue, 26 Sep 23
Simon at a City, Transit in Bosnia and Hercegovina, Europe

The bunker turned out to be totally worth the wait. Already getting the ticket was an experience – as it’s still a military zone, I had to go to the nearby village to get a permission to access. Compared to …

Bosnian villages

Godspeed to Olympos, Sun, 24 Sep 23
Simon at a City, River, Temple, Waterfall in Bosnia and Hercegovina, Europe

I crossed to Bosnia and Hercegovina early in the morning and was pleasantly surprised to see my Montenegran SIM card work here. Great, I don’t need to buy a new one! After yesterday’s storm, it got a fair bit colder …

Must see, but never again

Godspeed to Olympos, Sat, 23 Sep 23
Simon at a City, UNESCO site in Croatia, Europe

The last place I visited in Montenegro is Herceg Novi – another town with a historic centre by the Kotor Bay. To be honest, by now it’s nothing special. Castle, fortress, city walls, same old, same old. Then, I braced …

The Catpital

Godspeed to Olympos, Fri, 22 Sep 23
Simon at a City, Mountain, Sea, UNESCO site in Europe, Montenegro

Well, don’t trust the weather forecast, is a moral of that story! I got up in the morning to find a fog so sick that I couldn’t see 20 metres ahead, save enjoy gorgeous views of the whole country. I …

The stunning views of a mountain country

Godspeed to Olympos, Thu, 21 Sep 23
Simon at a Cave, City, Mountain in Europe, Montenegro

My toe is feeling better today and I’m pumped up with some seaside energy, do time to resume the action! Last night, I drove up to Podgorica’ famed Niagara waterfall and… found it empty. The rock water bed with it’s …

Seaside chill

Godspeed to Olympos, Wed, 20 Sep 23
Simon at a City, Sea in Europe, Montenegro

The toe I sprained yesterday is still hurting a lot and makes it hard to walk. And thus, today is another day of just chilling by the seaside. I’m determined to make the most of it. First, St Stefan, with …

The most picturesque ruins

Godspeed to Olympos, Tue, 19 Sep 23
Simon at a Ruins/Excavation, Sea in Albania, Europe, Montenegro

Since I parked by the Rozafa Castle already, I decided to break my No-Albania rule and see it anyway. Good choice – it’s a great spot with amazing views and quite a few tunnels and passages that are open to …

Less awesome lake

Godspeed to Olympos, Mon, 18 Sep 23
Simon at a Lake, Temple in Europe, North Macedonia

I have to say that the North-West of Macedonia is a sharp contrast to what I’ve seen before. Suddenly, there is rubbish everywhere. And stray dogs. I guess the dogs spread out the rubbish, too. There were piles on the …

Slower movements

Godspeed to Olympos, Sun, 17 Sep 23
Simon at a City, Lake, Temple, UNESCO site in Europe, North Macedonia

I spent two days by the Ohrid lake. On both, I spent the morning hanging out in or around the van, writing, catching up on things, and generally just taking things slow. I feel I’m running out of steam a …

Olympos, Dionysios, and me

Godspeed to Olympos, Fri, 15 Sep 23
Simon at a Temple in Europe, Greece

This trip was quite a spiritual journey for me and I felt the need to spend some time with myself, reflecting on life. For this purpose I decided to drive back up the slopes of Olympos to the Monastery of …

Back to the mortal world

Godspeed to Olympos, Thu, 14 Sep 23
Simon at a Ruins/Excavation, Sea, UNESCO site in Europe, Greece

Today was a slow day. I got up before sunrise and spent a lot of time in the van catching up on stuff and writing. After 11, Anti and Michał joined me for a road trip. First, we visited the …

At the feet of the gods

Godspeed to Olympos, Sun, 10 Sep 23
Simon with Antigone, Edward, Michał at a Mountain, UNESCO site in Europe, Greece

10/09/2023 Today we started the hike. We walked up to the Spilios Agapitos refuge at 2050m, hung up the for some time, then did another small hike up to a viewing point. The hike itself wasn’t too hard so far, …

The lost cities of Macedonia

Godspeed to Olympos, Sat, 09 Sep 23
Simon at a Ruins/Excavation, Sea in Europe, Greece, North Macedonia

It turns out that the excavation site of the Ancient city of Stibera is just a field. There is a plate with the explanation, but no parking, and you just cross a village road, walk a bit through the field, …

Where marble comes from

Godspeed to Olympos, Fri, 08 Sep 23
Simon at a Ruins/Excavation, Temple in Europe, North Macedonia

Last night I parked the Baron and was turned out being the back entrance to the archaeological site of the ancient and early medieval city of stubbing today I woke up and it turned out being another only lovely and …

Sculptures, sculptures everywhere!

Godspeed to Olympos, Thu, 07 Sep 23
Simon at a City, Lake, Museum in Europe, North Macedonia

This morning I found out once again how awesome the Baron is. Someone was walking around and even knocking and calling, I’m not sure who or why. I didn’t give sign of life and they just left. Minutes later I …

An Observatory to look within

Godspeed to Olympos, Wed, 06 Sep 23
Simon at a Mountain in Europe, North Macedonia, Serbia

Not much happened today. I got up in a great mood and just chilled a bit taking in a great mountain view and vaguely starting to think where am I even going today. I’m the end, I made a general …

Don’t lean over the Abyss

Godspeed to Olympos, Tue, 05 Sep 23
Simon at a Temple, UNESCO site in Europe, Serbia

Today did not start the way I was hoping it to. I slept by the Resavska Pecina cave, planning to visit it as it opens at 9am. But it turned out that it’s closed and they won’t open until enough …

Don’t sleep by a monastery

Godspeed to Olympos, Mon, 04 Sep 23
Simon at a Temple, Waterfall in Europe, Serbia

Miljkov MonasteryMiljkov MonasteryMiljkov MonasteryMiljkovDobreš monasteryZlatenac ZlatenacRadošinZlatenacRadošinRadošinSaint SavaTomic monasteryTomic JakovicManasija Manasija MonasteryManasija Today I discovered why you shouldn’t sleep by a monastery. They very much still ring the bells for prayers at 3am, and then at 6am, and then at 7am, and then at …

Electrifyingly ugly

Godspeed to Olympos, Sun, 03 Sep 23
Simon at a City in Europe, Serbia

I set off towards Belgrade making a stop at Sremsky Karlovsky. It’s a cute little village with a lot of wineries and I quaint little centre. I stumbled upon a mass in the orthodox church and the one thing that …

The Fortress of Sick Beats

Godspeed to Olympos, Sat, 02 Sep 23
Simon at a Castle, City in Europe, Serbia

On the way to Novi Sad I quickly realised another reason why I love the EU. Roaming outside of it is EXPENSIVE. As soon as I got there, I bought a Serbian SIM card and activated it with the help …

First step: change the plan

Godspeed to Olympos, Fri, 01 Sep 23
Simon at a City, Temple in Europe, Hungary

What a way to celebrate a King! I left Berlin on Wednesday and promptly arrived to Wrocław where I met up with Paulina and Przemek. On Thursday I completed my German class, did some shopping and drove South. I was …

Relaxing in Rügen

Short German trips, Sat, 08 Jul 23
Jemma and Simon at a Sea, UNESCO site in Europe, Germany

Adventure rides

Short German trips, Fri, 02 Jun 23
Jemma and Simon at a Lake in Europe, Germany

Adventure date for Jemma, went for Scharmützelbob rides in a forest and then swam in the lake and went for a nice walk with many mosquitos.

Ruins and castles

Short German trips, Sun, 02 Apr 23
Jemma and Simon at a Castle, Ruins/Excavation in Europe, Germany

Trip to two castles after helping Michal move out from Gollanczstraße. Two tickets on the way. Found a ruined building to explore.

Buddhist castle

Short German trips, Sun, 19 Mar 23
Jemma and Simon at a Forest in Europe, Germany

Went to see a castle, turned out it was turned into a Buddhist meditation centre. Nice walk.

Food and drink of quality

Christmas 2022, Thu, 22 Dec 22
Jemma and Simon at a City in Europe, France

Visiting Margaux and Clovis in Rennes Great beer, great food, delicious fish Interesting neoclassical cathedral Park with a small botanic garden Cheese and wine shopping for the family hamper Not so much to see though

Dinan-vu

Christmas 2022, Wed, 21 Dec 22
Jemma and Simon at a City, Sea in Europe, France

Saint Malo Got there in the evening, hanging out by a tower on the seaside. It’s nice to be at the sea again! In the morning we decided to walk to the main part of town – and got caught …

Mount St Mist

Christmas 2022, Tue, 20 Dec 22
Jemma and Simon at a Temple, UNESCO site in Europe, France

We woke up amidst rather heavy rain wondering how the hell are we going to manage to go to Mount St Michel in that weather. But hey, we are hardcore! We were quite lucky – the rain subsided a bit …

69m of history

Christmas 2022, Mon, 19 Dec 22
Jemma and Simon at a Museum, Temple, UNESCO site in Europe, France

We arrived in Bayeux last night and found a parking spot in the town centre. Unfortunately it was raining heavily all night and in the morning – the weather hasn’t been very kind to us on this trip, but at …

It’s cold in the middle ages

Christmas 2022, Sun, 18 Dec 22
Jemma and Simon at a City, Museum, Temple in Europe, France

Last night we drove to Rouen and found that it has a massive low emissions zone which prevented us from driving in without a sticker. We found a place to park a bit outside of town. In the morning we …

Dead adventures

Christmas 2022, Sat, 17 Dec 22
Jemma and Simon at a Graveyard, Museum, Temple in Europe, France

After leaving the Somme region, we continued on our way to Amiens. The cathedral was extraordinary, with amazing statues and carvings all over the facade. Then we went to the Jules Verne museum in his old house. Simon wanted to …

Graves in the fog

Christmas 2022, Fri, 16 Dec 22
Jemma and Simon at a Graveyard, Museum in Europe, France

We parked for the night in Dinant in Belgium and walked into the town centre the next morning. It is super cute! It’s on the river Meuse, and the town on the east side is really thin as it’s sandwiched …

Pictoresque stopover

Christmas 2022, Fri, 16 Dec 22
Jemma and Simon at a City in Belgium, Europe

We parked for the night in Dinant in Belgium and walked into the town centre the next morning. It is super cute! It’s on the river Meuse, and the town on the east side is really thin as it’s sandwiched …

Getting into Christmas spirit with Charlemagne

Christmas 2022, Thu, 15 Dec 22
Jemma and Simon at a City, Temple, UNESCO site in Europe, Germany

First winter night in the Baron! We were scared as just before leaving the heating didn’t want to work, but then it started, so all is good. New record: -9. We started our journey to visit Jemma’s family for Christmas …

Getting high on art and history

Short Polish trips, Sat, 03 Sep 22
Jemma and Simon with Krzysztof, Magda at a City, Museum in Europe, Poland

Witkacy exhibition Hanging out on Nowy Świat is underwhelming. Trip to Łazienki Jazdów and the Laba festival Polin museum

Home of Banksy

Short UK trips, Wed, 17 Aug 22
Jemma and Simon at a City in Europe, UK

We got to Bristol and crashed in Aimee’s and Tuomas’ place. On the next day we had a slow morning, a festival shopping trip, and then went to return the van – though had to drive back again to pick …

Soaked in Bath

Short UK trips, Tue, 16 Aug 22
Jemma and Simon at a City, Ruins/Excavation, Temple, UNESCO site in Europe, UK

Parking around Bath is a pain – ended in a street parking by the university. We started the day in a drizzle checking out the fantastic aqueduct – not Roman but Victorian, allowing narrowboat travel with no locks. We wanted …

Cathedrals and Abbeys, Gorge!

Short UK trips, Mon, 15 Aug 22
Jemma and Simon at a City, Mountain, Ruins/Excavation, Temple in Europe, UK

We were hoping to make it to Wells to see the cathedral before they close it, but Google lied to us saying we have until 7pm – it actually closed at 5. We once again found a spot to bathe …

Through the Cotswolds

Short UK trips, Sat, 13 Aug 22
Jemma and Simon at a Castle, City, Park, Ruins/Excavation in Europe, UK

We picked up Boony the van in Bristol and left for Portishead for a fish and chips and a walk through the villa part of town to the beach and back to the town and the really ugly marina. Then …