I don't think I've ever eaten Goulash for breakfast, nor seen as many varieties of Goulash and spellings of Goulash as I have in the last few weeks. Is that Goolash or Gulasch or Gulasz? Would you like it with paprika, sauerkraut, mushrooms, dumplings, veal, beef or chicken? Yes, the Goulaszes have appropriately made their way to the official land of the Goulash. As soon as we crossed that border from Italy to Slovenia, our search for this dish began. So who invented Goulash? My internet search revealed the following, which i'm sure would be hotly disputed by the Polaks :)
"Cowboys invented it. Hungarian cowboys, that is. More than a thousand years ago, they created their own version of Meals, Ready to-Eat by stewing and sun-drying cubed beef. They would pack this dried meat in bags and carry it with them. When they wanted a meal, they would cook the meat in a little water to make goulash, or a little more water to make goulash soup."
We never saw a Hungarian cowboy in Budapest and Konrad wasn't so keen on travelling out to the country to find them either so I can't verify this information. Given also that the Hungarians descend from the Finnish and have no relation at all to the Slavs, I'm not sure how they were able to communicate their recipe in that incomprehinsible tongue they call a language!? But there is one common bond in the wild east (and it's not just those ugly communist blocks). It's Goulash! That's right, they all eat it, in various forms for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Okay maybe not always for breakfast, although we did it the other day in Bratislava with a beer and I felt the need to lie down for a long post meal nap to digest all that meat and cabbage before I could continue on with our all important daily task of pounding the pavement in search of a good photo for the blog site. That really seems to be our new found mission in life :) I say "our" mission but really I'm referring to Mr Goulash who has assumed the role of Creative Director, along with Chauffeur and Official Communications Manager - Eastern Europe. My roles include Chief Travel Guide, Chef and Treasurer - responsible for monitoring the all important "Beer and Petrol Index." Very important information when you arrive in a new country!
So here we are in Bratislava, capitol of Slovakia, 4 weeks into our tour of the Wild East. We last left you in Italy and the tour has definitely taken a different twist since then. We knew things were different as soon as we crossed the border and were asked "are you on the run" when the police observed all the camping gear in our car :) "No officer, just in search of a good goulash" would have been the appropriate response perhaps? In all seriousness though, our first week in Slovenia was definitely a mild introduction to Eastern Europe. Slovenia is a very beautiful country and seemingly wealthy. We drove through the beautiful countryside to Lake Bled where we camped for 3 days (in pouring rain - the start of an 11 day stint of cold and rain), before taking in Lake Bohinj, Ljubljiana, Skocjanska Caves and the beautiful port of Piran. The camping was good there, the people very friendly and we felt very safe and almost like we were still in the west.
From Slovenia we crossed into Croatia where we discovered that camping must be somewhat of a new thing as they tried to charge us 23 euros for a campsite, when the price of a private room was 20 euros!? So you can guess where we spent our money - and it wasn't on a patch of grass! We started in Plitvicke National Park which was definitely the highlight of Croatia - these amazing lakes cascade into one another through a series of ever changing waterfalls. Very spectucular!! And even though we walked the 18km path in the pouring rain we thoroughly enjoyed it! From there we headed to the Adriatic Coast and down to Trogir and Split before taking a ferry to the beautiful Island of Hvar where we spent 3 days relaxing and catching some rays. After that we drove down to Dubrovnik for a couple of days. Dubrovnik is very beautiful but unfortunately very touristy. Here we witnessed someone trying to break into our car (we managed to stop them in time fortunately), and also found the Croatians to be less friendly and almost "resentful" of the tourist. Prices were a lot higher here too and the beach nowhere near as nice as the islands. BUT we did walk the city walls which were very impressive and still a highlight of our trip so far.
Having noticed that the Fiat had started to sound a little like a Ferrari it was only fitting that on our way out of Dubrovnik we heard a crash and realised our exhaust had fallen off the back of the car and was dragging behind us on the road. Konrad managed to skillfully remove it and given that we were on the road already we continued on with our journey to Montenegro :)) (Explaining to border control that we had just lost our exhaust was kind of funny too). We had originally thought to get it fixed when we arrived in Kotor, but upon arrival we changed our minds rather quickly!! Montenegro is a very beautiful country but also very poor and still very eastern! I think this was the first place we felt a little bit uneasy and really didn't want to leave the car on the street overnight nor with anything in it. We stayed in Kotor, which is an amazing walled city set at the head of southern Europe's biggest fjord and partyed in town on the Saturday night which was thumping techno music into the main square. Very very cool!
After Montenegro we drove back into Croatia to get our car fixed which was no real drama before continuing onto Mostar in Bosnia. Our first impression of Bosnia was an interesting one as we were stopped by a policeman who wondered out of the bushes to inform us we had run a red light!? After stupidly handing over our passports, he showed us a dodgy print out of fines in Bosnia and advised that the fine was to be 50 euros!! Now there was no red light and I don't think he was a real policeman either but after honestly declaring we had no money to pay him, he kindly let us go!! Hmmm .... Mostar was definitely a highlight of our visit to Bosnia though as it is a town dating back to the 4th century and has a uniquely Turkish influence - quite unexpected for this part of Europe. After Mostar, we drove to Banja Luka and feeling rather uneasy in this part of the world (seeing shot up buildings everywhere is a little unnerving), we decided to keep driving all the way to Hungary.
We spent 3 days enjoying the sights of Budapest, which is a very grand city with lots of fabulous buildings. Lots of pounding the pavement, taking photos and being tourists. A highlight was also visiting the Gellert Thermal baths and soaking for a few hours - very grand and very cool! We camped in a park near the centre of town which was rather unique for a big city but also very convenient for campers such as ourselves.
Yesterday we drove to Vienna for the day which is a very very beautiful city and we need to go back and spend a few more days there if we ever find the time!? Tomorrow we will remove ourselves from Igor's apartment in Bratislava and head for Zakopane to begin the Polish leg of the tour! I am very excited to be visiting Konrad's home country, although a little freaked out by visiting a nation of 40 million Polish people!!! I'm sure it will be very intense but at the same time Konrad will feel very at home. We hope to find lots of Goulash there too :))
Till next time ...
