We have just spent the past 6 days driving through Hungary and Romania in a Toyota Aygo named 'Roxanne'.
Although the car couldn't be more of a change up from our Motorhome, we decided that it was Rosanna's niece. Niece? The colour helped us decide..
So when did we have to decide on a temporary set of wheels? When we received the following news..
Burnt Clutch - €343
Burnt Flywheel - €942
Labour - €350
One Night Accommodation - €70
Total - €1705
Not exactly what we had in mind...
The bigger problem, however, was the fact that the new flywheel required would need to be ordered from elsewhere in Slovakia (possibly overseas - I'm still unsure to be honest) and wouldn't arrive for a week.
We quickly realised that this length of time frame allowed us to consider the option of continuing our journey in a rental vehicle, before swapping back to Rosanna once the repair had been made. Funny how tings work out, because a few roads we've driven along since have made it feel like a blessing in disguise.
Roxanne's first chapter begun when we drove 4 hours South-West from Presov to Budapest. Back home in Aus, it was the biggest sporting day of the year - Grand Final Day. Jake and I decided to pick up a few tins on arrival and waste a couple of hours watching the game, before heading into town to meet up with his sister's.
We only spent two nights here, but left feeling satisfied after a morning spent shooting photo's around the city outskirts, followed by indulging in a couple of meals out. The neighbourhood we happened to be staying in was pretty rough, which actually meant that it offered up some interesting scenes to photograph.
A full day of driving East ended with us checking in to an Air B'n'B located in Sibiu, Central Romania. Arriving just before sunset meant we had time to go for a wander and sample the local cuisine. The town had a really nice atmosphere, although it was easy to tell how much influence tourism has had on its main drag.
A point of attraction that lured us toward Sibiu was the fact that it sits above what is known as the world's 'Most Beautiful Highway' - The Transfagarasan Highway. We decided to dedicate the following day to checking out this incredible mountain range and capturing some footage along the way.
When I mentioned that our time in Roxanne was a blessing in disguise, this road was the major reason for that (Jake and I were unsure Rosanna would have put much of a dent into the journey). Blessed with blue skies, we drove straight to the top, where Lake Balea is found, before filming a short sequence to introduce our YouTube audience to the Disco Machine.
Not having a huge amount of time in the country, it was time to head toward Cluj-Napoca the following day. Cluj is the third largest city in Romania, known for being a student hub with a hip atmosphere featuring some of the best techno music venues in the world. Our experience here was a little different, but we were both content with not having to deal with 2-3 days of recovery from a night out here.
Instead, we made sure to try more local cuisine. You'll notice a number of hole in the wall bakeries here, which usually serve up scrumptious pockets filled with either cabbage, mushrooms or cottage cheese - a great option to grab whilst wandering around town, or whilst getting tattoos. Yes, we did also decide to sample the local ink and couldn’t have picked a better day to do so, as the weather began to drop toward zero.
On the eve of Rosanna’s expected repair date, we received a message from the Auto shop in Slovakia informing us that they were still awaiting the part to be delivered. As a result of this news, we booked an Air BnB for the following night, only to find we’d been scammed when trying to locate the place.. it would appear we were running dry on luck.
Not completely dry on ideas, we decided to put a dent in the journey back toward Slovakia by moving shop to a North-West town known as Satu Mare. Another weekend would delay the repair further, which meant we stayed four nights in a town we had previously no intention of visiting. Fortunately, the apartment here had more space than we knew what to do with, providing us with the chance to catch up on editing.
On Tuesday evening we finally got the green light. We would be reunited with Rosanna the following day. Roxanne’s fun was over and our hot-cold shower ratio was beginning to look too privileged for a couple of Motorhomies. We now had our work cut out for us, but were both excited for the unknown that Rosanna provided us with.
Next up - Slovenia.. Thanks for reading folks!