Day 2, 31/03/08: Crossing Austria

After having lunch, or more accurately, eating some food and things with calories around 2 p.m., it was time to enter in Austria. Again, the border was open, having nonetheless police that was checking randomly some vehicles. For my surprise, and why not say it, some disappointment I was not picked up.
Like in Czech Republic, also in Austria it is necessary to buy a stamp to circulate on the roads. On the Austrian case, this is only for the highways, and if not mistaken, was around EUR 8.
Allying stupidity with myopia, I didn’t knew where to buy this road stamp. So I parked the car, and went back by foot to the border to ask the police man where can I buy it, using as an ice-breaker my best: “Entschuldigung sprechen Sie englisch?”. With some condescension, one of them politely replyed in English that I can buy it in a petrol station. More or less 200m ahead…..(where I had parked my car).
On the way Viena, two curious things: there were road signs written also in Polish indicating to circulate on the right side of the road and I saw a lot of wind-farms (but in plains, not mountains).Arrived at the entrance of Viena around 16.23h, and exited it at 17.18h. In the meantime, just a small mistake in the center of Viena choosing one exit, but fairly easy to find my road just by following the indications. It was also already when exiting Viena that for the first time the limitations of the vehicle became really evident. 5 lanes each way, in rush hour but sometimes moving fast. As a civilized country they are, I had no problem. After that, highway all the way to Italy and through the Alps.

Driving slow – harder than it seems

Driving a matchbox per se is already stupid and dangerous. A slow matchbox in high traffic international roads or highways increases the level of stupidity, lets say, by 37 times. Therefore, and this is true, driving slowly demands much more concentration than driving fast. Normally, I am the type of insecure guy that in order to feel macho behind the wheel, needs to overtake as many cars as possible.
With my 126, all this virility was left aside. I was driving much more looking through the review mirror to be aware of the cars and especially the trucks that wanted (and did) overtake me. In fact, and now I will be brutal, this sucks. Instead of looking and enjoying the landscape, many times when I looked to my left side all I saw was semi-trailer wheels almost as tall as my Fiat. On day two, even without seeing, I could already know, for instance, whether it was a DAF or a Scania overtaking, if it was a V8 or V10, just by listening to the noise. Bullshit of course, though not totally impossible for a motors fanatic.
So for those that thought that while I was driving I could read Tolstoy’s “War and Peace”, you are wrong. I needed to be focused 110% unless I wanted that a truck would mistake my car for a speed bump, so the only reading I was doing was of maps.

Day 2, 31/03/08: Still in between Czech hills

During the period where i was crossing small country villages in Czech Republic, i could not help noticing two things. First one was that pratically in every house frontyard, there was a Skoda parked. The second was that in each 100m i could see speakers hanged on electric poles (i do not mean here the persons from Poland ok!), for what purpose i still do not know (to spread communistic propaganda in the old days maybe??).

After these incursions off the beaten track, finally arrived to the right road. Not much traffic, good road, so all conditions gathered for a significant increase the cruise speed to 80km/h. Therefore, Brno came quickly. Second most important city of Czech Republic, didnt had time to see more than the outskirts of it, so i will jump descriptions of suburbs.

From Brno to the border with Austria was pretty quick, just in time for the lunch hour. The border city is called Mikulov, and it has quite a nice castle in a picturesque landscape. Not that picturesque, but curious was the Casino right next to the border with Austria to wellcome the austrian peasants pockets with Euro.

Day 2, 31/03/08: Międzilesie (PL) - Gemona del Friuli (IT)

Pre-sliced bread, Nutella, yogurt (or small flavoured milk package) and one banana. This was my concept of a balanced breakfast for this trip, and if not mistaken it was like this during all the days. And, as i knew from previous low-budget trips that i had done, this was enough to give energy. Besides, i was going to be seated most of the time, then not much calories wasted (either phisically or mentally).

After this, my entry on Czech Republic. First thing, i needed to buy a stamp to circulate on their roads for a week. Not expensive though (6/7 euro). The road quality improved visibly, the amount of Skoda's increased exponentially also. There was still some snow on the side of the road on the higher points, and for the first 50km all went ok.

Then, i started doing mistakes on the roads (like going in the wrong direction). Because i am stuborn, and going back the same way is not the way i drive, decided it was best and cheaper to buy (€5) a road map of Czech Republic. For a small country, the map was huge and very complicated to handle. Maybe this would explain partially the fact that i made (again) some mistakes choosing the roads, which lead me to real narrow country-side roads. But thanks to that, i saw some funny villages, like the one in the photo, that for sure i would not see had i went in the quicker, better, less steep roads.

My yellow thing near a small lake in a tiny village on northeast czech republic. After this photo, 40km of narrow forest road following the undecided path of a river. And it only took me one hour to do it. No fear!

Day 2, 31/03/08: Mechanical problem #1

Around 7.30 am, and even without breakfast, the priority was to check how much oil had i lost. Looking to the engine compartment i was afraid of much worst, but in fact not that much oil was spilled. Therefore, i could say that i had some luck, but i prefer to see it in the way that i was stupid not to have solved this problem before starting the trip. Since i bought the car, that this piece was always loose, so it was only a matter of time until i lost it. Good that it was in Poland.

To get to a shop, my sollution was to use a plastic bag with tape around it. It worked perfectly, mainly because i only needed to do 3km to find a place where to buy a cover for the oil compartment. The man told me that he had it for this Fiat (i would be surprised if i was not able to find this for a car that sold 3 million units in Poland), in fact it was very similar, but when i tried to put it, it simply didnt close well.

Went to the shop again, asked the man to come and see my car, he saw that in fact it didnt close but he didnt had anything different. Decided to buy an extra-one in case i lost this again (it was around 1.5€ each), used a plier to force it to stay as stable as possible, and on the top, again some tape to help reduce the vibrations. Problem solved, for the rest of the trip, though i was checking always the oil more often than i expected.

Above, picture of the main square of this border city already in a somewhat mountain area. But the best part, was the great weather. Clear blue sky.