Orient 2002

Summer 2002: after the fine experience of 2001, for the summer holidays we decide to go back to nearby Eastern Europe.. this time, instead of a car, we rented a motorhome. Besides Tecio and Tisio, who had been with me the previous year as well, our travelling companions were also Diego and Spada. After spending a couple of days in Jesolo, on 6 August we arrived in Budapest, settling in at the Camping Haller, which is in the heart of the city in a quiet park. We found Budapest a little different from the previous year..but it remains a fascinating city all the same. The downside, which then lasted for the whole holiday, was the flooding that in this period hit almost all of Eastern Europe. For this reason we couldn't visit either Prague or Bratislava, and so an almost obligatory stop was Krakow.. Always wonderful and magical...just like the previous year..

On the way back to Italy with the intention of visiting Vienna, our misadventures began. Near a small village in Slovak territory the motorhome's gearbox broke down and we had quite a struggle to find a mechanic who could repair it and make any sense of it. On 14 August, heading back early towards Italy with the motorhome in pieces, we spotted a lovely little mountain lake from the motorway. The idea of spending Ferragosto on the shore of this lake was almost unanimously agreed, but our Tisio insisted on getting back to Italy at all costs (none of us ever understood why...or rather, we all pretended not to understand why) and reluctantly, on the morning of the 15th, we were already in the bleak and deserted Motta Visconti.