1 van, 6 countries, 50+ days, 1 love and endless adventures. That’s L&L series about roadtrip from Austria to Spain and back to Germany. Here we go, have fun.
WHAT IS L&L?
This is us. You already know me so now it’s time to introduce Lena. She’s my girlfriend which I met in Innsbruck. We’re similar in so many things that there was no wonder we’ll spend our first free time together on the road because you can find freedom everywhere. She really like to plan trips so we had everything planned till every small bit, right?
This is Gordi Bleu (Big Blue). Another important member of this trip who I of course call Gordon Bleu. This Ford Transit is almost same age like Vavřinec (My car) same like Lena is same age of my. He’s big and blue and that’s all I know.
There was no plan. In our heads was only goal to visit north shore of Spain. The rest was freestyle and following our wild hearts. In the end it looked something like this. Enough of talks, let’s pack our stuff and go for a trip… L&L Trip
DAY 1 – WE CAN FINALLY LEAVE…OR CAN WE?
After few days of packing and preparing Day D is finally here. It’s time to clean and hand over my room which is the last thing you wanna do but it has to be done. Tired and hungry we’re done but last and hardest part of preparations is still in front of us. Shopping mall… After slaying this monster and refilling energy with shitty kebab (3/10) I went to say goodbye to my shape crew and stash Vavrinec (My car) on super secret place (After trip I found parking ticket so it wasn’t that secret place.). (Thank you Christoph!) Chris is showing me his house and all the garden projects which is really sick and it’s awesome to be able to grow all you need with beautiful view of Innsbruck.
Last goodbyes at Lena’s place ended up by climbing at Martin’s Wand until 9pm… Superhungry we’re coming back to Lena’s place just to find out there is many people I don’t know. 🙈 But in the end it was good party and after sleeping in front of the house we can finally, finally go.
DAY 2 – SLOVENIA, HERE WE COME
Or can we? Last last goodbyes which we said already 204959492 times are happening straight in the morning. (It was really nice to see how was Fiona glowing after her road trip.) and we can gooo! But it’s hungover time. Ouchie, ouchie is happening so we stop by Schwarzsee to take a nice walk, see Lamas, rich people in puffy vests and beautiful mountains. On the way to Slovenian borders we were going by the place I was shaping first season (Kitzbühel). What a nice nostalgic feeling. 🖤
Right before border to Slovenia, while having a lunch, we’re making up a story, in which we’re going to visit Lena’s stepdad to Croatia, just in case they ask us on borders. Well, it didn’t. Officer just asked where are we going and after hearing Croatia he lazily gave us our passports and here we are Slovenia! Beautiful blue rivers, mountains and weirdly walking people who eats only potatoes. That’s our first impressions. It’s time to find sleeping spot in front of train station over lake called Bled in Triglav national park. We’re parking strategically next to other cars to be bit in cover, so of course all of them leave instantly to keep us as visible as possible. Police car is slowly driving by giving zero fucks so we can go calmly sleep while listening rain beats into the roof of Gordi.
DAY 3 – Vintgar
Morning is gray, rainy and lazy. Or at least I’m lazy. It should be like this for next couple of days so we’re changing strategy which we don’t even have. Let’s meet Urbano (My friend I was shaping with at Kreischberg.) tomorrow and explore Triglav later on. Afternoon we went to explore Vintgar. Deep canyon with super clear and blue water. Place looks super touristy so we’re happy that thanks to the rain and corona, no one’s here and we don’t need to pay entry fee. Few meters after the entrance we found out why. High wall closing path pretty good way to not be able to climb over. Lena turned around at me with “let’s go there” expression on her face. Exactly the same thing I had at my head… So we did. Really beautiful place to see and we were super happy to see it alone. Second wall was harder to climb over but still doable. Then we continued 5km long panorama trail where we couldn’t see all the mountains in the far because of clouds but at least we met Salamanders. So cute! Taking bath at river was also nice adventure.
Now Urbano, here we come! We’re making our camp few km before Maribor and after one “soya sauce in the bed” accident we’re ready go to sleep. Do you remember that romantic rain beating into roof? It didn’t stop raining yet and it beated trough the roof so hard that one part of the bed is wet from rain and the other part of the bed is wet from cleaning the soya sauce. This is the kind of stuff your favourite travel, insta, influencer thingi will never show you…
DAY 4 – MARIBOR
10:30 Urban is calling. “Where are you?” “Uh, we’re getting out of bed.” “And I started to feel shitty that you’re waiting somewhere here and I woke up late.” It didn’t stop raining… skrrt skrrt all the way to Urbano’s place. What a nice to see him and his new doggo Dinver. So cute! It also started snowing, that’s really shapers magic and it means that we’re wet and cold now. Urban is showing us nice piece of Maribor next to the river, where Dinver is going full mayhem of puppy joy until he did front flip into the water because shore was ending way earlier than he expected. Poor boi. After shopping some local candies we found nice parking spot for Gordi under the bridge. We let Gordi to dry at least a bit and we went to climbing gym. It’s so, so nice to be somewhere inside, without face masks and just chill, climb and see other people having fun. But then someone shouts “Luky” and hug me from behind. It’s Jernej boi who in the end made it to the gym! With the time pressure and slightly illegal crossing of region borders he made it! I was shaping with Jernej the same season at Kreischberg together with Urbano. He was our parkdesigner and now it’s time to make just short trip to Scotland so we can visit, last piece of Candy Mountain Crew, Fraser. We’re talking with Jernej and other climbers long time after climbing and then he takes us to grab some food (Thank you Jernej!) which we’re carrying really fast to frozen Gordi. Eat, warm up bed, sleep, ?repeat?
DAY 5 – URBAN
Sun is here! First adventure of the day is to put all wet clothes around car so they dry out. Then finally use our camping chairs for first time this trip. Second adventure of the day was lil climb on stairs which leaded high above the bridge. Pretty good view and my needy dose of adrenaline. Next adventure was to see Urban and Denver again. Coffee and hike with Urban on the snowy mountain called Urban, next to church of st. Urban. Next adventure was to drive for 2hrs to Trojane for biggest donuts and pieces of cake I’ve ever seen. Last adventure of the day was to drive for another 3+hrs to Soča valley at Triglav national park. Seems pretty touristic place so we’re parking with locals in apartment area.
DAY 6 – SOČA HIKE
We’re waking up early because today is the day! Almost 30km hike next to Soča river. Canyons, waterfalls, clear, blue water, getting lost, big talks, no talking at all, drinking from river, meeting Czech people, bathing in the river… All included. We made it, I’m proud. All those cakes from Trojane are eaten as victory dish. Love it.
DAY 7 – CLIMBING TIME
Shopping in the local store is the first thing on program today. I see that pastry which looks like peaches again and we really have to get it before we leave Slovenia. (We didn’t.) One more walk to the cheese shop with Lena is happening straight after that and I must say that this local sheep cheese is really amazing! We’re having late breakfast close to the climbing spot and I’m tasting klobasa (sausage) which Urban gave me. (Thank you Urbano!) I’m in heaven + it’s climbing time. Sun is showing up too, can it be even better? Last thing which has to be done is bathing in that amazing Soča river. What a day. PS: we even had pizza!
DAY 8 – DAY OFF
Day off from people please. I need to recharge my social batteries so I don’t wanna see anyone today… Sun is shining so we’re preparing for some hiking today. Lena choose waterfall Boka and I’m going to see Herman’s Fort and Fort Kluže. After so many days among high mountains we didn’t hike anything uphill much. That’s why I choose this hike which has steep uphill start in the dried out stream and continues trough sea of rocks and few melted avalanche spots all the way to Herman’s Fort. I can finally see whole valley from above. Herman’s fort and ground all around is pretty bombed out so I’m heaving lunch before exploring every bit I can sneak into. Fort Kluže is fresh but closed. Overall it was pretty nice and quick hike. I’m finding Lena sleeping in the van totally exhausted. So we decided to do last Slovenian shopping and it’s time to leave. It’s supposed to be raining next days and our camping spot is starting to be hot. Finding new sleeping spot closer to the borders with Italy in the city Kobarid wasn’t easy at all. It was especially hard mentally due to our tired bodies and lack of motivation. Good night
DAY 9 – ITALY
Italien borders came way sooner than we expected. We didn’t even started to be scared and already see military jeep with 4 soldiers around. They stopped us, we said that we’re transiting to Spain, they grumpily checked passports, saw lots of papers in English and let us go. *lots of happy noises * We made it! Here we go, Italy. Lena planned as first stop this unknown city of Venezia (we call it Benátky in Czechia.) And she’s still talking about it and how it’s the most touristic place in Italy and I stiiill have no idea. And here we are, crossing bridge to this amazing place. Getting hyped. 25€ parking. OK, nope, let’s try another one. This one wasn’t parking lot for regular people but in all that rush and stress we’re standing here and asking mister gateman if he let us in to be able to turn around… Not learning from our mistakes we’re continuing deeper and then we see it. Lots of police guys, soldiers and much more people in hi-vis vests. Let me just quickly turn around and get the fuck out of here, now! And here we are driving once more on the bridge trying to figure out what now. We just drove somewhere and it let us to the next city, we saw Spar, parked there. Parking lot is for free because it’s Sunday. On the way to the bus stop I’m saying that I really don’t wanna draw unnecessary attention so I wanna buy ticket. “Don’t know how, let’s buy it by bus driver.” Of course you can’t because of corona… “How much do you hate me right now?” Lena asks me and I just have to laugh.
Look at us! We’re on the bridge to Venezia again. And this time we made it. First things first, gelato, please! It is really fokin Benátky. I can’t believe it. Of course I know almost nothing about this city but it’s even better anyway. We’re walking trough for 5 hours, meeting lots of doggos, rich people without puffy vests, buying pizza 1hr before this restaurant starts cooking, going trough 2 parks, 1 time searching for toilet and making it successfully back to Gordi even with the ticket. Next thing to think about is what next? We can either go to beach national park or climbing. Of course we’re choosing climbing place. We’re driving to the little city near Vincenza and it takes few metres uphill to be able see beautiful viewpoint over half of the country. We continue driving higher and higher where street gets tighter and tighter until we’re standing next to abandoned building. It’s dark and warm night. Time to go sleep. What a day. Don’t be scared.
DAY 10 – IT‘S WINDY THEY SAY
It’s sunny and warm, Lena is having so much energy. Thanks to it she’s putting everything out of car to make it smell nice. I’m slowly getting out and some local old man stops by with his car. We’re both scared a bit if he kicks us out but he starts asking questions like where are we from, how long are we here etc. So I ask if he wants a coffee. Moment of silence and thinking… “yes” Let’s make a coffee then. He tells us how to find water and our climbing spot (Also that until 50 years ago there was a man living in the cave like a caveman. Sick!). Thanks to that we don’t need to check our phones today. After late breakfast and putting all stuff back to car, we’re ready to go climbing. It’s warm day, we walk uphill and olive trees are all around us. “This place reminds me Samoa” says Lena. Climbing spot is crazy. Sandstone overhang everywhere. Black spots from fire on the ceiling. Let the climbing begin. After making few routes we made ourselves very clean and continue driving towards west for few hours until we found parking spot with few abandoned buildings around. Well, while making dinner, cca 6 cars came and started parking around us and went to one of those buildings. Probably some underground corona pub.
