First stop, Poland

We left our flat of Montfort-en-Chalosse on June 1st, as planned, whereas on the 31st we were still painting the house. The goodbyes had started with our wedding celebration on May 13th, we had nice moments, exciting and touching, with our familiars and friends. The hardest part was to leave our dog Tebel to Filip’s best friend Ludovic.

We spent a last night at my mother’s in Pau, ate a cassoulet in Castelnaudary, stoppped to repair Aurélie’s motor-home in Lunel, and stayed a couple of days in Grenoble to see someof the family, in particular my grandma who will soon be 99. The last stop in France was in Strasbourg, where I had to receive our Russian visas on the French passports: first time in a consulate, that was already a feeling that the trip was starting for good! Then, we crossed Germany by night, visited Filip’s grand-mother in South-West Poland, a last night in Wroclaw and finally we arrived in Bielsko exactly one week after departure. Through all this time, Elios was just perfect, he kept his rhythm for sleeping, stayed in his seat as long as necessary, patient, while I was inventing new games as we drove, songs, stories, drawings, cutting shapes, etc., etc.

Now, here we are, in the neighbourhood of blocks of flalts where Filip grew up. Bozena looks after Elios as much as possible. Filip has received his new passport, we went to the Russian consulate in Cracow for the visa but it was closed, as the day before was Constitution’s Day. So we asked for the help of an agency : the funny thing was they told us the Consul in Cracow doesn’t deliver tourist visas for 30 days, because he doesn’t see why tourists should want to visit his country more than 14 days !! But the agency sent the demand to Gdansk, and we had the visa at home as soon as three days later. Now, the passports are on their way to the Mongolian embassy. Filip is working very hard on the bus, even with a twisted ankle. He realised that even if the bus looks quite good from a distance, it is completely rotten underneath. He mounted the engine and GPL installation, we designed the interior and hopefully, there should be enough space for all our stuff. Now the Dragon has been reinforced by a metalworker, and then to the electrician.

Our T-shirts and stickers should be ready for the next meetings inBug-In Chimay (Belgium) and then in Cracow, Garbojama. We hope to earn a little more money for the road!