Have you ever had a feeling, that wherever you go, locals start building a road for you? It always works for us. In every country we travelled we always had to pass through road construction works. Major roads, local roads, cities, at least somewhere (or everywhere) there is ongoing construction and a traffic jam.

Poland was not an exception. Polish roads are of good quality. Quality takes time, so they did not manage to finish the work before our arrival (just kidding). Anyways, we lost a few hours of precious time in jams caused by construction.

Thus once again our plan to stay in Vienna and have a Viennese Apple Strudel for breakfast transformed into “stay somewhere in Czechia”. Around midnight we checked in into a hotel in Brno. This time it was an actual hotel with 24 hours reception and for the first time during this trip we had to show our passports.

Brno is a beautiful old city with many sites to see… Unfortunately we did not have time for that, we had to move. We ought to cross to Serbia by the end of the day.

We crossed to Austria, enjoyed the views of Vienna… as seen from the city bypass road, and in a few hours we were in Hungary. Yes, there is a short strip of Austria between Poland and Hungary and it costs about 10€. It is not much, but it feels a little bit unfair to pay full ten days for e-vignette and only use Austrian roads for a few hours.

In Budapest we stopped for lunch. We usually do not withdraw much cash in local currency, because why would we need it (to pay in small interesting places that do not accept cards, duh)? This time we had plenty of Hungarian Forints. We got them as a change from hundred euros in a tire workshop last time we visited Budapest. So we were going to eat and spend the Forints. OK, we only visited this place once before, but having a favorite restaurant in Budapest sounds fancy, so we “went to our favorite restaurant”. Well, that dessert raised the bill a little higher than the amount of cash we had, and we paid with a card. Next time, Hungary, next time.

As mentioned above, we were going to Serbia as an inexpensive non-Schengen country. We were going to stay for a couple of nights in a hotel and then rent something bigger but still not very expensive for a month or two.

Modern technologies are amazing! It is possible to find a hotel, book a room, and get step by step directions from a navigation app. Moreover, all of the above can be achieved sitting in the car in a traffic jam.

It was getting dark when we arrived at the border crossing and joined the line of cars.

– Honey, did you say we were going to spend a night in Subotica?

– Yes, but I just received a message that our reservation was canceled.

– Hmm, Subotica must be right across the border while my map shows Duboševica.

– Duboševica is in Croatia. (googling): Yep, definitely, Croatia.

– Well, they are not in the Schengen Area. Let’s go?

– Croatia it is!

So on the third day of our journey we finally left the Schengen Area and reached Serbia… oh wait…Croatia