CRAZYJOURNEY FINAL EUROPEAN LEG and HOMECOMING!

AFTER 44,000KM of Driving, 

The Lads Finally Make it Home to Dublin!

Met by friends and family, we finally touch down on Irish soil!

After the final 5,700km loop through Eastern Europe, the Baltics, Scandinavia and Western Europe, we arrived home in Dublin in tatters on July 4^th. The blog went to crap during these last few weeks due to our excessive looseness. We had a few crazy nights in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia before catching the world’s greatest boat, aptly named the ‘Romantika’ from Tallinn to Stockholm, with its incredible 'Space' Niteclub onboard.

Dave and Fintan in Riga

Sunset in Lithuania

Getting Ready to Board the 'Romantika' from Tallinn to Stockholm

In Stockholm, we met Doyler and Smythy who was back for a second run with us and after a few great nights in Stockholm, we collected Dan O’Keefe, Dave’s mate from Sydney who had flown in specially to join us the whole way back to Dublin. We all agreed that the sheer caliber of Swedish women was up there with the best in the world and we struggled to leave to Oslo, the world’s most expensive city.

Franner the Bison!

We headed south and back into Sweden again to stop in Gothenburg to watch Sweden’s Euro 2008 match where they unfortunately went down to the Russians. Then it was off to Malmo, where Paul Sokhi had arranged to meet a huge mob of Swedish mates he had met in Thailand. The Malmo boys were unbelievably good to us and showed us a few amazing nights in both Malmo and Copenhagen which was only a 20 minute train away.

The Malmo Gang!

Our first stop in Western Europe was the German Port city of Hamburg before arriving in the madness of Amsterdam. We spent three days getting up to the usual mischief before heading to Paris to meet Dave’s friend Bertrand and were lucky to get free accommodation at a model agency apartment through Paul Sokhi’s wonderful social network. We visited all the usual tourist sites and got the classic Hummer meets Eiffel tower photo!

Dave and Fintan at the Eiffel Tower

Us at the Model's Apartment, Paris

After a 30minute Eurotunnel trip from Calais, we finally arrived in London where Franner’s cousin Patrick put us up for a few days. Our final roadtrip was to Liverpool for a final night of madness before catching the afternoon HSS from Holyhead to Dublin!!!

Waiting to board the HSS to Dublin!

A Knackered Dave finally arrives in his Driveway

Touching Irish soil was a huge moment for us and we were greeted in Dun Laoighre by family and friends before heading into SPY nightclub in Dublin for our homecoming bash! That night we handed over a cheque to Aware for €14,000 Euro, which we raised along the drive.

Dave's friend Kingy wins the charity auction with his 750 Euro bid to cut off Dave's infamous Ratty!

The lads present the cheque to Geraldine from AWARE

AFTER 7 MONTHS ON THE ROAD, 

THE DREAM IS OVER FOR THE TIME BEING!

Rhys and Chuck are now back in Sydney finishing University

Dave will be working as a trader in London

Fintan has just accepted a job in Google

(After only a few weeks home, Dave's mind is already wandering....New York to Buenos Aires!

Anyone Interested????)

Our Final European Routemap, 5115km!

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DAY 179-180: PRAGUE DAY 1 AND ON TO WARSAW

CRAZYJOURNEY SAYS GOODBYE TO CHUCK AND MARTY

The lads at Charles Bridge wth new recruit Franner before saying goodbye to Marty and Chuck

After another chilled out day and night in this lovely city, we had to collect Dave and Finto’s mate Franner, who will be with us from now the whole way home to Dublin. Dave and Fintan went to collect him and ended up lost for about an hour in Czech countryside with no one speaking a word of English and had some classic sign language moments.

At the airport, it was funny waiting at arrivals for the Irish flight. You could tell as soon as it landed from all the Irish heads walking out the gate. Dave made a prediction that we would see at least one GAA jersey, one Celtic jersey and a Man U jersey. Sure enough a group of 4 Dub lads on a mad one in Prague for the weekend walked out wearing exactly that. We’re really starting to feel close to home now!!!

It was great to see Franner after so long who had just come from the tail end of his thesis at college back home and was rearing to go. Today was also a bit emotional as we would have to say goodbye to Marty and Chuck. Unfortunately, Chuck is heading on to London by plane to meet his brother, so there was a bit of a substitution with Francis. When we arrive in London we’ll be picking him up for the final leg to Dublin.  It was also time to say goodbye to Marty who has added nothing but intensity and value, always lifting the group’s spirits through his stint with us from Istanbul to here.

The beast reaches the Polish border

Hitting the road again, the drive to Poland was a bit slower on single lane secondary roads. Once in Poland it was a massive drive to Warsaw, Poland’s capital. Arriving really late, it was nearly impossible to find accommodation. With everybody tired and tempers flaring, we eventually managed to find something at 3 in the morning and got straight to sleep.

DAY 180 ROUTEMAP - LONG 611km drive from Prague to Warsaw

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DAY 178 - VIENNA TO PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC

CRAZYJOURNEY REACHES PRAGUE!

Finto at the Astrological clock in Prague

In terrible stormy weather, we got moving out of Vienna towards the Czech capital Prague. Coming close to the Czech border, there was flooding all over the country roads. No problem to the beast of course, but Paul’s little Scarlett was having some trouble.

Marty meets Lucy again for the first time in 2 years!

Entering the compact medieval old town of Prague, the Hummer struggled through the city’s maze of narrow cobbled streets. We parked as close as we could to Charles Bridge and the Astrological clock to get a feed and sort accommodation. Armies of tourists descend on Prague every summer to visit it’s main attractions such as St.Charle’s Bridge and The Astrological clock. Every hour, tourist hoards gather around the clock to watch mechanical figures and a bell ringing skeleton. We found the whole procession laughingly disappointing and most people are left asking ‘Is that it?’.

The photo that separated Marty and Fintan from the lads. Not sure if it was worth it

Dave and Marty arranged to meet their old Sydney housemate Lucy who is from Prague and hadn’t seen the lads in over 2 years. Lucy brought the lads out for a traditional Czech dinner and we all got together again that evening to go out to a few bars. Marty and Fintan ended up on their own mad night after they lost everyone in the square trying to take a photo. Since it was a Monday night, Prague was quite enough but Lucy found us a bar to get involved in so we made the most of it.

DAY 177 ROUTEMAP - 406KM from Vienna to Prague

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DAY 177 - BRATISLAVA TO VIENNA, AUSTRIA

The lads in one of Bratislava's many picturesque squares

This morning we explored the narrow streets of this compact medieval city, visited it’s main castle and had lunch in the main square next to the picturesque Roland fountain. We were intending on driving to Brno, the second largest city in the Czech Republic, but at the last minute, we took the short 30 minute hop to Vienna for the night instead.

Entering along the Danube, the grandeur of the city’s architecture was striking. Surrounded by world-class museums, luxurious palaces and towering monuments, the city has a certain high-brow feel. We arrived days before the start of The Euro 2008 Tournament so the whole place was decked out with banners and buzzing in anticipation. Wandering around Vienna’s Innere Stadt, we had drinks in an amazing rooftop bar with perfect views of the Gothic masterpiece of St.Stephen’s Cathedral, the city’s most recognizable structure. Dave, Paul and Marty had an interesting night with 3 very odd but interesting Austrian fashion designers who spotted Dave’s ultra fashionable but disgusting rats tail, thought he was gay and bought all the lads drinks all night.

Paul, Rhys and Chuck under St.Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna

We could obviously get home from Austria in a few days but are in no rush and have planned a bit of scenic route home via the Baltics and Scandinavia before coming home through Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Paris, London, Liverpool then Dublin by July 4th for our homecoming bash!

DAY 177 ROUTEMAP: 87km

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DAY 176 - BUDAPEST TO BRATISLAVA

The lads get Turkish with a statue at the citadel

This morning, a few of us took a trip to the hilltop Citadel overlooking the city to watch the Red Bull Street Luge where madmen make their own ridiculously themed homemade carts and hurtle down the hillside track. We had a great laugh watching guys destroy themselves on the 90 degree final turn but the whole event turned sour when a massive lightning storm descended on us. Luckily we were on the way to the car and later found out that 3 people were actually struck by lightning near the citadel during the same storm.

Red Bull Street Luge!

That afternoon, it was time to say goodbye to Gary and Stuie, the last of the Irish mob for the meantime and another great addition to CRAZYJOURNEY.

Marty, Gary, Stuie and Dave overlooking Budapest

We hit the road again for a relatively small 4 hour drive in cavalcade for the first time with the Hummer’s new little red girlfriend Scarlett, Paul’s Mercedes, on a perfect motorways to the Slovakian capital of Bratislava. Passing through hundreds of miles of harvested fields in Spring, so Rhys, Dave and Paul who all suffer badly from hayfever were dying when we arrived late into the city. It was a Monday night in Bratislava so there wasn’t much going on. We booked into a cheap hostel for a quiet night in which has been a rarity of late.

DAY 176 ROUTEMAP

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DAY 175 - BUDAPEST DAY 1

Paul, Dave and the Big Serj at the Chain Bridge, Budapest

Today the whole gang got together to go for lunch on Paul’s dad the Big Serj in Raday Ucta. After lunch we wandered around this absolute gem of a city taking in some of the grand architecture along the banks of the Danube such as the magnificent Chain Bridge. Unfortunately Tony had to leave to go home to the lovely Ailish. Needless to say, he added heaps of value during his stay with us.

Gary about to order duck for the 4th time in as many days!

Not everybody noticed, but remarkably at dinner that night, Gary ordered duck for the 4^th time in as many days. Rio nightclub was so good the night before that we decided to head off there again for another mad night.

DAY 174 - TARGU MURES TO BUDAPEST

YETI ATTACK IN BUDAPEST!

Scarlett, The Yeti's cute little buggy is dominated by the beast in Budapest

After a quiet enough night, we were up early and had a look around the lovely little Transylvanian town of Targu Mures before hitting the road towards Budapest, the capital of Hungary. 

The lads in Targu Mures

Stuck on a single lane road packed with trucks, it took us six hours just to get to the Hungarian border. Close to the border and stuck in traffic, we stopped at a currency exchange to get Hungarian money. Marty and Gary were last to leave and just as they were attacked by a giant pig who was being chased up the road and aggrevated further by an angry old Romanian Gypsy. Marty screamed like a girl and tried to keep the pig at bay with a broom while Gary looked on laughing. Random but absolutely classic!

Marty glad to escape with his life after the giant pig attack and Gary thinking about his duck dinner in the doorway

The roads instantly became better once we crossed into Hungary and Tony who flew ahead from Bucharest had been on the phone several times and seemed very anxious to meet us in the city. We thought nothing of it and that he was probably on his own waiting for us.

All the lads with Big Serj and a Turkish Man. What the hell is Tony trying to do to Dave?

We finally found Tony’s hotel in the centre of Budapest and just as we parked, we saw some weird guy in a kilt shouting and running past the Hummer. We thought nothing of it until we saw a cute girlie little scarlet coloured Mercedes reversing up the road towards us with the British license plate ‘P 5OKY’. He’s absolutely had us!!! Paul Sokhi aka 'The Yeti', who was with us all through South East Asia and India had repeatedly let on to Dave that he wouldn’t be able to meet us until Scandinavia had turned up to surprise us all in Budapest. Paul had driven the whole way from Glasgow with his dad, the Big Serj  and kept it on the down-low, only telling Tony. Tony’s odd choice of a flight to previous day and anxious phonecalls all made sense now.

All the lads at Cafe Del Rio, Budapest

Needless to say, it put everyone in the mood for a mad one and the 9 of us all headed out to the top spot in Budapest, Café Del Rio on the banks of the Danube. Another epic night was had!

DAY 174 ROUTEMAP

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DAY 173 - BUCHAREST TO TARGU MURES

TRANSYLVANIA!

This bloke lives near where we're going. Marty was shitting himself!

Cillian and Rob were unfortunately leaving us today after mad few days but the other lads would be with us until Saturday. Alan was feeling really sick and sadly needed to go home with the two boys today as well. The three lads added nothing but value to CRAZYJOURNEY and we look forward to seeing them when we get home.

Our next destination is Budapest in Hungary which was at least 2 days driving so we planned an overnight stop in Targu Mures in Transylvania (the home of Dracula!)  where Dave would meet his lady friend Judy who’s from there. Tony being Tony decided to fly ahead to Budapest. We all thought this was a bit ridiculous but the man had an ace up his sleave that we wouldn’t find out about until the next day in Budapest!

So 7 of us piled into the Hummer and had an enjoyable drive through Transylvania and arrived late to the surprisingly beautiful small town of Targu Mures. Dave stayed in with Judy while the rest of the lads piled into a taxi to suss out the nightlife. 

DAY 173 ROUTEMAP

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DAY 172 - CONSTANTA TO BUCHAREST

Cillan and Gary hang out of the train back to Bucharest. Don't try this at home kids!

There were way too many of us today to pile into the Hummer today for the drive back to Bucharest so most of the Irish lads hopped on a train. By all accounts they had a good laugh drinking and hanging out the moving train’s door like idiots! 

Alan hanging out of a train like a madman!

Back in Bucharest, Andy had arranged a 2^nd big apartment for all the lads to stay in. The 13 of us all went out with Andy as our guide to another Romanian nightclub and were all completely blown away yet again by the beauty of Romanian girls.

In the wee hours of the morning, Cillian fell fast asleep in the first apartment, he somehow locked the door behind him and didn’t budge as we banged the door to try wake him up. This forced us all to cram into one apartment for the night!

An even bigger mob of  lads out on another crazy night in Bucharest

DAY 171+172 - BUCHAREST TO CONSTANTA FOR 2 DAYS

AND THEN THERE WERE 13!

WE MEET THE IRISH MOB IN CONSTANTA

All the boyos at dinner in Constanta

This morning was a bit emotional for everybody as would have to say goodbye to Tomo who has been with us since that rendezvous of destiny at McDonalds in Luxor, Egypt. Tom is flying out of Bucharest to the Greek islands to meet mates. The lad was nothing but a value addition to the drive and will be sorely missed!

A teary goodbye to the one and only Tomo

After saying goodbye to Tomo, 7 of us including the big units Rob and Cillian, piled into the Hummer for a 2 hour drive to Constanta, a resort town on the Romanian Black Sea coast, where we would meet 4 more Irish lads, Tony, Stuie, Gary and Alan who had come from a wedding in Italy to meet us.  Constanta was the only place in Romania they could get to from Italy.

A beautiful sunset in Constanta with the large silhouette of what can only be Cillian O'Byrne's head!

By the time we got to Constanta, the lads had already arrived and were waiting for us at the hotel. Unfortunately, the town was completely dead as we had arrived two weeks before the holiday season began. Nonetheless, we all got together for a few beers and a meal at the hotel. We all went out to find some action but there was nothing going on, so we got out the Shisha pipes brought Damascus and a bit of a seisún at the hotel.

Alan nestling in for a Shisha seisun!

The next day, we had a chilled out day by the lake in a lame attempt to get some sun. Meanwhile Marty who was struggling with only backpack of filthy clothes decided to do a DIY wash but bought bleach instead and almost made a balls of the whole thing. He ended up using hotel shampoo clothes and dried them at the beach like a true bum.

Classic Aussie! Marty improvises at the beach to get his washing done

That evening, all the lads got together again for dinner in local Irish bar and restaurant. After dinner a few of the lads stayed out at a 24hour café bar for a few late drinks with the rest hitting the sack early with a trip back to Bucharest the next day.

DAY 171 ROUTEMAP

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DAY 170 - BUCHAREST DAY 1

Down in a hole! The Hummers gets stuck in a huge trough in Bucharest

Feeling rough after a big night in Bamboo and stuck in a crammed apartment, Dave and Marty went in the Hummer to find a hotel to make life a bit easier for us all. Marty found a cheap hotel in the city so a few of us took a drive there. We were parked beside roadworks outside the hotel and a hungover Cillian informed a hungover Dave of a giant unmarked hole just in front of him. Dave acknowledged this but after sitting for another 5 minutes in the car waiting for Marty’s return, the hole had completely vanished from his mind. Leaving the hotel, we made it about 1 metre before the entire front right wheel fell into a massive 4ft deep trough with a horrifying bang.

Fintan gets into the huge hole after the Hummer was reversed out

Shock and horror instantly struck our zombie heads. We were all a bit worried when we got out of the car to see the damage. It looked like we would definitely need a tow but we decided to have a punt at a reverse job anyway. Luckily enough, the beast reversed out with ease and miraculously there was no damage at all.

That evening, Dave went off to get the car a much needed valet, the first wash the Hummer has had since Dubai months ago. We all took it pretty handy that night knowing what lay ahead when we meet 4 more Irish lads tomorrow.

DAY 169 - SOFIA TO BUCHAREST

AND THEN THERE WERE 9! 

CRAZYJOURNEY HITS BUCHAREST

All the boys together in Bamboo nightclub, Bucharest

All a bit groggy after last nights activities, we hit the road at midday bound for Bucharest to be on time to collect Cillian and Rob, two mates of ours from Dublin at the airport. Rob’s brother Andy is working in Bucharest so he had everything organized for our arrival.

Crossing into Romania was no hassle at all and we met Andy in Bucharest city centre. Much like Sofia, Burcharest maintains a Soviet feel. Dominating the city is the immense Parliament Palace, built in 1984 by the communist ruler Nicolae Ceauşescu. 1/6th of Bucharest was bulldozed to accommodate its creation and after the Pentagon, this is 2^nd largest building in the world.

The massive Parliament Palace in Bucharest

Dave and Andy drove to the airport to collect the lads while the rest of us went to The Harp Irish Bar for a feed and some warm-ups for what Andy promised would be a big night. It was great to see the 2 lads again after so long and after a few drinks, we got ready at our apartment and met Andy again before going in taxis to the one and only Bamboo Nightclub.

Dave, astonished by the calibre of girls in Bamboo!

Rob, Andy, Fintan and Marty getting loose!

We didn’t know what to expect from Romania, but were absolutely blown away going into this glitzy nightclub with Ferraris pulling up and by far the most beautiful girls we’ve seen on the whole drive inside. Bamboo is regarded as Romania’s top nightclub filled with Bucharest glitterati.  The 9 of us had an amazing night and were completely shell shocked by the girls in the place, especially the podium dancers who some us struggled to keep our eyes off! Cillian disappeared for most of the night to show Romanians what ‘going mad’ really means!

No words are really needed here!

Bucharest taxi drivers are a bunch of rip-off merchants and while asleep on the way home in a taxi, Fintan’s precious iphone was robbed leading to what Tomo later described as hilarious outburst of rage!

A distraught Fintan desperately trying to call his precious and stolen iphone!

All in all it was a great night and a taster of what’s to come, especially since 4 more Irish lads are joining the mob on Monday!

DAY 169 ROUTEMAP

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