After having decided to join my ex-boyfriend and his friend on their crazy road trip to Ghana. I had only one day to tie all loose ends in Estonia and very limited luggage space in the car for my belongings. See my friends had their travel plans ready for some time and I was the one joining on last minute so I had to deal with the given terms. Squeezed my clothes to a backpack and grabbed my laptop – filled also all the pockets of laptop bag with T-shirts and shorts. Whatever was meant for colder climate stayed behind, – regretted the decision a bit in nights we slept in car in Latvia and hills of Czechia. Brrrrrrr…..
Luckily I was able to return the apartment I rented back to the owner without any problems. Normally I would need to give one month notice but the owner took the news of me moving out “tomorrow” surprisingly well. He even helped to pack and dashed me some items that could come handy in desert.
I did not have any driving licence. Therefore I could not pitch in as a driver on this journey but I promised to do my best as a navigator. Only teh problem was, we could not get proper Road map of Western Africa and had to get by with map of Morocco, compass and some prints of Google Map.
It took us one week to cover the European part. European part of the trip of Estonia-Latvia-Lithuania-Poland-Czechia- Germany-Austria-Italy-Monaco-France-Spain. We took Ferry from Southern Spain Tarifa.
Most of the countries passed were new to me. I had earlier only been in Spain, Barcelona. That`s from where we bought the car, Subaru Forester, for the trip. That time I did not know I was going to join. I was just assisting my boyfriend (and having some fun of-course) while buying the vehicle.
Amazing Monaco
I must say, I was most amazed of Monaco – the city (country) is like perfect 3D installation. Train Station graved inside the Rocks. The narrow streets curling up the hill….. the light in night!!! Aaahhh!
In the northern European countries we did not drive at nights. It was winter, and roads we dont know so well and covered with ice seemed to dangerous to drive at night. So we kept the engine running and tried our best to get some sleep in car….. yeah we kept the Engine running cos it was damn cold outside!
In southern countries we also drove at nights. We were bit in hurry. My boyfriends friend who was driving with us had been invited to a Estonian-Ghanaian wedding, in Cape-Coast, Ghana. Which means he had a deadline to meet. I had already delayed them with one day. We also lost some time in Southern Spain cos the car needed some minor fixing. The wheel bearing broke.
Oh it was quite a hassle to deal with car repair shops in Spain as none of us speaks Spanish. Although… thanks to this… the word “Wheel bearing” in Spanish I think I will remember the rest of my life. “Rotato de Mundi” its just so many frustrated times we had to repeat it in the workshops 🙂
But hey – Southern Spain is great place to be a little stuck…. we set up the tent first in Granada, later in the beach of Marbella and enjoyed the climate 🙂
