No Internet yesterday so we are a day late with this post.
We were up early and had our a lovely breakfast as usual...no palinka today since we are travelling. We were able to get our souvenirs in one bag and our clothes in the large luggage bag... but why did we brought the one bag with souvenirs to Italy... we should have left them with Tomas and Gyongyi. Oh well, that's not the biggest mistake we made.

We gassed up in Nagykanizsa but we picked the wrong gas station; Lukoil instead of MOL. We ended up with another road pass for Hungary; we needed the pass for Slovenia... actually it might have been for Croatia as it turns out. So we got a n extra pass for Hungary and then I selected a one month pass for Slovenia (Croatia).. the cost was quite a bit more.

The GPS form Tomas works but the man's voice is in Hungarian. It did not take me long to get an English woman's voice on there. This was fortunate since he was giving me very long instructions and complaining about my speed.

We left Nagykonizsa about 9:30 am. We were close to the Slovenian boarder when I missed a turn. We turned around and found the correct one. At the Hungarian side there were questions and almost a luggage search. He saw that I had Vienna luggage he stopped his search. He asked me if I had alcohol and I said NO. Then we entered Slovenia and we got our passports stamped... they wanted to know where we were going. We answered that truthfully.

Slovenia had a toll highway. We thought that was a little much considering we had paid for a highway pass. We went through Belgrad without stopping and then we were surprised when we had to go through Crotia. We really had not looked carefully at the map.

Ljuljana (must check the spelling) is the capital of Croatia. It is located in a valley. There are lots of hills in Croatia moreso than Solvenia. There are a lot of similarities between Hungary, Slovenia and Croatia. The house construction is similar and it would be hard to tell many differences between all 3 countries. In fact, at one time they were all part of the Austro-Hungrian Empire.

Nancy liked the mountains because they were higher than ones in Hungary.

After we went through Ljuljana we ran into a thunder storm. We waited at a roadside gas bar but the rain continued so we took off and in 5 km, there was no rain. From Croatia you enter Italy and there is NO passport check at all. We stopped for a third or fourth time near Trieste.

The top of Italy is very flat and the auto way is boring. There were lots of large trucks. Driving at the speed limit... 110 in Italy, 130 in Croatia and Slovenia and Hungary is usually good. People pass and you hardly notice a difference. Only once did I see someone flash their lights and were not in that lane.

The GPS has been good. The girl, we call her “mother” got confused in Croatia when we were on a new road. The maps system had NOT been updated via the computer and the GPS was using the old road. We managed to quiet her for this time and stay on the correct road.

Near Padua (Padova in Italy) things got a little confused but we ended up at Padua fine. The toll system in Italy is automated and you end up having to put in Euro bills or coins. I am not sure if I short-changed the system or I put too much money in... probably the later.

Things got very complicated in Padua. The GPS kept giving us difficult to follow turns. We stopped the car and saw the hotel we were looking for; but it was on a separate street beside the regular street. We ended up driving over the sidewalk to get to the lobby.

A dark-haired girl who spoke Italian and English was the receptionist. She turns out to be Hungarian and started to talk to us in Hungarian. “Deja vous” again !

Our room is very modern, air-conditioned and large The shower is open glass at both sides. A bidet is also in the large bathroom. Security is very good and we have indoor parking. The only two deficits are NO Internet (15 euro for 30 minutes but this is the maximum). We think it a little too much. Tomorrow we will have FREE Internet to post the blogs.

We are resting before taking a walk to find a nice restaurant. The hotel seems a bit on the pricy side.

About 6:30 pm we left the hotel and tried to find the parking lot that we had been advised of by the desk receptionist (who is Hungarian). The advice was good be we missed the turn-offs and eventually ended up in the large square (oval) in the middle of the old city. We found a parking place in a ticketed area, but it was not the one were had been told of.

We wandered up the Via Roma and ended up in Garabaldi square. We were looking for a nice restaurant but most of the places were pizza or ice-cream or pricey. We stopped at a small bar and had an Italian beer which was very good. This helped me because we had not eaten much since breakfast and a few light bread snacks. When we had finally givern up and we were heading back to the hotel (B4 hotel); I don't know if there is an AFTER one...hahaha; we spotted a little restaurant (trottiari) where there seemded to be a lot of locals having dinner. We stopped here and it proved to be an excellent choice. For Primo we each had a lovely lasagna with lots of cheese and topped with aspargus. For secundo we shared a scalapenna (fried veal) with onion and aspargus. This was also very tastie. I ordered a dessert which we also split and then a coffee... a real espresso. The meal with a 10 euro tip was 59 euros. It was a leisurely 2 hour dinner. Then the "fun" began.

We got back to the car and tried to find our way back to the hotel. At night the roads are so different and I could not remember which way we came. I drove around and around not knowing even what direction to go. One guy was really irate with me. He rolled down his window and started into a long harangue about my driving... I just waved my hand because I did not understand a word. I finally spotted a bar with a good number of people. I stopped and as usual, very few people could speak English. However, one man in his 50's got interested in our plight and after a number of questions about the hotel, said he would drive and we should follow. After about 15 or 20 minutes of many turns in the roads, he stopped and we could see our hotel. We offered him a bottle of wine but he said he would take nothing. This more than made up for any other driver we met. He was a wonderful person who went way far out of his way for us.
We went to bed but it was difficult to get a good night's rest even though the hotel room was superb.