This crazy Gypsy and I ended up in Olympia, Sparta and eventually Athens. From there we embraced our 12-hour layover in Istanbul, stayed up all night, danced the night away in strange nightclubs, feasted on Turkish food and eventually slipped through security on zero sleep to catch our flight back to Austria.

From there, Erwin our amazing Austrian mechanic picked us up at 9am, got us coffee, drove us to his shop (I got the full tour of the shop and his farm) where we picked up the van and he saw us off to the highway south to Croatia.

After a two-hour power nap in a parking lot and lunch made up of fries and schnitzel, we decided that Italy might be best and made our way south to Trieste. Two nights of exploration, boondocking in olive fields (watching horror movies until 4am) and research on where to store the van for who knows how long, we’re now on our way to Slovenia for a final 36-road trip with Pistachio Green before flying home to Canada.

What a ride this has been!

We made the most of the mishaps and just rolled with it. Life couldn’t have unfolded more ridiculously and beautifully.