zoli
Member
Hello guys,
The story I want to share with you today is our adventure in the midst of a snow storm in Hungary that happened a week earlier, on March 14th/15th.
With my colleague from work, we were heading back from Zagreb, Croatia on the afternoon of March 14th. The prognosis said that it's going to snow a bit all day and all the way but who would have believed I'm going to spend the night in a bloody snow blizzard in the middle of nowhere Hungary...
So back to the story, off we go from Zagreb at around 16h-ish in the afternoon to Budapest. It snowed all the way but since that part of the high way from Zagreb to Budapest at least until the border is relatively a hilly countryside so it snowed wind wind but nothing terrible that would alert us for the upcoming. We crossed the boarder to Hungary where it became obvious the weather is starting to kick balls as to say and due to the more flat plain geography of that region of Hungary the wind was a lot stronger than back in Croatia and snow was slowly starting to build up on the roads. The first sing of trouble on the highway was a long line of stuck cars and trucks as far as the eye could see and even beyond. Soon came the info, there was a huge accident on the highways so the road is closed until further notice. After waiting 5 minutes, we turn back, yes in the same direction on the highway we cam on...i know i know :idea: it was not the best idea but it was either that or remain stuck there on the highway (which later on turned out to be the case for the vehicles that stayed). We went off the highway on the first exit we could, thankfully no traffic was coming our way and it was for like 4-500 meter to the nearest exit. We went off the hw, to the more scenic old road which was still pretty much drive-able and we slowly wound up back on the highway to Budapest, then off again at the next exit since police closed the road further up towards Budapest and so on... the 4th time we managed to get back to the highway it was no more... FULL HIGHWAY CLOSING both directions, no traffic towards or from Budapest, too many accidents... by then it was well around 20h in the evening and snowing like crazy with wind gusts exceeding 120km/h. Where we went off the hw the police said it's best to go into the next village, they added "while you still can" and find a place to rest off the night and hopefully try to continue tomorrow when the roads clear.
That was not going to stop us we said, GPS on, through the villages we went. Very strange named villages we came across on our way but we slowly came closer to Budapest... and then disaster struck! Complete havoc on the roads in Hungary. If the police did not close off the roads either a truck in a ditch or several cars that collided or even the weather with snow buildup did!
And thou we honestly hurried home to our families, we were stuck in the midst of the worst of the storm with our Stilo 1.6 hatchback between two villages somewhere in between nowhere to be honest. We, just as several other, became stuck on part of a road in the middle between two villages and there was no way back...nor forward for that matter... see the picture.
There was no more road for that matter! So it became clear to us WE ARE STUCK with more then enough fuel thankfully to last the night, some chips, cookies and sweets in the bags we were taking to our families from Croatia, at least plenty to drink since we had water and juice as well... and I wanted to scream because of the anger why I had not listened to the nice policeman to rent a room for the night... now us, and several others were going to spend the night in the middle of nowhere.
The point of the story is that patience is honestly a huge virtue!
Our Stilo held up pretty good, it always started on the turn of the key, it kept us warm all night. We of course intermittently kept turning on the car to conserve gas. Wind was blowing well around and above 100km/h all night taking all the snow from the fields and depositing it on the roads in front and behind us.
This is what was waiting for us the next morning. We could not wait for the rescue party and started to dig our selves a groove through the snow buildup, to no avail
We had to wait for a local farmer to come around with his tractor to clear the snow and let us through into the village.
We were stuck in snow for more than 12h that day. IT took as another good additional 12h to get back home since most of the roads were blocked with snow or accidents way into next afternoon.
The car was bang up a little bit, the plastic motor covers simply sheared off since we had to rally drive the car a little bit at some points.
Everything has been fixes on the car now she purrs like a kitten once again. Even thou it was not time for it for another 2000km's I changed the oil and gave it a service check up. The car held up pretty good in that harsh weather. It was -4C all night and day next day.
I'm proud of our little car and happy and thankful it got us home in one peace and it's going to live hopefully for a lot more days.
I wanted to share this experience with you...well at least some of it since most of it was honestly bad I would not like to do such thing again.
The point is that as I said, patience is a real virtue and if you take care of your ride it should in most cases take care of you, or I would even go out on a limb and say it WILL TAKE CARE OF YOU I hope you find my story amusing, maybe a little bit interesting and something from which you can learn to be more patient and take good care of your ride.
Good night mates, everyone take care of your families and loved ones and the 4 wheeled member of the family as well.
Good night!
Z
P.S. By the way, if your asking your self why do I keep a shovel in the car ?! ... I don't!
We "found" one laying around in the vineyards next to the road...and the lock on the door just happened to break off by it self so we could let ourselves into the shed and there was the shovel...
We of course took back the shovel once we realized it's not helping us...well at least to pass the time
The story I want to share with you today is our adventure in the midst of a snow storm in Hungary that happened a week earlier, on March 14th/15th.
With my colleague from work, we were heading back from Zagreb, Croatia on the afternoon of March 14th. The prognosis said that it's going to snow a bit all day and all the way but who would have believed I'm going to spend the night in a bloody snow blizzard in the middle of nowhere Hungary...
So back to the story, off we go from Zagreb at around 16h-ish in the afternoon to Budapest. It snowed all the way but since that part of the high way from Zagreb to Budapest at least until the border is relatively a hilly countryside so it snowed wind wind but nothing terrible that would alert us for the upcoming. We crossed the boarder to Hungary where it became obvious the weather is starting to kick balls as to say and due to the more flat plain geography of that region of Hungary the wind was a lot stronger than back in Croatia and snow was slowly starting to build up on the roads. The first sing of trouble on the highway was a long line of stuck cars and trucks as far as the eye could see and even beyond. Soon came the info, there was a huge accident on the highways so the road is closed until further notice. After waiting 5 minutes, we turn back, yes in the same direction on the highway we cam on...i know i know :idea: it was not the best idea but it was either that or remain stuck there on the highway (which later on turned out to be the case for the vehicles that stayed). We went off the highway on the first exit we could, thankfully no traffic was coming our way and it was for like 4-500 meter to the nearest exit. We went off the hw, to the more scenic old road which was still pretty much drive-able and we slowly wound up back on the highway to Budapest, then off again at the next exit since police closed the road further up towards Budapest and so on... the 4th time we managed to get back to the highway it was no more... FULL HIGHWAY CLOSING both directions, no traffic towards or from Budapest, too many accidents... by then it was well around 20h in the evening and snowing like crazy with wind gusts exceeding 120km/h. Where we went off the hw the police said it's best to go into the next village, they added "while you still can" and find a place to rest off the night and hopefully try to continue tomorrow when the roads clear.
That was not going to stop us we said, GPS on, through the villages we went. Very strange named villages we came across on our way but we slowly came closer to Budapest... and then disaster struck! Complete havoc on the roads in Hungary. If the police did not close off the roads either a truck in a ditch or several cars that collided or even the weather with snow buildup did!
And thou we honestly hurried home to our families, we were stuck in the midst of the worst of the storm with our Stilo 1.6 hatchback between two villages somewhere in between nowhere to be honest. We, just as several other, became stuck on part of a road in the middle between two villages and there was no way back...nor forward for that matter... see the picture.
There was no more road for that matter! So it became clear to us WE ARE STUCK with more then enough fuel thankfully to last the night, some chips, cookies and sweets in the bags we were taking to our families from Croatia, at least plenty to drink since we had water and juice as well... and I wanted to scream because of the anger why I had not listened to the nice policeman to rent a room for the night... now us, and several others were going to spend the night in the middle of nowhere.
The point of the story is that patience is honestly a huge virtue!
Our Stilo held up pretty good, it always started on the turn of the key, it kept us warm all night. We of course intermittently kept turning on the car to conserve gas. Wind was blowing well around and above 100km/h all night taking all the snow from the fields and depositing it on the roads in front and behind us.
This is what was waiting for us the next morning. We could not wait for the rescue party and started to dig our selves a groove through the snow buildup, to no avail
We had to wait for a local farmer to come around with his tractor to clear the snow and let us through into the village.
We were stuck in snow for more than 12h that day. IT took as another good additional 12h to get back home since most of the roads were blocked with snow or accidents way into next afternoon.
The car was bang up a little bit, the plastic motor covers simply sheared off since we had to rally drive the car a little bit at some points.
Everything has been fixes on the car now
she purrs like a kitten once again. Even thou it was not time for it for another 2000km's I changed the oil and gave it a service check up. The car held up pretty good in that harsh weather. It was -4C all night and day next day. I'm proud of our little car
and happy and thankful it got us home in one peace and it's going to live hopefully for a lot more days.I wanted to share this experience with you...well at least some of it since most of it was honestly bad
I would not like to do such thing again. The point is that as I said, patience is a real virtue and if you take care of your ride it should in most cases take care of you, or I would even go out on a limb and say it WILL TAKE CARE OF YOU
I hope you find my story amusing, maybe a little bit interesting and something from which you can learn to be more patient and take good care of your ride.Good night mates, everyone take care of your families and loved ones and the 4 wheeled member of the family as well.
Good night!
Z
P.S. By the way, if your asking your self why do I keep a shovel in the car ?! ... I don't!
We "found" one laying around in the vineyards next to the road...and the lock on the door just happened to break off by it self so we could let ourselves into the shed and there was the shovel...
We of course took back the shovel once we realized it's not helping us...well at least to pass the time
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