Tense times at the Hungarian Border

it was six days ago that i checked into this beautiful hotel the dubrovnik palace and today i head off to budapest for round 11 of the f1 season i have stayed at some amazing hotels and when i checked into this hotel we got a beautiful room with a magnificent balcony overlooking this glorious bay but we've quite liked it here so we had a chat with them downstairs and said can we extend and they mentioned that the room we're in was actually booked but they have come up with a rather pleasant solution because now we've managed to get ourselves another three nights in this room this is the lavander suite and i think you'll agree it's pretty nice what this does have is three metre high ceilings the reception is up on the ninth floor and one of the beach restaurants is down on the first floor so all the rooms are below reception and with this room here the lavander suite we actually get our own private entrance which i think only four or five rooms get to use and if you ever get to dubrovnik you'll certainly end up at the old city which dates back to the seventh century and it is very impressive just picked up a renault capture which is a nice car brand new and now we're heading to zagreb and by the way this is the private entrance that we get to our suite here at this beautiful hotel which will be sad to leave it's 25 to noon on the 25th of july sunday and we'll be in zagreb tonight probably about 6 p.m this is the border crossing from croatia which we are now going into bosnia and herzegovina and we have passports ready and masks on um this should be just a simple procedure i hope hello all right well that was very simple we didn't have to wait a second straight through two passports and wave through but coming back this way as you can see there's a much longer lineup of cars probably 10-15 minute wait well the journey through that country was about 11 minutes i'd say and now we're here at the border crossing back into croatia and there is probably 40 cars in front of us but that'll only be a few minutes out here to my left is a magnificent new bridge that will take traffic from the northern part of croatia into the water and back into the southern part of croatia so in the future and i think it's maybe a year or two away you won't have to go through this business of going through the border control into and out of bosnia and herzegovina through now into croatia again and interestingly they stamped their passports coming back into croatia and yet they weren't stamped going into um bosnia and herzegovina anyway 532 kilometers to go to zagreb stop for a quick toilet break here at this servo on the highway and i think we've done oh just a little over half and it's um 130 speed limit you can drive at 160 apparently they say and lots of tunnels [Music] we've been going seven hours so far and we've just got to the toll gate as you enter zagreb and we've probably been on this road for three and a half four hours thank you machine and uh be interesting to see what they're gonna charge us for that toll 143 is the most i've seen 231 that's a record 50 australian dollars 30 or so euros something like that 7 hours and 20 minutes to get from dubrovnik to zagreb and it's nice and quiet in town here it looks really pretty first impressions are positive we're checking in welcome then thank you what did it say on our card oh there was a mistake downstairs we're going to 407. okay there you go oh it's very elegant oh yeah this is lovely and big what have we got a view of over here let's have a look and that's obviously a a restaurant down there that looks quite magnificent now it's very rare that you find a corby trouser press in a hotel these days but there's one here and if you're an alan partridge fan you'll remember that very funny scene in his series well i didn't see myself coming to zagreb at any stage this year but i'm certainly delighted that i have i've been for a quick walk around here tonight beautiful buildings the train station is lovely a lovely atmosphere very warm night and i would have thought more people would have been out and about he's very quiet and the traffic i think it's almost non-existent [Music] if you're planning to do a lot of driving on your next holiday take with you a cheap dash cam fit it to your front windscreen in the event of a crash and the other person's in the wrong you've got great evidence oh but what happens if you're in the wrong you'll know what to do [Music] wednesday 28 july the day before the hungarian gp kicks off for me and today we're heading to budapest from zagreb via the australian embassy here in zagreb and then a border crossing and then getting to the hotel moments probably around 3 30. this is the australian embassy here in zagreb that took nearly an hour to get those documents signed in the australian embassy they had a didgeridoo in the foyer some nice aboriginal dot paintings and uh some pictures but mostly of sydney no mention of perth thank you very much for stay sir hopefully we'll see you again here in esplanade zagreb that was an enjoyable three nights in zagreb and it's now 12 15 and we are heading to budapest and sat nav says we are three hours and 26 minutes away see how we go border crossing to encounter and all of our documents hopefully are in order it's a very warm afternoon and i'm in a queue of about 40 cars when it's my turn up there i guess i'll have to produce my passport my covert certificate and my pcr test maybe maybe my letter from f1 well i tell you what there were some hairy moments there because they took out passports they took the documents for the car and then they said right you go over there so we had to go by the side now we had to wait for well i reckon a good 20 minutes and they came over and they wanted to see our pcr test and our covert certificates and they walk back again and i'm thinking uh what's going on here this shouldn't take anywhere near as long as this but luckily they returned everything and sent us on our way so now we're into hungary on our way to budapest i thought we might have been here at 3 30 to 5 30 arrival and this is one of my favorite hotels of all year this is the hotel moments in budapest look it's not super five star or anything but it's just a lovely feel and come inside and let me show you why i like it [Music] hello hello is your restaurant closed it's closed unfortunately i'm crushed one of the great delights of staying here is this restaurant but it's closed because of covert that's a bummer come for a tour [Music] yeah these are nice this is a corner room and as you can see a view out here onto the street which is very nice well the good news about budapest and hungary is that there are only 14 i think covet cases last or yesterday and as such no one has to wear masks inside or out although we will inside but outside it's great budapest is a great city but unfortunately at the moment covet has meant that a lot of the restaurants aren't open certainly the hotels are probably in the order of 50 occupancy but that doesn't stop the locals from getting out and having a whole lot of fun and they get out in big numbers in the centre of town certainly around the ferris wheel which does a roaring trade and there are people dancing and drinking and dining and generally having a great time it's such a fun atmosphere in this city around grand prix time and yes it is hot 34 odd degrees i think we're expecting for uh some of the days certainly for f1 but i can't wait for tomorrow to get underway here in budapest and if you've liked this video here's your chance to click the like button don't be shy subscribe if you haven't done so and become a member to get a whole lot of perks hit the join button for that you'll find my digital images at pro prostarpix.com for editorial and personal use my photo books are available online at kimilman.com along with a whole host of merchandise and for my best pictures live from the track head to instagram and search at kim illman thanks for watching and stay [Music] passionate

Channel: Kym Illman

Views: 53,254

Rating: 4.960691 out of 5

Keywords: f1, formula 1, formel 1, formule 1, grand prix, racing, motorsport, travel, croatia, dubrovnik, zagreb, budapest, hungarian border crossing, how to travel to hungary during covid, travel in croatia during covid, travelling in croatia, travelling during covid, travelling during a pandemic, travelling during covid vlog, travel in europe covid, zagreb travel, budapest travel

Id: lG8knL9wVQk

Length: 10min 0sec (600 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 28 2021