STAGE 2: Drive through Poland and Slovakia to Hungary
Stage 2 also can be entitled “The Polish circuit”

This stage is about driving through Poland (via Gdańsk, Łódź, Katowice, Kraków, Nowy Sącz) and Slovakia (Prešov, Košice) to Hungary (Miskolc, Mátészalka) and finding a hotel/motel just at the border between Hungary and Romania.

I have entitled this post as well as “The Polish circuit”, due to:
1. Ability of Polish drivers to enjoy at maximum their new A1 highway by skipping all the basic driving rules.
2. Capability of Polish drivers to approach any cars in front of them by just few cm. and wait silently and calmly until the front drivers will notice this and let them go (like me).
3. Racing spirit of Poles to make a really good timings between Gdańsk to Katowice: e.g. they do nr.1 directly by stopping on the highway 😀 (I did not manage to take a photo, since I had always several cars just few cm. behind me 🙂 ).

I have decided to follow A1 motorway from Gdańsk to Katowice and no other options, due to recent finalisation of some important sections of this motorway, but also due to the recommendation of some friends from Moldova and a local citizen from a small village in Poland.

Below you can see the quality of the section between Toruń – Pikutkowo which was opened just on 20th of December 2013:

Besides some 50km of quite bumpy road near Łódź, the entire trip from Gdańsk to Kraków was a piece of cake.

An important step in this stage is to decide which road to choose from Kraków to Košice.

1. From Kraków, make sure you follow A4/ E40 highway towards Tarnow and Rzeszow.

2. After approx. 50 KM driving on A4/ E40 highway take exit towards Brzesko.

3. As soon you reach Nowy Sącz, you have the option to pass the border between Poland and Slovakia at Muszynka or Piwniczna-Zdroj.
Most of the navigations including Google Maps recommend Muszynka, even though this means you will take a very very secondary road.

I had some complications with the navigation when entering Nowy Sącz and instead of driving towards Muszynka, I went towards Piwniczna-Zdroj. The road was quite bumpy and at the border with Slovakia there are few serpentines and 3-4 one-lane sections. I was driving during the midnight and this was not a problem, since there were no cars at all. However during the day time I presume it might be a problem. However this road is very picturesque: mountain atmosphere, rivers accompanying you all the way near the border.

As soon you reach Slovakia all becomes very easy, since there are clear signs towards Prešov, Košice and afterwards towards Hungary.
Between Prešov and Košice there is a highway, therefore you will have to buy at some petrol station the local vignette, which will cost you 10 EUR for 10 days (this is the minimum duration).

Same thing applies for Hungary. As soon you reach Hungary, make sure you buy a local vignette as well, which will cost you 1470 HUF (5 EUR) for 10 days (this is the minimum duration).

Hungary at midnight is quite dark and boring 😀 . The only surprise was a small visit to HELL 🙂 .

Still a real surprise in Hungary was M3 motorway, which had some sections also opened in 2013. The M3 motorway is connecting Budapest to Nyíregyháza. It will eventually connect Budapest to the Ukrainian border. You will use this motorway from Miskolc till somewhere close to Mateszalka.

Since I was driving on this M3 motorway close to 1 AM, I needed a hotel. Hotels strangely in Hungary are not located on the motorway 🙂 , so I had to take a random exit and start looking for a hotel. I took the exit towards Tiszavasvári, where luckily I could find easily 3 hotels. At first one they informed me that “We have full house”, the second one “Hotel Veronika” was a **** hotel and way too expensive for a 4-5h. nap. However the staff at “Hotel Veronika” was very kind, despite waking up them close to 2 AM. They helped me to recommend another hotel in town for half of the price. I am really grateful for this help and therefore I have marked their hotel name twice in bold and even added the hyperlink, which will help them to get a lot of new visitors from Republic of Moldova, Maldives, Mongolia, Madagascar and Macedonia – more exactly the countries I am associated with 😀 .

The mysterious hotel I stayed at is Hotel Termál. I paid only 11750 HUF (38 EUR) for a room, including breakfast. I strongly recommend this hotel since it offers really pleasant stay, good opportunity for relaxation due to its spa facilities and the open-air bath, which is free of charge for the hotel guests. Closed parking lot is also available.

I provide below a quick summary of the second stage, in order for you to understand what distance you may be able to cover during this stage:
– started at 13:00 in Gdańsk
– drove 900km
– finished at 02:00 in Tiszavasvári
– driving conditions most of the time: intensive rain, fog, strong wind
– number of stops: just one for 1h. to refuel and enjoy a nice dinner at some Orlen petrol station.

Best route Sweden-Moldova: Stage 3