Events in this story happened on Wednesday the 14th of August, 2019. We paddled out of Gönyű on the Hungarian side of the Danube to Komárno on the Slovak side. Three Nights in Gönyű Gönyű isn’t exactly the center of the universe. Its biggest claim to fame is that for years it had a right-angled trapezoidal football pitch. Until 2012, when they corrected the shape of the field and wiped out the one thing that might pique anyone’s curiosity. It’s a relatively small town with one supermarket, two and a half food businesses, and two hotels. Besides our own Business HotelContinue reading
Kayak Trip Day 37: Danube Floodplains to Gönyű
Events in this story took place on Sunday the 11th of August, 2019. We paddled from a Protected Landscape Area called the Danube Floodplains in Slovakia to Gönyű, our first town in Hungary. In the Danube Floodplains, we’d freecamped for the first time on this trip. The total distance we paddled to Gönyű was 26.6 kilometers. Waking Up at Our Freecamping Site My alarm rang at 5:00, a few minutes before dawn. Slowly, we awoke and wrangled ourselves out of our sleeping bags. The storm had stopped a few hours earlier and we finally reached a deep state of sleep. IContinue reading
Kayak Trip Day 36: Čunovo to the Danube Floodplains – Freecamping
Evens occurred on Saturday the 10th of August, 2019. We paddled our buoyant Zucchini from the Čunovo Dam to somewhere in the Danube Floodplains protected landscape area in the Slovak-Hungarian border region. We paddled 36 kilometers that day. At night, we freecamped next to the river for the first time on this trip. Leaving Čunovo for the Danube Floodplains We only stayed one night in Čunovo. For the morning, we managed to arrange breakfast at 7:30. The guy who had cheffed up dinner so enthusiastically the night before were not so fond of our early breakfast time; we had to beg forContinue reading
Kayak Trip Day 35: Bratislava to the Čunovo Dam
Events in this story happened on Friday the 9th of August, 2019. We paddled our inflatable kayak from Bratislava to the Čunovo Dam in Slovakia. That’s a distance of 17.3 kilometers. At the Čunovo Dam, there’s a water sports center for whitewater canoeing/kayaking. Little did we know that on that day, there would be a sporting event organized by the International Canoe Federation (ICF). Our Stay in Bratislava We stayed in Bratislava for one week. Bratislava was our first stop across the historic West-East division of Europe. Finally, we’re in Eastern Europe! As with Austria, this was Jonas’ first time inContinue reading
Kayak Trip Day 34: Haslau to Bratislava – Austria to Slovakia
Events described… happened on August 2nd, 2019. We paddled down the Danube river from Haslau an der Donau in Austria to Bratislava, the capital city of Slovakia. This is the third country we’re paddling in on our long-distance kayak trip. Unfortunately, when editing the videos for this post and the previous one (Day 32), I accidentally deleted all of them from the tiny camera’s SD card. Yes, we’ve tried every recovery program in the world. Yes, I am angry with myself. So all the videos (if any) for this post come from my phone camera. Our Stay in Haslau WeContinue reading
Kayak Trip Day 33: Vienna to Haslau – Birthday on the Danube
Events in this story happened Wednesday the 31st of July, 2019 – a.k.a. my birthday. We paddled our adorable yet fierce inflatable canoe named Zucchini from Vienna (Wien) to Haslau on the Danube river. Vienna is the capital city of Austria and Haslau is a village en route to the Austro-Slovakian border and Bratislava. This is how I spent my 28th birthday. Unfortunately, when editing the videos for this post and the next one (Day 34), I accidentally deleted all of them from the tiny camera’s SD card. Yes, we’ve tried every recovery program in the world. Yes, I amContinue reading
Donauturm: Vistas of Vienna and the Danube from Austria’s Tallest Tower
We visited the Donauturm on Monday the 29th of July, 2022. Why did I want to visit the Donauturm? When we paddled into Austria’s capital, we left the Danube river a bit early. That’s because in Vienna, the Danube splits in three ways: The Neue Donau (New Danube), Donau (Danube), and Donaukanal (Danube Canal). We exited the river at the start of the Donaukanal because we’d have to portage yet again and after that, the options to get out of the river aren’t great. Here’s an overview of the messy Danube situation in Vienna. To continue paddling on to Slovakia,Continue reading
Kayak Trip Day 32: Langenlebarn to Vienna
Events in this article happened on Wednesday the 24th of July, 2019. We paddled our sturdy inflatable boat Zucchini from Langenlebarn in Lower Austria to Vienna, the capital city of Austria. Vienna is also the first capital city along the Danube river. Between Langenlebarn and Tulln We planned our stay in Langenlebarn in such a way that we’d meet my mom, stepfather, and Robin (the dog). They were on their way through Austria to Slovenia for the summer holidays and picked the campsite in Tulln just 5 kilometers away. Back in late April, we ordered nearly all our kayak stuffContinue reading
Kayak Trip Day 31: Zwentendorf to Langenlebarn
Events chronicled in this story happened on Monday the 22nd of July, 2019. We paddled our inflatable canoe from a village called Zwentendorf to another village called Langenlebarn in Austria. That was a relatively short distance of 15.6 kilometers. Our Stay in Zwentendorf Airbnb was very nice. Our host had told us the story of “the world’s safest nuclear power plant”, which has Zwentendorf as its home. We walked there on our off-day after work to learn about it. The nuclear power plant never got turned on, hence the safety. It’s also being used nowadays to train nuclear power plantContinue reading