With the pedal to the metal we can do a 120 kilometers per hour, if there are no big traffic jams around Venice, we should reach the ferry in Livorno.

There are many teams suffering breakdowns before they reach the start line, but I think we are breaking the record: our car ran out of fuel 500m after leaving home 🙂 Shortly after that Michal forgot his wallet at a gas station (but got it later). Even if it is hard to believe, we finally arrived at Budapest’s Heroes’ Square and parked the Beast there, waiting for the start tomorrow at 8am.

There are only two days left to finish everything, adrenaline is rising, chaos is (slowly) decreasing.
The good news:

• Michal returned from Australia and due to extensive jetlag he is very efficient (spends all the night working!)
• we got our sponsors’ stickers yesterday and the Beast is even more beautiful now (see below)
• nothing new broke during the last days (with the exception of the wipers, but this was fixed quickly)
• already before start we are becoming great improvisers: instead of fixing a broken horn, I decided to buy an air horn (the one used to make noise at soccer stadiums) and to attach it to the roof rack
• we are still receiving lots of donations, the basement of my house is again full of them, Michal will deliver the next load of boxes to the donation truck tomorrow
• my sister prepared a perfect emergency medical kit for us (it seems to cover any medium sized hospital’s needs for a year or two)
• blogging from our sat phone and even SMS blogging works, so you will have up to date stories every day

The bad news is that I am tied to the bed by flu, and will not be able to join the meet&greet party tomorrow night.
The official start is at 8am on Saturday at Budapest’s Heroes’ Square, join us if you can make it, it will be a big party with strange costumes and even stranger cars (rumors talk about a Trabant covered by grass, rusty old Polski Fiats, and a hovercraft joining the race).