Sunday, 24th July 2005 - Ploesti to Varna.

A very long driving day today, and Mark drove all day. I took us through the middle of Bucharest (I like a challenge...) where there were no signposts at all and we had to use the GPS to keep choosing the roads which would take us south, whilst dodging the trams and the extra-long busses. To be honest driving in these places is nowhere near as bad as we thought it would be - it's true that things tend to move at pace, but a bit of confidence and anticipation and you move with the traffic, the other drivers making allowances for the obvious stranger. 

We were soon approaching the border when some guy in a white shirt with pens in the breast pocket flagged us down. We kept the engine running and he asked if we were going to Bulgaria, and when we replied that we were he informed us that there was now a 20 Euro toll to use the stretch of road to the border crossing. This, coupled with the fact that he was wearing jeans, sounded very fishy to me, so I asked him who he was and could I see his identification please. Up to this point he spoke very good English, but now he didn't understand, so I asked again in German and in French. He looked even shiftier now, and gave the game away by dropping his "toll" to 5 Euros and packet of Marlboro. At this he was told that he could go forth and procreate, and we sped off to the proper border crossing, where the very helpful real border guards walked us through the whole process. We had to pay 6 Euros leaving fee and 37,000 Romanian Lev environmental tax and we were through. In the no-mans land between the two countries we stopped for some bargain duty frees - 200 Marlboro Light for 8 Euros and a large bottle of Gordons for 7.5 Euros. (Tip - take lots of Euros to Eastern Europe and beyond - everybody wants them...). 

We drove over the Danube bridge to the Bulgarian side where there were more police and customs checks...these took a while but everything was very good natured and, as long as you were helpful and polite, you got through ok. We had to buy third party insurance at this crossing as our insurance certificate didn't mention Bulgaria. Unfortunately as Hector is registered in my (Mark's) name, I was the only one put on the insurance, so it looks like I'll be doing all of the driving in Bulgaria. We also had to pay a 2Euro "Disinfect ion Tax" to drive Hector through a puddle of muddy water! Once across the border we headed straight to Varna on the Black Sea coast, and made good progress. Once again our guidebook was out of date, and we couldn't find the place we wanted to stay so we drove up the coast to Golden Sands. What a mistake. Driving around Golden Sands was an absolute nightmare, the worst driving yet. Tiny narrow windy streets packed with holiday makers and no-entry signs. Every hotel we pulled up at was fully booked and it was getting late. In low spirits we headed back to Varna and noticed a side road with a sign for a hotel. We drove down the track, only to find that the advertised hotel had no rooms. It was now getting late and dark, so we waked down the track a little more and came across the Hotel St Nikolai - which had rooms! I was so happy I nearly hugged the guy behind the counter! It turns out that the St Nikolai is a family run hotel in it's first year, and the owners couldn't have been nicer to us. They didn't have a restaurant, but Mrs Owner brought over a huge plate of food, explained that this is what they were having for dinner and would we like some too...yes please! So we ended up sitting outside at a candle lit table eating a feast, when an hour earlier we were making plans to kip in Hector.

(Tip - in Bulgaria you have to register your presence with the police within 48 hours of crossing the border. The owners of the hotel did this for us, and gave us a copy of the slip, which we had to give to the border police on the way out.)

Monday, 25th July to Wednesday, 27th July 2005. Varna.

Sun, sea and sand is the order of the day here. We're spoilt rotten by the hotel owners (who took our huge bag of dirty washing and did it all for us) the hotel is 6 minutes walk from the beach and the weather is great. One night some American soldiers on leave booked into the hotel, and we met them in the bar. I was getting the drinks and Amy was sitting on her own- American soldier to friend: "Hey, it's a Hottie!" and to Amy "Hey, are you Bulgarian?" Amy in best talking to small children and idiots voice "No, I'm English..." Red faced GI promptly shuts up, and his friend makes polite conversation. They were actually really nice lads, but looked very, very young...

We also managed to give Hector a wash whilst staying at the hotel, with Mr Owner letting us use his hose and his brushes - a huge amount of dirt came off, but we found that we'd been splashed with concrete when driving through some road-works, which has set on Hectors sides.

it's a hard life, this overlanding....  Amy and Hector outside the hotel    Our wonderful and kind hosts

Evening stroll along the waterfront

We have really enjoyed our stay at Varna, and it has been made all the more pleasant by our hosts. If anyone ever fancies a holiday in Bulgaria we would certainly recommend the Hotel St. Nikola.