mannheim - ganchovets

Waking with a good morning shout from Cameron it was nearing ten AM, his couch was comfy, due to the black out blinds and air con along with a late night out on beers, all added up to mean a longer than I should have done lie in, I suppose it was inevitable! I had a long drive to go and should have been up with the larks, Cammy made us a very tasty breakfast, this pleased me for lots of reasons but mostly I was proud that my son could make his dad a healthy hearty breakfast, he is his own man now no longer my child, well; of course he is still my child to me, but this was me seeing him as an adult in the real world, not the parenting world I was used to while he was growing up, he helped me set up the old Garmin sat nav to the window of the insignia (he is way better than me at all that tech stuff) I had lost faith in the cars sat nav, I was also feeling my phone would be a faff without a passenger, the old Garmin had served me well previously

It was by then nearly eleven when I set off with Vienna put into the Garmin as my next destination, there would have been previously (pre Brexit & pre covid days) quicker routes across Europe to Bulgaria, I was trying to avoid as many hard borders as possible, from previous experience driving and cycling across Europe the border between Germany and Austria is virtually inexistent, on this occasion I was stuck in a huge traffic jam for hours trying to get over the border, this was a twofold problem firstly they had placed some border guards simply checking random cars about the pandemic, by the time I passed their station they were just waving folk through, this slowing of the traffic caused the second problem, in order to drive through many countries in Europe you need to pay a sort of road tax most countries call it a vignette, Karen had already paid the tempera road tax for Bulgaria and Romania on line, (none required for Holland Luxemburg and Germany that I had already passed through) Austria has no capability of buying on line, you need to stop at the border service stations and buy it from a counter, the traffic in and out of these service stations, was horrendous: partially due yet again with the pandemic as Austria was insisting that transit traffic could only stop at certain rest stops serviced and Un`serviced, I had purchased mine before reaching the busiest of these, which I can only presume had caused this traffic jam that had brought a motorway to a standstill for hours! The traffic also gets funnelled through cameras that scan your windscreen for the vignette

Originally I had hoped to spend a night in Vienna or Budapest, I was really looking forward to it, BUT; with the traffic jam and the transit only stopping places; I was made to change this plan as I approached Vienna it was pitch dark not good driving conditions, I decided to use a rest stop layby for a snooze, these big rest areas used by trucks cars and vans of all sizes are basic but free you could tell the people that use them often, some siting with other truckers around a supper table others in bivvy bags lying on the grass, I stupidly parked too near the toilet block but still managed five hours snooze with the seat back my hoody back to front on my face and ear plugs in, when I woke it was bright daylight I wasted no time in setting off, time for some driving catch up on my now very tight schedule,

I was heading to cross into Hungary next passing by Vienna, whilst driving over bridges that crossed the Danube along this route, it made me smile with happy memories of my cycle journey down the Danube, there was also all the motorway signs for the cities I stayed in on that great cycle holiday a beautiful part of the world, passing by Budapest once in Hungary I had to work out where to put into the sat nav to head to next? With no passenger to help with the navigation and stupidly not brought a physical map! I just chose a random city in Romania that I could avoid crossing into any other hard borders, this was a mistake I was away from motorways to arrive at a smaller less efficient hard border crossing I had tried all the different sat navs trying to find the best place to cross into Romania, Karen had been texting me to put in a place called Ostrov? I couldn’t find that on my phone neither could both the car sat navs, I was following a road called the E60 which had signs that said to – Romania: I went with it! I would worry about how to get to Vidin (where I hoped to cross into Bulgaria) once I was in Romania, I crossed into Romania at a town called Oradea, this was a small border crossing; the guard took my passport then asked for the car documents, he took all my documents then told me to go park up and come back in five minutes I watched him take all my documents to another kiosk, then I parked up and waited five mins as instructed, I took the opportunity to do some stretching while worrying about delays, I had to get into Bulgaria before midnight! at midnight people from the UK would be on Bulgaria’s code red list IE not allowed in! it was 13:20 by then, I had been driving for over eight hours since my snooze, after five mins I went over expecting a car search and questions? But no, a straight here you go have a good day, While I was at the border crossing, I sat next to a van/half truck with two engines tied to the back of it, it left the border the same time as me

There was an Aldi in town I parked in its car park and seriously considered doing a quick shop, BUT; time was important, I wanted to get to that border: once over I could shop, zooming in and out of my telephones google maps page, isn’t easy when trying to work out a route plan right across a country the size of Romania, the sat Navs (all three of them) failed me with this, I am sure on leaving town I overtook the half truck, then I drove all afternoon on back roads (the signs were like route 66 style). Stopping to check where this scenic route? the sat nav was taking me was going, I opted to follow my instinct and follow a road away from the scenic route, before long I found I was on a stretch of motorway! Where I overtook the half truck again, I hadn’t stopped and yet I overtook this truck again while on the motorway doing ninety, this was a sign to me he had a better initial route than me and I was correct to use my instinct, the motorway came to an end with a sign that said to the border, I stopped for fuel snacks and a pee here, then set off again, I was back on country roads that lead into the mountains, this area is called Mehedinți County, it is a county of Romania on the border with Serbia and Bulgaria. It is mostly located in the historical province of Oltenia, its extremely scenic driving through this area where the Carpathian Mountains cross down to the Danube. Its southern border with Bulgaria where I was heading towards, I was feeling my border crossing can’t be long now! While driving through the large scenic port city of Drobeta-Turnu Severin, I passed the half truck with engines on the outskirts once again! (How was this possible) It was then a scenic mountain road that I was following south towards my intended border crossing, time was marching on, it was half past eight at night, the sun was starting to set, A beautiful drive in that light through that scenery with even some pleasant to drive wood lined switchback roads, BUT; I wanted to get over that border before midnight, no time to enjoy the view The sky got dark! Not just because it was night time the clouds were heavy, the traffic slowed due to trucks, who I guessed correctly would be heading for the border bridge also, then the rain started then soon after that impressive flash lightning burst the sky. It lit the whole sky horizon to horizon, then that changed to powerful fork lightning! It was a scary drive, I overtook a slow-moving car which I could only guess that the driver was terrified a truck had overtaken him before me, he was going that slow, the truck driver wasn’t scared and kept a good pace through the rain and lightning I decided to tail him! If the lightning hit anyone of us surely it would be him, the same theory held true for any flash flood puddles, I would see the truck hit these first then drive accordingly! This worked out perfectly,

The truck pulled in behind another truck on the outskirts of a town, guessing correctly this was the start of the que over the border I pulled out and passed it, Karen had text me earlier saying do not que behind the trucks! cars have a separate route which is much quicker, from what I witnessed it must be days quicker, I must admit I felt bad overtaking my helpful truck (he will never know how big a favour he done me) it’s a normal two lane road at this area I drove along the middle of it in pouring rain past miles of queuing trucks, it must take them days to cross the border, The border crossing is on the Romanian side of the Danube at a town called Dolj, there are two gates for trucks two for cars and one for buses that cars were also using, the traffic was narrowed down firstly into just two lanes trucks to the right cars and vans left, as the cars got closer a border guard with a poncho on for the heavy rain and a torch signalled for me to join a third lane behind some vans, it was half past ten at night when I joined this que, this was like a scene from a scooby doo cartoon, the rain lashing down lightning both fork and flash illuminating the horizon and the sound of thunder, I had one and a half hours to get through this border post before they shut it to UK nationals, all traffic was moving at a snails pace I envisioned some super thorough border guard saying no entry to me! I chose the lane for non-EU passports as we have to now and yep it was the slowest, the van with the two engines passed me again, I made a count we had passed each other six times now on the same journey across Romania,

ten minutes before midnight I at last approached the window of the border crossing, being a left-hand drive, I rolled down the passenger window and stretched across, being hard of hearing short sighted and short on time I was stressed to the max! I handed over my passport and the cars V5 document this had by then became standard procedure, a young lady guard took my documents she looked at them and handed them through to the next window; signalling for me to also move to the next window, the next guard looked at my passport photo and looked at me where are you going? I said to my sister’s house in Bulgaria she lives in Ganchovets, he shrugged his shoulders is this in Bulgaria are you staying in Bulgaria? Yes, I said; you have PCR test? Yes, I said; he put his hand out the window for documental proof! I handed him my now way out of date tests from the ferry terminal at Newcastle along with my Edinburgh airport test result, he grabbed this paperwork and bundled it with my passport and vehicle documents, he then opened the door of his guardhouse and marched across to another guardhouse where I could see him chat with another guard, I was guessing/hoping their English reading wasn’t so good for the test paperwork! I was fully expecting to be told to drive over there and switch of engine, but NO! he came back to the window sat down stamped my passport wrote the entry date next to the wee car symbol and waved me on! I was in almost bang on midnight!

Next there is a booth for the toll over the Danube bridge I had my seven euros ready, it was so dark and the rain so heavy I couldn’t see the Danube as I crossed the bridge, but I was happy I had made it to the town of Vidin in Bulgaria which I had been driving hard to get to since leaving Cammy now more than a days driving previously, stress over ( I thought) when I got over into Bulgaria at Vidin the rain was still lashing down there was flash floods on the roads the sort of big puddles you can’t avoid, I considered having a sleep waiting until daylight to complete the journey in the morning, the sat nav gave an ETA at Dryanovo (it wouldn’t accept Ganchovets) of 05:00, I doubted this as I had driven to a bridge over the Danube from Ganchovets before and was certain it was only a couple of hours (different bridge DOH), I had never driven for twenty four hours non stop before! I kind of guessed I would like to tick that box and went for it,

Kazza had text to say head towards a place called Montana first, I put this town into the sat nav, the drive there was over some mountains, with my short sightedness the lack of street lights and the flash floods it wasn’t the easiest of driving, it was 01:40 when I arrived at the outskirts of Montana, I put Karen’s address into the sat nav, it said I would arrive at 05:30 I could not believe it another four hours of driving! I felt the only option was to keep going what would be the point of a snooze now? With me thinking the worst of the driving was done? I was thinking I would soon be on the motorway section between Sofia and Valiko Tarnivo (VT), I coulda/shoulda really have guessed the script had I truly sat down and thought about what was likely to happen. I have absolutely no idea where that sat nav took me? I was up and down mountains through villages and cities of all shapes and sizes roads in all kinds of disrepair, eventually after hours of me looking for familiar signs or roads, I came to an area I recognised (roughly at a guess) stopping for a pee and hoping to see a good light pollution free sky (it was overcast and a poor night sky) I smiled thinking nearly there now, it felt great to be on a road I recognised

I was approaching a town with a petrol station that I recognised, my brain said straight away why should I need to remember this petrol station? My brother points it out every airport run drive I remembered, speed camera here you fella he would say every trip! I slowed down sure enough there it was! I did actually laugh out loud as it’s a hidden one; I woulda been caught for sure had I not known, I came up behind another motorist who slowed at the next garage I hadn’t remembered this speed trap but the other driver knew and now I knew to be cautious, I had forgotten there was so many speeds traps

There was one last sat nav error just to make the drive a wee bit more entertaining right up to the last mile! The post code I had punched in for Dryanovo not Ganchovets as it wouldn’t accept that, I felt sure I would find my way easy enough, I was wrong of course I came through the large town of Dryanovo taking a turning at the end for the village of Ganchovets (my destination) at a junction the sat nav took me left, had I went right I woulda been only two miles drive on roads I would have recognised, I went left with the sat nav! and after a country drive ended up back on the main road I had left a distance back, then I was at a driveway for a house that the sat nav said was my destination! I switched it of drove the main road and on a Wim took a right turn at a sign which turned out to be the correct road, It was after six am when I parked up outside Karen &Allan’s house, the lights were all on Karen was up and watching for me, smiles all round as I entered the house, I know it’s only six am to you sis but; I have been driving non stop now for well over twenty-four hours I deserve a beer, it had also been well over two thousand miles of driving from my house, Allen got out of bed and I sat chatting drinking beers for two hours before going for a well-deserved sleep,

newcastle - holland - germany

On the newcastle - amsterdam ferry

The time on the ship goes directly to European time as soon as you board, but; my phone and watch didn’t! this is confusing for me, I should really have made the change happen on my phone, it does the opposite on the way back when boarding in holland it goes direct to UK time, to save me this confusion I now change the phone time whenever I board, I’ve also learned from experience to switch the phone to flight mode as soon as it moves! Otherwise, you can get caught for expensive maritime rates of data, I took a photograph of the bulkhead door nearest to where the car was parked to remind me which route to take back to it, my cabin was very nice much higher up in the boat than I would normally have got and with a sea view, this was because there were so few passengers, everyone was getting the best cabins at the same price as would normally have bought you right down below - Ver near at the engine room,

While I was parked up killing time at the ferry terminal car que, a Dutch girl had asked me some stuff about PCR tests and directions to the boarding office, when I had bought a beer at the bar and went to sit up decks, she was sitting out on the sun deck with a beer, I asked her if she minded me joining her? to which she replied not at all, her name was Nathalie it turned out she was from holland and still worked for the Dutch military, she had married a Scotsman and emigrated to a town not far from where I live, we chatted all night ended up having dinner together (the vegan choices were rubbish), after dinner we went to the café bar which was closing at nine, we had a beer and went to order another, it was nine pm European time! we thought it was still eight UK time, they hadn’t even shouted last orders, normally this boats bars are open all night the ferry is normally a fun party, it was Nathalie’s round; as we went to our separate rooms she said she would buy me coffee in the morning which she did There was a que of vans and cars waiting to go past border control and customs, there was lots of car searches and questioning getting done, when it was my turn the two border soldiers approached the car window, they were young chaps (to me), they asked for my passport and where I was going? I had my glasses off and leaning out the window as I replied Bulgaria, he then asked how my ferry journey was? I said loudly and happily that it was rubbish as they had shut the bar at eight o clock so there was no party, they laughed waved me through and gave my passport at the office where it was stamped and the barrier lifted, I was passed yet another hurdle all seemed to be going too easily!

The roads in the Netherlands are fantastic they are way ahead of Scotland! so far ahead it made me think we were a backwards country, I stopped for fuel at a motorway service station there was lots of people coming in and out the service station café, shop, toilets etc: I was shocked to see only one or two people were wearing masks as they strolled around shopping paying for fuel going to and from the loo, no masks! Wow it was brilliant I loved it, I could smell the freedom from the covid prison liberty day was coming for the UK, but; it already looked like it had arrived in holland,

This motorway petrol stop was close to the city of Arnhem, which was the chosen route I was taking to get me to Mannheim Germany, unbeknownst to me at that time the banks of the rhine had burst in places all over Germany there was terrible flooding throughout the country, I will never know for sure if it was this or roadworks or just an outdated route finder? BUT; the journey that should have taken me five or at most seven hours took me nearly nine hours! The sat nav popped up with things like road works up ahead would you like to calculate a quicker route, maybe? I shouldn’t have clicked yes! I eventually approached Mannheim from the south east skirting passed Frankfurt, I should have come in from the north west? without a paper map to check and no passenger to help with route finding I will now never know where I went wrong,

I phoned Cameron at this stage who said I would be better using my telephones sat nav, or even the Garmin device as the cars sat nav was proving unreliable, I switched it on my phone as I approached Mannheim putting in the postcode for Cameron’s gym were he said; he would meet me, due to road works on a slip road it ended up a long route in, then once in the city both sat navs were giving me conflicting directions, I couldn’t stop to work out how to switch at least one of them off! Two sat nav devices giving me conflicting directions was frazzling my brain! I seen a KFC and pulled over into it calling Cameron to tell him where I was, it turned out that I was much closer to his house than the original planned car park meet up, I stayed in the car where I was, Cammy was at the car window in less than five mins,

Cameron’s city centre flat has a basement car park, it’s a cool looking set up with cars on a lift to maximum space usage, he had cold beers ready for me arriving I had a shower and got changed to go out, he was very pleased to see me or was it all the Scottish meat and pickled onion monster munch he was pleased to see? His girlfriend Louisa was still working when I arrived, once home she didn’t take long to get showered and changed for us to head out, this is one of the things Cammy likes about her, she doesn’t get too hung up on how she looks preferring to just be herself, it was July in the middle of Germany the weather was wonderful, we strolled through the centre of scenic Mannheim passing street cafes and couples out for a walk in the parks, life felt good I could see why Cameron like’s it in Germany

On other visits to Mannheim me and Cammy would go to murphy’s bar which is one of three Irish theme bars in Mannheim, on this occasion all the people that worked at Cameron’s work were banned from murphy’s, this was due to a couple of the younger ones not following covid rules during the ease of lockdown period! Instead of dealing with the couple of dafties, the pub had just put a cover ban on all Colemans employees, this annoyed Cammy so; even though the manager had said to him he could get back in if he sat through the back out of site he wasn’t going, this meant we had a longer stroll to another Irish bar , I didn’t mind it was a pleasant walk perfect for building a thirst for a cold pint of stout (which was wonderful) we had a great evening

house purchase in bulgaria

Bulgaria purchase journey Gathering property is different from gathering wealth!

Karen and Allen had only moved over to Bulgaria around two months when Karen sent me a picture of a house for sale in her street! Well, when I say her street, I actually mean the street she lives on in Bulgaria along the road from my brother and at the far end of the same street the cuddy and jo have also bought a house, the picture of the house with its for sale sign up didn’t do it justice but I asked Karen to find out how much it would cost?

The price was very good for the amount of property I would be getting, I couldnt resist especially as I now had a sister a brother and a good mate on the same street, Bryan’s house is number one on the street Karen’s is number seven the one I decided I would buy is number eleven, Bryan’s house has a pool and another outhouse suitable for living in Karen’s house is modern and large with a large garden straight across from the train station, the street goes over a level crossing at this station and the trains then go round the back of my house, the street has a little corner shop where locals gather to sit at outside tables drinking beers from the shop, the house I am buying is almost directly across from the wee shop. DenchoSlav street is roughly a mile long it ends at a public well, my mates Paul and jo (the cuddies) have bought a house also, they are near the end of the street, it’s going to be a fun project getting the place fixed up in this company,

I agreed to buy the place verbally after watching a walk about video tour from Karen’s phone, the logistics of this deal became a bit more tricky than; aye ok, I will take it when and where do I transfer the cash, my original hope was that Karen could have dealt with all that for me, but no I was required to go over in person to sign documents, due to Brexit Scotland is no longer part of Europe therefore UK citizens cannot buy land in Bulgaria anymore, I would have to become a business then open a business account at a Bulgarian bank in person, the business name was chosen as kenny.alexander&son ltd, the ball was set in motion by Marie the estate agent to find people to facilitate getting all this done, we planned a date that I could get there she would have the paperwork ready for then, I had pledged to be flight free in 2021 this made life even more difficult for the house purchase, how was I going to get across while keeping my pledge? Karen and Allen had driven over in a big white van with their worldly possessions in the back of this van, Karen had left her beloved Vauxhall insignia at my nephew Richards’ house in Edzell she said it would suit them if I drove that over and drove their big white van back, that was the transport sorted, Karen booked the car on to the ferry Newcastle to Amsterdam, the next hurdle was the pandemic, this was July 2021 the tail end months of a worldwide lockdown, peoples movement restriction rules were changing daily from country to country, this was bad enough but I had decided due to my civil liberties beliefs that I wasn’t going to get the vaccine, the rules are different for vaccinated and unvaccinated people, in order for me to get on the ferry to Europe, I would have to pay to get a covid test done at Edinburgh airport getting the results in time before the ferry sailed but still hoping to land in Amsterdam within the seventy two hour accepted time window for the test! My mate Andrew kindly took me through to Edinburgh to get the test done, I then got the train up to Montrose on the Wednesday, once at Montrose Richards partner Lisa collected me with the boys Oliver and alexander to drive me to edzil, I collected the car after staying a few hours chatting with the wonderful wee family, I considered staying overnight and going for a few beers with my nephew, then decided this wouldn’t be wise, my timings were already tight, Thursday morning, I was up early to pack the car up Karen had some stuff in it already, Cameron had sent me a shopping list of stuff he wanted from Tesco, this was the worst of Scottish fair square sausage, ham, cheap sauce, silly crisps, cans of irn bru etc, I went to Tesco early as I wanted to be at the ferry terminal in plenty time, yet again! I had forgotten about the stupid Scottish law of not selling alcohol before eleven Am, Cameron’s wish for two cases of Tennent’s lager would have to be forgotten, his mum had dropped off buckfast for him though (he knew I wouldn’t buy him that shite) Starting the drive to Newcastle ferry terminal around ten I followed the sat nav in Karen’s car which took me the unusual (for me) route via Coldstream, it seemed to take forever that way, it was a pleasant enough drive though, being in the car alone for a long time I decided I would downloaded three audiobooks for company on the journey, the first part of which I finished Christopher Hichens biography followed directly by Cheryl strayed wild, I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this book during my drive time Once at the ferry terminal I had a couple of hours to spare waiting on the booking in place opening, my test result for covid from the airport came through via an email as negative, YES; first hurdles were passing ok, then there was the booking in process once it finally opened, I had to tell them I was going transit to Bulgaria which is still part of Europe so it was allowed, a person who was heading to Albania was not allowed to transit through Europe, the bloke at the desk was under a lot of pressure, mostly due to people being informed that on top of the eighty pound fit to fly covid test we had already done, they would also need to pay seventy five pound for the ferry terminals fit to board test for arrival time at holland! There was families there that this was incurring a further cost for each family member, needless to say there was a few disgruntled people, I went firstly to the covid testing area, the blokes there said to me; I had better check if I would be allowed to board for Bulgaria before paying the second test, so; I joined the que to ask, once at the front, I was told he would accept my ability to board for Bulgaria transit, if I had proof of fit to fly test paperwork and also paperwork to prove I had business in Bulgaria, along with my passenger location paperwork filled out for Dutch authorities, I went back to covid test area once I had paid for the test and got a QR code, then back into the booking in que with all my paperwork two negative tests results to show along with my paperwork and passport?! Boarding card given - yah beauty

Next stop driving through customs! Boarding card and passport checked, switch your engine of and open the boot sir, where are you going to what are you doing? Then; did you pack everything in the car yourself and it belongs to you? Eh yeh: there is a bunch of my sisters’ clothes but I brought them from my house (lies I had no idea what she had in there) pointing at Cameron’s food bag which was now placed in a cool bag to keep the meat fresh, could you bring that out sir for examination? Oh, fuck! you’re not allowed meat into Europe since Brexit! I placed it on the table, he asked what was inside? I said it was my food for isolation when I arrived in Bulgaria! Mair lies, I wouldn’t eat a single thing that was in that cool bag! One look at me and I’m sure he would tell I wasn’t eating steak pies, macaroni pies, scotch pies, scotch eggs, square sausage, breakfast haggis, bacon, gammon steaks and Richmond link sausages, the shame of it, having to pretend I ate this! He smiled as he rummaged around then sent me on my way, I was on board in minuets and parked up, I now had to just hope the ship bar would be open as I had no beer for the journey

polmont to Viernheim

Cameron bought himself an Audi from a garage in Glasgow, he flew home to collect it and asked me if I wanted to join him on a road trip to his place near Manheim? How can anybody not want to go on a wee road trip adventure with their son? I was in with bells on! I gave away tickets for events that I had booked that weekend, then packed my running stuff hoping to get  a run in at some stage, we had promised his gran we would visit her before we left, on the Saturday morning Cammy collected me and we went up to mums house at ten am she wasn’t out of bed! We woke her and then we made smoked haddock with smoked muscles and plant based square sausage things for breakfast, getting a chance to catch up with mum before leaving, the drive down to Newcastle was uneventful with lots of motorway signs saying yellow alert storm coming, it was wet and windy we stopped at Dunbar for some Scottish provisions chip shop sauce haggis Irn Bru bon bons etc for Cameron’s German cupboards, along with snacks for the trip Cammy was buying some beers, he is 24 and six foot three he was asked for ID he just laughed apparently it was the fourth time he had been asked for ID in two days, he has lived in Germany now for two years and been asked once in two years for ID - nanny state Britain demonising drink!

     We made good time arriving far too early deciding we would go to north shields harbour for a walk around in the rain to kill some time before boarding, again uneventful boarding Cameron had booked late and our room was one of the last left on the boat away down in the bulge of the ship the very last floor, a storm was coming storm Dennis which made looking at all these watertight doors a bit ominous in the depths of the boat! As we left the car on deck five and descended down to deck two, We dumped our bags and made our way to the bar on deck nine ordering two bottles of Newcastle brown ale £9.98, the girls were putting towels along the galley so I asked if they were expecting it to be bad? oh yes the girl said very matter of fact expect the worst she said! just try to enjoy it she said its not often we get conditions as bad as we are going to get! Oh well more beer would be appropriate Cammy paid the next round on his card with euros it was 9.98 euros! The bar was changing one for one (rip of merchants), the exchange rate is 1,19 euros to the pound I bought the next round with euros on my card, it flashed up I had spent £8.34 so using pounds on the boat was costing £1.65 more for the same thing, the bar was busy there was a band on and a music competition and a game of bingo which I won, the first full line two vouchers each worth 20 euros the bingo had cost me £5 a board each, I used the winnings to get a whisky taster flight at the ships whisky bar and we headed to bed just as the swell was picking up, 

                Cammy said he hardly slept a wink I felt it rocking and heard the crashing but I didn’t think it was that bad perhaps being deep down in the hull took the edge of it for me but Cameron said he felt he was bounced right of his mattress, he had bad motion sickness when we went up decks to watch the boat come in to harbour I bought myself a coffee while Cammy looked a bit white outside in the howling wind and rain, when we docked we waited ages in the car to disembark he asked me to drive as he still didn’t feel good and rolled his seat into a declined position, when we eventually got of the boat and through customs he asked me to pull over and park? he needed to be sick which he was as soon as we stopped, I drove on toward Uterich where I stopped at services for a sandwich another coffee and some water, the toilets charge 0.70cents for the toilets which I totally grudge and had a pee in the woods, Cammy had nothing he still felt bad and didn’t even want water, as I drove on towards Arnhem the car brakes seized on suddenly the ABS lights and brakes all on! when I pulled over onto the hard shoulder all the wheels were smoking as the brakes certainly were seized on! We poured some water over the discs and pads to help cool them, I went and filled a water bottle up a few times from a fortunately nearby duck pond, while Cammy had a look on the net for potential causes one of which was the brake fluid reservoir being too full, this turned out to be the problem I took the lid of and sure enough the fluid had heated up expanded to the full capacity of the reservoir chamber thus forcing the hydraulic pressure to force the brakes on, using my handkerchief to extract some of the excess fluid down to a metal filter plate left the brakes enough of a gap to come off when the lid was replaced good enough to get us to Cammy’s house, 

it was nearly six PM when we arrived we got organised and decided to eat out and have a few beers in Viernheim on the outskirts of Mannheim going into Manheim would have meant a tram journey of thirty mins in and back, we walked along to the town centre grabbing the cash line which is giving a surprisingly good rate, we need a cash line as Cammy says the local bars and restaurants don’t take visa,  the town hall bar and grill was ok for food and beers it’s a bit of a an American diner style menu and décor wise, we didn’t stay out late and Cammy went on to drink lower strength Radler`s,

                I heard the lads head out to work at five AM I then slept on until eight, then left Cammy’s place closing the door behind me at nine AM, I invariably get lost heading to the tram stop from Cammy’s place when alone and this was no different I turned the corner to see a tram just leaving this meant a twelve minuet wait for the next one plenty time to get a single ticket which I didn’t bother stamping (no guards this time) I asked at info about an Manheim to Frankfurt airport train there was one leaving in six minutes, I just had time to buy a ticket from the machine then head down below the tracks to come back up at platform three, last man on their train I could have chilled out and got the next one, as I got to the airport in plenty time it was 10:40 when I got to the terminal for a flight leaving at two PM! Plenty time to get noodles soup and do a bit of shopping before a saunter through security and a wait at departures,

There was a bit of turbulence on the way up through the clouds leaving Frankfurt but nothing too bad coming into Glasgow was different it was into stormy weather and bouncy where you could see the horizontal sleet hitting the wings as they bounced about, the majority of the flight was pleasant enough though and I was even lucky enough to witness  the shadow of the plane ringed in light around the shadow this phenomenon is called a glory, I have witnessed this out in the hills where it’s called a Brocken spectre, and that spectre has yourself in the middle of a rainbow Halo instead of it being the airplane on this occasion,

Once landed at Glasgow and back to miserable Scottish weather I decided to take the express bus even though I think the asked for nine pounds is a complete rip of, if there was two of you it would be cheaper getting a taxi the short hop into town, the Aberdeen airport bus has three times as far to go and is a third of that price, also the airport bus in Edinburgh is also cheaper (not the tram which again is wrong as it should be cheaper than a bus) it was ten pound twenty pence for my train with my railcards twenty percent discount making the journey from Glasgow to polmont about the same price as Viernheim to Frankfurt, I arrived back at my front door eight hours after leaving Cammy’s front door

bulgaria-polmont-shetland-done

         my bro went above and beyond his duty for me this trip not only for the big drive to Novi Sad and back, not just for taking me to the bat caves and his banter, most definitely for taking me to the airport! for normal I wouldn't give such high praise as I would have done all that for him BUT unbeknownst to me this weekend was the rugby world cup! he is a huge rugby fan as most ex decent players are and this was the game of the tournament for Scotland! they were playing japan whoever won was getting through to the next round, My flight time was 4 pm its around 2-3 hrs drive from his place to Sofia airport he had to drop me at the time the game was getting played he was going to miss it, what a trooper he never even moaned and said he wouldn't see me going to the airport with anyone else,

         He was delighted a new section of motorway had been opened shaving at least 30 mins of the journey, he would catch the highlights (Scotland lost and were sent home)the drive to the airport improves all the time as of writing this there is still what the people call a gypsy community shanty style town on the approach, Its a strange concept to an inclusive Scot like me but from what i`ve experienced in Bulgaria and Romania there seems to be a sort of twin nationality with these large gypsy communities there is probably no politically correct way to write about it but the gypsy communities are large and live in squalor with horse and carts,
        the only thing I would say about Sofia airport was there was some bargain whisky`s and i regret not buying any, the flight home was nothing to write about either usual Ryanair stuff I was at the isle among non English speakers so i just listened to my audio-book,
          Off course it was lashing down with rain when I landed at Edinburgh airport Gary had very kindly offered to pick me up and was waiting round the corner, the rain was that hard there was a big pool of water on the motorway we had to slow for. he dropped me at the land and sea fish and chips shop, I had almost eaten half of my breaded fish supper with brown sauce before I got home, tasty stuff sea fish is better than fresh water fish (in my opinion) I had been in central Europe far from the sea for A while and was loving my haddock, I was only home one night and Ali and Gary wanted a catch up so it was a quick unpack and off to the Black bull for some beers,

     One night at home in my own bed and my big feather duvet felt great in the morning, I had a look at my organizer since the twenty eighth of July to the fifth of November I will have been in my own bed a total of eight nights, that`s 100 nights out of those 100 four nights were camping four at Cameron's house two at Bryan's the rest in various hotel beds! I always enjoy the train journey up to Aberdeen and my dinner while there its vegan Monday in the union street Brewdog bar every trip away for me on that Monday, that Monday i also visited the bar my niece works in but she wasn't working when i went in
     

    it was dark as I flew out from Aberdeen for Shetland in the morning the oil rigs in the north sea below as we flew over looked like little Christmas trees in the middle of the sea, I was back at work before I knew it adventure over, twenty one night-shifts to go before i can have another adventure, all those months ago i planned to take my bike to Bulgaria did I achieve my objective? I suppose i did the bike is in Bulgaria, I had cycled up the Rhine to Mannheim then down the Danube to Bulgaria? (nearly made it) it was a great adventure, I had went up through Holland into Germany then through Austria and Slovakia then Hungary and Croatia to finish cycling in Serbia, while visiting my son and brother,

back out running over my favourite peak on Shetland, I was asking myself was all that time away cycling alone worth it? when i think of all the things I could have done with that time and money,
         Christopher McCandless wrote in his diaries as a third person using the pseudonym Alexander super-tramp - this suggests he understood himself as a character in an adventure story, One of his last diary entries was -Happiness only real when shared!
    this blog has been a diary of my latest adventure story, if you are reading this now and have been reading them all then you are probably one of my close friends or family, I have done this blog so you could share the adventure, I would be delighted if you would text me if you thought it was worth it? also should I do a synopsis post on that very subject what I learned from what I seen and done on the journey? or should I move on to the next adventure? because I have lots of work to do on that already, I've made a start on that work including a new blog