Trying to combine a holiday with an adventure and a bit of father son bonding time was only part of the initial plan ,getting a fun fast cheap car to leave at my brother Bryan's house in Bulgaria by saving up in a combined bank account was all going to be part of the fun , But as with all plans it didn't go exactly as I/we had hoped ! Firstly we never got round to saving up for the car in a combined savings account so I just bought the car , and the joint bank account is lying empty ,my idea of a fun fast cheap car was different from cammy's our joint searches on Gumtree came up with some interesting options in our price range he wanted a Subaru ! I seen a Hyundai coupe I liked and cammy agreed he also liked it , so we went to view it over in Dunfermline the car hadn't moved in months and was covered in leaves as it was parked below a tree, hence the reason the photos on its advert looked bad the leaves looked like rust . One of the brakes was seized on and it needed a good clean up inside and out , but I liked it and knocked £150 of the Already cheap asking price and so we had our trip wheels
I booked Return flights from Sofia Bucharest was also a choice to fly home from my brothers house but we opted for Sofia ,there was no direct flight to Scotland from either airport ,so we are flying home via heathrow I did consider a stop overnight in London on the way home so we could just get the train home to polmont the next day, after a night out in London to finish the trip of in style ,but we are short of time as I've got the Glasgow Oktoberfest cammy has work and we have Sam & Tam's wedding , before I go back to work
I was hoping to book a ferry from the UK to Hamburg as cammy wants to visit Berlin , but it's not possible and in the end we opted to book the Friday night ferry from Newcastle to Amsterdam , it's supposed to be a bit of a party ferry so we shall need to watch the beers as one of us will be driving in Holland first thing Saturday morning !
We had heard you are supposed to buy a green card from your insurance company to drive in Europe , so I phoned the insurance company and basically even though I'm fully comprehensive here in the UK ,if I'm driving in Europe its third party only unless I buy the green card which was £38 , it's not a legal requirement and the silver bullet ain't really worth fully comprehensive insurance anyway ,
it's also not easy trying to find out exactly what stuff you are required by law for various countries to carry in your car ,so I have bought a hazard triangle a light conversation kit for driving on the left ,I've packed high viz vests and print outs of all documents a first aid kit and a fire extinguisher and I bought breathalysers although no European country has that as a legal requirement any longer ,and the individual countries road tax I shall just have to ask at the borders !
Cammy has made a great job of cleaning the silver bullet and we have Scotland stickers all over it and even a St. Andrew's Cross gear stick ! I have really enjoyed the drives I've took in the car so far , it didn't receive good reviews from car critics but I absolutely love driving it ( perhaps that's what comes of driving the bongo ) the silver bullet is fast and responsive and I like the way it feels and sounds on the road when it accelerates ,
The exchange rate for buying euros is excellent just now I paid £199.25 for €265 I remember not that long ago it was nearly one for one ! I've also bought £90 worth of polish zlotys (500 ) from Gary the cars all polished and packed , I filled it with petrol a full tank from the red light being on to full was £56.55 - 52.9 litres ,we've got cash passports and credit cards we are good to go on Friday morning , now we just need to take it easy on the beers on Thursday night as cammy is going to the Scotland game at Hampden and I'm meeting Ali for beers and a catch up
