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