Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and more!

We complain when the border crossing into a new country is difficult (namely getting out of Ghana or into the Congo), but now there are no real border crossings at all! Not even a stamp in the British passport anymore! Turkey into Bulgaria was a little formal, a person in a booth who wanted to ensure that we and the car were legally allowed to drive in the country, but that was it. From then on there have been times when we've not even realised we are in a new country (Austria to Germany for example).

We didn't notice any really change in the scenery until we left Bulgaria, however seeing as Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary really were just flying visits, a couple of days in each, it's hard to comment really. We chose some sites that looked appealing and made a bee-line for them.

In Bulgaria we found free and £1 camping which was good, but other than walking through some nice stone villages such as Tryavna, we didn't see a lot. We did manage to try the beers and some bread, both of which were 'ok'.

Romania was wonderful and definitely somewhere we'd love to return to. Transylvania, ghostly rocky mountains, Dracula's Castle (obviously not Vlad's real pad), nice beer and Gothic towns.

We even camped at 'Vampire Camping', where it was suitably wet and cold.

Brasov turned out to be a Gothic city we did not want to leave, with touristy elements balanced nicely with the old town architecture. We spent only half a day there, exploring the small lanes that fanned out from the central square.


Funnily enough, the Romanian's celebrate the beginning of the Oktoberfest in Munich with their own beer traditions. We were lucky enough to witness a competition where bar maids tried to hold a full stein of beer out with one arm for the longest. We noticed an element of cheating going on, arms not quite as high as they should be...

Romania is a country we had not considered before we arrived, but once there we had to remind ourselves that there simply wasn't time to spend weeks wandering around.


Our last stop was Sighisoara, a medieval village with half-a-millennium-old townhouses of bright colours overlooking hilly cobbled streets. We only spent an evening here though. Hungary was our next stop.

Andrew had ridden around Hungary with some mates years ago, but it was all new to me.

We spent a night in a campground where we were the only people, and then headed to Budapest for a day and 2 nights.

We found the huge food market stocked with sausages, fruits and all kinds of local alcohol. The streets were sunny and bright, Autumn's flowers out.

We sampled the local beers, (and some food) and readied ourselves for the uneventful border crossing into Austria. At this time of year the popular road-side stalls are selling loads of onions and apples, bagged up neatly and looking very tempting indeed.

Austria is 'order and organisation'. Not a blade of grass out of place, every car parked exactly where it should be. No litter, no stray animals wandering around, and no one behaving badly (that we could see). We made our way towards Salzburg, an stopped for a day at Hallstatt, a gorgeous village set beside a placid lake.

We first visited the ice caves nearby in Obertraun, stayed the night at a very expensive but lovely camping ground, then enjoyed some late summer sun and a day out of the car in Hallstatt.

Andrew was very pleased to find the Beinhaus (Bonehouse) where generations of deceased have had their dug-up, cleaned and painted remains placed in full view of the public.

Painted skulls and bones stacked neatly, it really is interesting but a little creepy also. The last one was added in 1995, after 10 years of decomposition.

It was a days drive to Munich the next day, and we were excited to get there too as we were finally going to be able to catch up with some friends we'd met in Chennai at the very start of our trip in January. With the Oktoberfest in full swing we were sure there would be lots of Bavarian beer to taste, and tales of travel to share!