The Bulgarian border was our first non-Schengen zone border crossing and upon arrival we were ushered out of the car after having our passports taken away for…inspection and examination we assume! Sternly the border control officer looked at my passport (clearly not very used to seeing non-EU passport holders) and yelled something in Bulgarian to his counterpart behind the counter. There were another couple also waiting and they proceeded to tell us how they had already been turned back from the Macedonian border that day because they weren’t happy with the documentation one of them had. Slightly unnerved by this information, I was relieved when they yelled at both of us to come and collect our passports and leave. Our friends also travelling in a Spaceship had warned us that we would need to purchase a vignette to travel on the roads of certain countries, so we headed to the nearest petrol station to pick this up. It only cost 15 Lev (€7.6/$11.50 AUD/9.15 USD) for a week and once armed with our first of many sparkly little window stickers, we set off for our first stop, the Rila Monastery. Bulgaria is a beautiful country to drive through and as we gently wound our way into the mountains it progressively got greener and greener. We pulled into Zodiak Camping (16 Lev/$12.30 AUD/9.80 USD) at around 5pm and got out to take a look around. This campsite was right by a river and surrounded by yet more beautiful greenery. The only problem with this stunning location was that we were the only ones there, in the middle of nowhere, and it suddenly sparked my crazy imagination about murderers and beasts in the forest (I know, too much CSI and True Blood). It also took a turn for the worse when the heavens opened and it started to pour down outside the car. It’s probably at this point I should also mention that the electricity provided for the car was the world’s longest household extension cord, plugged into a massive industrial generator circa 1920, tied to a lamppost! Unsurprisingly, we were reluctant to plug anything into aforementioned makeshift recipe for deadly electrocution, after the rain. Luckily we were quite enamoured with the owner who appeared to be somewhere in the region of 110 years old and who spoke absolutely no English but couldn’t have been friendlier or more accommodating, so we were quite comfortable for the night. This campground is probably wonderful in peak season but was just a little creepy for my liking when taking in conjunction with my overactive mind. The Rila Monastery was on the itinerary for the morning so we parked up in it’s car park and headed in. To explore the monastery and church grounds is free but for a nominal fee of 4 lev (€2.05/$3.05 AUD/2.45 USD) you can also visit the museum which we can highly recommend. It’s a stunning 8th century monastery with interesting architecture and wonderful frescos. From here we headed back down the mountain and via the Stobb Pyramids (still not entirely sure what we were supposed to be looking at) to Plovdiv. Now, Bulgaria is limited with the campsites and after an unsuccessful stop at a motel that had once upon a time had a campground we made our way into Plovdiv itself. The first attempt at locating a guesthouse was also disastrous when we unfortunately found ourselves in the middle of Plovdiv old town with Dani awkwardly manoeuvring our oversized car around the narrow cobbled streets with absolutely no easy way out! A brief panic stop in a car park led us to our wonderful guesthouse Ulpia House where we only had to pay 45 Lev (€22.95/$34.65 AUD/27.55 USD) a night. We had a private bathroom, wifi and a fridge and were even able to find parking across the road in a secure hotel car park for 10 Lev (€5.10/$7.70 AUD/6.10 USD) a day so that we didn’t have to leave our car on the road. We fell in love with Plovdiv. It’s old town is gorgeous and we also found one of our favourite restaurants on the entire Euro trip there. If you happen to find yourself in Plovdiv, do us a favour and stop in at Restaurant XIX Century. The food is amazing and you will get more than you can ever eat plus drinks for under 40 Lev ($24.40 USD/30.75 AUD/€20.35) for 2 people. While we were in Plovdiv we did the city walking tour, which definitely wasn’t the best-presented tour we have ever been on but it was interesting and we got to have a detailed exploration of the city. We stayed in Plovdiv for 2 nights and then headed off to our next stop in Veliko Tarnovo. Veliko Tarnovo was once a capital of Bulgaria (Thanks Plami!) during period of the 2nd Bulgarian Kingdom (there were 3). It is a stunning city and has one of the best walking tours we’ve ever done. We were staying at an awesome campground 12km outside of the city but parking in the centre costs next to nothing and is really easy to find. Veliko Tarnovo Camping is a well set up, new campground run by a lovely Welsh couple who fell in love with the area when they initially visited six years ago. They have a pool, good-sized pitches, washing facilities and a restaurant. I can definitely recommend it as a place to stay! It was also here that we met our new friends Phil and Ann who are on a late life gap year around the world. We spent a lovely evening with them swapping travel stories and sharing tips. After two lovely days and nights we moved on from Bulgaria feeling surprised by just how much we had loved it and how we were actually reluctant to be leaving. Maybe it was this reluctance to leave, maybe it was because I had been looking forward to Romania (When will I learn not to have an expectation of a country?!) or maybe it was just because Bulgarians were just so lovely, but we were let down by Romania. It all started when navigating our way through Bucharest. We had noted that road quality and other road users had got progressively worse as we travelled through each country and by the time we got to Romania Dani was desperately longing for the aggressively fast French. Bucharest was the pinnacle of every aspect of dangerous and frightening driving condition imaginable! Screeching of tires heard on every corner, people speeding down tramlines to overtake against oncoming trams, parking 3 deep against the curb and stopping wherever they felt like to park (including in the middle of lanes on roundabouts…I AM NOT KIDDING!). After a nerve-wracking hour navigating through Bucharest rush hour we were exhausted only to find that the hostel Hostel name and price we had book for the sole purpose of secure free parking had mislead us and there was no parking to be found at all. We finally found a legal spot (not that it appeared to matter) and stumbled up to our hostel ready for a beer…or six! We were fortunate that there was a very nice beer garden right next to the hostel and we were soon merry and feeling better about our near death experiences. We had already made the decision that we couldn’t be out of there fast enough so in the morning it was tea/coffee and out. On the way to find us some Transylvanian castles. We mapped out a route that would take us past Pele’s Castle on our way to Vampire Camping in Bran (the mythological home of Dracula). Pele’s castle was absolutely stunning and we wandered around the grounds through the forest until threatening black clouds started to loom over us. There is something that feels right about a black cloud over a Transylvanian castle but we didn’t want to risk driving with Romanians in the rain so back in the car and off to Bran we went. Vampire Camping in Bran is a lovely spot. It’s well taken care of but there was a notable lack in the facilities department so it hasn’t made our favourites list. It is located an easy 1km walk from Bran Castle and village so it’s the perfect location to explore from and even has a bus that goes directly to Brasov from outside it. The weather gods were not on our side and for the 2 days we were in Bran and it poured with rain pretty much solidly. Our little Hamster is great in the sunshine but it’s a seriously cramped space in the rain. We walked up to the castle (35 Ron/€7.8/$11.45/9.10 USD) early on our first morning while there was a break in the rain but by the time we’d left the castle it was bucketing it down. After yet more souvenir shopping we headed back to the campsite for some semi-raw polenta and multiple cup-a-soups. The decision was that the weather wasn’t good enough to stay on so we left for Sibiu via Brasov. Brasov is a quaint place but it wasn’t great in the rain so while we waited for the Sunday service to end in the Black Church we hid out in a cute little bohemian café called Kafe Pub. With some much needed Wi-Fi we caught up with messages and did a bit more research into where we were heading. The Black Church (9 Leu/€1.95/$2.30 USD/2.95 AUD) turned out to be worth waiting for as its impressive organ loomed over the back of the church and its 16th century frescos adorned the walls having survived the fire that gave it the name “The Black Church”. A few hours later we arrived into Camping Ananas in yet more rain. Only 10km from Sibiu this seemed like a good location to stop for the night. Yet more rain meant we were in the mood for a hot beverage but Dani becoming increasingly frustrated with the amount of time the kettle was taking to boil decided to change the voltage. Neither of us are quite sure what she was thinking when she sent 240 volts through the kettle she had just set to 110 volts but sure enough the fuse blew and that was the end of our beloved kettle! Despite trying to resuscitate it in any way possible there was no hope…we were without our number one travel essential. This immediately put our heckles up when it came to this campground as if it was somehow it’s fault we were without ‘our precious’ (yes Dani was starting to resemble Golem at this stage). With the hump we packed up our still damp belongings and headed off to Sibiu to explore. Sibiu is worth its reputation as a truly beautiful city. It’s old town buildings are particularly awe inspiring and after discovering a local market with fruit and veges galore that also happened to be in the much longed for sunshine we were once again warming (pardon the pun) to Romania. We had 2 choices at this stage, head over to a town near the Hungarian border or stay another night. As neither one of us had found that much needed spark we decided we’d start our journey out. It was this decision as well as a little advice from Phil and Ann about a particular campground to avoid that led us to the cute little place Camping Route Roemenie. This place is run by a lovely Romanian/Dutch couple and is in a sweet little village lined with cherry trees. It has a good set up and we soon discovered that the campers next to us were a Kiwi/Swiss couple. This immediately struck up the usual conversation about where they were from, where they were travelling and before I knew it we had been talking till 2 in the morning (Dani had excused herself much earlier). In the morning we shared breakfast with our new friends and then packed up to head to the place Phil and Ann were staying in Hungary. The Romanian Hungarian border was an easy crossing and we were very soon in Szeged with the urgent mission to find a new kettle and eat before getting to the campground. We found a shopping mall that also had a nice looking local restaurant across the road from it and after locating a new kettle we wolfed down a delicious meal before going to meet Phil and Ann at Sziksósfürdő for a beer and a catch up on what felt like forever in travel terms but had actually only been 5 days! They were a much welcome sight was the campground after Romania and we all agreed that it wasn’t our favourite country. Over a few beers it was decided that we would all head to another campground in Hungary together for a few days before all going our separate ways. Armed with Google Maps we set off on the 40-minute drive to Oasis Tanya Camping which promised to be a wonderful campsite…It is…Google Maps is not! The road Google Maps decided to take us down turned out to be 3km of field track and although the tracks were well mapped out it seem dubious that there would be a campground at the end of it. Imagine our surprise when exactly as promised a beautiful oasis appeared out of nowhere. It turned out that if you had ignored Google Maps and followed the road another 100m it would have lead you to a sealed road but Dani and I aren’t ones to take the easy option!
We woke up to the pitter patter of mulberries hitting the roof of our car from the tree we were parked under and set about our morning routine of what Dani has nicknamed Cafe Riv. We had decided we were going to have a relaxed day of getting through chores we had to do like washing, the blog, cleaning out the car and set about having a chilled and productive day. Phil and Ann had decided to go for a "quick" walk and when 2 hours had gone by we did start to worry. At hour 3 I got a message from Phil saying "We got lost and we'll be back soon. Will explain when we get there”. Knowing they were ok we relaxed but when they got back they had the most marvellous story of getting lost, walking 7km and then stumbling across a Dutch couple who lived in the middle of nowhere who not only helped them home but fed them as well. They needed a beer and we felt we had earned one too as we'd been so productive so we settled into another great evening of chatting. We had also decided to have the meal that Tineke (one of the owners) cooks for guests most nights during the week. For €8 ($12 AUD/9.55 USD) you get a huge 2 course meal and I was pleasantly surprised when they were even able to accommodate vegetarians. The food was delicious and although we had a few nasty interactions with 2 sets of guests (with the same 2 couples on 3 separate occasions) it didn't take away from the great experience we had with Tineke and Theo at Oasis Tanya. It would make it high up our list of hot campgrounds.
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