Yesterday was a slow but much needed day. We finally managed to buy all our remaining items in our shopping list which included 2 jerry cans, a shovel, sleeping pads, and a small cooking stove. We replaced a couple of blown fuses and bought a replacement light bulb for our headlamps.
We also took the car to the local Fiat dealership in Cluj Napoca since our engine light had come up again the night before and the temperature gauge had again dropped to zero. They couldn’t determine what was wrong with the car, they suspect a faulty water temperature sensor but inspection of the sensor showed no damage. They polished the contact points of the sensor and sent us on our way.
Unfortunately, once we had finished pimping out our Fiat Punto (which remains nameless), it was almost 5PM which completely destroyed any and all possibilities of reaching the beach party at Vama Veche on time. We decided to find a spot to camp in hopes of reaching the Transfagarasan early in the morning. It got dark really quickly and we found ourselves driving around in a pretty awful city looking for a place to camp (as pointed out by our map). We finally found it but had run out of local currency. The price was 28 Leis or 7 Euros. We ended up paying with 5 Euros, 2 Leis, and 1 Dollar.
After battling many second thoughts of running away and finding a hotel instead, we set up camp, built our brand new camping stove, and heated up some tomato soup we had picked up for dinner. Our hunger had grown to a point where we were having trouble thinking straight, but the soup was getting warmer, and soon we would feast – and then we hit our lowest point in the trip – the soup was spilled all over the grass. And there we were camping out in a horrible place, with our soup spilled on the ground, and all three of us looking really hopelessly at each other. We must have looked at each other for about a minute, until Enrique started screaming “NOOOOO” at the sky to break the silence. Fortunately we had planned to eat some eggs with sausage the next morning, so we went to the car and cooked that instead. We went to sleep to sleep things off.
Today we woke up at 5:30AM, we were packed and out of the campsite by 6:30 and headed straight to the Transfagarasan, which was everything Top Gear had promised and more. The road to get out on the south side of the mountains was really bad, and we found our first set of pothole fields which lasted for about 60km.
We obviously ran into many other Mongol Rally teams and talked to a couple of them. It seems like here is where a bunch of teams split for either the southern, most difficult, route and the northern route. The teams taking the southern route have Istanbul as their next target, but we’ve chosen to hit the beach in Bulgaria to see and enjoy the Black Sea.
Some thoughts on Romania
Driving around we started running into people riding chariots pulled by donkeys and sometimes horses. The roads started getting significantly worse but still really good in general. People definitely drive more aggressive here then in Germany, but nothing compared to Mexican standards. When we drove through the little towns, we would wave to the kids who would smile and wave back. People remained friendly, putting up with our non-existent Romanian and communicating with us in combinations of Spanish, German, Romanian, and English. We did pick up a couple of phrases and people would really enjoy it when, after minutes of trying to understand each other, I would say thanks in Romanian. Big smiles, hand shakes, and overall great vibes would always follow. Another crazy thing about Romania: they have Julio Iglesias’ CDs at every gas station we stopped at.
Crossing the Border to Bulgaria
We couldn’t find the damn thing. It’s probably obvious from our spot gps route. I don’t know if we missed a big sign somewhere or what, but we just couldn’t find it. We obviously knew the Danube divided Bulgaria from Romania so we tried to use that to give us some directions and finally talked to some locals who pointed us in the right direction – not before trespassing the free zone between Romania and Bulgaria without a permit. Despite the signage for punishment, nobody seemed to really care, so the same way we entered (blasting through a security checkpoint), we left.
When we finally made it to the border, we were greeted by the cyrillic alphabet and surprised border guards that started repeating “Mexico, Mexico, Mexico!” After waiting for ten or so minutes without our passports, our passports were returned but not without some talk about Chicharito and Dimitar Berbatov (Bulgarian soccer player for Manchester United who got benched by Mexico’s Chicharito).
Once at Varna, we made a quick stop at a shopping mall to get something to drink and catch some wifi. Talking with locals we were told to leave Varna and head south on the coast to find prettier and cleaner beaches. Found a good cheap rate at Palazzo Byala Hotel with free parking, free wifi, and breakfast included in the city of Byala. We’ve arrived at night, so we’ll see what’s waiting for us in the morning. The one restaurant that was opened had fantastic pizza. Let’s see if these Bulgarian beaches are anywhere as nice as our Mexican beauties!
Our plan for tomorrow is to head to the beach very early to relax, and then storm all the way to Istanbul where we’ll hopefully run into a good friend of ours, Sir Shaker Muasher!!