still planning and reflecting

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Two weeks tomorrow and I'm on a ferry across the North Sea to Denmark. This summers trip features Scandinavia - after two summers of southern Europe it'll be nice to (hopefully) see something a bit cooler. Having had 2 4500 mile ish trips around Europe the last couple of years, and I can honestly say the planning really isn't hard. I've had the spreadsheet set up for a while - rough dates and places to go and then the wonder of the internet helps me to fit actual places and stops. Finding a ferry across to Scandinavia was harder than I imagined ending up missing the boat (no pun intended) on the cheapest fare. Having an extra long wheel base hightop ford transit can make for expensive ferry trips. I'd recommend booking as early as you can to get the best of all ferry rates (the one from Denmark to Norway and from Sweden to Germany all had similar issues.

I'm so excited to be going but, as usual, I'll only believe it once I'm stood on the ferry. Time to buy breakdown insurance, travel insurance and, well, insurance insurance!

Last year, after leaving Hungary we followed an assortment of modern motorways and provincial roads to Romania. A beautiful country, yet more sunflowers and clearly a country on it's way up. We were due to stop in a B and B in Arad, one of the bigger cities. Romania is cheap. really really cheap. Our B and B ( http://www.booking.com/hotel/ro/pensiunea-belanco.en-gb.html?label=opensearch-plugin;sid=dff55ac80bcffbd3f0a04daa1c93ce02;dcid=4;ucfs=1;srfid=1e43c4ee385c609ba9ba430930f21baa35f44600X1;tab=4 ) was the equivalent of £25 for the night and oh my. It was better than some 5 star hotels in other cities. We arrived and were greeted by a fully English speaking guy clearly determined to help as much as possible. We asked about food (no restaurant in the B and B and he produced about 20 menus for takeaway, translated them for us and offered to order it for delivery to our room. The 'large' Pizza arrived and had to be tilted to get into the room. I can recommend Romania's pizza..... We left the following day and drove along the Danube to a small campsite about 4 hours south. The Danube is actually Blue. Romania is beautiful. after spending an evening catching flies in a pint pot we slept ready for the trip across the Danube to Bulgaria the following day.

It used to be that to get from Romania to Bulgaria you would have to drive 300 miles to the south and cross a bridge or wait for the ferry and hope it was full and go across that way. Fortunately, four weeks before we went they opened a new bridge.(clearly just because they knew Jason was coming) It's pretty empty! It was a long hot dusty journey and once over the border I have to admit to feeling edgy. Maybe it was the sudden change from new motorway to village track full of Chickens or maybe it was the strange language but I felt on edge. We decided to stay at a hotel in Sofia instead of the mountain campsite I'd originally planned, in part due to the look of the hills (Jason is not great up and down hills) and in part due to time. Sofia felt run down and again, edgy. The countryside is beautiful though so it's not all bad. The Hotel Berlin is gated and top notch. Swimming pool (bad bad caps compulsory) is lovely, robes in the room and a balcony with a city view but still, I'll never choose to go back to Bulgaria (Oh being stopped en route by the Bulgarian Police *may* have influenced this along with the prostitutes in every layby )

Next stop Greece

Things I learnt

1) Romanian Pizza is amazing

2) Romania feels safer than Bulgaria

3) The bridge from Romania to Bulgaria is stunning but once you're over, there's little in the way of service stations for some time likewsie, the new road turns to cobbles abruptly and very soon after you arrive

4) Bulgarian Police are likely to stop white vans

5) Prosititues are in most laybys in Bulgaria

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