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Published: June 10th 2013
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I'm afraid that since i joined facebook I have been remiss at updating my actions however i now have a piece of general information which might be of interest to anyone thinking of buying properties with land and cars.As an EU citizen it has been passed that you will no longer need to form a company to purchase land or vehicles in Bulgaria.
However whilst I'm on line I will fill in my latest journey to the UK so far.
I left boyana at 10pm on the 29th(May) and made very good time to Sofia arriving at 4 am.i came off the motorway and took my usual route to reach the no 18 route to circle the town for the border.However at the first strategic point, when I should have gone right at the traffic lights, the road was closed and a diversion set up.I therefore followed the start with both Belgrade and Kulata signed.The end of the diversion brought me out onto a newly created motorway which was built with EU funding that i assumed was to attempt to improve the road between the Serbian border and Sofia.That was my first mistake.The second was not to realise that
Church
Tourcoing Lille i was actually going back on my route as shown by the fact that the road replacing the motrorway had among others a sign to Varna,Rouse etc!! I tried asking if it was the road to Serbia at a garage but they could not help.Continuing on i spotted a sign showing Belgrade again and about 1 and half hours later ,with no evidence of my road, I tried a 2nd garage.On the forecourt was a bulgarian man and friend who explained they were travelling to Greece(as was I!!).Luckily Macedonia was still bordering me so after directions to the border crossing I crossed over into Macedonia armed with a map marked with my route and a list of the 3 towns(courteousy of the border guards.So eventually i reached the Serbian border.Here i had to wait while they searched under the body ,tapped all bodywork,needed to see the spare thus requiring all the boot items to come out!! he went back to his hut and brought out some device that he placed on the tyre at various places and i'm not sure what he expected to find,however a further 30mins later i resumed my travels,reaching the town of Nis(where i normally come
National school lillein)some 5 hours and more than 300 extra Kms later!! Belgrade provided pleanty of excitement with stunning lightning plus heavy rain but I made it to Hungarian border in one piece. For the second time that day the Hungarian customs replicated the Serbian search adding emptying all cases to the scenario! Some 25 mins later i was allowed to travel on. Late afternoon saw me in Austria and with tough weather conditions and all the idiocy at the borders,i pulled in to the first petrol station.Aiming to grab a bite to eat and get a vignette I parked up. I was going to return to the garage when i saw one of the restaurant chains i've used a lot,so decided to treat myself to a hot meal rather than a snack.It turned out to be a bad choice. The chicken was dry and wrinkled at the edges , the baby roasts cold and hard and to cap it all they had no change machine so i had to use my card.more expense! should have complained but decided to forgo a shower and just get the vignette to head on. The garage had a cash machine ,nice looking food and the
Cathedral
St.Anthony's, Tourcoing. vignette. Why didn't i go there first!! LOL.
I returned to the road and noticed that the next rest-stop had a Marche Restaurant and hotel!! Just my luck. It is new this year and in future it will become my first call in Austria, as it has become my last in Austria ,on the return journeys. I got my shower and used the internet access. Thus those facebook contacts knew the story and that i was safe that night. Next i returned to travelling and having slept for 2 hours continued on towards Germany,in the now lighter rain. The rest of the journey flew in with sun arriving outside Liege and staying through till yesterday in Cornwall! I arrived very early for the booked boat and thus requested the earlier (free) departure at 2pm.This was agreed at the desk. Having had a great drive and visit to Tourcoing,Lille,I parked up and waited till the 00.00 boat had sailed so I could check-in. At the check-in gate I explained that i was booked on the 4am boat but that they had agreed to let me catch the 2 am boat at no extra charge. Then the bombshell hit ---there was
Tourcoing
Town hall no 2am sailing on a Saturday. Icould have been on the midnight boat for free. Why did they not correct me at the registration desk??!! So i ended up getting the prebooked boat.
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campbell
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your blog
nice to hear from you. i am still growing orchids, Burnhams were over on Saturday Bernard bought quite a few as did i. I am off to Garda for two weeks shortly.