Even by my own Avison standards Saturday was one old crazy day .. the day was driving from Sofia in Bulgaria to Bucharest in Romania and back. A 480 mile round trip in one day just does not even begin to tell the story of a day that started at 7.30am and finished with a late return to my Sofia hotel past 1am in the morning.

In a era of Sat Nav’s and GPS this was old school with a cross country trip of a car, a driver and a map.  The story of the day was just so nuts it could have been the makings of a book; fiction obviously.

Starting the day off from the Expo Hotel the roads of Sofia were more tricky for Avison than they should have been and it took 45 minutes to get myself on the right road numbered E83.  This wasn’t a good sign.

The rest of the journey through Bulgaria was long, and interesting to see the outlying lands of Bulgaria.  Passing lots of little towns on the way, and it did allow me to see how Bulgaria lives.

Hitting the border and the crossing of the River Danube bridge brings a racing heart that always seems to happen crossing borders, especially when language barriers are a challenge.

And then the fun begins.

Having been in Romania for precisely 5 minutes I had taken a wrong road, and pulled a U-turn.  What I didn’t notice was the ditch ~ pulled a pure 100% Avison, car marooned with a right wheel hovering.  As I looked on in disbelief only one thing passes through my head … what the F**K am I going to do now.  Aladdin must have been rubbing his lamp ..as if by magic a Romanian man appears with VW, tow rope and willingness to help … when I say by magic I am talking 2-3 minutes after my driving blunder.  It was one of the most amazing things.  Of course he spoke zero English, but he got my car out, and it was as good as new and off and running towards București, and I thought “yeah, even I can translate that”.

The journey continues, hurrah !

Don’t ask me why, but five minutes down the road I grab for my passport, but it was nowhere.  Blind panic ensues as I worry that I lost, dropped, had it stolen or whatever in the nightmare that happened just a few short moments ago.  A new height of Avison drama is now reached.  No passport, no getting back into Bulgaria.  My heart stopped, and a sickness was deep in my stomach as my head raced with nothing but bad thoughts. Five minutes of flustered mayhem on the roadside turned the passport up in an unlikely spot.  My heart rate was flying.  All told I had just gone through 15 minutes of hell since seeing the welcome to Romania sign !

Into Bucharest and trying to figure out where, when, how and for how long.

Parked up, wandered around Bucharest, took a few photos, enjoyed the local beer and got an all too brief chance to sample the capital before the long trip back.  The historic area is very picturesque and many hours could have been passed just looking some more, but this was always a whirlwind little trip for a small forage into this country.

As daylight dwindled away I’d been trying to buy a Bucharest street map to ensure I could find my way safely out of Bucharest and back to the E85 that leads out of Romania.  But no joy, only tourist maps, road maps nowhere to be found.

Now I don’t know how much you know about the writing and road signs from this part of the world, but they are incomprehensible, and I mean that in the nicest possible sense.  София means Sofia in Bulgarian .. see this Sofia street name sign, and maybe you will start to sympathize with my challenges.. 

.. and then you add into the mix the first two rules of driving in any country.

1.  Roads never look the same travelling in the opposite direction.
2.  Things always look different in darkness, rather than daylight.

Heading out of Romania I had one word Giurgiu … a town to the south heading out of Romania, and in the maze and bustle of Saturday night traffic I had to find it. Oh My God in the truest possible sense.  If Police were tracking my car they would likely have wondered … “what is the crazy Englishman doing” ?   Well by some minor miracle of 6th sense I found my way out; as the sweat poured off me I wondered would I spend the rest of my days trapped in this Romanian labyrinth.

It was already 7pm and my heart sank for yet another time today   as I headed over the border to find a road sign that says 296km to Sofia.  The drive was fairly mundane in the day with just brief interludes, but with the scariness of driving in the dead of night in Bulgarian nowheresville, and with the path ahead that was as black as coal I could have been headed into the land of the abyss. Resolutely I ventured on and steered the car towards any sign that said София.

The surrealness of it all seemed exaggerated as the only radio station blasted out 80’s hit after hit of Tina Turner, Michael Jackson and Black Lace .. I thought I was in some parallel universe.

The miles and the hours rolled by as did the uneven roads that led a path to the promised land of the Bulgarian capital, and a long awaited hotel bed.  Of course there was still one more little twist in the vanishing point of my trip back to the Expo Hotel. My hotel is within easy reach of the airport, so I figured it would be easy to re-connect the dots. How wrong I was. The roads brought me back into central Sofia and lots of sights I recognized, but none hinting the next turn.  After lots of aimless driving around, and at a loss for the next road to take I headed into the Hotel Rodina on Makedonia Boulevard .. I say I was on Makedonia Boulevard, but obviously I didn’t know that !  What I did learn was that I was totally on the wrong side of Sofia at 1am in the morning, and thirty minutes from the sanctuary of my Expo hotel.  I re-pointed the car and headed east.  It can only be said as a minor miracle given my head for directions that some 35 minutes later I arrived safe and sound at the beautiful hotel of my dreams.  Heaven on earth.

Of course some will say “You are nuts” .. in the days of GPS why would anyone do that journey with no satellite navigation ?  Avison shirks his shoulders.. you wouldn’t understand the beauty of the journey and the tribulations of the path as it unfolds. Finding your way in a foreign land is a right of passage I am pleased to have an A+ for, at least for effort if not achievement.  It’s an experience I recommend wholeheartedly !

We will see what unfolds next in this magical mystery tour !