Event Bulgaria Fest - Task complete

[egg]

He is home.

[dollywobbler]

HOME.

 

4000km in nine days, only light tinkering needed. WHAT A MACHINE. Amazingly, Cats and I are still on talking terms! No major barneys, even though we didn't always agree. 

[320touring]

That's the key right there. A decent travelling companion maketh the trip.

[Kringle]

BOOM

[Pillock]

You flipping heroes!

 

Have a cuppa.

[wuvvum]

Again, this is one of those situations where pressing the "like" button once just isn't enough.

 

And if that driveway pic isn't in next year's calendar I'm leaving AS.

EDIT: in fact it's now the desktop wallpaper on my work computer.

[timolloyd]

For a minute I thought the Invacar had been deployed on a recovery mission for the last few miles home!

[plasticvandan]

ive lost this thread 3 times due to the title changing,just had to catch up on 10 pages grrr .

have to say that the dacia looks like the ideal car for just about anything,i like how it looks,i like its size,i like its simplicity,i like that its not full of holes...

[egg]

Now just NOVA, fettle for MOT, get MOT, register with DVLA, get pre-2001 plates made, tax...

 

(oh and edit the 90 minute feature length trip video!!)

[Anthony]

Just sat and read this from the start. Wow, just wow. Serious respect to the pair of you for following this through, and credit to the Dacia too!

[Felly Magic]

Cap doffed multiple times for 'Team Beardie Hippy'. This has knocked many a KOLLEKSHUNFRED in to the middle of next week. 17657645342.9/10 for WINNAR!

[busmansholiday]

HOME.

 

Amazingly, Cats and I are still on talking terms! No major barneys, even though we didn't always agree.

You've done better there than Mrs BMH & I ever do even on the run to see her sister in Torbay.

 

Congratulations on what you have done, I hope the Romanian ambassador to the UK reads all this and gives you two a medal of honour for your efforts.

[Supernaut]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[dollywobbler]

Will (hopefully) be doing my final 'Live' video at 1830hrs. Soon! www.youtube.com/HubNut

[Zelandeth]

Bloody well done guys!

 

Now go get some rest!

[HMC]

What a trip, what a car, well done to you both.

 

Time for a beer (cats) and a tea (dw)

[vaughant]

Superb work chaps, chodspeed, chodspeed.

[Zelandeth]

That "the country is longer than you think" thing always used to catch me out whenever I was driving back up to Aberdeen. You'd get to the "Welcome to Scotland" signs and think you're nearly home.

 

Nope...still another four or five hours to go! Caught me out nearly every time.

[catsinthewelder]

It was a cracking trip but I'm glad to be home.  I'll try and fill in the big gaps in the pictures after Shitefest as my phone is melting with pictures but I'm not sure how many you will want to see.

 

I think this one is needed though

 

 

 

[Yoss]

Again, this is one of those situations where pressing the "like" button once just isn't enough.

 

 

 

In the space of the half dozen posts I made last night and the one when I got home from work I have accumulated 91 likes. Well these aren't for me are they, I am very much hanging on the coat tails of DW and Cats here.

 

I mean it's not just the eight days driving, it's the months of planning beforehand and trying to find out if it was even possible. Most of us would have given up at that point.

 

Then I just drive twelve miles up the road on the penultimate night, hang around for a bit and drive home again.

 

So for everybody who thinks one like isn't enough have another 91 from the Autoshite community.

 

[dollywobbler]

Planning? What's that? Sounds dodgy. We don't hold with it. 

 

There was precious little time to worry about planning. Flights were booked months ago, hotel for the first night a few weeks ago - which we then extended to two nights. I was working absolutely flat out until two days before the flight, which was my birthday. I then had one day to pack, try to think what we might need and ensure we had the bus booked for the Saturday. The apartment in Bucharest was booked pretty late on, and in a hurry, which might explain why it only had one bed...

 

I'll pull some more pics over from social media now I have an actual laptop. It feels enormous after 11 days with a phone! MONSTER THREAD COMING.

[hairnet]

Just seen hubnut

 

Talk about being home and stuff

 

The headlamps if the outer ones are 150mm

 

E30 or Capri fit

 

Will you be changing the grill to a Renault non plastic one or will that mean r12 lights also

[wuvvum]

It was a cracking trip but I'm glad to be home.  I'll try and fill in the big gaps in the pictures after Shitefest as my phone is melting with pictures but I'm not sure how many you will want to see.

 

I think this one is needed though

 

IMG_20180527_160346865.jpg

I didn't realise the previous owner was a 14-year-old boy.

[vulgalour]

Got to love the swan made of tyres in the seller's garden.

[dollywobbler]

Right. Let's start at the beginning. The good omen that I thought would start the journey off well.

 

It didn't. The train was cancelled.

 

A hasty drive to Machynlleth followed. Train acquired. They have a depot there.

 

Some hours later, two hairy people were dumped at Birmingham Airport, and quickly became confused.

 

There was a plane.

 

The plane took us to this bus in Sofia.

 

The next day. Our first Trabbie!

 

Kamaz.

 

Pissed-hat.

 

Shatchback 206.

 

We wanted to buy this for £700. In hindsight, I'm bloody glad we didn't!

 

We spent hours traffic watching.

 

We had no idea what this was. Turned out its a Mercury Comet.

 

Underneath Sofia at 2230hrs, looking at ancient ruins. It's a remarkable little city.

 

Dear god...

 

Fire up the trams!

 

 

 

We jumped on a trolley bus, couldn't work out how to pay, so jumped off again at the next stop. Low floor? HA! What's that?

 

STEYR!

 

The next day, we caught a bus. See if you can spot it.

 

We spent seven hours spotting delicious things. I still haven't seen most of the pictures.

 

We got off the bus at one point and stretched our legs.

 

Romania appeared in the enormous, slightly-cracked windscreen.

 

Romania achieved. Dacia Solenza.

 

TatuBoba gave us a lift. Thanks!

 

We found this near our apartment.

 

 

We went for a long walk and got lost. It became a HUGE walk.

 

We got an excellent* hire car.

 

Some hours later.

 

Necessary.

 

Y THO

 

WINNING.

 

Oh jeepers. That's only got us to last Sunday!

 

EDIT - SPECIAL BONUS PICTURE.

[Wingz123]

socks and sandels.......

[hairnet]

A brummie confused in Birmingham

 

How do ya think we feel lol

[plasticvandan]

Just how much was this wonderful conveyance? Frankly no number is too high

[dollywobbler]

Day of departure, and TataBobu brought another piece of outstanding shite to say goodbye - a Daewoo Cielo, which is a Nexia, but built in Romania. 

 

Cats used his beard to sense which direction we should head.

 

The long distance drive home started well!

 

Thankfully, that was just the windscreen washer pump shitting itself. I taped it together with gaffer tape. Sorted.

 

Then we met up with young Claudiu again, to try and fit the restrictor plate that stops you being able to select reverse when aiming for second.

 

We had to give up. So, we drove across Romania, finding amazing things.

 

Like a view of Serbia across the Danube.

 

A short while later, we were the other side of the Danube.

 

Then we went to Bosnia and got fined for something. Not really sure what, but I'm very sure it wasn't a fine...

 

We also broke down there in a really busy town, which just capped off a shitty start to Bosnia. I spent the whole time there on edge, feeling like this was an incredibly stupid idea. You have dark moments on trips like these, but I was hoping not to have one so early on.

 

We stayed that night in a crappy motel, though the barman was friendly. He spoke no English, but smiled a lot, which translates well. The owner of the place was a right miserable sod. It was almost unbearably hot, and this hotel had no air con AND glass panels in the roof! Clearly designed by an idiot. 

 

The next day, the Dacia wouldn't start.

 

We quickly identified claggy plugs as the issue, and gave them a clean. Starting issues remained for the entire trip, but we mostly just tried to ignore it. We considered buying spark plugs, but somehow didn't. Needless to say, replacing them (thanks Talbot!) this morning has made a huge difference...

 

After another Police fine (this one because I'd forgotten to turn the headlights on, fair enough. He was at least friendly and accepted 30 Bosnogroats rather than 30 Euros), we hopped across the border into Croatia.

 

It was really, really hot. We went to a LIDL and spent as long as we dared in the chilled foods section. There was a tractor.

 

There was also stuff like this, which leads to deep thinking on a stupid adventure.

 

We started to get good at taking sneaky photos of the Police. This one stopped us, checked our documents, then got horribly embarrassed when the car inevitably wouldn't start. We sat on the grass and he eventually rode away...

 

STYLISH.

 

AirBNB achieved near Zagreb.

 

We failed to see Zagreb, because too tired. So, we headed to Slovenia instead, where we failed to see Ljubljana. This followed on from Bosnia, where we failed to see Sarajevo. We found gravel. Cats had much fun.

 

We saw a Favorit.

 

We got arrested. They wouldn't let me take their picture. We also discovered that the headlights are awful. As are the dash lights.

 

We were given tea and coffee.

 

Things got very scenic.

 

OH HAI. Note pre-emptive bonnet opening, as we still thought fuel vapourisation was the issue.

 

OMG SUPERMARKET SPOT!

 

Stunning Slovenian scenery.

 

We found the tiniest road into Italy, and hoped to avoid the rozzers. This worked!

 

We went and refuelled and got confused about Italian petrol.

 

We went on the Autostrada. The payment machines are so shit we decided to avoid them in future.

 

 

We stayed in this hotel. Poor Cats booked it. He wasn't to know how spectacularly shit it was.

 

At the top, see those two small windows? That was our room. The windows were about 12ft up the wall, and couldn't be opened. Needless to say, the air con was awful. This was another low ebb for me, and Cats had to put up with me stomping off. I just could not be in that room. Even 10pm ice cream failed to improve matters. I sat in the car, which was only slightly cooler, and grumped at Mrs DW. She couldn't help much. I then realised that I was sat looking dodgy in a Romanian car. I ambled back to the room and slept fitfully.

 

The next day dawned brighter.

 

In fact, it steadily got better.

 

We drove over 580kms across Italy. It wasn't meant to be that far, but a sat nav fail added 2.5hrs onto the day, so we arrived late in Chamonix. We hadn't really planned to be there, but that's where we ended up, after a stop by the Italian Police. We ignored their guns and merrily cleaned the car. I booked an apartment with not enough beds. 

 

We did a fair bit more France the next day.

 

There was moody sky, with thunder. The Dacia refused to start. Again.

 

There was rain.

 

We reached Orleans.

 

Then we drove to Le Havre, having booked the ferry for £109 the night before.

 

We followed this off the ferry.

 

Another shot of the welcoming committee.

 

Fitting room number.

 

We drove home.

 

Bye bye Cats.

 

Time for tea.

 

Plasticvandan - the car cost a smidge over 1000 Euros, which our Bucharest host thought was absolutely hilarious. He spent ages showing me much cheaper ones online. However, most were not estates, most were later ones (import issues and hideously ugly) and I doubt they'd only covered 36,000 miles. It came with two front wings, a replacement dashboard (in the correct blue) and a used wheel cylinder oddly.

 

It's been thoroughly amazing, hugely draining at times and made all the more bearable by having someone nice to share the journey with. The thought of individually driving so far just isn't worth contemplating really. We never really got to relax as a passenger (until Italy where we finally gave in and used sat nav), but having a break from driving was appreciated nonetheless.

[Noel Tidybeard]

now you are home get your OCD working and get the fappin bonnet to sit flush