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It was nice to find three other rally cars in line to cross the border. One mixed nationality car ahead of us and 2 UK cars passed us in the faster, EU line. We made plans to meet up with them in Odessa. After waiting for a long time on the Romanian side of the border, we were given our exit stamps and allowed to proceed. But they actually just release you into a buffer zone between borders. The Moldovan border crossing was maybe a mile further on. Again we waited in our car for a very long time. We could see that the ralliers ahead of us were having their cars thoroughly searched by Moldovan border security. We were eventually allowed to pull forward to the border agents, who informed us decisively that we could not enter their country. This because we do not possess the original vehicle registration document for Jon Hay. The dealer from London assured us were good to drive her with the documents he gave us, but these would only get us to the EU border. Our copy of the registration was not enough for the Moldovans. What’s unfortunate here is that we were only to be in Moldova for a few miles in transit from Romania to Ukraine, but they would not let us pass. Ukraine and Romania do not share a border on the Black Sea. Moldova holds fast to their small piece of waterfront real estate.

 So what do they do when they reject you from their border? It’s pretty exciting. They make you turn around and go back the same way — the wrong way down a one way into oncoming border traffic. We managed to find an open manhole with both a front and rear tire as we navigated a tight path through some very large trucks. We found a couple truckers to help lift her out. We eventually made it back to the Romanian border where we had to wait in line with everybody else. We were rewarded with another entry stamp. The whole debacle was an amusing and tense affair.

We returned to Galati where we found our way to the town center. Looking for a hotel, we found a very large building with a very large sign reading “Hotel Turista”. Sounds appropriate, right? Wrong! We walked inside only to find a large, completely empty room with a man sitting in a folding chair accompanied by a well armed and armored guard. They met us with some fast Romanian, but soon realized our mistake. The guard actually spoke decent English and gave us some loose directions to Hotel Galati, which we found. We have no interest in knowing what goes down in Hotel Turista. We are very happy in Hotel Galati.

We are learning that many teams are stuck in Romania at present. Most are missing the requisite vehicle documentation. Reports from the other side are not much better. The roads appear to support a pace of about 20 km/hr. One team which tried to go around Moldova reported car-sized potholes.

So we are trying to find some heroic cooperation in London in order to locate our missing registration and overnight it to Galati. If we cannot find it we will have to contact the DVLA and request a replacement. We could also move North and test our luck with the Ukrainians directly, but it sounds like they will be interested in the same document.

Time for another update. Much has happened since Strakonice.

Vienna

7.17.2013 — Wednesday — We woke in our Strakonice hotel, The White Rose, around 9AM and headed down for our complimentary breakfast. Upon checkout we relocated to the hotel bar/dining area to stay connected to the internet while waiting for Petr. Petr arrived at our hotel in the new-and-improved Jon Hay. We loaded up our stuff and returned to Petr’s garage. Our attempts to convince Petr to join us fell short, so we said our farewell and set out for Vienna.

The drive to Vienna was a simple one. Austrians really have their shit together. We showed up 20 minutes late to our scheduled meeting with our host, Erich, who was not too pleased by our tardiness. But we got the key and settled into his awesome new apartment. It must have been designed for giants. The bedroom was extremely spacious, but the largest dimension was still floor to ceiling. We set out to find food in the city center, and then moved on to a popular brewpub called 1516. Attila The Pun was thrilled to find Victory Hop Devil there. A PA staple on tap in Vienna. Who knew? At the appropriate hour we retired to our palace of an apartment.

Budapest

7.18.2013 — Thursday — Standard procedure. Woke and hit the road. Just a quick hop over to Budapest. We made a lot of wrong turns entering the city, but our eventual route was just as good as our planned one. Our host in Budapest was not home when we arrived, so we searched around for free wifi in order to contact him. Found it in a McDonalds. Eventually we gained access to our apartment, which was much more rally-like than its Vienna counterpart. We discovered that another Rally team was in Budapest — The Layman Brothers, who are a clean cut crew of recent University of Bath graduates. We met them out at a bar called Szimpla, which was huge — the main such attraction in town. We actually got separated, but both of us eventually made it home on our own. No cell phones to resolve the issue.

Matt enjoying a lazy day in Budapest.

Ian enjoying a lazy day in Budapest.

7.19.2013 — Friday — Sunny and warm. We spent the day exploring the city on foot. We did a lot of people watching from the outdoor seating areas of cafes and restaurants. Budapest is a beautiful city. Also very chill — it operates at a very slow pace. Certainly no urgency to turn over tables. Didn’t feel as much like Eastern Europe as expected. It is very much a European city. Pretty relaxing day on the whole. We spent the evening on the Danube island of Margitsziget. The island is basically a park with outdoor bars and restaurants scattered about. Very cool scene. Lanterns abound. Our first stop featured live music. Eventually made our way back down the Danube to our apartment. Together.

Matt on the Danube in Budapest.

Ian on the Danube in Budapest.

Romania

7.20.2013 — Saturday — Long day of driving. We set out for Bucharest via the Transfagarasan. Upon crossing the border from Hungary one thing was abundantly clear — we were in Eastern Europe. The roads were pretty small and slow most of the way. Single lanes, so there were plenty of exciting passing moments. A lot of livestock in the streets. Romanians don’t bother with fences. Also a lot of humans in the street. Roads seem to be a major attraction. Benches outside of homes, or just along the road, were populated by onlookers. Also a lot people walking on the streets to just get to wherever they’re going. Sidewalks would be a good investment, Romanians. And tons of hitchhikers. There were some hotspots with dozens of hitchhikers holding signs indicating their desired destination. Animals rather than machines appeared to be responsible for most farm work. Horse-drawn carts are everywhere. And guess what — it’s melon season in Romania! Hundreds of melon stands line the highways. We saw perhaps one or two customers the whole time. In some areas there were dozens of competing melon stands adjacent one another. Not even sure how we’d choose a vendor if we decided to buy a melon there.

Around dusk we found the beginning of the Transfagarasan. This road was awesome, but because the going was slower than expected we finished it in the dark. We ascended quickly to over 6,600 ft through a series of hairpin turns. It was very exciting. Once we were down the other side, getting back on the main road to Bucharest was again slower than expected, but we were quick to Bucharest once we found a very welcome two-lane highway.

http://youtu.be/HviB266tSaE

Matt and Ian on the Transfagarasan.

Navigating Bucharest with our atlas was nothing short of a nightmare. No street signs. Ever. We had to navigate via landmarks and just follow the major traffic arteries to more and more central areas. We identified a Radisson in the city center, where we stayed for the night.

 7.20.2013 — Saturday — Wasting little time, we left Bucharest on Saturday morning. Again our Atlas was of little use, but we made some very fortunate decisions which took us straight out of the city in the correct direction. We headed for the Moldova border. The roads on this stretch were perhaps the worst yet. We passed some huge industrial facilities featuring countless cooling towers of various sizes. Didn’t appear that any of these were operational. We stopped for lunch in Buzau at a restaurant called ‘OK’. They gave us a menu with many pizza options only to inform us that they only made one pizza — the ‘OK’ pizza. It lived up to its name. Continued through Galati to the Romania-Moldova border, where we waited for a very long time in the ‘all passports’ line. EU passports are rewarded with much better service.

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