5. They tried to make us pay but Kosta thought no, no, no

Passing through Hungary, we arrive at the border of Serbia. Kosta and I have decided to skip Romania, and take the boring highway through Serbia to make our way down (faster) to Turkey. And so we wait in the boiling heat in the car at the border. Am I glad that the days are gone where you had to do this passing from any European country to another! As Serbia is not part of the EU it is a long and slow process to let all the tourists pass. Not only are the passports checked, but also the papers of the car, that is to say the insurance. The Cruiser is of course insured but we have one tiny little problem: we forgot the green card! And like we thought, there is no entering without any extra cash on the table. My passport is stamped, Kosta´s is linked to the car and therefor not stamped. We first have to go and get an insurance.


So Kosta goes to inquire. Getting an extra insurance for the car will cost €250. That my friends is a lot of money to pass a country. We're not even planning to stay more than a couple of days! Eventually Kosta gets it down to a 160 euro: 110 for the insurance and 50 for the guy ;). But after a tiny chat with the official it is clear we have a better option: the border to Romania is about an hour's drive away and with a bit of luck we won´t have to show any car papers there! So we re-enter Hungary. This time the car gets inspected, but really if they are looking for illegal stuff the way they check the car, I can imagen that the Hungarian border is the most popular smuggling border in the whole of Europe!

Driving in Romania...somewhere

And as we've hoped for, we are welcomed in Romania by just showing our passports. Long live Romania! Then again we are off for another long day of driving. The Cruiser is now making a bit of a weird sound. As we drive along a gorgeous road, we decide to look for a place to have a nice break from the heat and have a bit of lunch. We find this nice spot nearby a little river where Romanians come to have a lazy Sunday afternoon. If there wouldn´t be so much garbage lying around, it would be the perfect place to unwind. And speaking of garbage, this is one thing I have never understood. Why is it so easy to bring your beer cans, food wrapped in plastic and whatever, but why is it so difficult to take that rubbish with you again? For cryin´out loud people, it weighs even less empty! ;) Anyway, to make a long day short: Kosta checked out the car, found a problem with the whatever (I have no knowledge of any technical terms of a car LOL) and has fixed the problem temporarily. As it is late afternoon we decide to stay the night. We really are not prepared for this, so dinner consists of mashed potato and sauce. We are truly living like rockefellers. LOL

Mmmmmmmmmmh (it was actually good)

And then you think you found a quiet spot for having a lunch break LOL

The last country before Turkey is in sight: Bulgaria is just a ferry away! When you arrive in Bulgaria you have to pay a compulsory health insurance of 4 euro per person and of course the ´vignette´ for using their highways. And let me tell you, in every country we always bought it immediately. Austria, Hungary, Romania and we were never checked. So think we just buy it somewhere along the way when we actually fınd out where to buy it. What we didn´t get was that you have to buy it at the first petrol station, more so, you can get it at every petrol station. And as you can more than ever suspect, we are pulled over by the police. It doesn´t get any more typical than this! LOL

A couple of minutes before being pulled over I was wondering why people were signaling at me. I reduce my speed to about 60 an hour just to be sure (I have no clue at how fast we can actually drive here). I can suddenly see the cops waving at me. "Papers, please." No worries mate, all is good, I have my passport and my international drivers´license. “Original!”, he says. "Original what? Driver´s license? Well, euh…. I left that at home. " Now really people, what is the point of having an international one if you also need to have the Belgian one with you. If I travel with my passport, I don´t need my Belgian identity card, do I? No, indeed I do not. But oh yes, I do need the Belgian driver´s license to shine nice and bright next to the international one. The officer might have been in a good mood, or was (most probably LOL) just charmed by my innocent smile, but he leaves it to that.

Next question: "Wo ist das vignette?" I hear Kosta telling the other guy that we were told we only had to buy it once on the highway, so I sing the same tune. Kosta has some more explaining to do. I don´t know if it was his Colgate smile that did the trick or the fact that Kosta was playing the innocent (and annoying) guy asking too many questions, but we are lucky: no fine of a 140 euro, we only have to get that vignette about 200 meters further in the petrol station and come and show it to them. And there I was, thinking the cops already saw some (personal beer?) money in the pocket. A nice lesson learned. ;)

And just a little tip, make sure to get the vignette straight at the border because the next day we were stopped again. I am guessing they have tourist radars working. ;)

Tip of the day: buy this at the first petrol station you encounter! LOL