Finally the sunscreen has made it out of our bag

So after some very long days of driving back through the Ukraine, we tried our luck at getting into Romania and were met with the most laid back border guards yet. One short glance at our passport photo and a quick question of 'What's in the back?', which we responded with 'camping gear', and we were through.

The rain in Ukraine was constant and what were small streams on the way in were huge torrants of white water on our way back. We drove through village after village which were severely flooded and families were just stood around not knowing what to do. Some houses were completely under water and we could just see the tops of some cars. We didn't see any emergency services or help at all - it's a shame the police are only interested in stopping tourists to line their own pockets and not helping their own people. We have seen this sort of thing on TV before but seeing it first hand was a whole different story. Very sad.

Romania was very much like the Urkaine, with terrible roads and the driving standards seemed to deteriorate even further. Parts of the country were really beautiful, especially the mountains throughout Transylvania, but other areas were less spectacular - the Romanians seem to have a love of building giant concrete tower blocks everywhere. Brasov was a beautiful city and we stayed the night in the mountains above it. We visited Bran to do the tourist bit and took a trip around Dracula's Castle. All the locals we spoke to through Romania were very dismissive of the Legend of Dracula and warned us that it would be an anti-climax, which is a shame as it obviously brings a lot of tourism to the country, but it was worth visiting and we bought ourselves some Vampire blood wine! Romania was fantastic to experience, but there was something about the country we were not quite sure of, although everybody we met couldn't have been friendlier.

As we made it into Romania, the plan was to head to the Black Sea and into Bulgaria.

On Tuesday night we crossed the border into Bulgaria in yet another terrible storm. The border crossing was a very narrow metal bridge across the Danube River, which we drove across in a full fork lightning storm. Probably not the wisest! The border control here was very relaxed again and within half an hour of being in the country it seemed just lovely. We had tarmac back for the first time which our truck was happy about!

After a short overnight stop just over the border we started out early yesterday and headed for the Black Sea, which is where we are now in 35 degree full sunshine! We are staying in a town called Varna in a 5 star (!) hotel with every possible facility you can imagine. When we asked for a room, the response was 'we don't have rooms, only suites'! Perfect.

We plan to stay here for 3 or 4 days, then continue following the Black Sea coast into Greece.

Hello to everyone back home and to Auntie Elaine in Australia - really excited you are following our blog!