Varna

Hitching out of Bucharest was no problem, we got a car that was going to the coast along the motorway and managed to get off at Lehliu Gara, where we walked a few metres and managed to stop a truck going to Calarasi. For some reason, I think that this guy has taken me before - either that or he just has a friendly face. Well, who knows - we hitched a working truck to within 2km of the border.. the whole road is being repaired (or destroyed?!), immediately switched trucks and that one took us to the river. We just missed the boat across the danube, so we went to the bar for a couple of beers.. a couple were wandering around panicking.. trying to find out if they should buy tickets.. no one else seemed to care (I've never bought a ticket or seen anyone buy one, but there is actually a small Kasa). I noticed that these panickers had a polish registration, so Sylwia went over to thave a word with them.. they agreed to take us as far as Golden Sands, this dreadful resort a few km's north of Varna. It was good that they took us but they were very irritating, complaining about everything.. the lack of signposts, the condition of the roads, the time waiting at the border, the romanian drivers.. fuck knows why they decided to come by car through Ukraine, Romania and Bulgaria if they are complaining about all that!

The woman was a dreadful map reader and the guy quite a clever little shit, I tried to direct them.. because I've been that route several times, but they weren't really listening to me and insisted on turning back, driving around roundabouts about 233 times and moaning about everything, including the hot weather now..anyway we got the bus from the outskirts into the centre of Varna.

Our host in Varna was not an HC member, she was a french girl called Helene.. I sent her an sms asking for a place to stay and she replied telling me.. "Who are you, a friend of Caro maybe?".. Caro is infact an HC member who was working as a volunteer in Varna, however she returned to Germany and gave the sim card to Helene. Helene knew nothing of HC or who we were but still agreed to host us. When we met her, she turned out to be a very nice girl who told us she didn't know what she had done agreeing to let us stay - maybe we were from a highly religious community! haha

We;ve stayed with her for two days, drank beer together and she introduced us to a great beach called Galeta which is quiet, nice and clean with warm water just a couple of kilometres south of Varna. If you want to go there take bus 17 from the cathedral or train station, get off at the last stop.. walk back a bit, turn right, keep right, go straight and eventually you will come to some stairs,, walk all the way down and dah dah :-)

Varna is a bit of a noisy resort town with shit music and dirty beaches but Galeta is paradise, anyway we are off to the north today.. a bit of hitching then camping, exploring villages and the coast..