Where are we going?
Apparently this is a road!
What do you reckon love ?
We are about to find out!
We thought we would do a quick bit of research on Bulgaria,
because that wasn't one of the countries that we had originally planned to go to.
So we've done no research whatsoever,
and we were pleased we did,
because you need a vignette to drive on the main roads and motorways in Bulgaria.
So we've just purchased it online,
and for one week it was £6.60 for a 3.5T vehicle or under.
Another good thing we found out is that our insurance from the UK, covers us in Bulgaria,
so we don't need to buy an additional green card when we cross the border.
So we're all good to go!
Let's go to Bulgaria.
The weather is looking a little bit menacing up ahead!
This fog is crazy!
It's very hard to see the car in front,
and we're going like 15 - 20 miles an hour!
It is a good job the car is in front, so we have something to focus on !!
So we are just coming up to the border, even though you can't see it! So cameras off!
Okay! We are officially in Bulgaria,
Country number 29 since starting TREAD the Globe,
and they had a little search through the van,
probably just due to the immigration problems they've got in this region at the moment,
and we bought the vignette online,
but there are actually machines at the border that you can you can buy your vignette,
It's amazing, we've literally just driven over the mountain,
through the border control, and the weather is completely different, there's blue skies and the sun's try to come out!
As we're driving through Bulgaria,
we've noticed there's quite a lot of water signs by the side of the road,
so they're not short of water stations, so you can fill up and we don't need any at the moment because we filled up in Greece but yeah they're here.
So we've just stopped to fill up with some fuel,
and yeah, it looks like it's uh it's 2.27 a litre,
which is probably just over a pound,
So the price is much better than Greece, so it was a good idea to wait and fill up in Bulgaria.
You may have seen in an earlier video,
that we had doubts on whether our fuel gauge was working,
and we've kept an eye on, and we put the number of miles that it's traveled,
and just watched it, and it seems to be working now!
So fingers crossed that keeps working! because that would be absolute nightmare if our fuel gauge stopped working!
Driving through Bulgaria, it's just amazing how the landscape has changed,
and it's all gone green, it's so much greener than everywhere else we've driven,
and it is almost feeling a bit like back home! Yep and it is springtime !!
yeah maybe it is because things are just starting to go green naturally,
because it's Spring!
But the there's grass in the fields and it's looking very green and lush!
Old-school trams with the wires above!
I haven't seen one of those for a very long time.
Where are we going?
Apparently this is a road!
What do you reckon love?
We're about to find out!!
I'm not sure that this is really a road,
we've come to the end of the road, that didn't quite work out as planned!
It is a very nice view,
there are houses .... right there.
Turning arounds.
We think there's another way,
we're trying to get down to a car park down by the seafront.
If not, we're off on another search, but it's going to be dark soon.
We're gonna go down the coastline a little bit, and see if we can find somewhere else.
We just parked up the van and just come for a little walk around,
just to see if we can find a more level space,
Marianne's the dog lady again! Marianne's the dr. Dolittle!
How many dogs have you found now?
I found a pack a puppies!
it's very strange it's like everything's being abandoned down here,
We have got our own bar!
We could sit and have a drink, and you could serve me a beer in the bar!
The houses in the corner there, is where we attempted to come down,
so we have found the right way.
So we have arrived at the Black Sea!
Amazing, we're actually at the Black Sea!
It's the first time we've ever the Black Sea there you go!
And through the gap, if you keep going straight that way,
you arrive in Georgia, which is in that direction !
Which is where we are heading to next month.
Marianne's mental! She's just putting her feet in the water!
It's freezing!
You are not going be going swimming in there!!
So Marianne's going to get Trudy,
and we're just going to move her down a little bit on the grass here,
and then we've got this beautiful view and a private bar!
It's definitely seen better years down here, but the view still remains like that.
So we spent the night here last night,
Just south of Burgas, and honestly it is a really strange place last night we were looking around at the lights,
There is a whole apartment complex behind us,
and what's really weird is that wasn't one light on in any of the buildings.
some of the street lights like these little lights along the beach were on,
but I didn't see anybody there!
You've just got all these abandoned bars down the beach,
and we have seen like one kid on a bike, and one car go past,
but it's very strange.
There is a little town opposite on the other side because there was fireworks late last night.
It was a good night sleep, very quiet here,
but it's a lovely little cove here,
but just strange,
like this bar abandoned,
we were thinking maybe it all comes back to life in the summer?
Because it is low season,
there's old jet skis on the other side,
but it's looks so abandoned, the roof needs fixing, and yeah very strange !
There is so much housing there, you have got to have people living in it,
but why aren't there any lights on?
it's really strange at night it's really dark.
We're only spending one more night tonight in Bulgaria.
I've spent the day making today's video, It would be great to spend more time in Bulgaria,
and I know some of you guys have been sending us places to go and visit.
We're concerned about the Turkish border closing, Due to the refugee problems that they are having there.
So we are going to head to try and cross the Turkish border tomorrow,
and hope that we can get across before they end up closing it,
because if they close the border from Bulgaria, like they have done with Greece,
we will have a bit of a problem trying to get East and into Russia,
So yeah so we're going to be up bright and early tomorrow morning
and try and do the crossing.
Good morning !! We are going to TURKEY !! WOO HOO
Today is the day we go to Turkey, but the Vans is messy,
the van is trashed!
But why is the van messy?
It is messy, because we worked all day yesterday !
We are off from Bulgaria to Turkey - YEAH !!
And we're already about an hour and a half behind The time we said we were leaving !!
You can't hurry these things !!
I would like to thank everyone for all the lovely messages I got from my newsletter,
and all the support we get ,
because everybody's very worried that we're going from Bulgaria into Turkey because
of all the problems in Greece / Turkey border,
so I want to say thank you!! for your support !!
That is nice isn't it?
Yeah, thank you for being worried about us!
we are going to tackle the Turkish border during a migration crisis and a coronavirus crisis,
and everything else so hopefully we should make it to Turkey in the next few hours.
oh yeah for sure, we are blessed, absolutely!
So yeah, right see you in a minute,
We are just having a quick bite of breakfast,
and Marianne's trying to find the printout of the Turkish visa,
should be in the file somewhere,
at the moment you need a visa to get into Turkey to British citizen but they are changing it.
I think from next month, or might be from this month from March what month is it?
it's March, oh it's 10th March, it's a 9th March,
There you go Turkey! you got the visa? yes I can see it!!
We are just getting ready,
we're nearly ready to leave,
in fact we're later than we thought, because we've just realised that Turkey is another hour ahead of us!
So we are actually now three hours ahead of the UK!
I think we're ready, yep, we're ready! Let's go to Turkey! Let's go to Turkey!
I'm actually really excited we're changing time zones! another one!
Yeah I'm really excited that we're changing time zones!
When you fly, you expect to change time zones, but when you're on a little journey!
We're driving around the world - you don't expect to change time zones ! we are on a road trip!
We are driving to Turkey ! It's only a couple of hours away!!
So the border crossing is about an hour and 20 minutes away, from where we are now,
and fingers crossed it all goes well.
If you're watching us for the first time, we had to divert from Greece,
because the Greek / Turkey border had been closed,
because of all the refugees in Turkey that were getting into Europe.
and Turkey had opened their border with Europe.
So we heard that the borders with Turkey from Greece had all been closed.
So we ended up driving six hours up through Bulgaria,
and we're going to attempt to cross the border this morning,
so fingers crossed, this border is still open and it goes according to plan!
I'm so excited!! look what is in front of us !!
It is a Lada !!
How cool is that !!
Oh my gosh, I am so excited!!
there's a Lada? and if you are anything like me ... I haven't got a clue what she's talking about!!
I grew up with a dad who is a mechanic and loves cars ...
So I naturally have just got an interest in cars.
I love cars!
it's an old white car!
So you know what a Lada is ?
Who make it ?
Lada !!
It the make, they have different models. How have you not heard of Lada?
I'm too young!
The sign for Istanbul !! It's something you don't see every day,
We were talking about being anxious or worried about this travel,
and this adventure, and I said to Chris that I feel really excited about it.
But we are only five minutes from the border,
and we haven't seen any officials
or police or army or refugees actually.
we've just actually seen two officials in the woods here,
in green uniforms, so there's obviously patrols going on that you can't see from the road.
We expected this border crossing to be quite busy.
if they've closed Greece, but this road is literally dead, there's hardly any cars on it at all.
We've only gone two minutes to the border,
Turkey 3 Km.
We're nearly there! So we're going to turn the cameras off now as we approach the border.
Okay, so after a bit of a long wait we've managed to get our insurance,
which is from the booth that you can see just there,
and now we are heading South to a nearby town,
to find somewhere to sleep and get some data.
So we are officially in Turkey country number 30 for TREAD the Globe!
Which is quite it sounds quite impressive to say we're actually in Turkey! and it's another time zone!!
That was definitely much easier than expected,
and the refugees and the problems with the borders going into Europe have not hit Bulgaria or this border yet.
So the plan of getting here quite quickly as definitely worked!
So good job, to Turkey we go!!
Join us on the next episode as we arrive in Turkey,
visit the town of Kirklareli and then arrive in the City of Istanbul.