Hi Everyone,
We left you in Varna, Bulgaria and we are now back in Varna, after a month in Romania.
Varna is much a larger city than Bourgas and more touristy. We stayed at the Yacht Club which is more expensive than Bourgas but is more protected and has a good club house with air con (which I am taking advantage of at the moment - it's 34 degrees outside!). They also have a good local bus service that we have become very proficient at using - so not so much exercise here. One thing that has caught us out in Bulgaria is that they nod for yes and shake their head for no. So when we need something and get excited that they have it because they nod, we then get disappointed because we realise they say He (pronounced Ne) meaning No. Our biggest problem is that they use the Cyrillic alphabet and every thing looks so strange. Take the city Varna, they pronounce it Varna but spell it Bapha and Ruse is pronounced Ruse but spelt Pyce. Many of the town and street names are also written in 'normal' letters which help but in the supermarket it can be pot luck as to what I am buying.
We wanted to do a little more land travel and after reading the Lonely Planet decided on Ruse to the north and on the side of the Danube. We decided on the train and paid an extra £1 to go 1st class. We were the only people in 1st class (not quite what I expected) but it was comfortable and we could get up and walk around. One of the exciting things we saw, for me, was the fields of Sunflowers. Not that many were in full flower but it was still spectacular. Ruse is known as 'Little Vienna' because of its architecture. When the city was razed in the 1870's during the war for liberation Viennese architects came down the Danube to help rebuild it. They did a beautiful job and most of our time was spent walking the streets in admiration of their work. We travelled back to Varna by bus which was actually better than train as you got to see more of the country side and the mile after mile of Sunflower fields.
We also got to see some of the world cup with a German friend we had made. He enjoyed the England vs Germany match so much with us there!!
Once we arrived back in Varna and had stocked the boat with all the lovely food, wine and beer we were off to Romania.
It was about 60 miles to Mangalia just inside the Romanian boarder. Here we went in to a new marina which had pontoons, something that is rare in the Med. You normally 'Med moor' which means you tie a rope from the bow to a wall and a rope from the stern to a buoy. You then have to climb off the bow via a ladder. To be able to step off the side onto a pontoon was a real pleasure. Again we were greeted by the marina manger and customs to check in and welcome us to their country. I am sad to say that this is the first country we have been to where we are not impressed with the people but after learning a little about their recent history our views have soften . They are very sullen and we had bad experiences with short change, over charging and also a scam in the street where a guy asked the time and started chatting then another came along saying he was a policeman and that the other guy was a bad man. The 'policeman' then wanted to see our identification but when I asked to see his again he would not hold it still. With that we walked away but we missed the third man who had opened Clive's backpack. The backpack was empty as we were on our way to the shops and also Clive is like the Queen and never carries money so they got nothing from us. Mangalia is only a small town so we moved on to Constanta. Here the marina was back to med moor but it was very calm and safe. It also had an excellent restaurant overlooking the marina where we celebrated Jane-G's birthday and 12 years since we left the UK (4th July). Walking around the old part of Constanta they had such beautiful buildings especially the Casino on the esplanade.
Again we wanted to land travel so we took the bus to Bucharest, the capital of Romania. We also met up with friends on 'Sarenity' Trevor and Vicky who had been trying so hard to catch up with us from Turkey but we just kept ahead of them. Their boat was in Mangalia and travelled by train to Bucharest. By going to the capital we started to realise what a tough time the Romanians had under Ceausescu. While the western world thought all was hunky dory with Ceausescu and Romania the people lived in poverty and Ceausescu was a squandering a fortune on megalomaniacal, grandiose projects. In the 1980's he exported Romanian food to look good to the world but his people staved. He bulldozed 1/6th of Bucharest to build his Palace of the People, which became Palace of Parliament, the second largest civil building in the world after the Pentagon. He also totally destroyed 8000 villages(mainly in Transylvania) and one of the side effects is the stray dogs which occurred because of the resettlement of the people and the inability to take the family pet with them. It is estimated somewhere between 200,000 and 2 million stray dogs are nationwide, ancestors of the original displaced dogs. There certainly were an awful lot of dogs about but they were not a problem and seemed happy sitting in the sun and watching the world go by.
We took a guided tour of the Palace of Parliament and what a place. The opulence and sheer size of the small part that we saw was mind blowing. Many people suffered for this big tourist attraction.
After 3 days we were ready to move on to Brasov, Transylvania. This is Dracula country and we had to visit Bran Castle, Dracula's 'home'. It could have been a good day out if it was not for the tourists! We had hired a car and arrived at 1030 with all the bus loads of tourists. It was packed and all the corridors were very narrow making it much worse. But we did it and got the Tee shirt. Actually we were surprised that they didn't push the Dracula story more. We stopped at 3 towns in Transylvania, Brasov, Sighisoara (Dracula's birthplace) and Sibiu, with the car and it was the architecture that was so impressive. The difference with here and Turkey is that basically Turkey has such old history that what is left is 'a pile of old stones'. Now we are seeing beautiful whole buildings with such detail in the finish but are much younger.
After returning the car we went by bus back to Bucharest and quickly to the underground and on to the train station. Here we met a Romanian lady who when she found we were going to Constanta said her uncle was an inspector on the railway and she would get us cheap tickets. It turned out that we got on without tickets and slipped the guard half the cost of the ticket. We felt so guilty but Dana kept us entertained on the journey. We did get to see her twice before we left Constanta and she was very sorry to see us go. We also went to a Romanian family home with a guy we met at the marina. He heard Clive playing his guitar and joined him. He then invited us to his home to play. We had a wonderful afternoon with his wife giving us lunch and homemade cherry brandy!!!!
After a lot of serious thought we abandoned our original plan to go to the Ukraine. The main reason was that we would not have much time there and could not do it justice. A big problem also arose with Turkey visas. The old visa allowed us to be in Turkey for 90 days we could do a day trip to a Greek Island and come back then have 90 days again. The new visa only allowed us 90 days in 180. this gave us a big problem because we could not live on the boat for the winter. Clive came up with a cunning plan. If we caught a bus to Istanbul from Bulgaria and come straight back it would start our visa so that when we checked into Turkey in September it would work out for us

So it was back to Mangalia meet up with 'Sarenity', check out and sail to Varna with them. Once checked in, off to the bus station and book return tickets travelling over night both ways. Plan in action, great! Back to the marina and a cold beer with 'Sarenity'. As we arrived back the sky was looking VERY black. Just as we finished our beer the wind suddenly picked up so back to Jane-G quickly we just got on board put extra mooring lines on and fastened any loose bit when it started to rain. And then the wind came. One boat recorded a max of 70 knots, mostly it was around 40 -50 knots but we had a BIG problem. The boat next to us snapped his stern line and the boat was slamming into Jane-G. We spent the next hour trying to fend it off and get more fenders between the boats. This was very difficult with such high wind gusts, rain and the waves that were coming into the marina. We did our best and eventually someone came and managed to get lines on the other boat and pull it away from Jane-G. Jane-G had scars along the hull and several chunks knocked out of the gel coat. She looked a sorry sight. Needless to say the other boat was not insured and in fact all the guy said was 'sorry' when we eventually saw him 1 week later. When we arrived Clive had looked at his stern line and thought it was a little thin. Maybe we should have said something to the marina manager then. Clive has repaired the side and she looks good again and we had planned to repaint in the winter so she will look perfect again by December.
The next day we were due to go to Istanbul for the visa run. The bus was to leave at 2100 so we had plenty of time. Midday I checked emails to find one that said the visa problem had been sorted and it was back to the old 90 visa - great! No need to go to Istanbul but bum - £75 wasted for nothing.

On that good note will leave you as I have waffled on a little and I expect you are fed up.
Bye for now,
Jane and Clive