As we turned into the port at Dover the car just stopped ( yes again.... ) , battery flat, no power at all , AA called at 5.30PM, arrived at 9.30PM, decided a lorry was needed as car ( being a 4x4 turbo with locked 4x4 system ) it can not be towed...at all! , Lorry came at 11.30PM , Back to Factory in Runcorn to change alternator and battery, Back home.....3 hours sleep and Back to Dover!
We eventually got on the ferry, normal route on the other side....Dunkirk, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Romania and into Bulgaria at the Vidin ferry.
We stopped off on the way at the airport hotel near Vienna at 10PM at night, it was about 100 euros the night , but there was a Burger King, we tend to stop off in Hungary at the small hotels just away from the services but this time i was way too tired due to the strange start to the trip.
The only food available at that time of night ( unless i got the camp stove out ) was Burger king, chicken nuggets, chips and strawberry milkshake......it was better than it sounds when you have been driving for so long, I didnt think they would like the camp stove in the hotel car park....
Early start next day to get past Budapest before the traffic built up....Didnt work as there had been a multi car pile up, we turned off and went cross country through Hungary , it looks a nice place, I stopped and looked on the net and arranged to quickly view a few houses for sale in the next village.
After viewing the houses we were off again , easy trip using the TomTom to Romania , just before Calafat we had another car problem....not the cars fault! , a large stick fell from a lorry and smashed the front window.....still intact but broken i prevented cracks spreading with sticky tape and continued to Calafat to get the ferry.
Once in Bulgaria it is only a quick drive to another house i have near Vidin that i use when i go into a factory I have nearby.
I had not been since the fires in the summer, there seems extensive burning in the areas around Vidin on the main route through to Sofia, some bits were still smouldering so it had been burning quite recently.
I did a quick unannounced check on the factory and all was fine , I delivered a small filling machine I had brought with me , by the time we unloaded it and bolted it together, it was getting a bit late, I had a quick check on the house and then I drove on.
After a few delays with traffic and diversions it was getting a bit late, about 11pm, I was still about 2 hours away and didnt have the rental house keys, I was supposed to pick them up before it got late....so i stopped in a motorway parking bay on the new motorway from Plovdiv to Kazanlak and slept in the car till it got light, I couldnt drive into any village till people woke up due to the exhaust noise from the car....No silencers, I didnt want to be responsible for waking the village and the animals up!
About 5am I went to my house in Vetren and had some breakfast, Banks were obviously not open yet to change money to Levs so it was garden food..... ready to eat in the garden I had allsorts so I had some strawberries , figs and peaches with oats and UHT milk from the car travel food supplies.
As it got to about 9.30AM, i phoned about the keys for the rental house and arranged to meet up and get them.
Quite an uneventful trip this time, but I did do lots of work on the house in Vetren.
All window frames are now painted and re-glazed, glass taken out, frames scraped, then coated with some sanding sealer ( StarLoc / FiveStar adhesives brand sanding cellulose sanding sealer...of course! as I make it! ) , then the frames were sanded down again and then painted with a strange very runny red paint called maistro , looked bad until it dried , but now looks fine
New glass was purchased for every pane, even though all panes look the same size in each window ( 8 panes ) they are all quite different....glass was bonded in place using clear silicone
All gaps around window frames were filled and then half of the outside was painted white, the other 2 walls are being rendered first , inside I touched up a few dents in the plaster with some white plaster i bought from the local diy shop for a couple of lev, inside was then painted
The internal paint was a bit weird again, it looked bad going on, it was clear going on but white in the tub, like wallpaper paste, I left it to dry and it turned bright white....second coat and the 2 bedrooms were finished apart from furnishing and carpets.
More work on the garden, chopping back trees and elder, digging some roots out, repaired and painted the outside wall and the gate, new glass in almost every window, the couple I didnt replace for now due to shape ( and lack of glasscutter tools in Bulgaria !) on the door I have put silicone on cracks and over the putty to waterproof till next year
The rest of the trip was made up with looking for another factory building, I eventually found one I could use, very near by this house, massive place, needs about 500 new small panes of glass.....after a few meetings I have agreed to buy it and preliminary contract signed and deposit paid.
On the way back had a good look at the nearly finished Danube bridge 2
Quite an uneventful trip this time, but I did do lots of work on the house in Vetren.
All window frames are now painted and re-glazed, glass taken out, frames scraped, then coated with some sanding sealer ( StarLoc / FiveStar adhesives brand sanding cellulose sanding sealer...of course! as I make it! ) , then the frames were sanded down again and then painted with a strange very runny red paint called maistro , looked bad until it dried , but now looks fine
New glass was purchased for every pane, even though all panes look the same size in each window ( 8 panes ) they are all quite different....glass was bonded in place using clear silicone
All gaps around window frames were filled and then half of the outside was painted white, the other 2 walls are being rendered first , inside I touched up a few dents in the plaster with some white plaster i bought from the local diy shop for a couple of lev, inside was then painted
The internal paint was a bit weird again, it looked bad going on, it was clear going on but white in the tub, like wallpaper paste, I left it to dry and it turned bright white....second coat and the 2 bedrooms were finished apart from furnishing and carpets.
More work on the garden, chopping back trees and elder, digging some roots out, repaired and painted the outside wall and the gate, new glass in almost every window, the couple I didnt replace for now due to shape ( and lack of glasscutter tools in Bulgaria !) on the door I have put silicone on cracks and over the putty to waterproof till next year
The rest of the trip was made up with looking for another factory building, I eventually found one I could use, very near by this house, massive place, needs about 500 new small panes of glass.....after a few meetings I have agreed to buy it and preliminary contract signed and deposit paid.
On the way back had a good look at the nearly finished Danube bridge 2
So close to being finished
November 2012, back to Bulgaria again for a few days to finish the deal on the new (old...) factory building , all windows sealed....new glass in soon, just got to get some equipment into it , that will probably the end of next year or so before that happens.
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