Day 19: on the road again just can't wait to get on the road again

Miles: 190
Countries: Romania -> Bulgaria
Stops: home -> embassy -> translator -> Varna
Playlists: none

Morning was bad. Between Justin being very ill, and me going off to get a thank-our-host gift on my own and getting lost, we got to the embassy way after 12:30 when the consulate was supposed to leave. We were afraid we missed our window to get our passports but she stuck around, got us what we needed, and gave us the run down for Bulgaria. It was a pretty brutal morning with tears and many questions of what are we doing, is it worth it, and do we bother.

The other day when we had Mongol Rally fans coming up to us, one introduced himself as a lawyer and said he follows the Mongol Rally and would love to help any which way he can. We gave him a shout when we realized we should probably get our Romanian police report translated into at least English, if not also Russian moving forward. He sent us some info and a contact of where to go.

We now have passports, translations of the police report in various languages, and a temporary car ownership. We are back in the game, if not for a little while longer. And it gave us a new feeling.

We're feeling optimistic. And if anything, realized the more shit we have to deal with (no pun intended), the more determined we are to finish. We just realized how ridiculous everything got and that at this point, the only way it's worth it and satisfactory, is if we finish it. So here we go.

We got in the car, drove, cracked jokes, and were silly all around. The border crossing was a little unnerving as we handed over our temporary passports and car ownership. The guard was actually really nice and didn't even require the police report and stamped the passport in a corner leaving most of the page free (our biggest concern currently is not having enough pages to get to all the countries). We reached the Black Sea coast where we were hoping to meet with a team we saw that was still in Varna (also sick) but couldn't remember the name and couldn't find them online. We wandered around what is the the largest and oldest landscaped park in the Balkans and called it quits - setting up our car and covering in a tarp at the public parking lot by a tree. This is the first time we'll be sleeping in the car since our ... situation... so I'm sure I'll be paranoid. But we have to start somewhere.

Still worried we won't have enough pages in the passport to make it to the finish line, and also concerned some countries won't let us in with temporary passports. So that is all a future problem to handle once we enter turkey where we can find most embassies. Tonight, we sleep with No Ragrets.