Week 15 of David Foran and Fintan Gillespie's adventure
Delighted about reaching Europe in one piece, we headed north from Sofia towards Constanta, on Romania's Black Sea coast. This is a busy holiday spot, but we arrived a fortnight before the start of the season, and the place was dead. So we headed to the capital, Bucharest, where we had arranged to meet a mob of friends who had flown over to meet us. Much like Sofia, Bucharest maintains a Soviet feel. Dominating the city is the immense Parliament Palace, built in 1984 by Nicolae Ceausescu. A sixth of Bucharest was bulldozed to accommodate its creation, and it remains one of the world's largest buildings.
Tourism is relatively underdeveloped in Bucharest, but with the city's buzz, vibrant nightlife and stunning women the 13 of us had an amazing few days. With Romania's recent accession to the EU, the city should become more popular.
Heading north through Transylvania, we passed the castle of Vlad the Impaler, an inspiration for Bram Stoker's Dracula, before stopping in the beautiful hillside town of Târgu Mures for the night.
Entering Hungary the next day, we headed directly for its capital, Budapest. This gem of a city has incredible architecture and a rich cultural heritage.
That night we fell victim to crooked taxi drivers, ripped off en route to a wild night at the fabulous open-air Cafe del Rio nightclub, on the water's edge.
Following the Danube northwest, it was a three-hour hop to Bratislava, the Slovakian capital. Five months ago driving the same distance would have taken us almost a full day on mud tracks in rural China. Europe's perfect motorways are a world away.
Next week we head to Vienna, then north towards the Czech Republic and the Baltics.
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