Crossing the Romanian-Bulgarian border you have the feeling that both sides are trying to outdo each other when it comes to shafting the tourist for every Euro/Dollar/Pound/Whatever currency you have, we don’t care as long as we get some.
Since I ran out of Euros (and make it a habit of always carrying US$ whenever I travel) …. I ended up paying in $US.
The Romanian side charged us US$22 for transit … ie using their crap roads. This ended up being US$10, cause the woman collecting it spoke polish, and informed me that if she didn’t have to issue an official receipt, it would be cheaper ie. She would keep the money for herself …. That’s the way things work here in the former Eastern Block) … Another US$8 for using the border bridge (like there is any other way of getting across), and US$15 for what they call Ecology.
On the Bulgarian side, the Ecology Tax, Disinfection Tax, Road Tax and whatever other F@ck-You-Tourist tax I didn’t understand came to about US$20 …. But I think we haven’t finished this yet … they still have another chance at the Turkish border… so stay tuned.
We crossed the border late in the afternoon, and being the only car there it still took nearly 2 hours …. Hate to see how long it takes when you do it in peak with dozens of other cars crossing.
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