Since most of my wife’s relatives have never seen the little’un and grandad-in-law’s pushing 96 we thought it was about time to go and pay some aunts / uncles / cousins in Eastern Europe a visit. A direct flight? Too expensive for 3 people. A cheap RyanAir flight to Hungary and hire car? Not allowed to cross any borders, maybe no child seat. So the only option for us was to take the 360 with 288.000 kms on the clock.
I'd thought the car was in a good state to cover the journey (two new fuel filters, new spark plugs, new rear shocks) and oil, air filter and timing belt were still fairly fresh. Then just before leaving one of the boot hinges parted company with the rest of the bodyshell. Diagnosis of my local garage “hinge rusty, too complicated, you need a new car”. All they did was disconnect one of the gas struts so the boot could shut properly – not much of a solution if you value an intact skull.
So we set off with a crunchy boot lid hinge and the address of a mechanic in Târgu Mureş who apparently makes his money doing cut-and-shut jobs with crashed West European cars.
Budapest old town
Drove via Austria and Hungary. Despite Hungary’s very “western” feel (they even have cycle lanes and - the bane of modern society - traffic calming) in Budapest we came across the highest concentration of Trabants, Wartburgs, Ladas, Moskwitches, Polski-Fiats, Zastavas & pre-VW Skodas I’d ever seen. No Volvo 300s though ...
Lunch stop in Romania
After a 9 hour journey across country roads, re-learning the lost art of overtaking, we arrived in Târgu Mureş, Romania.
Stayed with my wife’s family (aunts, uncles, cousins, 2nd cousins, friends of cousins - I never new she had so many relatives).
Had the rusty boot hinge fixed in a couple of hours by one of my wife’s dad’s cousin’s mechanics (another close relative). While he was at it he fixed a dent in the front wing (a souvenir from a trip to Madrid 6 years ago) and filled some other rusty bits and pieces. All done in a couple of hours and for a bottle of Glenfiddich whisky.
Journey onwards to Piatra Neamţ - Bicaz gorge
Scary cement factory in Bicaz
Coffin, anyone?
Snow in Piatra Neamţ the next morning (Turkish-made summer tyres, oops)
Met up with a friend from uni days in Iaşi, Romania’s 2nd biggest city, a town made up of a diverse mixture of grand old buildings mixed with concrete blocks from the communist days.
Most Romanians we met warned us from going to the Republic of Moldova. But the border crossing’s only a couple of kms from Iaşi, and an agency had fixed us up with an apartment so why not give it a go?
Things started getting a bit dodgy at the border.
All the border crossings in the new EU states are a formality really, wave your passport, car papers and a green card and you’re ushered through. We arrived at the Moldovan border on Easter Sunday as the only car for miles around. After driving over a couple of particularly nasty potholes the car was sprayed from below with some kind of milky liquid. The stern looking guard wearing a Soviet-style round cap told us this was disinfectant and we were to pay an ecology tax along with a “special charge” which would ensure us diplomatic treatment and a swift passage onwards. With a bit of imagination we could see the necessity of disinfecting filthy capitalist vehicles from the EU before entering the Republic of Moldova (the jewel in Europe’s crown) but since we were the only car in car in sight, we were a little unsure about the diplomatic “swift passage” bit. After asking for a receipt the “tax” dropped dramatically in price to 5 Moldavian thingamyjigs and we were free to go.
Romanian roads can get a little bumpy off the beaten track but Moldovan routes are something else, probably the worst bits of asphalt I’ve ever seen. We seldom dared to go above 70km/h and still managed to snap one of the exhaust mounting rubbers. For a while we followed a Mercedes E-Class with diplomatic plates (after our border experience we thought safety in numbers was best) passing several police Ladas with no problem. This worked for a while until a particularly bad stretch of missing tarmac set off the Merc’s “emergency mode”. His warning lights went on and his maximum speed dropped to crawling pace. We followed the limping E-Class for quite a while before overtaking and continuing on our own. Promptly, we were stopped by a bored policeman in his Lada, but after checking our papers he waved us on.
Moldova’s capital Chisinau is very pleasant – an easy-going atmosphere, tasty food & fantastic wine (Soviet Moldova used to be one of the USSRs main wine-producing regions). Our apartment turned out to be on the 14th floor of a 16 story concrete block which was a weird experience, in any Western European city you’d expect to see graffiti, drug dealers and burnt out wrecks but this place was totally clean & safe.
Back to Romania, staying in Moiecu de Jos on a farm belonging to the parents-in-law of a former colleague of my wife’s dad (did I ever mention Romanians have a strong sense of family?).
A bit late for skiiing but a pleasant couple of days with 3 warm meals a day, including raw onions with breakfast and home-brewed Ţuică (50%) served in whisky glasses from lunch onwards.
Back to Târgu Mureş via Sigişoara
Met up with V3M Sorin_66 for fantastic traditional Romanian meal (he’s an exceptional cook). Had a good chat about Romania, Moldova and lots about Volvo 300s of course.
Was amazed to hear that my battered daily driver due soon for its MOT would be worth around 2500 Euros as a Romanian used car (that’s ten times the average monthly wage) all due to the government’s policy of extreme taxation on pre-Euro3 used car imports. No car goes to the scrap yard because of rust, all parts (even light clusters) are mended & fixed rather than replaced. A mechanic friend of his fixed my wonky Moldovan-bashed exhaust back into its original place.
Dash back to Germany taking a different route via Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Poland and East Germany. Had a look at a 360 for sale near the Czech border, a fresh MOT, little rust and very well equipped for a German car but the price was steep (980 Euros). Am still considering a buy, but have become even more attached to our trusty 360 with 293500kms in the clock by now ...
All in all 7 countries, 6 currencies and 5300kms in 3 weeks ...
1988
