I started out on this trip on April the 15th from Aarhus, Denmark. The company I used to work for has its base here. It's a family operated company, with ten trucks (tractor units). April month is normally full of surprises, weather wise, and this year is no exception! It's snowing! For a start I had to take an empty trailer to a garage in a town called Vejle before I could go to pick up the trailer that was loaded for Bulgaria.
The trailer belongs to a clothing manufacturing company called Brandtex. The company has factories in more countries than just Bulgaria. The load is fabrics and accessories for garment production. After I picked up the trailer I drove to a town called Padborg, situated by the Danish/German border. Here I got my customs papers from our dispatching agent TransCargo, and did the customs formalities. At 4 o'clock I was ready to leave Denmark and head south through Germany. I had company from my colleague Stiig, who's a very good friend of mine as well. We went to Fulda in Germany, and it was time to say good night.
Germany
April 16th. We got up at eight o'clock, and made coffee and at nine o'clock it was time to set out from the motorway services where we parked overnight. It was a morning of normal heavy traffic through Germany to the Austrian border, by Salzburg.
Austria
We had only entered Austria before it started snowing again! Some motorways in Austria were even blocked from the heavy snowfall on this day, so we were quite excited to see what the conditions would be further south, because the motorway from Salzburg to Villach goes up to about 1000 meters above the sea level. Our worst fears nearly came true, because there was roadwork taking place at the entrace of the 5 kilometer long Tauern tunnel, and the traffic came to a complete stop for about 45 minutes.
The tunnel starts on the highest point and the last 2 km's before the the tunnel is quite steep, we barely made the "climb" without mounting snowchains on our traction tyres. On the southern side of the tunnel the weather was fine!
Italy
We entered Italy at the border Arnoldstein/Tarvisio and parked for the night, between Udine and Venice. April 17th, we had to get up early because we were a litle behind schedule. We had a ferry to catch! The ferry was leaving Bari at 6 pm on the same day, and there was still approximately 900 kilometers to go! But even though we were busy, I couldn't help enjoying the scenery from Rimini to Bari. It's roughly 600 kilometers along the Adriatic coast with mountains to the right and the sea to left. It's funny, I just have an urge to listen to Luciano Pavarotti whenever I'm going along this road! To me there is no doubt in my mind why the Italians have made so many operas. It must be pure inspiration from the landscape! Anyway, we made it to Bari in time. In the port of Bari everything was very hectic because of the war in Kosovo/Yugoslavia. There were people from the press, soldiers from various Nato countries and humanitarian aid workers everywhere. I've been to Albania on numerous occasions, and I know how chaotic it usually is when a ship enters the port in Durres (AL) so I can imagine how it must be now with all these people and rolling stock coming in! This time, however, we were headed for Greece. Our ferry left with a small delay and we had a quick meal and a shower, then we were off to bed, because we would enter Greece the next morning at 5 AM.
Greece
April 18th. We arrived in the port of Igoumenitsa 2 hours later than expected, but that's a normal thing with most Greek ferries! We rolled off the old ship and just outside the port we made our coffee and got ready for 4 1/2 hours of hairpins on the road to Trikala.
The road takes you over two mountains: the second one is called Katara. In Greek Katara means "the curse" and it can be during the winter! A lot of people don't think that there is any snowfall in Greece, but they are wrong! The Katara pass goes up to 1695 meters above the sea level and blizzards are very common during the winter there. A lot of snow can be a problem in itself, because the drifts get too high to pass. However, the temperature is seldom below -5 degrees centigrade in Greece and that makes the snow like green soap when you drive in it. When the temp goes below 11 degrees centigrade, the snow will provide a fairly good grip for the tyres, even without the use of snowchains. Nevermind the snow, Stiig and I had a beautiful trip across the mountains, with sun from a clear blue sky, and on days like this, the world's best job is to be a driver! We stopped in Trikala for lunch and continued to Thessalonika, Kavala and on to Komotini, and our working day was over.
We made an early start the next morning because we never know how long it will take us to cross the border into Bulgaria. We made it in less than two hours, which was satisfactory. Crossing the borders into some of the Eastern European countries is a bit of an experience. First you have to take the truck through a shower! In order to have it disinfected!! The price=17,- Deutch Marks! Then you have to pay road tax. In our case this was 92,- Dm per truck. After this you have to go for a passport control. Customs will issue a statistics card. This card is very important. You have to have it stamped by the customs authorities in the place where you unload, to show your whereabouts in Bulgaria (this is one of the remains of the old communist system) and hand it back to customs when you exit the country. After passport control, you have to do the customs formalities regarding the load. You need stamps on your Carnet TIR (a manifest book), invoices and CMR freightletter, then customs will break the seal, have a look at the load and put a new seal on the trailer. Finally they go to the end control where customs will control the work of customs! VOILA! You are now in Bulgaria! We had to start unloading at a factory in Ljubimec, 14 kms from the border. Before unloading, you will have to do customs again! The local customs didn't show up on this day, so we had a small party, Stiig and I. We made something nice to eat and had a few beers, and called it a day.
Bulgaria
The next morning customs arrived at 11 o'clock and broke the seal, and the unloading took place. After unloading, customs put on a new seal, finished our papers and we left for Burgas, Bulgaria, by the Black Sea to unload in the next 3 factories. Luckily these 3 factories are within the same customs area, so once the seal is broken we could unload in all 3 places and start reloading finished hanging garments for Denmark. Travelling in Bulgaria feeds the eyes with so many different impressions- and your behind! Most of the roads are in very bad condition and looking at life in the countryside is like stepping 40 years back in time. The landscape is beautiful. Most of the mountains and a lot of open space is left untouched by man. Farmers are still using horse and donkey carts and a lot of the work they do is manual, where we would normally expect to see machines in the fields.
The open countryside in Bulgaria, just outside of the village of Ljuljakovo, about 50 km northwest of Burgas.
Another leftover from the old system is the hard working Bulgarian women. All the clothing factories are operated almost solely by women. It's no unusual sight to see the men taking a midday nap in the shade of a tree while the women keep on working in the fields. There's no doubt that life hasn't always been a bed of roses in Bulgaria. A lot of people look a lot older than they really are!
Bulgarians are generally a very nice people, and it's easy to make friends with Bulgarians, but travelling along the bigger transit routes, especially after dark, can be dangerous. Foreign truckers have to carry a lot of cash to pay roadtaxes, etc. and creditcards are useless in Bulgaria and Romania, so highway robbery is a too well known thing! Stiig had to load in Burgas and I loaded in Ljuljakovo, Ruen and Pomorie, and on the Friday afternoon we set off towards the city of Ruse loaded with all together 26000 pieces of women's clothing. We slept at a TIR parking in Ruse (a TIR parking is a guarded parking for trucks) and entered the customs area the next morning at 8 o'clock. Ruse is situated on the Danube and is one of the biggest border points into Romania. When entering customs, you start with presenting the roadtax bill from when you entered Bulgaria, then you'll have to pay an additional tax depending on the amount of days spent in BG. In our case we had to pay 92 DM. plus 100 DM for using the bridge crossing the Danube per truck. Then there's the actual customs, where export forms and the Carnet TIR is controlled and stamped and in the end you do the passport control. Ciao Bulgaria..!
I started out on this trip on April the 15th from Aarhus, Denmark. The company I used to work for has its base here. It's a family operated company, with ten trucks (tractor units). April month is normally full of surprises, weather wise, and this year is no exception! It's snowing! For a start I had to take an empty trailer to a garage in a town called Vejle before I could go to pick up the trailer that was loaded for Bulgaria. 
The trailer belongs to a clothing manufacturing company called Brandtex. The company has factories in more countries than just Bulgaria. The load is fabrics and accessories for garment production. After I picked up the trailer I drove to a town called Padborg, situated by the Danish/German border. Here I got my customs papers from our dispatching agent TransCargo, and did the customs formalities. At 4 o'clock I was ready to leave Denmark and head south through Germany. I had company from my colleague Stiig, who's a very good friend of mine as well. We went to Fulda in Germany, and it was time to say good night.
April 16th. We got up at eight o'clock, and made coffee and at nine o'clock it was time to set out from the motorway services where we parked overnight. It was a morning of normal heavy traffic through Germany to the Austrian border, by Salzburg. 
We entered Italy at the border Arnoldstein/Tarvisio and parked for the night, between Udine and Venice. April 17th, we had to get up early because we were a litle behind schedule. We had a ferry to catch! The ferry was leaving Bari at 6 pm on the same day, and there was still approximately 900 kilometers to go! But even though we were busy, I couldn't help enjoying the scenery from Rimini to Bari. It's roughly 600 kilometers along the Adriatic coast with mountains to the right and the sea to left. It's funny, I just have an urge to listen to Luciano Pavarotti whenever I'm going along this road! To me there is no doubt in my mind why the Italians have made so many operas. It must be pure inspiration from the landscape! Anyway, we made it to Bari in time. In the port of Bari everything was very hectic because of the war in Kosovo/Yugoslavia. There were people from the press, soldiers from various Nato countries and humanitarian aid workers everywhere. I've been to Albania on numerous occasions, and I know how chaotic it usually is when a ship enters the port in Durres (AL) so I can imagine how it must be now with all these people and rolling stock coming in! This time, however, we were headed for Greece. Our ferry left with a small delay and we had a quick meal and a shower, then we were off to bed, because we would enter Greece the next morning at 5 AM. 
April 18th. We arrived in the port of Igoumenitsa 2 hours later than expected, but that's a normal thing with most Greek ferries! We rolled off the old ship and just outside the port we made our coffee and got ready for 4 1/2 hours of hairpins on the road to Trikala. 
The road takes you over two mountains: the second one is called Katara. In Greek Katara means "the curse" and it can be during the winter! A lot of people don't think that there is any snowfall in Greece, but they are wrong! The Katara pass goes up to 1695 meters above the sea level and blizzards are very common during the winter there. A lot of snow can be a problem in itself, because the drifts get too high to pass. However, the temperature is seldom below -5 degrees centigrade in Greece and that makes the snow like green soap when you drive in it. When the temp goes below 11 degrees centigrade, the snow will provide a fairly good grip for the tyres, even without the use of snowchains. Nevermind the snow, Stiig and I had a beautiful trip across the mountains, with sun from a clear blue sky, and on days like this, the world's best job is to be a driver! We stopped in Trikala for lunch and continued to Thessalonika, Kavala and on to Komotini, and our working day was over.
We made an early start the next morning because we never know how long it will take us to cross the border into Bulgaria. We made it in less than two hours, which was satisfactory. Crossing the borders into some of the Eastern European countries is a bit of an experience. First you have to take the truck through a shower! In order to have it disinfected!! The price=17,- Deutch Marks! Then you have to pay road tax. In our case this was 92,- Dm per truck. After this you have to go for a passport control. Customs will issue a statistics card. This card is very important. You have to have it stamped by the customs authorities in the place where you unload, to show your whereabouts in Bulgaria (this is one of the remains of the old communist system) and hand it back to customs when you exit the country. After passport control, you have to do the customs formalities regarding the load. You need stamps on your Carnet TIR (a manifest book), invoices and CMR freightletter, then customs will break the seal, have a look at the load and put a new seal on the trailer. Finally they go to the end control where customs will control the work of customs! VOILA! You are now in Bulgaria! We had to start unloading at a factory in Ljubimec, 14 kms from the border. Before unloading, you will have to do customs again! The local customs didn't show up on this day, so we had a small party, Stiig and I. We made something nice to eat and had a few beers, and called it a day. 
The next morning customs arrived at 11 o'clock and broke the seal, and the unloading took place. After unloading, customs put on a new seal, finished our papers and we left for Burgas, Bulgaria, by the Black Sea to unload in the next 3 factories. Luckily these 3 factories are within the same customs area, so once the seal is broken we could unload in all 3 places and start reloading finished hanging garments for Denmark. Travelling in Bulgaria feeds the eyes with so many different impressions- and your behind! Most of the roads are in very bad condition and looking at life in the countryside is like stepping 40 years back in time. The landscape is beautiful. Most of the mountains and a lot of open space is left untouched by man. Farmers are still using horse and donkey carts and a lot of the work they do is manual, where we would normally expect to see machines in the fields. 
The open countryside in Bulgaria, just outside of the village of Ljuljakovo, about 50 km northwest of Burgas. 
Another leftover from the old system is the hard working Bulgarian women. All the clothing factories are operated almost solely by women. It's no unusual sight to see the men taking a midday nap in the shade of a tree while the women keep on working in the fields. There's no doubt that life hasn't always been a bed of roses in Bulgaria. A lot of people look a lot older than they really are! 
Bulgarians are generally a very nice people, and it's easy to make friends with Bulgarians, but travelling along the bigger transit routes, especially after dark, can be dangerous. Foreign truckers have to carry a lot of cash to pay roadtaxes, etc. and creditcards are useless in Bulgaria and Romania, so highway robbery is a too well known thing! Stiig had to load in Burgas and I loaded in Ljuljakovo, Ruen and Pomorie, and on the Friday afternoon we set off towards the city of Ruse loaded with all together 26000 pieces of women's clothing. We slept at a TIR parking in Ruse (a TIR parking is a guarded parking for trucks) and entered the customs area the next morning at 8 o'clock. Ruse is situated on the Danube and is one of the biggest border points into Romania. When entering customs, you start with presenting the roadtax bill from when you entered Bulgaria, then you'll have to pay an additional tax depending on the amount of days spent in BG. In our case we had to pay 92 DM. plus 100 DM for using the bridge crossing the Danube per truck. Then there's the actual customs, where export forms and the Carnet TIR is controlled and stamped and in the end you do the passport control. Ciao Bulgaria..!