Hello from Bulgaria!

Hi Folks, it's been such a long time! We've been through Hungary and Romania and are currently with our friend Bobbi in Plovdiv, Bulgaria.

When we last wrote, we were in Lodz. We stayed there longer than we thought trying to get a spare wheel for the truck. We've got a spare tyre and inner tube, but not a wheel. After we managed to get it ordered at Iveco, we returned to Warsaw to pick up our battery charger. Thanks to Luka for picking it up for us.

We returned to Lodz only to find that Iveco had sent an incomplete wheel. Nightmare! So, we decided to head south and get to Istanbul. We were due to go to Odessa, but are hoping to go there after we have sorted our Iranian visa out. We thought a tour up the coast of the Black sea would be pretty cool.

So, I'm going to try and get some chronological order to what we've done. We left Warsaw after sampling an Eastern Bloc themed restaurant (Tito steak, Stalin sausages!) and lots of vodka and a severe hangover the next day (ok, Jo was worse than Mark). I should say that we did look around the old town and a lovely park, as well as seeing some more of the city!

We headed for Auschwitz on the Friday, planning to meet Amanda and Ali there. We had hoped by now that our battery charger would have turned up, but it hadn't and we decided to go south as we could go to Auschwitz and Kracow with Amanda and Ali, so thats what we did.

(Mark) As you can imagine, going to Auschwitz is an experience that is very difficult to put into words. Jo has just tried and put the computer down. I feel the experience was even more poignant due to her family background. Her great-grandfather was Jewish and came from Poland and luckily escaped the holocaust, but she is unsure whether other members of the family were so fortunate. It appears that many Polish young people visit as a matter of course during their school lifetime which is fantastic.

I feel that everyone should go to see it, not out of some morbid curiosity, but for the fact that it really does bring home that the world really has not fully learnt the lessons from this period of time.

(Jo) I couldn't explain the feelings as they are so upsetting, but I feel like Mark, that it is important to bear witness to what happened. I also feel that at the moment, when I see the British National Party with two MEPs, that we should remember what these people stand for. I don't believe Nazis should have a right to speak or to a platform. They don't recognise other people's right to life, never mind their right to speak.

We have to sign off now as we're being taken to the Bulgarian coast. We'll be back soon with the rest of trip so far and some of the lovely people we've met, the experiences we've had and the scenery we've seen.

xx