Just crossed from Turkey to southern Bulgaria at the easternmost crossing - Malko Tarnovo.

If you don't have Bulgaria marked on your Green Card -- i.e. green cards issued via Knopf Tours -- beware.

There's an Allianz insurance desk on the Bulgarian side asking €74 or 170 lev for the shortest period of cover -- one month. As opposed to the €5 I paid for three months' cover in Turkey.

She would also only accept cash. And only lev or Euros. Not very clever when everyone arriving here has come from Turkey. And there's no ATM or change at the border! Idiots.

One of the border guards was a biker whose jaw hit the floor at the same time as mine when the insurance clerk announced the fee. "I pay 30 lev a year," he told me.

He suggested I ride on to the first big town, Burgas.. or just ride through. I'm loath to do that. But then I checked with the local Allainz office here -- 115 lev for a year! Minimum.

I'm going to chase this up with Allianz.. for all the good I expect it to do. Someone's making money out of this and while I'm no fan of insurance companies, I like cheats even more.

Oh, and while I'm here, the Turkish customs authorities needed a photocopy of my passport and Trkish insurance sheet for their records -- so sent me off to the litle post office to get it. At a cost of 1 Turkish lira -- about 30 pence GB. Get your own bloomin' photocopy, you cheapskates! Just because it's a small scam, it's still a scam.

[Loved Turkey. Loving Bulgaria. Not very good at moaning.]

__________________
www.BesideTheSeaside.eu
---I'm back. Now what?---