A travel to the end of the old world (Part II, the end of reason)

Good, where were we...yes, why did we buy a Ford Sierra from the 80's?

For quite some time we had been toying with the thought of going on a road trip, not like the ones we had grown quite accustomed to, where we (including my elder brother) rented a new car in a western country like Sweden or Germany and then drove around on perfect roads. No, not this time, instead we had been intrigued by the prospects of buying a car for less than 5000 dkk/1000 USD and driving beyond what any sane person in our social sphere would consider insane. While the big ambition was at the scale of driving from Europe through Iran, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Tibet, China, Mongolia and back through Russia in a VW beetle, then even people with a well developed aptitude for megalomania have their moments of humbleness/realism. In one of these moments we concluded that a smaller practice trip would probably be advisable. Further, I was in the middle of being expatriated to Benin, meaning that we only had 3 weeks available for the venture. The passion for embarking on this kind of challenge was not sparked by schizophrenic seizures causing me to believe I was Phileas Fogg, even though I must admit to being inspired by excentric characters like him. Rather, the desire to see the world, to do something difficult and different, and to prove to myself and to others that many of the limits by which we restrain ourselves are mainly creatures of our own minds were high on the list of reasons for spending many hours on the road in these, to us, unknown territories. As time passed, we had bought the car and made a few preliminary arrangements such as taking time off work and browsing through the various visa rules in eastern Europe we finally decided on a rough route. Even though the philosophy was to go where the wind took us, we had early on agreed on reaching a few check points, namely Ukraine, Turkey and ex Yugoslavia. This common understanding was necessary to ensure that the trip did not turn into a 2 person reenactment of 'Lord of the Flies'. Our choice of vehicle also centered around this blueprint; a cheap, durable, gas guzzling car with a quite simple engine was found to be the best fit for driving through relatively poor countries with bad roads, a high risk of theft and low fuel prices. Finally it would be impossible to take a rental car from western Europe into these countries, so we had to prepare well in advance by buying and insuring the car etc. to make the trip happen.

In essence this was more than drinks by mediterranean beaches and post cards from distant places, it was also embracing and living a philosophy of life, believing that people all around the world are peaceful and friendly, that we live in one world despite different borders, cultures and languages. But most of all it was a deliberate attempt to turn my profound belief that men can be so much more than they are if only they would try into a habit – whenever people tell you that something's impossible, don't believe them, prove them wrong.

But enough reasoning, let's get on to the best part of the trip, the trip!
To give you an idea of what awaits, I've charted our course on below map: