Extra Costs to Car-Ownership in BG

The last few days I have been running around trying to take care of things I should have done a long time ago. But since they involve dealing with Bulgarian bureaucracy of various sorts, I have been putting them off for a while. One such chore--renewing my driver's licence. Turned out that it wasn't all that hard, but getting to the traffic police office was a pain (there is only one location where you can get this done in Sofia), especially in the heat we have been experiencing lately. I actually went twice. Once, to find out what documents I needed and the second time to hand my documents in. Not that bad, given that I was done in under 10 mins both times. However, both times that I went there was looooong line of cars waiting to be registered. The line actually continued for a kilometer or more. Turns out that people sometimes wait for 24 hours or longer to register their car. I have heard horror stories of drivers starting to line up in the middle of the night, often sleeping in their cars, in the hopes of being able to go through in one day. I can't imagine what that must be like. And I also can't believe that there is only one location in all of Sofia where you can register your car. Thankfully, I have not had to go through this myself... but it kind of makes me think twice about the prospect of getting a car. The only upside I can think of is that you bond with other drivers and get to meet new people by hanging out in the shade together. :)