HOW THIS HAPPENED.
We booked four-day flights to Belgrade because we like brutalist architecture and Serbia is the most brutal place we could think of.
Then our friend M. unexpectedly moved to Sofia — only 420 km away. So we figured we'd just drive over and visit.
Then we started pricing rental cars. Over €400, plus a strong chance of getting scammed out of our security deposit. Over drinks, somebody opened polovniautomobili.com and we saw a Yugo for €400. We joked that we could just buy that instead.
A week later we were still joking about it. A month later we were genuinely planning it. Now we're trying to do it for real — but we don't have the funds.
SO YOU'RE INVITED.
WHO WE ARE
Cybersecurity specialist. Weekends: orienteering and urban exploring. Knows how to drive, doesn't have a license. Navigator, content guy, emergency mechanic-in-spirit.
Physics teacher in a small Latvian town. Hobbies: adventures and drinking. The only one with a driver's license. Therefore the only one legally allowed to get tired.
WHY WE THINK WE CAN DO THIS
Last summer we did Riga → Vilnius → Riga → Tallinn → Riga in 48 hours — about 1,200 km. The car was new and not a Yugo. But Nauris has proven experience driving long and sleeping little — which is most of what this trip is.
THE CAR
A Yugo / Zastava Koral — Yugoslav micro-econobox manufactured in Kragujevac from 1980 to 2008. The brand doesn't exist anymore. Frequently called one of the worst cars ever made. Basically zero examples on the road in Latvia. Driving one home is, in technical terms, dad lore.
We don't know the exact year yet. Looking pre-2000 mostly, late-model 2005 also on the table.