On to Mongolia

And now, with that bit of nostalgia all wrapped up, it was time to approach the Mongol Rally a tad more seriously - after all the event was a mere month away, and I still didn't have a car. So I took a flight to Berlin, as Germany seemd to have a fair number of 25+ year old mini's, which was my goal, and spent a lot of time abusing the free internet at my hostel trying to find one. Finding a car in Berlin turned out to be a bit more difficult than I'd hoped, but I'd eventually settled on a 1981 mini, in good condition, in Paris. The car was on eBay, I won the auction by putting in a bid with 30 seconds left (the other bidders annoyed me by needlessly raising the price price I was going to have to pay by bidding early) and by the next morning, I was on a plane to Paris to meet the new baby:

Isn't she beautiful
The sheer irony of an American buying a car in France, featuring a British flag on the roof was not lost on me. But the car appears to be in excellent condition, for being 27 years old - hardly any rust, no leaks, hasn't been in any accidents, and has generally been well taken care of. Now, I have a couple of minor technical issues to overcome - namely getting the car insured and registered in my name, even though I don't actually have a permanent address in France, which apparently is a requirement for registration. Everything was closed today (Sunday), so tomorrow I get to try and find the one English speaking employee of the Paris prefecture and explain what I want to do. Somehow, I don't think my rather limited command of French will be sufficient to describe my plans or what the Mongol Rally is. Oh well, it wouldn't be an adventure if it was easy, and at least, the bureaucrats here can't be as bad as the ones in Russia, right?