Bulgarian police in action

In a desperate attempt to keep this in some chronological order, I am posting first our Bulgarian adventures, followed by our current Italy ones.
Once in BG, after two hectic days, we left for the coast near Balchik to stay for a few days with my Aunt and Uncle. Needless to say, the nearly 7 hour trip there was NOT fun. We borrowed my mother's car, whose A/C does not work. Cleverly, we decided to leave around 5 am, to avoid the heat and the crazy BG drivers (which we have affectionately dubbed MRs, or Masters of the Road, which is a rough approximation of the Georgian expression djigit). Merrily on our way, the Diplomat decided to show off his mad driving skills on my mother's 1996 WV Golf and so he drove 130 km/hr. Which was fine while we were on the highway but not when it ended (rather abruptly, I might say in his defense). We were immediately apprehended by a stern if portly police fella. He approached us frowning and upon seeing our blank stares out of the window, yelled, “Documents!” The Diplomat primly puled out his NYC driving license while I was fiddling with some papers my mom had given me re: insurance and whatnot. The cop stared in disbelief at the Diplomat's license, looked at him and neurotically yelled again, “BAVNO (slowly). Autobahn FINISH!!!!!” and waved us off in disgust. It was fun.
The Black Sea coast was gorgeous as usual. Balchik surprised me with its amenities and beauty, and Albena had a fabulous beach and clay tennis courts (to Diplomat's utter delight, naturally). Son pranced around the beaches with his naked bum and messy blond curls, charming every old lady in his way. He also forced Aunt and Uncle's giant and vicious German Shepherd to be friends with him and by the end of our stay was happily shoving apples down his throat. That dog had never eaten so much produce in his life, I can assure you.
Which leads me to my next thought—Son has no fear. None whatsoever. He is an exceptionally active child (which is exhausting for his parents) and does not possess the concept of risk. I get worried at times at his complete lack of caution. Others find it oh so endearing. I can imagine him years from now giving me sky diving lessons as Mother's Day gift thinking it is “like the awesomest gift ever.”
One more thing regarding travel: the person who invented the portable DVD that attaches to the headrest of the seat in front for long car rides is a genius and should be made super rich. Elmo rocks—he kept Son in his car seat for a very long time!