Was this the trick you used??
Joke aside, that looked like a really cool entertaining trip, with the car problems included, an eastern European adventure is never complete without some kind of a car problem. About your breathing problems, did you ever try to live for a longer while in a place/country with a hot and dry type of weather?
I did not lived in hot and dry place but it was suggested to me few times already. Well, maybe it's time to move to Middle East 😃
Out of all the options available, I would have never thought that you'd be mentioning Middle East:)))))