Yeah, BC went by in a blur. I did a total of like 15 quests outside the dungeons in Hellfire and Terokkar. The most drawn out slog of the leveling process was actually 81-85. That last level is just painful. Though I love Vashj'ir, so I went from 80-84 just by finishing that zone alone and it made it better.
Oh and I didn't have any gathering profession, I was kicking myself for that. Mining/herb is such a nice way to grab experience on the way to 85.
Yeah, I just finished Northrend not that long ago, and it felt like it went by too fast. Went from 70-80 in Borean Tundra, Dragonblight, and maybe half of Icecrown. Didn't even do a dungeon there.
Surprisingly, my crafted Ebon gear from BC held up that entire time, though I supplemented some of my other stuff with Epic PvP stuff, and had that pretty much the entire time up to 80. Managed to get my Skinning and Mining up at least.
Working my way through Hyjal and Vashj'ir now. Got most of Hyjal done, just a few more quests before I'm done with it for the moment. Just hit 83 not that long ago.
Can't comment on BC since I hadn't done that in years (when I first did it, I hit 70 just by doing all the quests in Hellfire, Terrokar, and most of Nagrand). I imagine it's much easier to do now.