fionavicky

Our growing laziness had not evaded us and our estimated time of departure from Plovdiv began to be aimed much later during the day. The "fast" train was slightly too soon for us to move from the cosy garden social area in the hostel, and we were ambivalent as to getting the "slow" train since we had little else planned that day really! Plus the slower train was a little cheaper as our faux budget tightened. After about three and a half hours, we arrived in the capital of Bulgaria - Sofia! Now, our treat... We had decided earlier on in the trip that it would be rather lovely to stay in a hotel in Sofia to treat ourselves at the end of the trip, go home rested and clean, and enjoy the privacy of a ... read more

So, it was time to part from the mountains - probably appropriate since our pace of travelling and general movement had become extremely slow. Our next destination was not Varna (like every other backpacker) but Plovdiv, Bulgaria's second city. We took the train again, preferring perhaps unwisely legroom over the option of an air-conditioned bus. Arriving at Veliko Tarnovo station (after some expert Bulgarian language attempts to the taxi driver) we were rather bemused as to how to obtain a ticket as the woman was shut firmly behind her screen doing her best to ignore us. Luckily though, the people of Veliko Tarnovo are pretty helpful and a young girl came over and did everything for us which was rather nice of her! Again, this train journey involved a change - but it wasn't remote as ... read more

Veliko Tarnovo After the festival in Bourgas, we were just about recovered enough the next morning to dawdle down to the train station and head on to Veliko Tarnovo (the medieval capital of Bulgaria). The idea of our next destination was some mountain based recuperation. The journey we took required one change, and we were rather dubious as to whether we would know when due to most signs being in cyrillic. Anyway, we did succeed in our change, which was in the middle of nowhere!! So basically, we were standing on a platform in the middle of Bulgaria, just waiting for a train to appear on the horizon. Nevertheless, we weren't alone - Veliko Tarnovo is a popular stop off on the backpacker trail so there were lots of other bemused foreigners with us. While we ... read more

Well, Burgas... There's not too much to report as most of our days followed a similar pattern - get up late, get lunch, go to beach, get dinner, go to festival, go to bed etc. However, we shall endeavour to elaborate as we can... On the first full day we actually decided to go and arm ourselves with some reading material. As usual, when you find an bookshop with English literature you are somewhat restricted to the Penguin/Wordsworth classics. So, between us we have two Thomas Hardy novels - Far from the Madding Crowd and Fair Blue Eyes... a good old bit of tragic love story to depress you on the beach. As for the beach, well, how much can we explain? It had sun.... sea.... and sand! Altogether quite a nice beach, in fact, on ... read more

Finally, another blog update - it seemed the recent lack of entry rather concerned someone (Mother Bywaters) as to whether we are still alive - but I can safely say we are. The lack of updates is mostly due to the fact that for the past few days, we have been chilling on the beach and going to the festival at night, leaving very little time/energy to write anything. Plus, using internet that is about as fast as dial-up is mental torture. So, where we left off was in Bucharest - anticipating our ridiculously early start for the bus to the Bulgarian coast. Having got up at 5.45am, we were waiting bleary eyed in a car park next to the Gara de Nord for the coach, watched over by some community dogs. The bus was a ... read more

After our first visit only involving the McDonalds of Gara de Nord before heading to Chisinau, we hoped to make more of this visit... which began... in McDonalds. Although in fairness this was to have a coffee after a long night train. The coffee was also much needed due to the fact we were using public transport to get to the hostel, always confusing when you have absolutely no idea how. In fact, it took us an hour to find the correct bus stop and buy a ticket and even then we got off at the wrong stop, although this was only one further down the line. Anyway, we found the hostel, have a twin private room and all is well. As usual, a nap followed the night train. Once human again, we ventured out to ... read more

Since we have done very little in the last two days of our trip to Moldova (what with the first two being eventful enough) this posting will probably be more observational about Moldova.... Anyway, picking up where we left off: After a team doctor (Vicky) and nurse (Fiona) effort on the dutch boys - due to the shoddy quality of Chisinau hospital care - we dropped them off at the station late in the day. This was good for us because it meant we had a free taxi ride to get our train tickets for the following day and also we were fairly knackered due to the fact that we had got in at 6am and then spent most of the day fixing them up. We then walked back from the station, which was rather horrific ... read more

So while fiona was deliberately trying to detain herself in a soviet republic state I successfully slept off my hangover and planned the rest of our onward travels before popping to the local supermarket for food. After copious faffing in the hostel I wanderd to the archiologie museum only to find it was randomly closed on that day. So i sat in the minimal sunshine with a drink and wandered back to meet the others after their somewhat more adventurous and from what i understand stressful trip. The 4 of us then grabbed a taxi to FC Zimbru football stadium (the only international regulation stadium in Moldova). They were playing against FC Dacia - both local Chisinau teams so we had in fact put ourselves in the middle of a local derby - trouble i hear ... read more

Transnistria Wikipedia - Transnistria Having met our new dutch friends, Vicky no longer felt obliged to go to a territory where she might never come back from so I (Fiona) headed off for the adventure! Obviously, given the night before it was rather a later start than planned... but we made it to the central bus station around midday and headed off to Transnistria in a negotiated private car with some other randoms. After some standard perilous driving, we arrived at the border and definitely on our best behaviour. Now we'd heard all sorts of stories about the border control - bribes, fines, threats etc etc. We had prepared ourselves with some dollars and thought we could blag it. But, suprisingly, absolutely no need. It was a perfectly simple border crossing! We filled out a form, ... read more

Well, Moldova, where to start? It's Europe's poorest country and we headed straight into it, using the transport more commonly known as... the friendship train!! Or at least that's what our new Moldovan friend Victor told us... Anyway, this story requires a more logical approach. We left Brasov on a lovely night train (lovely because it actually had beds) and headed towards Chisinau with very little idea of what lay ahead. First of all, we met our new dutch friends - Oliver and Christian, who have now been adopted slightly because they're 18 and well, they need guidance as you'll realise once this story continues. The other person we met on the train was Victor, a Moldovan who has been studying in Michigan for 8 years and had come back to Moldova for a wedding - ... read more