Advertisement
Published: March 2nd 2007
Edit Blog Post
The bearded Spectacle
Happy as a clam about 1hr into Bulgaria As the anethisis of healthy good living long distance cyclists we decided on a whim to head to Bulgaria for a week.
This rather random decision came about due to bearacracy! We sidled up to the Iranian consultate in Erzerum pretty much as soon as we got to town. To be told that we would have to wait 10 days for a response on our application. The main reason that Bulgaria was chosen was that the capital Sophia was the only eastern european city on the Lonely Planet Turkey map. After a good stint on the bike and leading a lifestyle of purity it seemed like the best decision to head to a place where we could get beer, goto some bars, and eat some different food.
So after 5 minutes of discussion it was set- hi ho, hi ho off to Bulgaria we would go.
The trip would entail a marathon 30 hours on buses. Too easy when the destination was so attractive.
First we got an overnight bus from Erzerum to Istanbul. This lasted the better part of 20 hours. I was pretty stoked to be back in Istanbul. Even if it was only the
bus station. Over the last few months I have come and gone about half a dozen times from Istanbul. As the sun was creeping over the horizon to greet antother day we crossed the Bosphourus straight on route to the otogar I reflected on all the awesome sights I have seen and people I have met since leaving home in September. The start of my trip seemed so long ago but cruising past some familiar territory brought back a lot of memories and I felt pretty damn lucky to be able to be doing this trip.
Pretty soon we were at the otogar. As usual the place was a hub of activity. From this massive building buses come and go to pretty much anywhere in continental europe, the middle east and north to russia. The place is about the size of the largest malls in Australia. At any time there are about 100 buses in the place, there are about 100 or so bus companies all trying to sell tickets to unsuspecting tired tourists.
We dove off the bus full of piss and vinegar. I had done some research and knew where we wanted to go. And being a regular at this place the ticket touts had nothing on me. In about 10 minutes we had two tickets to Sophia. After a quick cuppa and snack we boarded a rickity circa 1980's mercedes benz bus headed direct to Bulgaria.
The sun was rising and the day was looking good. We motored at pace through the green undulating hills of the turkish countryside. After a few hours we were at the border. The countryside hadnt changed but there were signs in english, turkish and now cyrilic. As a poor student of the russian language (bulgarian and russian share the cyrilic alphabet and have many commonalities. and as bulgaria was a formally under the russian yoke many people can speak or at least understand russian) it was a great chance to practice reading and speaking cyrilic- even if I didnt know what most of them meant.
Crossing the border was pretty painless. The best part being duty free alcohol. We got a couple of bottles and jumped back on the bus. As we got on an old, weathered double bent bulgarian babushka motioned for us to take some of her duty free ciggies for her. The wily old lass was doing a little duty free border run scam. Of course we obliged.
And so into Bulgaria we sped. After about two minutes of being in Bulgaria the vodka was opened and we proceeded, with a new Bulgarian friend and the friendly bus condutor, to have several rounds of the sweet liquid. Each round was tosted and each round was savoured. Our Bulgarian pal opted out after a couple saying he had to drive- sensible man and the conductor also took his leave. That just left Spectacle and myself to continue the toasting. We tosted Australia, Turkey, Russia and of course Bulgaria.
While the landscape still hadnt changed the built environment definately had.
Houses had a more western look- arched roofs, wooden doors, picket fences, a nice change to the standard cube house style in the middle east. Apartment blocs had a definate Russian hint. Grey, concrete and about 10 stories high these disasters of style would loom large in the bus windows as we sped thrugh towns. A bit of colour was added when people were drying their clothes or sheets by hanging them out the windows. Cars had the Russian style as well. Boxy, stocky and stout are words that come to mind. And of course the people had changed. Gone was the dark middle east features of the people, gone were the headscarves and chadors, gone were the ??? the baggy pants worn by turkish farmers. In their place were faces that were a touch more european in look but definately distinct in their eastern european features- a bit rounder and slightly more stern looking than your average white anglo man. The female half wore pretty much anything. Short skirts, tight jeans, shorts, reveling tops- definately a welcome change for your average Australian man!
We stopped in at Plovdiv for a qiuck snack and toilet break. Our first taste of Bulgaria (well second, we had almost finished the vodka). With broken Russian we brought a hotdog and jumped on the bus. While a hotdog may not seem like much just this little piece of food was sooo nice as a change from the standard doner or schawarma,and it was pretty good ordering it in Russian. I was already getting stoked on the gastronomical possibilities of this place!
It was now getting dark and I have to say we were getting very keen to get to Sophia. A few more increasingly ludicrous toasts and before we knew it we were deposited at the Sophia bus terminal.
Arrival!
It may or may not have been the booze but it took a while to find the hostel. But it didnt realy matter as the city was such a change to middle eastern cities that just walking around was enjoyable enough- beer in hand of course.
Eventually found the Hostel Mostel (top place) then more importantly went and found a Chinese restaurant. And we ate and ate and ate. Having these new flavours and textures was absolutely awesome. Spider was in awe at the amount of food I managed to put away. Needless to say after dinner I went to sleep, not really being able to stand or talk for any longer than a couple of minutes.
Ahhh Bulgaria, I was already falling for her......
Advertisement
Tot: 0.127s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 16; qc: 79; dbt: 0.0729s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb