Veliki Preslav to....VARNA and The Black Sea - 14th June 2010

You know what ? Maya and Yvan even prepared a picnic for my lunch ! I left this very nice family with emotion and started to pedal, pedal and pedal...a little bit like a robot, I have to say. But there's a good reason, you'll see. During my lunch break, some children started to "talk" with me : they actually practised their english and asked me : "Are you german ?"-"Are you italian ?'-"Are you spanish ?"...and so on and so forth. I think they named almost all the european countries of the Football World Cup :-).

Then...I arrived in Varna, at the Black Sea !!! My final bike destination (I'll go to Bucharest either by bus or train) ! That means that the biking part of my trip is finished ! I am quite happym and surprised, actually. Here is the picture :

Veliki Preslav - 13th June 2010

I spent the day with Yordan's family : his mother, Maya, his father, Yvan, his sister, Juli and her boy-friend, Valentin. They actually hosted me as if I was their daughter and like a princess ! The temperature outside is 35 degrees. A peacegul bulgarian sunday : we went to the market, shelled walnuts, ate fried zucchini with yoghourt, watched the World Football Cup and family pictures. Maya and Yvan brought me to the ruins of the former Veliki Preslav from the 9th century and prepared delicious "kevabche" (boulettes de viande grillees).

NB : Life in Bulgaria is not easy (a doctor earns 250 euros a month...), so inhabitants make a lot of different kind of activities in order to have a better life -besides their jobs- : picking up and selling cherries, making and selling honey, cutting the wood for the winter, eating most of the vegetables and fruits from the garden...and so on. A lot of young people go abroad to earn money : in the 90's, there were 9 millions inhabitants ; today, there are only 7 millions. The government is highly corrupted and Bulgaria is quite afraid of the giant Turkey. That's a short summary, actually, but...

Voditsa-Veliki Preslav - 12th June 2010

...or how to drink 0.75 liters of Coca-Cola in 1/2 hour : take a bike, wait til the outside temperature raises til 33 degrees, ride the bike for 2-3 hours, stop it and order Coca-Colas in a Cafe ! Very simple...

I left Vodita and Yvonne early in the morning, slaloming between the cows, and I am now in Veliki Preslav, in Yordan's family (from Couch-Surfing). That's so funny and great this couch-surfing : I just jump from one atmospher to another, from nice people to great family ! Yordan is actually in Denmark but he told his family that I was coming. So, I found his mother in her office, the Lotto ("Toto" in bulgarian, as he told me) and we went to pick up cherries in the hill with his sister and her boy-friend (mmmmhhh) and had the dinner a few hours later. And now, I know why Bulgarians say Yes and No in the opposite of us with their heads :-).

As Nicolas Bouvier wrote : "On croît que l'on va faire un voyage, mais bientôt c'est le voyage qui vous fait, ou vous défait." That's what is happening with Bulgaria : this country is the one I knew the less about and had absolutly no expectations about it. Well, til now, it seems that I will have spent almost half of my journey in Bulgaria, I met and will meet many different interesting people and I learn a lot about this country. Super !

I have a dream...

I have a dream that one day, I could get rid of these cycling sun-burnt legs... :-)

Voditsa - 11th June 2010

I spend the day with Yvonne, between the market in Popovo (the nearest city), the garden and its hamac and her old car called "Moscovitch" : a nice and peaceful day !

I wanted to add a few things that I forgot to write :
1/ Varna, my final bike destination, is 200 kms from where I am right now
2/ It's getting hot in here...
3/ I am quite sad that there were no couch-surfers In Romania because it really changes my trip in a very nice and interesting way...
4/ You can buy plastic glasses filled with white or red wine in the supermarket, look !

Veliko Tarnovo-Voditsa - 10th June 2010

I cycled out of Veliko Tarnovo, fresh as a fish, and met a first big steep hill : I kind of swam in my sweat, but the landscape was really beautiful. It was 30 degres, today, and that was quite hot to climb with my bike the bulgarian hills. At the end of the afternoon, with flies sticked on my arms, I knocked at Yvonne's door, a dutch woman who enjoys life in a bulgarian rural village for a few months. She opened her door and a bottle of bier and cooked a delicious dinner.

Veliko Tarnovo - 9th June 2010

I walked in Veliko Tarnovo, a very weird (and tiring) city, as it is built on steep hills : you keep going up and down through tiny streets and stairs. But I enjoyed losing my way in these small paved alleyways and climbing at the top of the fortress.

In the evening, Hristo and I went to the bus station, under the rain, to pick up 2 french Canadian girls (also from Couch-Surfing), who are travelling for 4 months in Southern Europe. Hristo cooked his famous Banica (delicious) and we went into an empty piano-bar downtown : that was a nice multicultural evening in Veliko Tarnovo.

NB : Bulgarians do the opposite of us with their heads to say YES and NO, like in India ! Quite confusing at first.

Polsko Kosovo-Veliko Tarnovo - 8th June 2010

On the road again ! I left Miro and his family this morning to cycle til Veliko Tarnovo (on the map) through small bulgarian roads. The countryside is much more hilly than the previous days but it doesn't bother me, it's even more interesting.

I arrived in Veliko Tarnovo in the afternoon and enjoyed eating on a terrace, full of students and youngsters. It's the first big and dynamic city I visit since Belgrade. I will meet Arnie, a bulgarian guy from Couch-Surfing, after his work this evening.

I met Arnie in the evening and actually, he is absolutly not bulgarian, he is a flamish belgium :-). And he lives with 2 funny and crazy bulgarian guys at the top of the hill, in a kind of Spanish Apartment where many people from Couch-Surfing come. Very funny and interesting ! Their flat smells roses because one of the roommate brought back roses petals from the Valley of Roses in Bulgaria, where is produced a huge quantity of rose oil for all over the world.

NB : Dandelions ("pissenlits") are absolutly huge in Bulgaria !

Polsko Kosovo (Bulgaria) - 7th June 2010

For the ones who haven't really understood where Polsko Kosovo is : I am, on my map, 50 kms at the north of Veliko Tarnovo, in Bulgaria.

I spend the day in Miro's village, especially with his nice daughter, Nora, who is 9 1/2 years old, listens to ACDC, Bon Jovi and a ska version of "I'm a Barbie girl", speaks english quite well (we both run to Google Translation when we don't understand each other :-) and beat me at the Monopoly. We walked together in the village this morning and we'll go for a bike ride this afternoon :-).

In the evening, in this peaceful atmospher, I shelled peas with Netka (Nora's grand-mother) and went for a walk with Miro and Crasi above the river. Then, we discussed on the bench of their house, in the street. Nora was playing around the fire made by their neighbours, firelies were fluttering around and cars and horse-carts were going through us. Nice evening !

NB : Miro grows some mushrooms in very weird plastic bag, full of hay and other things, that he waters with a spray !

Turnu Magurele- Bjala (Bulgaria) - 6th June 2010

I pedaled on my bike faster than usually, today, to reach Miro's house and family, who lives in Polsko Kosovo (Bulgaria) and will host me tonight. Unfortunately, the ferry I wanted to take just left after I arrived in Zimnicea (Romania) and I had to wait in the city for 4 hours. This waiting was quite unpleasant because some naughty youngsters insulted me (in Romanian) and took my delicious cookies, in the park...

When I finally managed to get on the boat, the controller made a big stink because of the price of the tickets, I got scared at the border but the customs officer told me "Go, go, no problems !"...I didn't understand anything...

Then, I rode in this "dangerous" Bulgaria (as people told me...) and finally met in the evening Miro, his wife and 2 children in their village near Bjala : I felt so relieved to be hosted by such nice people and family. Their house(s) is very nice, I ate strawberries from the garden and drunk Rakja by discussing with them and slept very well !

Bechet-Turnu Magurele - 5th June 2010

Still in Romania !

I finally met, in a bakery, one romanian guy who spoke english and explained me that this area of the country is one of the poorest and that all the youngsters run away from here (and from Romania actually) because the wages are so low (he is a dentist and earns 400 euros per month, as an example).

I crossed Corabia, a former industrial city with huges abandonnned factories, which looks like as ghost city, now...and I reach Turnu Magurele in the afternoon, a quite pleasant city with green parks and a nice cathedral.
In this part of Romania, there are a lot of sedentary Romani (also called Gypsies in english).
Tomorrow, I will cross the border between Romania and Bulgaria...I'll see !

NB :
Romanian women and men do not sit at the same tables in Cafe, bar or restaurant (when there are women, which is not so common)

Calafat-Bechet - 4th June 2010

This morning, through these rural romanian villages which all look similar, one youngster followed me with his bike and loud Disco music on his mobil : quite funny !

Well, today, I think I went through this paranoia crisis, known by travellers, especially when you are on your own. Inhabitants' faces (especially in the shops) are quite unpleasant and nobody really tries to communicate with me : avoiding eyes...And all the people I meet only tell (or try to tell) me that I'm crazy to be alone, that it's very dangerous, especially in Bulgaria (it's always dangerous more far further, actually, when you travel)...in the end, it started to frighten me ! The pictures say the opposite of what I'm writing...Anyway, that's what I felt :-).

I rode til Bechet, where an old huge guy, looking like this hideous Jabba from Star Wars, rent me one apartment. I was not very reassured, among the earthenware dogs, the pictures of Jesus and the barking dogs...