..Country number 11..
Bulgaria, a country pretty new to us!
Only Rebecca has been here before – believe it or not – for a skiing holiday back in the 80’s! She loved the smoothness of the slopes, no steep gradients, no moguls (bumps), plenty of blue runs and a great après-ski ambience…
More than 20 years later, I’ve tried to introduced Rebecca to my kind of skiing and after a few days, we ended up having to look for a new winter hobby we could do together…
Anyway, that’s obviously all snow from yesterday and in fact, by the time I am writing this, we'll have left Bulgaria already and are in Turkey!
..Reasons to pass through Bulgaria..
Firstly, following the Danube on our way to Istanbul meant, at some point we would reach Bulgaria and have to turn south towards Turkey and secondly, I’ve promised Plamen, the successor of my Head Chef job in Oxford, we'd go and visit his mother and brother in a small village in the middle of Bulgaria! And here we are!
We entered Bulgaria two and a half weeks ago, coming from Negotin (Serbia) and crossing the border in Bregovo.
Bregovo is on the north-western corner of the country and this region is regarded as the ‘poorer’ part of the country. There appeared to be quite a lot of old, dilapidated infrastructure around.
Old, broken & rusty machinery standing around and not being used for years, buildings in various stages of decay, new builds which never got finished, agricultural land – some clearly used and looked after and some overgrown and neglected.
Still signs from the time when Bulgaria was under the rule of communism which ended in the late 80’s, we were told. It was quite difficult to put into perspective how it all fits together..
We cycled through villages which appeared to be almost empty and apart from barking dogs, only some elderly people were to be seen. Interestingly, more than once, some of those people spoke German! People who have spent part of their working lives in Germany or Austria before returning back to Bulgaria to enjoy their retirement.
Nevertheless, being an unusual distraction to both, dogs and people, we kept each other entertained for the short moments of passing by.
..Roads..
The roads through Bulgaria weren’t always of the smoothest type but overall, they were a positive experience for us!
As further south-east we cycled, as more we found a different Bulgaria. Infrastructure seemed to be much better, villages became more lively, people were sitting outside the village shops chatting and drinking coffee. Less barking dogs and more children, making the noises playing children make, and regularly there was the smell of bbq-ing meat coming from houses we were passing.
When entering towns and villages, we only had to find the town square and almost without fail, we find a café, a shop, some shade and benches to sit on.
Another thing all towns and villages seem to have in common is the plentifulness of statues of persons on display. Too many to admire each and every one but obviously, those people must have had some importance in the history of Bulgaria!
And there was one thing they all had in common: They are all MEN…
Generals, politicians, soldiers, musicians, artists and even a statue of a ‘city clown/mentally disturbed’ man who made a name for himself we’ve found.
Dear Bulgaria(ns), we also want to know about your fantastic, influential and successful females please!
After crossing the Balkan mountains we finally arrived in the little village where we visited the mother of my former work colleague and his brother, who also worked for me nearly 8 yeas ago!
It didn’t take long to break the ice: An excellent spread of homemade goodies for lunch which was all prepared by Plamen’s mother was followed by a visit to the neighbouring village to celebrate the day of the holy brothers Cyril and Methodius honoring their contributions to the Bulgarian alphabet and to celebrate Slavic literature, local culture and dress. Not that we were able to follow any of the speeches held on the day, it was nice to see the local community coming together, chatting, dancing, drinking and celebrating on the village square!
Later on, and another lovely spread of food later, we found ourselves with some beers and cigars sitting outside their house, chatting into the night!
Many thanks to the Dobrev’s, it was a pleasure to meet and catch up with you!
The next morning, laden with honey from the their own bees, homemade strawberry jam and some Rakia (fruit Brandy), our journey continued.
..Lovely Countryside..
The countryside in the center of Bulgaria is beautiful! We mostly cycled through undulated, arable land where different crops were growing.
From everyday vegetables to wheat and corn and it was left to our imagination how beautiful those huge fields of sunflowers will be looking when in full bloom!
As we were rolling along quite early in the morning, we saw how quick hands were picking the last of this seasons rose petals which will mainly go to the perfume industry. The farmer gets 4 lev per kilogram of petals. The pickers get 2 lev for the same amount. We got to know, a good picker can harvest over 30 kg in a morning.
After having spent a couple of days in Plovdiv which was the European Capital of Culture 2019 (see separate blog) we headed further south-east towards the Turkish border and in Harmanli, WE FOUND IT!
A huge statue of a Bulgarian female! Gergana, a beautiful Bulgarian girl which was celebrated in the poem ‘The Spring of the White-Legged Woman’ written by Petro Slaveykov – a legend yes, but not one who ever lived..
And as we get closer to the Turkish border, we have time to reminisce a bit more about Bulgaria and the things we’ve seen, liked and less liked!
..Local Foods..
The simple, traditional food was always tasty and satisfied our cyclists appetites! Braised dishes appear to dominate the menus followed by grilled meats. Cooked vegetables are not featuring in a big way on their menus but most dishes are served with fresh salad which we appreciated. Chips were usually rather soggy and not crisp fried as we know them.
..Coffee Vending Machines..
A total hit! They appear everywhere! It never took long to spot one of those machines when we felt like having caffeine boost! Some even had tables and chairs next to them and the locals would sit and chat and drink coffee from the vending machine. In the countryside, a small coffee would cost around 40 pence. In towns this could go up to 90. And surprisingly, the coffee out of those Lavazza vending machines tastes fine and always ‘hit the spot’!
..Dropped Curbs..
What’s the point of building kilometers of cycle ways into and through larger towns but not having m(any) dropped curbs crossing side roads? And they were mostly 'proper' curbs! The type we had to lift our bikes back up to the path! It makes me think some of the city planners weren’t cyclists or there was too much Rakia involved in the planning phase…
..Garbage & fly-tipping..
Our navigation app Komoot does mostly a great job! It takes us off the busiest roads on to minor roads and also cycable tracks. Unfortunately, too often when we were riding those tracks through beautiful rural landscapes, the scenery was diminished by all the fly-tipping…
..Storks..
We love the storks!
As they are a bird we don’t see in the UK, we get quite exited when we come across stork nests high up on lamp or telegraph posts! On our journey, we saw the storks from working on their nests to observing their young chooks, scouting out of the nests!
..People..
We thought, the Bulgarians are a bit more reserved compared to the people we met further West. Yes, we had some lovely encounters, like when we met Alexander (back) and Atanas (front) in a remote village near Dimitrovgrad. Alexander used to make pizzas in Edmonton (London) and was also digging up trenches in Ireland for internet cabling. And this we were all told over coffee out of the vending machine, offered by Alexander. Thank you!
Also, many people have been waving to us when cycling past and everyone was helpful and tried to help when we had questions, even with the language barrier between us. But we did think people are a bit less curious, mind their own business and just carry on with their day. Not necessarily a bad thing though!
..Water Troughs..
As the weather got warmer, our water consumption increased. And as not all domestic water supplies are save to drink in Bulgaria, those water fountains on route came in handy to refill and to cool down!
..CROSS Bikes in Montana..
The gentleman at the CROSS Cycle bike shop in Montana was very helpful with helping fixing my back rack (lost screw).
The guy didn't want to be on the picture but ask if I could put their website on the internet. Here we go!
..Remains of the Thracian Temple..
Just outside Starosel, are the remains of a couple of Thracian Temples. It was all made very accessible to the public which made it a great half day out for us! Visiting the Thracian Rulers tombs on a bike coming all the way from Oxford was pretty cool I thought!
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