BULGARIA

The last days we keep traveling quite fast; we have spent many time in Europe, and we want to arrive soon to Asia. We did a short stop in Serres, and from here we traveled again by hitchhiking, up to the Bulgarian capital city.

In Sofia we had the first police intervention; a small problem with the ticket of the tramway takes us to a strong discussion with the inspectors, to which all the people of the tramway joins us, people of the street..., we even thought that they were going to fight, and in the end the police had to come; the police didn’t help us, anyway we had a strong experience, and the support of all the people.

Sofia, doesn’t have something very special, is a big mass of blocks and blocks of buildings of the communism times, everything grey and old. But it is always interesting to walk by the street markets and see the different life of the people.


On the other hand, the climate has changed again, it seems that the summer leaves, and the first snowfalls have already fallen on the mountains close to Sofia.

When we left Sofia, we didn’t have time to hitchhike, it was something incredible; in the distance we chose a place to hitchhike, and it was already waiting for us a couple in a car, they saw that we were going to hitchhike, so they waited for us.
This couple, Alexander and Petya, left us in Plovdiv where we look for the house of Daniela and her flat mates of HC. Followed we went to see the centre of the town, quite more interesting than Sofia; full of archeological sites, as the theatre, and with some very pretty and colorful houses of the renaissance.


The coincidences are the best thing of the travel, when we went back home, we met again the couple who brought us here, and they told us that they had a birthday party…and if we would like to join them… of course we accepted. In the suburbs of the city in a “Rock Shrine”, we pass the rest of the night with very friendly people.


On the following day we met them again, as old friends, and they took us to different places, and to meet new friends.


As usually, the map with our route in Bulgaria; exactly tomorrow, we are leaving to the “Door of Asia”, Istanbul....


After five and a half months, we have adopted a more regular style of travel. What we do is to try to plan the next 20 days, getting in touch with people of the club, looking what can we visit... though always, to improvise is the best. We have changed the main idea about to travel by foot, for the hitchhiking; it’s much better for us for two main reasons; to find interesting people, and to be able to know many more places than if we travel only by foot. Anyway, until now during the almost 15.000 km that we have done, our average is about 10km daily by foot.