July 14, Varna to Aheloi, 107 km

A Day Full of Excitement!

This was a hot and hilly day for all of us, with 4000 feet of climbing as we rode up and down Black Sea coastal mountains. There were lots of memories today.

Leaving Varna, we were greeted by a beautiful hooker standing on the side of the road. On down the road I even came across some wild pigs rooting around a fruit tree.

About an hour out of town, I pulled ahead of the group I was riding with, only to find that they had become a part of a spectacular car accident. A car pulled off the road and without checking proceeded to do a U-turn in he highway, only to be T-boned by an approaching car. It was in-between a gap of bikers. There was a huge crash with smoke and flying glass. Both cars one car went in the ditch and the driver of one was unconscious with a propane bottle leaking. The guys were heroic in stopping traffic and extracting the hurt driver. Instead of being local news, they hit the road as soon as an ambulance arrived, with traffic was backed up over a kilometre in both directions.

I found the Romanian drivers to be on the wild side. Many of the Black Sea towns we rode through were booming with high-rise development and lots of new luxury cars on the road. These drivers had a burning desire to pass in all kinds of conditions. It was quite unnerving to be biking on the edge of the road and have someone in oncoming traffic pull out in front of me to pass, and take up my lane too. Several times I had to bail off the road and into the dirt.

We stayed in a small coastal village, that is being rapidly converted into a seaside resort, where we stayed in three small family run hotels of about a dozen rooms each. It was quite a treat, in that there was a swimming pool, and restaurant with cheap food and drink. That evening, two talented musicians came and played Romanian and old American songs until late.

July 13, Varna Rest Day

A Day at the Beach

Last night a group of us ate at a local Turkish restaurant. We had a sampling from the menu and it was excellent...cheap too. The local beer is Zagorko, which is magnificant and a dollar for half a liter. The promenade was packed with young people cursing, people watching, and hitting the restaurant/bars. As a bunch of camping bikers, we feel like we have gone to heaven.

This morning we had the hotel breakfast on the 17th story, with a magnificent panoramic view of the city and Black Sea. During breakfast, we watched a cruise ship pull into the port.

The sandy beach is not very large, but is packed with swimmers and sunbathers. The Black Sea water is relative warm and not quite as salty as the ocean. Many of the women sunbathe topless, which is quite a surprise for the Americans and Canadians. The European members say this is quite common, and around the Mediterranean, a larger proportion of the women are topless. Wow!

For my Canadian friend, Don, who had to leave the ride midway because of a fall: You had a quest to find European women with hairy legs and armpits, which we understood was a key reason for doing the ride. I am sorry to inform you that after surveying the beach, even this part of the world has progressed and these women don't appear to exist.

July 12, Shumen to Varna, 95km

A Black Sea Resort!

Today everyone was excited about riding hard and getting to the beach. It turned out to be another hot and hilly day, with everyone arriving dehydrated.

This is quite an impressive seaport and resort town on the Black Sea. In the Communist era it was developed to reward the Party members with an exotic vacation.

Our hotel is a relative modern 17 story building right on the main walking plaza to the beach. It reminds me of South Beach, Miami. The plaza and beach front are packed with young people. One really takes notice of all the tall and thin young women in their short-shorts. This has been somewhat of a surprise because we are starting to transition into the Muslim part of the world. The town has been discovered by Western Europe because there are lots of tourists and inexpensive ocean view property advertised.

July 11, Ruse to Shuman, Bulgaria, 134 km

Hilly, Hot, Hard

This was a tough ride day with 5000 feet of climbing country roads. I got a good look at Bulgarian farming and found it to be a huge change from Romania. Here, the farms are Mid-West USA size with modern US farm machinery. From horizon to horizon, we rode past large fields of wheat being harvested and sunflowers tracking the sun. The small farm villages did have some peasant farmers with donkey drawn carts, but these villages were mostly deserted. Apparently, the rural population is leaving the country side and moving into the cities. The other big change from Romania is there are fewer stray dogs, and all those have been friendly. The roads are a marked improvement over Romania too, so I can travel faster and look at the country side instead of threading around potholes.

Tonight we are in a hotel again, because the campsites are reported to be primitive. The Shuman hotel is relatively modern…especially by the old Soviet standard. I did note the bathroom had a pale of water by the toilet, so there must be a problem with water pressure.

Another big change in Bulgaria is the writing in Cyrillic, which is noticeably different from the English alphabet. Most of the riders rode right past our hotel because they couldn’t read its name, which was given to us in English and posted in Cyrillic. Many, but not all, of the road signs are in both Cyrillic and English. Most of the young people have studied English, so the country is quite English friendly. Food and drink are excellent and cheap!

July 10, Buchorest to Ruse, Bulgaria, 104 km

Goodbye Romania, Hello Bulgaria…Almost Camped in Brothel

We got our much appreciated police escort out of this bustling city during rush hour. Three hours later, we were at the Danube River, for the last time, and across into Bulgaria, where my passport was checked and stamped. Ruse is a river port city and appeared to be a dumpy place, dominated by rundown Soviet era apartment flats. However, I went into town to get money exchanged and found the city center is had a wonderful park and walking mall…another city in slow transition.

Today we were scheduled to camp on the grounds of a motel and restaurant about 8 km out of town. The staff said it was OK for us, but had us wait until the owner arrived after noon, before setting up. Well, the owner arrived and said this would not work out. The motel rooms had been rented to road construction crews and they were followed by prostitutes (some of which were already there). When the sun went down, the guys liked to get drunk and fight, so he didn’t want a bunch of camping bikers in the middle of it. Rats!

So off we went to a lake side park about 15 km down the road. This was bush camping, with no showers and a primitive hole in the floor toilet. I managed to find a spring and got a sponge bath, so it worked out. Another adventure.

Bucharest Rest Day, July 9

Another Milestone – 3000km

We now have completed ¾ of the ride. Tomorrow we are into Bulgaria and the next rest day is on the Black Sea. We are all starting to look toward the end. I have also dropped 10 pounds, though not from a lack of calories.

This city of two million is an interesting study in a communist capitol city in transition. Many of the buildings are stately, but either in disrepair or being demolished. Our hotel overlooks the parliamentary palace, but the down town is mainly government offices and banks. There seem to be few tourists visiting, so there are few services like markets, internet, call centers or even restaurants. Last night a group of us looked for an hour for a place to eat. We settled into a park restaurant and ordered a beer, only to learn they had stopped serving food. Another hour later we found an Indian restaurant. Strange.

Today, Sebastian arranged for us to tour the National Palace, which happens to be the second largest building, after the Pentagon. It took us an hour to find a gate that we could enter, and then wait in line to purchase tickets. There seems to be little interest in making money.

The Palace was based on the French Versailles, and had opulent halls with huge chandeliers. The communist president had it built in the 1990s, which consumed a large part of budget during a time the country was going bankrupt and people starving. 20,000 craftsmen worked 24/7 for five years to complete it. At the end, in 1989, the communists were thrown out of office and the president executed after a quick trial.

The capital is a work in progress. It is full of young professionals and lots of BMWs.

Tomorrow…Bulgaria.

Dragoduna to Bucharest, July 8, 80km

Police Escort into Bucharest! Yea!

This was a welcome easy, though very hot, day. We needed to bike 68 km to the outskirts of Bucharest, and rendezvous for a police escort to our hotel in the city center. Being creatures of habit, we still got up at first light and had breakfast at 6:30. Then it was leisurely ride to the meeting point, but before long it turned into a race – I came in fourth – and a two hour lunch and wait in 100 deg temps for a motorcycle police escort.

Along the way we got to see potatoes being harvested by hand and loaded into carts. In the towns, individual home owners stacked bags of potatoes in front, along with watermelon and tomatoes, for sale.

As we neared Bucharest even our secondary road started getting busy with truck traffic, so it was a welcome relief to get off the highway. At 12:30 we linked up with the police escort and a 12 km ride into the city with a blue light flashing and sirens blowing through red lights. The locals must have thought it was a parade and waved at us like we were celebs. It was fantastic!