On The Road

The ride form Istanbul on the main highway is fast but boring. I only stop for a very dodgy lunch in the last village before the border.

Border formalities are straight forward. The very friendly Bulgarian official hands me a USB stick at the first window and a checklist. I work my way from station to station handing in the USB stick every time. I have to wait a few minutes for the customs inspection and talk to an officer who tells me the road to Tsarevo is very bad. After the inspection and a “Welcome to Europe” I’m on my way.

Turns out the road is really not that bad, has no traffic at all, nice turns and views. For some reason I seem to have lost most of the pictures though. This is the only one I have.

I get a cheap but very nice beach view room and go for a dip in the black sea.

A little beach side shop sells the essentials like ice cream and the biggest and cheapest plastic beer bottles I have ever seen. There are lots of Russians around and I’m glad to notice that I still understand some Russian.

Next stop is Nessebar at the Bulgarian Black Sea coast. I usually try to avoid mass tourism destinations but there is a bit of family history here. My parents spent their honeymoon here before I was born and I heard the stories all my life and thus must check out the place. This destination is as exotic as it got in 70s East Germany. Not many got to go and some who did never returned. They slipped into Turkey and on to West Germany, like my mother’s friend. I grew up surrounded by Bulgarian knickknacks from that vacation.

Bulgarian drivers are positively crazy, in a bad way. There is no give and take here, just survival of the fittest. You drive as fast as your vehicle allows and pass regardless of visibility or oncoming traffic. All this despite the heavy police presence.

Once again, I don’t have pictures of the ride to Nessebar. I get myself a nice room in Old Nessebar and decide to stay for a few nights. I feel still pretty bad from the dodgy lunch I had just before the border crossing. So, in the next few days I take it easy and explore the old town. I am not overly impressed. I do get some sunbathing and swimming in though.