Before leaving Bucharest, I met the owner of the hotel - we talked about Romania, his background, and the development of his truly unique hotel over breakfast - architecture, design, layout, colors ... all unique and pristine. Also, Alexandra in reception informed me that she learned Spanish watching Mexican soap operas ... they are big in Romania! I knew there was a connection.
The trip to the border was straight forward ... it is very different, and enjoyable, to travel on feeling, with paper maps and the occasional good samaritan. When you don't have a GPS ... the connection to the world is more real.
I knew I was off the beaten path when it took me 3 tries to find the right way to cross into Bulgaria - no signs anywhere. I guess people just know were it is. Back into Bulgaria and the overall feeling of melancholy/dispair.
Burgas is on the Black Sea. It is interesting how first impressions based on frameworks that do not belong often result in a skewed perspective. At first, Burga looked like a rusty, old, industrial port with a decaying seaside resort feel to it. After getting to know it better, it morphed. It is a beautiful town with nice people enjoying life by the sea, in the parks, and in the outdoor cafes.
Nobody speaks English here (or any other language) and all the signs are incomprehensible (in Cyrillic) - is this what it will be like when we reach the "stan" republics? It makes it easier to do a lot of thinking. I am glad Alexandra will be with me then.
Tomorrow, Istanbul - end of phase one. Before phase two, the bike will need new tires, oil, front brakes ... and a wash! There are bugs and dirt from 12 countries everywhere.
Hello, my name is Dan! My father (the owner from Hotel Christina Bucharest) told me about your journey so I read your blog as I am very passionate about motorcycles. I’m glad to know you arrived safely to Istanbul and I wish you good luck for the second part of the trip. I will remember to check for updates when you start, as June 22nd is my birthday! Your journey reminds me of another guest of ours in 2010 that was doing the tour of the world on a motorcycle. This is his blog: http://bloglog.globo.com/arturferrari/ (unfortunately I can’t make much out of it as I don’t understand the language but it seems it stopped in September 2010).
ReplyDeleteI recognize some of your pictures as I did a tour on my Honda NTV 650 Revere of the Balkans with a friend last year and visited Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania, Macedonia and Bulgaria. I posted the pictures on a Romanian forum (I’m the guy in the red jacket). This is the link http://www.motociclism.ro/forum/index.php?/topic/670992-turul-balcanilor-pe-doua-roti/ ) with the story of the trip (even though I don’t think you understand it, some of the photos are nice, they go all the way to the end of the thread as I posted them in episodes). I also did a small tour of Romania in 2009, visiting the Transfagarasan, Saint Ann Lake and cities like Sibiu and Sighisoara, here are some pictures of that: http://www.motociclism.ro/forum/index.php?/topic/673474-ce-au-in-comun-un-xt-125-gs-500-si-ntv-650/ . This year we’re planning a trip to central Europe including Switzerland and somewhere in the near future a tour of the Black Sea, that should be interesting!
I posted some photos of you on our Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.361087520619536.82993.132379066823717&type=1 ) and a video on our YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpVUOXo3zMg ). Best of luck!
Thanks for your note. I am now back in Dallas getting ready for the second stage of the trip. I do not remember if I mentioned that I have a motorcycle cafe in Dallas (www.motopiacafe.com) and we showed the pictures and movies last night. Everybody loved seeing and hearing stories from such far away places ... and about the great time we had in Romania : )
ReplyDeleteSay hello to your father and if you ever come to Dallas, we will take you around and maybe go to the track also to do some racing.
Cheers.