7 May 2011
Enter Bulgaria/ Buchovina
Parked- Along the Chepelare river near Buchovina
Enter Bulgaria/ Buchovina
Parked- Along the Chepelare river near Buchovina
8 May 2011
Buchovina Monestery
Parked- Secure parking lot in Sofia
Buchovina Monestery
Parked- Secure parking lot in Sofia
9 May 2011
Sofia
National Museum of Military History, Boyana Church, St Alexandar Nevski Cathedral
Parked-Same
Sofia
National Museum of Military History, Boyana Church, St Alexandar Nevski Cathedral
Parked-Same
10 May 2011
Sofia
Exploring Sofia, The mall, Starbucks!
We just watched the movie Hunt for Red October in a parking lot in Sofia Bulgaria. That is amazing in so many ways. When that movie was made the people in this city were part of the Soviet Union, the most loyal of all the Soviet satellites. We were watching a movie, at night, powered by the sun, and bought in a McDonalds’ using their WiFi . It was a mandatory professional development movie for Shannon, but she went to bed halfway through it. We are parked in a secure, pay parking lot near the airport and it feels good to be both secure and welcome. We could have easily found a place for free, they are all over, but this country has a reputation for theft that I think we need take seriously. We’ll take a cheap taxi into the center of town for the next few days of touring. We can’t depart Serbia, which is our next country, until after 10 May to stay within the 90 day maximum visit to a Schengen agreement country. All the EU countries and some others have open borders, agreed apon by the Schengen agreement mentioned, but you can only stay within those countries for 90 days. 10 May will be 90 days before we leave Europe. Entering Bulgaria was a culture shock. Northern Turkey was very western and modern, though still very conservative; the border had a huge airport like duty free shop with a food court, post office and bank, a regular mall. There were Bulgarians who had crossed the border just to take their entire extended families to the duty free shop to buy Jack Daniels and Marlboro cigarettes, as many as they could buy. In front of the shop they were lined up stashing their purchases into hidden compartments under the hoods and in the trunks of their cars. We couldn’t get any Bulgarian cash out of the ATM, but we figured we would be able to get some on the Bulgarian side in their shop. Not a chance, crossing into Bulgaria was like going back in time and prosperity right into the Soviet Union. It was depressing. After 2 months in Turkey where seeing a woman’s hair in the cities was a pleasure, we were bombarded with billboards of ½ naked women and alcohol. We were low on fuel and unsure if our credit card would work- it didn’t in Turkey, so I bought a map, made sure the card was accepted and then filled up one tank. The full fill would wait until we compared prices a bit. We stopped at the first town to get cash and it was one of the most depressed places I have ever seen, everything was falling apart. My image of those that use Cyrilic writing is of thuggish men in running suits and women who put all their effort into looking good, and succeed until they are 30, when they give up completely. It has gotten better the closer we got to Sofia, the capitol. We spent the first night next to a river near Buchkova Monastery, 11th century, but destroyed by the Turks and not rebuilt until the 19th century. The setting was the spectacular thing about it- and the people. We watched a baptism and a wedding, nothing like we have ever seen before, both very mystical with incense and chanting, and they seemed to go on forever.
Sofia
Exploring Sofia, The mall, Starbucks!
We just watched the movie Hunt for Red October in a parking lot in Sofia Bulgaria. That is amazing in so many ways. When that movie was made the people in this city were part of the Soviet Union, the most loyal of all the Soviet satellites. We were watching a movie, at night, powered by the sun, and bought in a McDonalds’ using their WiFi . It was a mandatory professional development movie for Shannon, but she went to bed halfway through it. We are parked in a secure, pay parking lot near the airport and it feels good to be both secure and welcome. We could have easily found a place for free, they are all over, but this country has a reputation for theft that I think we need take seriously. We’ll take a cheap taxi into the center of town for the next few days of touring. We can’t depart Serbia, which is our next country, until after 10 May to stay within the 90 day maximum visit to a Schengen agreement country. All the EU countries and some others have open borders, agreed apon by the Schengen agreement mentioned, but you can only stay within those countries for 90 days. 10 May will be 90 days before we leave Europe. Entering Bulgaria was a culture shock. Northern Turkey was very western and modern, though still very conservative; the border had a huge airport like duty free shop with a food court, post office and bank, a regular mall. There were Bulgarians who had crossed the border just to take their entire extended families to the duty free shop to buy Jack Daniels and Marlboro cigarettes, as many as they could buy. In front of the shop they were lined up stashing their purchases into hidden compartments under the hoods and in the trunks of their cars. We couldn’t get any Bulgarian cash out of the ATM, but we figured we would be able to get some on the Bulgarian side in their shop. Not a chance, crossing into Bulgaria was like going back in time and prosperity right into the Soviet Union. It was depressing. After 2 months in Turkey where seeing a woman’s hair in the cities was a pleasure, we were bombarded with billboards of ½ naked women and alcohol. We were low on fuel and unsure if our credit card would work- it didn’t in Turkey, so I bought a map, made sure the card was accepted and then filled up one tank. The full fill would wait until we compared prices a bit. We stopped at the first town to get cash and it was one of the most depressed places I have ever seen, everything was falling apart. My image of those that use Cyrilic writing is of thuggish men in running suits and women who put all their effort into looking good, and succeed until they are 30, when they give up completely. It has gotten better the closer we got to Sofia, the capitol. We spent the first night next to a river near Buchkova Monastery, 11th century, but destroyed by the Turks and not rebuilt until the 19th century. The setting was the spectacular thing about it- and the people. We watched a baptism and a wedding, nothing like we have ever seen before, both very mystical with incense and chanting, and they seemed to go on forever.
11 May 2011
Sofia
Sofia
12 May 2011
Last Day in Sofia
Parked- Roadside
Last Day in Sofia
Parked- Roadside
13 May 2011
Fruska Gora
On the road
Parked- Park entrance
Fruska Gora
On the road
Parked- Park entrance
14 May 2011
Fruska Gora
Long hike to visit Serbian Orthodox Monasteries
Parked- Abandoned Hotel Parking lot
Fruska Gora
Long hike to visit Serbian Orthodox Monasteries
Parked- Abandoned Hotel Parking lot
15 May 2011
Back on the road
Morning walk, WWII Monument, National Park Visitors center, Last Border crossing
Parked- Roadside in Hungary
Back on the road
Morning walk, WWII Monument, National Park Visitors center, Last Border crossing
Parked- Roadside in Hungary
We nearly became residents of Sofia, mainly because we found a great place to park, complete with easy access to the city and sites, water and our own guard dog to protect the ladder hanging on the front bumper. The dog is in a small doghouse right in front of the truck. All we really need is a secure enough place to park, in the country isolation is enough but in the city its nice to have a fence between us and the crowds of gawkers. Good time in a friendly but rundown city. We stayed longer than planned because of the many attraction, museums and the Mall with Sushi and Starbucks a short walk from the RV. Serbia was a challenge. Beautiful country with great roads but there is no tourist infrastructure such as signs directing you to sights. It is not a well traveled country, our Mastercard doesn’t work here and only the major highways are in our navigation system. It makes us appreciate how difficult this trip would have been to make 20 years ago without an ATM on every corner and the navigation box telling us exactly where to go when we can’t even read the signs. All the signs here are in Cyrilic and we can’t make them out at all. The biggest challenge is the fact that we were bombing this country and its then leader Slobodan Milosevic 20 years ago. I don’t think they like us much here, but I think it is more from shame at what they did then a feeling that we were unjust. We planned to stop in Belgrade for a few days, which was the target of our bombers when we worked in Fallon, but it was just too crowded and hectic so we drove on through. We are in a national park called Frushka Gora, Frankish Hills and we will spend a few days here hanging out with out Serb friends, we just won’t advertise that we are American, not only the bit about the bombs, but we recognized Kosovo, which makes America enemy #1 here. I read about this area in a book by Rebecca West, “Black Lamb, Grey Falcon” written in 1937 as she traveled through Yugoslavia. There are 16 famous monasteries around here, 1built in the 15th century up here in what was Hapsburg Land to keep the Serbian Orthodox faith alive while Serbia was ruled by the Ottomans. We parked next to an abandoned and derelict hotel in the national park because the parking lot is out of the way, and very private as it is so overgrown, and we had no idea where to go. The doors are smashed in and we were able to walk around and explore the inside. The next morning I was rereading the parts the book and realized this hotel was definitely one that Rebecca West describes in her book, and goes on for pages about her time at lunch there. Eerie to hear it described as such a happy cheerful place and to see it after one world war and years of communism as a wreck. We then took really long (too long) walk to some of the Monasteries she describes in her book. One thing we noticed right away was how normal, and in many cases, handsome the monks were, In Greece and Bulgaria they were all fat and swarthy looking. These Serb Monks have long hail in pony tails and look like they could put out a calendar, Monks of the Frushka Gora. We were just leaving the church when a wedding started, the girls and I were trapped inside, the only people in the church other than the priest, bride groom and best man, maid of honor. The rest of the guests filed in after. In the book I mentioned, Dame West describes the peasants in the churches, and these were nothing like those. They still had the look of peasants, but in tight dresses and impressive high heel shoes. I’m sure the men entered too but I didn’t notice. What I can say about the men is that they drink. There were two guys outside the church downing a pre-wedding flask, and when I went out for a walk this morning I walked by a restaurant crowded with men drinking beer, at 0900 in the morning. Serbians seem like very proud people that don’t really care what the rest of the world thinks about them. Its too bad they took dreams of an old fleeting empire and turned it into Genocide in recent history. They seem to be very neat, the children seem very well behaved, but no one smiles. When Turkish children came around we would move, they were trouble, today a group of boys were playing outside the RV and I just watched, ready. One picked up a rock and was going to throw it at a tree, in the other direction as the RV and another little boy stopped him cold, warned him he might hit the RV and drew a hand across his throat, signaling his demise if the RV were hit. Love that little boy. I’m glad we stopped here but we are going to leave early and head straight for Budapest and into Hungary where Americans are loved and the tourist industry is booming, ready to take our money. As soon as Shannon gets back from her run we are departing for Hungary and our last border crossing of the trip. Once in Hungary we are in the borderless EU! It will be so nice to put that border in our rear view mirror.
