Day 43
The next day when I arrived at the Bulgarian border it was pretty quiet and there were just a couple of cars in the queue in front of me but then I encountered one of the most common road defects that Central and East Europe has to offer, “Tramlines”. These are the large longitudinal indentations left in the road surface by the repeated driving on hot, soft, tarmac by very heavy lorries. Unfortunately, they change the camber of the road and whilst waiting in line to be seen by the Romanian authorities and sitting astride my bike in one of these “tramlines”, I dropped my passport. My passport landed on the road to the right of the bike just out of my reach, so I put the bike of the side stand and dismounted to retrieve it. As I picked it up I heard the sickening crunch of my bike hitting the road. A combination of the bike sitting in the “tramline”, the side stand resting on an adverse camber, and a strong gust of wind caused the bike to fall over, bending the brake lever in the process.
However, a few minutes later, passport and bike documents checked, I was in Bulgaria and changing my Romanian currency for Bulgarian currency. I stopped and grabbed a coffee and a cigar and as I sat drinking my coffee I realised that I was fatigued and needed to take a few day off from riding the bike. So I made a decision then and there to find some place relatively close to the border and take a break from riding for a few days. I found a small studio flat overlooking the Black sea just North of the city of Varna for about 14 Euros per night, so I decided to rest there for a while. This was the view from my balcony and of the nearby beach.
In fact the place was so cheap, so nice, and so relaxing that I decided to spend a total of 9 days there taking a much needed break from constantly moving. While there I used the opportunity to repair my bent brake lever and explore the nearby city of Varna. The brake lever on a bike, as you are probably aware, is made of an aluminium alloy and these can snap when bent hard. Fortunately, the soft panniers took a lot of the impact so the lever only bent. An old trick for straightening these levers is to heat them with a blowtorch and then use a cylindrical piece of pipe or metal tubing to bend it when hot. Also, when doing this the application of household soap to the lever during this process apparently stops the lever from snapping so I decided to give it a go. Using my butane camping stove as a heat source and a box spanner, I began the process and with a little patience and lot of soap rubbed on to the hot metal, it worked a treat leaving me with a perfectly straightened brake lever! The city of Varna was just a few miles to the South along the coast and I managed a couple of visits there and a couple of long walk on the nearby beach on the Black sea.
I especially liked sitting at the harbour area sipping coffee and watching the world go by.
Having rested and recharged my batteries so to speak, and attended to some well needed bike maintenance I was now ready to move on. I had planned to go to Greece from Bulgaria but the madness dictated that before I entered Greece I had to prove that I was not infected by the alleged virus by having a PCR test done (more on this later) So I packed up and headed West towards Sofia where I had booked accommodation for 2 nights. On the way out of Varna I stopped at Slanchevo to look at stones that were supposed to be an ancient petrified forest but to be honest, I could not get near them as they were fenced off so I decided to take a few photos and move on.
This location I found on a website called Atlas Obscura that focuses on “unusual” things to see and it has a section in it where one can look up whatever particular country you happen to be in and see what unusual sights there are to be seen there, here is a link to that part of the website.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/destinations/
I then continued heading West for Sofia and en route I saw some more Soviet fighter jests parked at the side of the road. This time I was able to get up close to them. There was also a Soviet Anti Aircraft missile parked there. All very impressive.
I also decided to visit the Buzludzha monument, the spaceship like building perched on top of a Bulgarian mountain top so when I reached Veliko Tarnovo. I stopped at a McDonald’s in the town for a coffee and a cigar. Whilst sitting in the sun enjoying my break a guy approached me and spoke to me in English and he asked me if the “Himmy” in the car park was mine and when I told him that it was we began a conversation. It turned out that he was and Englishman who happened to live in Bulgaria, running a camping/motor-home park nearby. He was also was a Himalayan owner and we chatted for a while about the bike. He still had to bring the bike out to Bulgaria but he questioned me about the performance of my bike on my trip. He wanted to stay and chat further but his wife called him from their car and he was off. Strange how in the middle of Bulgaria I met a chap who not only owns a Himalayan but who was also English. Once back on the bike I headed South for the Shipka pass where the monument is situated. The roads surrounding this place are horrific but they were no problem for the Himalayan, however I would not like to ride a road bike with very expensive wheels and suspension around here. In fact, the potholes were so bad on the road up that for about five miles I rode standing up, as if I was riding on a rocky trail.
After this I rode South and turned right on to the main road to Sofia and by late afternoon I had arrived in the city. The city is a strange mix of modernisation and old Sofia. For example, some of the main roads in an out of the city are still surfaced with cobble stones, these are frequently very uneven, and have the metal tram tacks running along them. All very exciting in the dry and butt clenching in the wet. I had booked 2 nights in a hostel for about 20 Euros per night but when I got there I was told that I was actually staying in an annex building some 200 yards away from the main hostel, but I had to park my bike at the main hostel. I was not happy having to carry all of my luggage this distance, using the bike was not an option as no parking was allowed outside the annex building. However, once settled in I set off to explore the city.
I liked Sofia a lot, it had a nice feel about it when out and about and whilst I was exploring the city I saw a piece of graffiti scrawled on a street corner wall that for me perfectly summed up the madness that the world was currently experiencing.
