Week 1

About two weeks ago I landed in Istanbul after a loooong flight (Parts 1, & 2), had a look around, and stayed a night there. The next day I caught the bus to Haskovo, Bulgaria and stayed there for a few days with Elly & Stu. They are currently living there in an old communist style flat and teaching English to a 6yo. There we saw everything Haskovo has to offer, met some of the other Aussies there, and went a few times into the Mahalle. The Mahalle is a really interesting place (we would probably call it a slum), and I hope to write more about it in another post. A photo of the awesome Haskovo tour to the abandoned & incomplete power plant is shown below. Apparently, it never got completed due to the fall of Communism.

Checking out Bulgaria

Elly & Stu have also written some posts about these few days —
part 1,
part 2

Once we (read ‘me’) got bored of Haskovo, Elly, Stu, & I started out on our tour of Bulgaria by catching a bus to Plovdiv. Plovdiv would be my favourite Bulgarian city so far because it’s a great mix of new and old. We stayed a night there in a 8 bed dorm room, were we got woken up by some drunk travellers who came back drunk at 5am and then got up to some [not so] hush hush shenanigans. Memories = Repressed :-).

The next day we caught the very cool train to Bansko. Bansko is an up and coming ski-resort, and has recently become the most developed ski-resort in the Balkans. Luckily for us, it was the off season, so the place wasn’t crawling with tourists. It also meant that we stayed in rather nice hotel, for only $13/night which is much cheaper than what we could have stayed in a hostel. for. While there we climbed most of the way up Mt. Vihren, which you can read about on Elly’s blog post, The Grand Tour Part 2. Here’s one of the MANY photos that I took while up there:

After Bansko, we bused to Sofia and checked that our for about 4-5 hours. I couldn’t stand it there. It stunk of pollution, looked dirty, and there was way too many beggars who were trying to scam off us. When we got to the train station, somebody came up to me asking if they could help me. My first thought was that it was a scam, but then he seems to be wanted to help me find where we were going, and not asking for money. Maybe he works here I thought? Anyway, turns out he wanted money for helping us out. So I reluctantly offered him 2 lev (only about $1.60, but worth about $5 for them), but he wouldn’t take it and insisted I give him 5 lev. Once I did that, he tried to get 5 more lev off Stu, but I told him sternly that 5 lev was more than enough for showing us where the ticket office was and off he pottered.

Heading to Romania

Elly & Stu have also written some posts about these few days —
part 3,

That night we caught the night train to București, Romania. It was a 9 hour journey, but didn’t seem to take that long since we had a sleeper car. The border crossing was pretty uneventful – we didn’t even need to get out of our beds. The Romanian guard did make us laugh we he said, “Australia? – Kangaroo”. The train then crossed the Danube and we were in Romania.

We arrived at București at 5:45am and since it was dark, we didn’t know what to do besides buying some barely drinkable coffee at macca’s so we could use their wifi while waiting for it to become light outside. That was good, because weren’t planning on coming to Romania as quick as we did, so we had no idea what to do. The most interesting part of McD’s was not the coffee (that was sickening) but have the staff physically remove a beggar who was trying to get me to buy him something. It’s really sad that beggars are really common here. I had a kid harrasing me outside an ATM I was trying to use yesterday. I’m still undecided about how I want to react to them because it’s impossible to give to everybody. When I get a better idea, I think think I should do a blog post about it. Any ideas?

Anyway, back to the story… We left macca’s, passed though the gauntlet of taxi drivers, walked for 3-4 hours with our packs, and arrived at the maxi-taxi station. Oh yeah, we had a bit of “fun” trying to find the place without a map. Elly commented that “you know it’s bad when Humphrey starts whinging!”.

Now these maxi-taxi’s require an explanation. They are Mercedes Benz vans, with seats, and a couple of bars screwed into the walls for people to hang on to. They are a long way from comfortable and leg-room is non-existent. Of course, that is only if you get a seat. According to the sign on the inside of one of these mini-buses it was able to carry 16 seated and 16 standing. That’s 32 people in a tiny van thing! Yesterday, while standing up in a maxi-taxi, one of the screws fastening the bar was I hanging onto came loose, “CL-ICK”. Was a little freaky Oh, and the drivers cain the maxi-taxis! They tailgate VERY close, overtake with less than a metre to spare, honk, and don’t really slow down for village streets. These drivers would loose their licences very quickly in Australia. But, these are the easiest and quickest way to travel around Romania. Thanks to jeffltaylor2 for uploading this photo of one to Flickr.

In Romania

The maxi-taxi to Târgu Mureş took a bit over 5 hours. You can tell he was speeding because it took us 6 hours on the way back. Once there we stayed with the Nairns for a number of days. On Sunday, James took us to a local church, followed by a “just as spiritual” game of paint-ball. In the last round I broke the main rule: Don’t shoot anybody closer than 5m. Sorry for the friendly-fire Stu!

While there we also did a heap of shopping, chilling out, and going out for the odd drink. Yesterday we checked out the village of Sighişoara, which is a place where Vlad (The actual Dracula) once lived. It was a really nice historical village, and we also managed to find the best coffee that I’ve had in either Bulgaria or Romania.

Back to Bulgaria

Today we caught the maxi-taxi back to București, where we are currently. Tomorrow we’re planning on catching the train back to Elly & Stu’s place, where I’ll spend a couple of nights before heading onto Turkey. We’re still not too sure how the Turkish leg will work out. I don’t think Elly & Stu are able to spend a whole two weeks in Turkey, so they will either join me for the first week, or stay in Bulgaria and rendezvous with me somewhere in Turkey. Everything else has just fallen into place so far, so I trust that will too.

Here’s Elly being tough at the train station:

Thanks for reading my blog. If you were gullible enough to fall for my recent facebook status update, then I extend a “ha ha” in your general direction. And, remember about the commenting rule – commenting is cool, just like school.

PS - You may have noticed that I’ve added a new link to the top of my blog for a google map of my trip. I’m planning on adding the Romanian leg of the journey to the map soon.

PPS - I’m currently proof-reading this post while sitting on the aforementioned train, and have about 2.5 hours left. We’re in the only room that doesn’t have a working light so it’s heaps dark in here and therefore hard to type. Hopefully we can work out when we are at the right station.

NEWS FLASH - We just noticed that it’s snowing outside the train carriage! Hooray for travelling in a train through snow.

Well, I’ve already watched 2 episodes of Dexter on this train trip and I have exactly enough battery power for 1 more episode. So chao chao. Oh, by the time I publish this we’ll be back at Elly & Stu’s commy flat.

La revedere!

The Bansko Train

A couple of days ago we caught the super narrow gauge train from Plovdiv to Bansko. Now when I say super narrow gauge, I actually mean, “The train track rails are so narrow compared the width of the train that I’m surprised it stays on the rails.” This is a really really old line that winds its way up through mountains. This train is definitely, definitely, definitely, the coolest and most scenic way to get to Bansko. If you are ever in Bulgaria I absolutely recommend it. It was well worth the 7 Lev (~$6AUD)! Actually, we were supposed to get a group discount of about 1 Lev, but couldn’t ask for it since we can’t speak Bulgarian :-P

What: Old-school train trip through the mountains
Where: From Plovdiv to the Bansko ski resort (actually Bansko is the 2nd last station)
How Much: About 6-7 LEV Each.
How Long: About 6 hours in total
How Often: 3 times a day, in both directions.

Here’s a VERY rough map of where he train goes. View in a larger map

Here’s what the train looks like:

And check out how narrow the rail gauge is!

Oh, and the diesel smoke looks and smells awesome.

Scenery

It was the scenery that made this train trip the best train trip ever. The track winds its way up many mountain valleys, through tunnels, across open plains, alongside rivers, through traditional Bulgarian villages, farms, & woodlands. This is definitely the best way to see Bulgaria at its most authentic!

Life in the Bulgarian mountains is so different to that in Australia. Fences are almost non-existent. Instead the locals were mostly sitting out in the fields watching their cattle, sheep, or goats graze. Farmers working in their fields would sit their kids up on the bank to wave at us as we chuffed on by.

There was a great mix of old and new technology. We often saw a near new car stuck behind a horse and cart on the roads. Somer farmers seemed to have some high-tech, diesel powered grass cutter, but were still using horse and carts to get around.

There were many farms along the way too. From cotton, to hops, to grapes, to tobacco, to corn (& for you Tom, indigo & coffee :-p) Looks like a really traditional way of life.

So, if you want to get a good look at genuine Bulgaria away from the touristy cities and see some beautiful villages, forests, and people I highly recommend this train trip. It was a bit disappointing that our stop was a town that has recently been developed into a ski resort. If I ever to do the trip again, I would love to get off at one of the small villages along the way. Maybe try to find some lodging with some of the local Turks? Maybe hitch up the road? That would so push me out of my comfort zone, but would be awesome to the max!

Occupational Health & Safety

Occupational health & WHAT? This is a phrase that you would have a lot of trouble translating into Bulgarian. It’s not that the words don’t exist, it’s that there is absolutely no concept of public liability on this train (or even this country!) The train is definitely safe, but they let you do whatev! Ok, this train was travelling pretty slow (no faster than 30-50km/hr), but still. Here are some examples:

1. At most train stations there is no overpass, you walk across the tracks to get to your train.
2. On Australian trains you are not allowed to “ride on the gap” — that is to travel on the step between carriages. I would have travelled for at least an hour standing outside between carriages. It makes the scenery (and ground) feel so close!
3. Nobody cares about what percentage of your body is hanging out the window while the train is moving. It’s a “poke your head out at own risk” kind of thing. The windows opened up a long way, so I spent most of the 5.5 hr journey with my head (and camera) poking out. I think I got a mild case of wind burn from this trip, maybe? Could be sunburn, but this ranga doesn’t appear to get burnt in the Northern Hemisphere sun.

Back to the train… You learn very quickly that you need to keep an eye on what is coming up. I remember having to shout out “ROCK, ROCK!!” or “TUNNEL, TUNNEL!!” to Elly a couple of times Also, the telegraph wires were sometimes a bit too close to the carriage for comfort.

4… Why close the carriage door when you can leave it open and look out? It was quite relaxing to sit in the step of the door and take in the scenery. I love how the conductor standing on the platform just gave a friendly wave to Elly & Stu while they sat in the doorway as the train left one of the many stations.

Elly suggested that next time we should try and ride on the roof. Although, I wonder what would happen when the train goes through a tunnel :-P

I’m going to miss this lax of heath and safely when I get back to Australia. I hate how pedantic Australians are about safely. Although, it’s not really safety, but more a fear of being sued. Here in Bulgaria it appears to be more of a “do anything at your own risk” policy. Although, I do think they have taken it too far. Like the guy this morning who was chain-sawing firewood in the play area of a local kindergarten while the kids were enjoying recess only metres away. Although, I guess kids here have a much better danger-o-metre here!

But don’t worry, the train was moving really slow and nothing really felt dangerous. It was more that we could do the things that we actually wanted to do without getting in trouble for it You should be so jealous Dan!

Blogologue

I hope to do some more blogging soon! We’re hoping to catch an overnight bus or train to Romania tonight (Update: we’re on that train), so if my netbook battery lasts until then, you might have some more blog posts to read soon :-)

Remember that people who comment on blogs are ridicuously ridiculously good looking, and people who read blogs without commenting are the scum of the intertubes and should have their fingerprints burnt off with a Bulgarian cigarette lighter. Only kidding… Or am I? :-)

Oh, and here are some more cool photos of the trip:

UPDATE: I’ve uploaded a heap more photos to facebook here.