cycle distances Eastern Europe
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The trip comes to an end. I already had that feeling in Turkey, but in Bulgaria, Serbia it became increasingly stronger. Maybe it's the people who look blonde again, though you occasionally see dark types, the Gypsies ...
On the road to Sofia I came across a cyclist with a cart containing a solar panel. His name is Adrien and in ten days he cycled from France to Sofia. He does 175 kilometres in one day. You might think quite quickly but he has a small electrical engine on his bicycle which is powered by a solar panel.
The producer lives in Marseille and delivers plus installs the solar panel plus engine on your bicycle [www.declic-eco.fr]
A trip totally different from mine: Adrien is in a 'concours', a competition, race. Other participants are Stephane from Marseille on a recumbent, after Sofia I met four days later [we were in the same motel] and a couple on a tandem that I saw as oncoming traffic on the road.
Stephane has so much with him [weight] that he is grounded when the sun is not shining, as was the case as we met at the motel.
It's all about velocity to them, the end goal is Kazakhstan, where they hope to be mid-August [www.thesuntrip.com]. It's all day every day cycling, cycling, non-stop, so no stopping to explore a place.
Moreover they have to worry about the window of the summer, you do not want to be in Kazakhstan during winter!. It's not my trip and that's what I tell Stephane I could never do what he does. Physically I probably could but not mentally. The thought crossing a country without seeing anything, not staying at places, not or hardly coming in contact with locals or not be able to stay at a certain place just doing nothing is truly unbearable.
Bulgaria gives me the impression like a house, whose owners are on vacation of lets say six weeks and they have asked their 16-year-old son to look after it. And that is Bulgaria, an overgrown garden, overgrown houses, potholes, all chaotic, dirty, almost everywhere a raunchy, frayed blue flag with stars, because they love Europe here. Also tanned fat figures in overalls, all morning with a huge bottle of beer.
At the border I keep in mind that I'm going to be detained hours by cunning soviet officials who want to collect a bakshiesh from me. The opposite is true: a young guy says добре дошъл! / Dobre doshŭl! / Welcome! / ,keeps my pass in front of a scanner and that's it!. I ask incredulously, "can I go?" and he is smiling when he says, "yes!".
I get lost in Plovdiv in cobbled-streets with huge holes, but a figure in a Lada that says 'Ghello' when I ask the way, and in reasonable English he explains it to me.
On a huge motorway where the Bulgarian traffic careful drives around me I arrive in Sofia, in the middle of a mass demonstration in front of the huge ministry of interior. People make a lot of noise with whistles, the public are citizens, children, cyclists, elderly people shoulder to shoulder screaming peacefully "Mafia!" .
The police has made an intinerary for the demonstrators, and are observing the masses. Quite a difference from the demonstrations in Taksim Square in Istanbul!.
I'm three days in Sofia. The city is ugly but there are also pleasant places, such as parks, green streets, a huge avenue which is blocked for traffic. It is filled with pedestrians and full of cafes.
And the women, girls! Dios mio!. Sometimes I think it is not equally distributed in the world!. It is also dangerous because these pretty women get me out of my concentration while cycling and as everybody knows a man is incapable of doing two things at the same time [a woman can :)]
This is Europe, things like a car-free city, green places, places where people can recreeeren which are safe .. In the Middle East seem not to exist [I have not seen in any case].
And then Serbia and Croatia!. In Serbia I'm three days on a high way because I have no good map of the area, but then I go from there and take back roads to Belgrade. It's freaking hot, but the villages along the way are very nice. It is very similar to Bulgaria, but slightly less smoothly.
In Belgrade I see paths again, and as Sofia is actually an ugly city but it is the people that make the city, the people themselves, but also cultural activities, cafee'tjes, the parks where they meet. Belgrade has a beautiful citadel that dominates the city throughout the centuries but was unfortunately unable city to protect it.
In Novi Sad I go left, Backa Palanka, into Croatia. Europe / Germany seems to have a calming effect on the former deadly enemies: the border formality takes a minute and there is free, normal movement between the two nations. Vukovar is a stone's throw from the border, and on the way I pass a huge battered water tower. You would think, to let such a structure standing like this ... damn scary!.
Vukovar is the easternmost city in Croatia situated on the high right bank of the Danube, which here forms the border with Serbia and Montenegro. On the other side of the river the landscape consists of so-called tidal forests.
The war started in this city.
The attack on the city in 1991 came not from Serbia, but from Croatia itself, from the direction of some Serb villages. In October 1991 the city became completely cut off from the rest of Croatia.
Day and night the city was bombarded from all sides by the Yugoslav People's Army [JNA] or bombed by the Yugoslav Air Force. No building escaped this. In particular, the historic center was heavily damaged.Only the large concrete water tower above the city, despite some hoops remained standing.
This is now the symbol of the war [bron: Vukovar].
That one is not really friends I notice because nobody really wants to change. My Serbian dinars Eventually I'm only three days in Croatia. Remarkably, I see signs of UNICEF and USAID, as in Africa. Strange, because Croatia is on me the impression of a prosperous European country. You can see traces of the war, riddled houses, but not much, almost everything is restored, upgraded.
At the border crossing Mohacs is still four days to Budapest. By evening, an army mosquitoes go where you say against you. It is so bad that I have to put a shirt with long sleeves and a mosquito net over my head to keep it. Somewhat bearable long trousers The bad thing is that it hardly cools until 00:00 the oppressive stays warm.
Can not do it all the time to follow because I have no maps and the route is not marked. Too well the Danube route Eventually I come across a super-autobahn in Budapest. Unlike Turkey, and impoverished-wanna-be-european-eastern bloc countries, it is forbidden to cycle here. On the autobahn I notice that the library library and nervous behavior LKW's passing me by a hair.
The imposing Parliament building of Budapest reminds me very much of Venice. I find it a very pleasant, beautiful, livable city. The town consists of two parts, if you come from the south on the left bank Buda and Pest on the right bank. Large stately buildings that date back to the time of the Habsburg empire.
Memorial Monuments to both wars, as a gentleman with a Stahlhelm who throws a grenade, unthinkable thing to see in the west.
I sit at a small square, with all bars in a residential barracks on the first floor with a control freak as landlord, but I am now cured in Africa, Ethiopia so I will leave it with a smile on me. Oh, she means well, and soon I'll be a citizen with a private room and master of my own destiny insj-allah!.
... And ... when walking to Buda I saw again a sign of the Camino de Santiago! All roads seem to lead not to Rome but to Santiago.
Tomorrow again on the road. I'm really looking forward to it, I'm pretty fast and I have to try to keep this speed because the 'west' [indies] attracts! :)
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