A day in Bulgaria
The night in the bus from Istanbul was not very peaceful! 8 hours on the road to go to Sofia, with lots of stops, it was impossible to fall asleep. It was very long to cross the border from Turkey to Bulgaria, waiting outside at one o’clock in the cold. We arrived around 5.30am in Sofia, I didn’t want to get outside of the bus, I was sleeping. Now I have to be in the cold and at night. Luckily, there is a heated hall in the bus station where I can wait until the day dawns. Impossible to sleep, I have to look after my stuff and my bike. I met a Bulgarian couple speaking French (they were living for a few years in the West of France). She told me about their expatriation and their willingness to return to Bulgaria. They are living 5km away from Sofia but they never visited the city. She gave me a piece of money so I can go to the toilet, I don’t have leva, the Bulgarian money. It is not easy to leave my stuff and my bike in the city. So I leave all my stuff to this couple so I can do a little toilet in the public bathroom.
Nobody told me good things about Sofia. It is not the most beautiful city in Bulgaria. So, I decided, after I had my breakfast, to visit Sofia very quickly and take the road. I start to have some tingling in my legs, I need to ride! And I am à bit tired of big cities. I ride in front of Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, the symbol of Sofia which is shining under the beautiful blue sky. I cross some parks before taking the road. Riding in Sofia is very nice, there are cycling paths! And with the sun, I really enjoy riding in this city. But it is time to go, I go to the North to take the direction of Serbia. There is around 70 km until the border, which is my goal for today. It is a pleasure to ride again. I left summer very quickly for autumn. I ride on small roads – where I still have to be very careful with stray dogs – lined with trees in orange colors. I could enjoy the view but now I am riding on paved roads! Interminables. With my mudguard which rubs against the wheel, it is not so good. And even when I think it is over, there is still more. 20 km like that. So when finally I ride on a new and tarred road to arrive at the border, my arms and my arse thank me! There, I am very happy to be riding my bike to overtake cars to be in front of them at the border posts. I didn’t stay a lot in Bulgaria, less than 24 hours. I will spend more time in Serbia.
Welcome to Serbia
And tonight I will take care of myself. After a horrible night and 70 km, I am so tired. It won’t be long before it will be dark, there is no camping and I don’t have energy to look for somewhere to put my tent. I choose the easy way and go to the hotel (30€ for a room, it is the same price as a backpacker in Italy). But I just realized that I could ride more, I won one hour when I crossed the border. But no regrets, I had a nice hot meal in my room with my cooking gas, a nice bed and à huge breakfast included. In the morning, I try to fix my mudguard when the sun comes out. In front of the hotel, I start to fix and grease my bike when the owner of the hotel comes to see me in his big car. He asks me if I need help, I say no, thank you but he insists and calls his mechanic – how I could imagine him helping me with his ironed shirt. He offers me a cafe in 30 minutes when he comes back. Before that, I am now with two guys who are not speaking English. With a smile, they take the time to fix my bike. After that I went to see the owner at the hotel. We are sharing only the cafe, he spends all the time on the phone. He has also à truck transport company and this morning, one of his trucks on the way to Russia was stuck in Georgia. He told me that from the Ukraine war, it is very difficult for truck drivers to cross the countries around Ukraine and Russia. I leave this business man who offers me one more night there for free. But I have to be in Venice for 13 days, so I have to go! It is already 11am. Days are getting shorter and shorter and I already lost 3 hours of sun! I leave Dimitrovgrad to go on the way to Niš. On the map, I saw somewhere I will be able to camp for the night just before the city. 90 km to ride. It is à beautiful day, not too many cars, almost flat all the way, my first day in Serbia is very nice! I rode along the Sićevo Gorge near Nišava river at the end of the day. It started to get colder but I loved riding between these big rocks and tunnels. It gave me some energy to keep going to finish the day and arrive at the park where I will stay for the night. There are still few people, kids, basketball players, fishing men … Far from them, I do a little toilet in the river, the water is freezing! For dinner, I go to the picnic table with a street lamp near the basketball players. A soup and a tea to keep me warm and it is time to put up my tent for the night.
And what a night! Even with a layer of dead leaves, a blanket, a silk cloth, my sleeping bag and wool socks, I was so cold! I think it was around 8 and 10 degrees. I have to recognize that I am not resistant to the cold weather. As soon as I put my nose outside, I can’t feel my fingers anymore. Everything is cold and wet. Lucky, the sun gets up quickly, warms up my tent and me. But the day didn’t start very well. After 20 minutes by bike, I rode too fast on à sidewalk : one of my rear bike bags came off and taped my wheel, and one of my spokes broke down. I do makeshift repairs with tape until I can find a bike shop. But I am in a Serbian country, so I can ride a bit until I find one. Now, I am very careful about every pothole (and there are a lot!) to not break the entire wheel. I feel like I have gone back in time : cars or the playground look so old. Serbia is still very rural. I enjoy the landscape but don’t lose too much time. I found a campersite for tonight but it is 100 km from Niš. There are not a lot of campings in Serbia, sadly. So when I find one, I go! And the clock is going very fast, the pressure of the night is always here, and tonight I finish with the headlamp. I am so happy to arrive at Plum Camping. It is camping at the farm, very quiet in this month of autumn. I am welcomed by Alexander who offers me spontaneously to stay in the little hut for the same price as in the tent. He has 3 girls and wouldn’t that they sleep outside in this weather. Quick shower, little washing, a nice hot soup inside and a nice warm bed, tonight is luxury (if we don’t look at the little insects who are sleeping inside too).
The next morning, I had tea with Alexander. It was a very nice meeting, I learned more about Serbia, about his camping, his own plum alcohol (I would love to take some on my bike!), and more things. The day started very well. The sun took time to get up, so I started to ride under the fog. But when it was there, it was very hot! I have never crossed so many tractors than today. Everybody greets me, their smiles make me happy. Today, my mission was to find a bike shop and fix my spoke. I failed, Google Maps took me to a farm instead of a bike shop… I was thinking of failing. But my evening has many surprises in store for me. I didn’t know where to sleep tonight, I met Nikola outside of a supermarket. At this moment, I should trust my first impression, say thank you and leave. Instead, I followed him to his home. I met his neighbor too who is speaking French, it reassures me a little. But as soon as I put a foot in Nikola’s house, I regret my choice. I had never seen a house so dirty, it was smelling so bad. And he doesn’t male me feel comfortable as well. He speaks very good English. The good thing is I won’t spend the evening alone with me, he takes me in his car to meet some friends. The bad thing is that he insists on fixing my bike. We gave my back wheel to one of his mechanic friends who keeps it for the night. So it will be impossible for me to run away with my bike (I had this idea, we never know…). But finally, the night was alright, I just didn’t feel very serene. The next day, with these odors of cigarettes and bad smell, I have enough, I want to go. It won’t be quick. The mechanic fixed my spoke but couldn’t put my tire back. So we tried to do it with Nikola, but we couldn’t either. He started to give me orders and saying that as a woman, I can’t do it, he is starting to annoy me. So finally we went to another friend, a mechanic too. 3 of them on my bike, to finish putting back my tire. I can go. I say thank you to everyone, it is already 10am and I have more than 70 km to go to Belgrade and it is starting to be dark at 4pm. Nikola accompanied me to the main road, after that I was so happy to be on my own. Flat, Serbian roads (lots of holes), a lunch break along the Danube, some climbing and I arrive at the capitale. I found online a hostel where I can go with my bike.
Belgrade
Very good ambiance, not too big. I enjoy my shower after these last two days. Now I can relax. I had tea with a Russian. Another meeting who impressed me. He is a computer engineer. He has lived in Serbia for a few months, he found a job here, he is looking for an apartment to give him the possibility to bring his family here. He ran away from Russia because, even if at this moment engineers are not called to fight in the war, he knows that it will come. It is hard to think that we are in 2022 and we can meet people who are hit by the war.
I wanted to eat a Serbian dinner, I followed the advice from the receptionist and went to a tourist restaurant. Prices are a little bit high, so I am a bit disappointed but I don’t have the energy to look for another place. I should. After my meeting last night, I sat alone at one table. Next to me, a man around 50 years old is having dinner. I only ask him if it is good, he says yes and offers me to eat with him. Why not. He is Italian, living in Switzerland and speaking French. We are chatting. Everything was alright, he offered me my meal, Pljeskavica – a Serbian burger – and then offered me to have a drink at the pub next to the restaurant. It is Halloween and everyone is dressed up. Why not. As soon as I stood up, he was looking at me from the top to the bottom, and told me 4 times that he was very happy to meet me and “we can see that you are riding…” I start to feel his cumbersomeness. And that’s how it turned out. He drinks and starts to insist . I decided to go back to my room. I am tired. Tired of my day but mainly tired of men. Luckily, he is not staying at the same hostel as me, so I won’t see him again. I am happy to be alone again.
I will stay one day in Belgrade. Before visiting the city, I want to find a way to go faster. It is the 31st of October, I have 9 days to be in Venice, it will be short. The train is not very popular in this part of Europe, so I try to take the bus. In the bus station, I try to have more information and ask for my bike too. The answer is “you can or you can not”… It depends on the bus driver. OK, I don’t feel very relaxed, I will have to be persuasive tomorrow morning. Before that, I discovered Belgrade : Republic square, church of St Sava – one of the biggest orthodox churches of the world. Quite recent, the construction started in 1939 and inside there are still some works. It is beautiful inside, lots of gilding but very noisy. I wanted to visit the museum of Yugoslavia but sadly it is closed. Instead, I walk in the streets and the park along the Danube. I finished this last day in Serbia with some French around a Halloween quiz in a pub. Nice and cosmopolitan evening. The night will be short, tomorrow I will take the bus early to Zagreb…
