2018-07-31
Today I did the slow ride and I am quite sure the following experiences are due to that. First, I decided to face the challenge of going to one of these places that are a mixture between minimarket and café. I bought bread and cheese and sat down to eat.
And soon after, a Canadian cycling couple around my age, Ruth and Gordon made a stop for a short talk and exchanging email addresses. We agreed to meet again in 2 days in Russe/Bulgaria. They had a different route due to a hotel they had found somewhere in-between, and I later continued a part of the longest route in one direction, 65km without other directions given. This road partly crossed villages and often kind of nowhere land. And on such a section there was some agriculture and people under an umbrella shouted at me. So I thought maybe it is Ruth&Gordon making a stop there for buying some vegetables and went there. But it was a group of women sorting strawberries in boxes and a young guy waiting with his car to bring the fruits to a supermarket. One of those women around 50 with 3 teeth left made jokes with/about me, by that making all the others laughing loud. It was something like they do not sell those strawberries but still she would need 5 Lew, because she and her friends need bread for the next day and I should pay attention to my bike, because some Romanians would come and steal it and so on. Finally, I got 500g strawberries and in exchange gave her some protein bars. I just fear they will not like them. Some of the strawberries I put in one of those boxes I so far had managed to empty from my special home-made high-energy dietary concentrate.
When I made a stop to make a photo of a cemetery with those extra thin gravestones, a boy on a bike waited for me. He then accompanied me, showing that he could go faster and freehand. But really impressed I was when he made a full brake, actually without having brakes. He just pressed his sandal on top of the back wheel. I am not sure if he knew how dangerous this is or if this was part of the show. Later this day, an elder guy (let’s say 60) on a noisy old bike caught up for a while and maybe both of us were relieved , when he had to go elsewhere.
Still I hadn’t found any nice place to eat a breakfast (and it was nearly 11!), eg. When I wanted to go to a bench aggressive dogs were around soon and off I went. Half an hour later I found a bus stop with roof providing shadow and sat down. I could see an old couple on a bench in front of the next house time and again glimpsing towards me. And when I was finished and about to go the man came and talked to me in Romanian. Apparently, he wanted to know where I am from and where I am going to and if I am alone. I showed him the bike cover with all the flags and told him that I go for one year. So he invited me to take an apple from his tree in front of the house and that will improve my dinner.
When half of the distance to Ruse/Russe was done I decided to look for a place for my tent. What I had seen so far was not encouraging as I even didn’t find a hidden place for toilet. But then on a hill after a village a dirt road branched off at a cornfield and I followed. After the corn it made a right-bend, so there was the street, the corn and then this path and then nature. I thought this is good and set up my tent.
Because of the sun I couldn’t stay inside and crouched in the small shadow at the side of the tent to pin the Bulgarian flag to the bike cover (as a correction to Moldavia and Ukraine).
And soon after, a car came! It was an old couple, passing me, answering my hello, going on for 100m, turning, coming back, answering another hello and off they went. But only 5min later came a guy with his bike, doing the same procedure, with the only difference that he talked to me in Romanian and when I asked “problem?” pointing on my tent he said no.
Later I ate up the strawberries that were near to cooking because of the direct sun and did the same round like the couple and the guy but there was nothing of any interest…
Meanwhile the sky is very dark, wind is coming up and thunder is rumbling. I hope the best and close my PC…
The night and 1st of August
It was a real thunderstorm, the storm tearing at my tent, the rain pouring down and making little creeks over my head and lightnings accompanied by crashing thunder illustrated how exposed I was. Needless to say, it was not easy to fall asleep and before 5, when the rain had stopped, I decided to leave. All around my tent was mud, I packed up fast and soon was on the road. It was the mixture of sometimes total silence and traffic hell like always. I have less problems with trucks than with cars:
19 out of 20 truck drivers keep a good distance when overtaking (still they are big, that’s true), but less then 9 out of 10 normal cars are respectful, especially if there is another car coming from the front, many drivers just pass by without reducing speed or increasing side distance. Whenever someone in such a situation waited, I made a gesture signalling “excuse me!/Thank you!”
Today I found one beautiful place for breakfast: a tree, a table, a bench arranged a bit off the road. But some dogs waiting there could not escape my trained eye. I even was too eager to get away to take a photo. But 2h later at a lake side there was again the same arrangement of tree+table+bench and I didn’t see the dogs. I had swallowed two bites when they came. They showed all signs of submissiveness and begged pleadingly. But the leftovers of an apple did not meet their interest.
In the last village before the border town Giurgiu I continued my new tradition of bread+cheese lunch and as there was a big open bag with dog food I bought some for the “feed the aggressive dog as a surprise”-experiment. While I was eating a dog was begging and the owner chased it away several times. When I got back to my bike I saw that she even had put some of the same food besides the door but the hope for some pieces of bread or cheese had been stronger (and the dog food also could be eaten later).
I came to the border and queued up between all those cars. But then came a local man on a bike an waved that I should simply go, as it was just something about road pricing and the border is later. In fact, I had to cross the (big!) Danube to get to Bulgaria, this time slipping by the cars, showed my passport and was in Russe.
And what a surprise to meet Ruth and Gordon here again! They had checked the way to their pension and to my hostel and went with me! On the way was a restaurant where we agreed to meet in the evening. Meanwhile I had time for business as usual: clean clothes and me, charge everything, download pics from the camera, write a blog post, load up.