September 17, 2015
Into Bulgaria
I abandon EuroVelo 6 and hop a bus to Sofia
I didn't see a lot of reason to continue along the Danube to Constanta and the Black Sea. The route is reputed to be tedious and uninteresting, and accommodation is difficult to find and often separated by longer distances than I'm comfortable cycling. Most people who ride EV6 all the way seem to be driven to reach the Black Sea and to know that they've done it. I don't have that drive, and in fact it had not been part of my plan. After the Iron Gates, it made sense to me to continue on a relatively flat and easy route. The distances (and the dogs!) made it more difficult, and I decided I would be better off figuring out how to get to Istanbul.
There aren't many options from the Romanian side of the river, but in Calafat we were near a bridge and border crossing to Vidin, Bulgaria. Bulgaria is hilly and has it's own challenges, but I could catch a bus or train to Sofia, and work things out from there.
So that's what I did.
In the morning, Manliffe and I had the included breakfast at the hotel. It was cold omelet with no filling. They answered the "coffee or tea" question by bringing both. There was no milk available for the coffee. There was plenty of bread, and some sort of spreadable cheese and a bit of quince jam. There were more guests at the hotel than I had realized. The other guests at breakfast included several older, bent over women who looked like they were there for medical treatment. They came into the dining room in assorted bathrobes with scarves on their heads.
I explained my tentative plan to Manliffe. I think it was better for him to be able to just crank out the distance to Constanta without me, but both of us will miss the company. We headed out of town together, but our routes diverged almost immediately. We said goodbye and wished each other good and safe travels.
I stopped and changed Romanian lei into euros. First I went to a bank, and they told me to go to an Exchange office. I asked for a receipt at the exchange office, and they told me that for that I need to go to the bank. I'm not sure how I did with that whole exchange, but in the end I was left with about 5 USD worth of lei, which isn't too bad. You can't exchange lei outside of Romania, so I didn't want too much.
The bridge to Bulgaria is just a couple of km away. There were a lot of large trucks queued up, but the car and bike lane was short. I waited just a couple of minutes, and was through immigration quickly. There is a toll for the bridge, but I was just waved through the toll booth.
The bridge is quite long. In the middle I found the sign that I had crossed into Bulgaria, and stopped for pictures. I thought I might get yelled at for taking pictures on the bridge, but it didn't happen.
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After the bridge, the truck and the cars/bike routes diverged. I was stopped at the intersection, puzzling over which way to go and looking at maps on my phone, when someone stopped in a car and asked, in very good English, if I had a problem. I told him that I was just trying to figure out which way to go, and he pointed me back toward the bridge. I thanked him, and then took a closer look and saw a very small road that goes along the river and passed under the bridge. I went that way, and had a nice ride until it merged with the motorway. Then I got off and went into town toward the train station and bus depot as shown on my map.
On the way, I stopped and changed euros into Bulgarian lev, so I would have money for a ticket and some food. My research last night had shown that the trip would be 4 or 5 hours, and that the bus was faster than the train. I knew there was a train at 1 p.m., but I didn't have the bus schedule other than a departure at 5 in the morning. I found a bus depot, and asked at the information window about taking my bike on the bus. I got a "no English" response, and a pointer to the ticket window. At the ticket window, I also got "no English". When I pointed to my bike outside, another passenger said something to the ticket agent, and she sold me a ticket for the 1 p.m. bus to Sofia. I wasn't sure whether it included the bike or whether it would be an issue.
When the bus arrived, I showed the driver my bike. He shook his head, but indicated I should remove the front wheel. I went ahead and took the bags off the bike, and then the front wheel. With the rack, the quick release is no longer quick, as it has to be completely removed, but when I was done the driver put everything into the luggage compartment of the bus, muttering and shaking his head. But that was it. I got on the bus, sorted out that the ticket had a hand written seat number, and before long we were on our way.
I'd like to say that the ride had lots of interesting sights and beautiful scenery, but I nodded off and slept off and on the whole way. We had a 15 minute break in Vrasta, a town surrounded by steep mountains. I was glad I wasn't on my bike through this area.
When we got to Sofia I put the bike back together and went off to find a hostel I had mapped out last night. I hadn't reserved a bed, since I wasn't certain I would reach Sofia today, and hadn't had Wi-Fi since I left the hotel this morning. At the hostel, there was a big gate and no bell or instructions with a phone number. After waiting a bit, I went off to another hostel guided by my Garmin. I couldn't find it. I was where it should be, but if it was in one of the nearby buildings, it wasn't obvious to me. There was a bike repair spot nearby, and as I was puzzling over the location, a guy there asked me if I needed something for the bike. I told him no, but that I was looking for the hostel. He spoke with an older guy there, and suggested which road I take to find a hostel. I headed that way. After a few blocks I saw something labeled Family Hotel and went in and asked about a room. They told me they only had a suite available tonight. I took a look. It was okay but not great with toilet and shower all in one with no wall or curtain to keep things dry, and no AC. The suite was just a larger room with a sofa in addition to the bed. It was on the backside of the hotel, so should be reasonably quiet. I took it. Later on, when I connected to Wi-Fi, booking.com showed single rooms available, so I think they took advantage. They told me a single room would be available for the second night, but I've gone ahead and booked a room at a nicer place. As for the "family hotel", there are kids here, but there is also some business going on that is clearly not "family".
Today's ride: 25 km (16 miles)
Total: 2,630 km (1,633 miles)
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