It’s almost unfair to Romania, but we were so much looking forward to seeing something different from the mountains of rubbish that a minefield in the middle of a zombie army would have been a welcome change.
Luckily no one expects an objective travel blog from us, so we can report with a clear conscience that we put on our blinkers, paid the bridge toll to Bulgaria with a happy heart and drove into the most beautiful country on earth … at least for the moment. We managed to successfully ignore the crumbled houses ,which stood here as well as before the border and instead enjoyed the sunshine of the very early spring. So Bulgaria, a lot of land, also rubbish (but less), crumbling houses, but somehow kept with more love with vine branches and climbing roses holding the houses together than the neighbors in the north. We have not planned much time for this country, still true to the motto: What is so close at, you can also visit later and need not take a year off.
So we rummed with an average mileage of 160km / day to the south. That may not sound like much at first, but only those who have never seen the streets with their own eyes can’t tell. Without a vigilant copilot, who always warns the driver of deep craters in the asphalt, surely more serious damages would have occured, yet it shakes some of the screws from the coverings of the living room, not to mention flying fruit and other torn away travel items.
After the first night in a beautiful national park with great hiking trails, which led around an old castle carved into the rock, we filled our fresh water supplies at a nearby source and roared towards the capital. Sofia clearly recognizes the balancing act between the old Soviet era and the innovations of the EU. The Western world, with its heavily advertised consumer goods, seems somehow out of place in the spirit between the architecture of the USSR. Nevertheless, one felt a real serenity in the eyes of passengers. We always like to use these short stays in cities to train with our Laika, how to behave properly in the presence of other dogs and strangers. In most cases, however, it is not up to our beloved four-legged friends, but rather the well-meaning bipeds are the problem. And even in the case when the extremely friendly waiters of a local restaurant asked us to leave, as dogs are not welcome, Laikas reaction was to pee in the foyer (with joy!) Also that was somehow appropriate … we find at least.
We went to Sofia’s local mountain, where there seemed to be plenty of snow. And spent a stormy night there. The next day he approached. The first WINCH USE. We call it a gentle beginning, because it was not Ernst himself who had become the victim of his unwavering drivers, but a car that had got stuck in the loose snow ditch in the parking lot of a small ski area. So: be friendly, offer help, pull the car back to the streets, meet new nice people. Whether we ourselves have come down safely from the snowy hill? We’ll tell you more about that next time.