January 19, 2014
A hot Bulgarian winters day: In hot pursuit of Lidl
In the morning I got up, cycled another 800 metres along the road and came to this sign:
And on the other side of the road:
The whole trip had been saved! I was so happy! I was literally bursting with ecstasy (the emotion, not the drug, and, er, metaphorically, not literally.)
Onwards into Bulgaria, another country that I had never been to before and my knowledge of it was limited to the following facts:
1) Every member of the Bulgarian squad at the 1994 football World Cup had a surname that ended with the letter v.
2) Bulgaria made it to the semi-finals of that tournament after a shock 2-1 victory over Germany. I was ten at the time and I will never forget the look on Jurgen Klinsmann's face.
3) Its a country in Eastern Europe.
Okay, so Bulgaria wouldn't be my chosen specialist subject on Mastermind (pointless football trivia from the mid-nineties would), but I did have some experience with Bulgarians while I was living in Edinburgh. There was Nikolay the pedicab driver who has risen to a level of some infamousy on this blog, from whom I was able to surmise that all Bulgarian drivers would be extremely slow going uphill, reckless on the downhills, and very likely to be going the wrong way. And there was also a girl that at the time I took quite a fancy to. I took her on a date to a park, we ate some potato salad, it was magic. I kissed her. I liked her a lot. But after that kiss she never wanted to see me again, and she deleted me on Facebook if you can believe anyone could do such a cruel thing. From this sorrowful episode I concluded that a) it was a mistake to put garlic in the potato salad and b) Bulgarians aren't very nice.
But Bulgaria is a country, and one that was standing in the way of Turkey, so I had to go. In any case it would hardly be fair of me to judge an entire nation on the actions of just one of its citizens, particularly when you bear in mind that I've been rejected by girls from all over the world, including ones from some very fine countries.
At first glance Bulgaria appeared to be a little wealthier than Romania. The houses were a little better, the road was in good condition and I saw very few horse and carts (only three in the whole first day!) Also, rather sadly, there were absolutely no stray dogs anywhere which made me rather worried just what in hell I was going to find to write about. There were very few people about as well, and the first town I went through, General Toshevo (brilliant name), felt almost like a ghost town. I put it down to it being Sunday morning. I was supposed to have a place to couchsurf that night in the city of Varna. I had been invited by a couple in that city who had written to me that they wanted to 'show me Bulgarian hospitality' and would like it if I came and stayed with them. Unfortunately they had failed to give me their address, phone number, or anywhere to meet and I found a wifi connection in General Toshevo to see if they had supplied me with any of this vital information. Alas they had not. I wrote a message saying I would very much like to stay with them and if they could send me the address in the next couple of hours I could check my email when I got to the city of Dobric.
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Two hours later I arrived in Dobric, which turned out to be one of the ugliest cities one could ever imagine. I found a wifi connection at a gas station and was disappointed to find no message. Well, that's Bulgarian hospitality for you, they'll invite you to your house, they just won't tell you where they live. I was disppointed but it was hardly the end of the world, I could live without stopping in Varna and I was much more excited to see that I had a couchsurfing request for the centre of Istanbul accepted. Although, actually, he hadn't provided an address yet either, so I decided I should keep my excitement in check for the moment.
The curious thing about Dobric was that it had an extraordinary number of adverts giving directions for supermarkets, but actually finding one was incredibly difficult. I decided to pursue a Lidl. I took a road where an advert told me I could find one in 2.8km. After 3km I came to another sign telling me to turn right for Lidl and it was in 750m. I turned right and after 800m I came to a sign telling me to turn right for Lidl and it was in 800m. I wasn't sure if I was still pursuing the same Lidl as when I started and I felt a bit like I was going around in circles, but eventually I found it and could do my shopping. The thing about Lidl is that it has pretty much taken over Europe and no matter where you go it always looks the same inside. In Edinburgh there was a Lidl directly opposite my flat and here, on the complete other side of Europe in Eastern Bulgaria, I stepped inside and it looked just exactly the same. I should hate this, man of principle that I am; this horrible, materialistic, make-everything-the-same, tacky nonsense but then on the other hand, you know, its cheap. I stepped out half expecting to see my grey flat opposite in the grey Edinburgh greyness, but instead I stepped out into the bright warm sunshine of a hot Bulgarian winters day.
And it was both warm and hot. So much so that it was actually 'wearing shorts' weather. The increasing temperatures were a bit of a pain though, as shedding layers meant I had nowhere to put these excess clothes on my bike, especially as I had just filled up my food pannier. I jammed my coat and my ski-pants under a bungee cord piled on top of my sleeping bag and tent. It would have been 'shorts and t-shirt' weather if I'd had anywhere to put my hoody.
I really enjoyed my first day in Bulgaria even though I didn't talk to anyone. The road was good, the weather was great, and it felt like I had made it through the winter. I knew this probably wasn't going to be true (they have harsh winters in the east of Turkey) but it didn't matter, I was so excited about Turkey! 'Turkey, Turkey, Turkey, Turkey!' I thought to myself happily. Just as soon as I thought this I passed a yard that was filled with turkeys! Oh how I laughed. Just because I was thinking of the word Turkey, the bird with the same name appeared, how very humorous! Then I had an idea. 'Naked girls, naked girls, naked girls, naked girls!' I tried hopefully, but it didn't work.
Today's ride: 73 km (45 miles)
Total: 12,630 km (7,843 miles)
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