the weirdest day ever
Thursday, August 28th, 2008It seems that I cannot cross a border without everything being strange. Crossing into Bulgaria was no different, although just one part of my very weird and possibly life threatening day.
It began with my 3am bus, after trying to get an hour or so sleep before. The bus arrived in the border town around 7.30am and I set about trying to get a bus to somewhere in Bulgaria, no one really spoke english but a guy wrote the name of something down on a bit of paper and sent me on a local bus…I assumed I was heading to another bus station to get a bus to Bulgaria, however after changing buses I was dropped off at the edge of an industrial waste land which happened to be the border.
(what I was dropped off in front off…so welcoming)
“Bulgaria?” I questioned weakly and was pointed in the direction of rows of cars. So I began the long walk through the border which is not set up for people walking at all and I dodged the cars and got a lot of funny looks. It took me about 45minutes to walk through the whole thing hoping that there would be a bus at the end of it all. I had to show my passport about 20 different times and to loads of different checkpoints as I wasn’t really sure where I was supposed to be going. Eventually I emerged at the other end to find out there is in fact no buses anyway. I was about 15 km from the closest town, Svlingrad where there would be buses but had no way of getting there.
I was pretty tired from the early start and sat on the side of the road to consider my options. Once I stood back up with still no clues about what to do a truck driver who was pulled up said something to me in Turkish, I replied with “Svilngrad?” and somehow I worked out that he would take me there. At this point I realised that getting into a truck with a strange driver who spoke no english could possibly be dangerous but also that I had no other option.
Anyway, he seemed nice.
So I jump in this massive big truck, he is actually driving to Belgrade and through Sofia (the capital) and decided to take me there, although I don’t really get this until we drive past the turnoff to Svlingrad. So begins my very strange 5 hour journey to Sofia with the truck driver who spoke no english. We stopped at a few truck stops where the other old men looked at me very strangely and the driver brought me breakfast. It was all very very weird. He was also insistent that he could drive me to Belgrade and then to Germany where he was eventually heading, really I kept saying that Sofia was fine.
After a long long time we were getting close to Sofia, however the turnoff to Belgrade was before the city so I am dumped on the side of the motorway again, with no clue about what to do. I asked some policemen about a bus and they said it was a kilometer down the road so I picked up my pack and started to head off down the motorway. At which point a car pulls up and a chick who speaks perfect english, is like “what are you doing?” I kind of explain to her that I am going to Sofia and she looks very concerned and tells me to get in the car and ends up taking me right to center of town, telling me that I really should not take lifts with strange truck drivers and Bulgaria is too dangerous to travel around alone!
After a 10 minute walk I find a hostel, its 5pm and a good14 hours since I left Turkey, its was a long and bizarre day.
Next time I will check the bus schedule
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