Istanbul - Sofia - Belgrade

Trip Start Sep 20, 2007

Trip End Dec 24, 2007

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Flag of Serbia and Montenegro Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro
Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Itinerary : Istanbul - Sofia - Belgrade
Dates : 10th December to 12th of December 2007
Mileage in eastern Europe : 700 km
Mileage so far : 21650 km.

In the afternoon, after the BMW stop, we headed for the border where we would cross into Bulgaria and stay a night in Sofia. No need to explain the hassle to get out of Turkey as you are well aware by now...On the other hand, the Bulgarian side was quick and easy...Great feeling to finally enter Europe and not to have to deal with the time consuming border crossings anymore...And Kevin' face is starting to have colours again because he's finally out of Turkey! The ride to Sofia was a difficult 500 km ride in the fog...Halfway to Sofia, I was starting to get hungry and I thought it was time to discover the people a little bit. I love stopping along the road in the middle of nowhere as it's really then that you get to know the people. Kevin is not convinced and delighted when I do those stops but then he talks about those funny stops the next day which makes me think that he enjoys them as well...And this first food stop in Bulgaria was going to be no exception...Indeed, when I saw this "house" a long the road with nice colourful neon light flashing outside and trucks parked outside, I thought that this would be the perfect place to grab some food so I turned in. The moment I took off my helmet and glanced trough the window at the dinning area, I immediately told Kevin that this is going to be an interesting moment and to get prepared...I straight away took my camera and kept it in my pocket before going trough the entrance door where we were greeted by the lady owner...I then realized, I soon as I was in the corridor leading to the dining area that this stop would be far more interesting than what I would have thought, so I told Kevin to go ahead while I go back to the bike and pick-up my camcorder...At that moment, I still didn't know what this place really was and the only thing I could see was a smoky dining area full of Bulgarians. Then I realized what was really happening when I went back in and saw Kevin being pulled up a staircase by a woman that was probably a former heavyweight wrestling champ and when Kevin whispered to me : "Pierre (Kevin saw my passport and prefers to call me Pierre...), I'm not sure but I think that lady was telling me in Bulgarian to follow her up the room!". Then, when we both turned around to have a better look at what was happening around us and we saw a whole team of former male wrestlers sitting on their wooden chairs with big moustached ladies hanging on their arms! We then understood we were in a Brothel! Very nice deco with a live band performing...Well the guy was alone and he had an automatic keyboard playing behind him...The waiter was very funny as well and looked exactly like what you would expect a guy working in a brothel to look like...Managed to get some video footage of this stop...Oh and when we saw the body size and hair density under the ladies nose, we didn't even try to have them sit on our laps...

lead singer of a one person band!

Kevin still shocked...

crazy waiter with my helmet....

His name was Fai...funny guy...

my first bulgarian friend...

The waiter, the singer and the biker...

When we hit the road again, I was paying a bit more attention to the food stops or what I thought would be restaurants, and I straight away understood that in eastern Bulgaria, they optimize their business by offering food and women in the same place! Had a hard time swallowing my food...We arrived late in Sofia so we woke up the next morning with small eyes and we had another day of hard riding as we had planned to stay in Belgrade that night. Belgrade was 400 km away so we quickly went for a quick picture in front of the "Alexander ...kov" church to prove that we passed in Sofia before riding to Belgrade.

the "alex...something kov" church...

Quick break for Kevin...

Easy day riding into Serbia with a hassle free border crossing. Serbia is not part of the EU so I thought that it would be a bit difficult but it took us only 10 minutes to do the whole border crossing. I thought that Sofia was a nice city but Belgrade is even nicer I think. Not easy finding an hotel in Belgrade but we finally managed to find a reasonably priced one in the city centre. Well, I think that this hotel is our first real taste of their communist past! This hotel looks like it was a former apartment building converted into a hotel and it is exactly how I imagined a hotel in Belgrade to look like! Enjoying this hotel actually and the feel of it...Something that I've never really experienced I guess, so I'm delighted! The walls in the corridor are falling apart, the lift is barely working, the painting in the room walls are chipping away, the tiles in the bathroom are the same as the ones in my grandma's place (my grandma doesn't speak English so I can write this), there's a dodgy casino in the lobby and the lobby greets you with a white neon light illuminating an awkwardly laid red carpet...Fantastic!

our hotel in the city center...

the corridor going to our room...nice color...

The lobby?

in the hotel lift...survived it...

the hotel bar...

After a good laugh in the room, we thought that it was time to celebrate our arrival in eastern Europe and so we went to have a couple of beers in a pub! That's the only place Kevin would go to have a beer...No choice! A bit too much beer that night that Kevin had a hard time aiming the key to open the room door...Late night...so late that I was able to help clean the streets! Well it's OK, we planned to stay the next day in Belgrade to visit...

true saying on a signboard in the pub....

cleaning the street! happy...

had a good laugh cleaning together!

Kevin trying to aim the key....

Funny little city which has a cosy feeling. I think it's because there's only 2 million people living here so it feels comfortable...Casinos all over the place like in Sofia...I think that they have a bad habit of gambling in this region...Finally, was surprised to still see traces of the 1999 NATO bombings in the city because of Kosovo. So took some pictures which doesn't look as impressive as in a real...Then a policeman approached me and told me to turn off the camera and leave...He said that I was lucky that it was him because it would have been another colleague, I would be at the police station by now...Those buildings are government property and you are not allowed to take pictures...Well I didn't know it was a government building. I am wondering why they are just living those buildings in that state and not putting them down. Thank god he was cool and didn't give me the opportunity to have a freezing night in a Serbian cell...