Roamin' Romania beats Bulgaria (but barely)

Trip Start Sep 04, 2004

Trip End Jun 30, 2005

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Flag of Bulgaria Varna, Bulgaria
Friday, November 12, 2004

As an aside, we just wanted you to be the first to know....last Sunday we were married by a Malaysian Monk called Kenny, who assured us that the Pope (or Jesus or someone like that) had personally authorised him to perform such ceremionies in hostels around the world. The event was preceded by large volumes of beer and wine, after which Kenny pressed his services upon the couple who found no other way to end the madness than to grant Kenny his wish. Shockingly the next morning it was discovered by the 30 or so wedding guests that Kenny had not actually meet the Pope and the validity of the ceremony was dubious at best. Pictures of the ceremony have been deleted lest the tabloids get hold of the story and distort it. Shame, looks like we'll have to wait a few more years yet...!

The final destination on our European leg bought us to that continent's two most economically disadvantaged (i.e

Conveniences on Bulgaria's Sofia - Plovidiv train

. dirtiest) countries. Being the two penny pinching backpackers that we are, we were loving it. The countries are not that dissimilar, both are packed with picturesque castle ruins, mountains, monasteries and medieval town squares. However, what binds these countries more than anything else is their ruling class, and we're not talking blue-blood inbreds here, we're talking canines... hundreds of thousands of them. During the communist era, forced urbanisation led people to ditch their dogs in the streets which are now run by the mutts. We saw the beginning of this process in Sighisoara, Romania where we witnessed the disposal of an unwanted pooch from a fast moving car in the dead of night. The speed with which the dog caught up with the car probably means a few more attempts will be necessary before he goes native. In Bucharest, we saw the end result - a hardened street-wise Jack Russell type who went for us (John Prescott-style) when we tried to take his picture. The grainy piccie above is taken at a fast moving pace just before he launched himself at our ankles. Three blocks later we managed to shake him off but Sarah still has nightmares about the incident!

So what's good and bad? In Romania, Brasov and Sigishuara were both beautiful with some great dracula-style castles nearby, and some wonderful hiking opportunities. Ceascesu's Palace in Bucharest is breathtaking but apart from that the city is well noted for its hustlers and dogs and in summary is a shithole. In Bulgaria, Sofia, Plovdiv and Veliko Tarnovo were fun but not jam-packed with highlights (apart from Combie's victory over Sarah in ten-pin bowling).

These counties are also noted for their monasteries, most of which are still functioning self-sufficient places where tourists can stay a night or two

Happy hikers in Romania

. Given the amount of time it takes to get to these places and what's there when you do, our considered opinion is that they're crap. Far better to rent a room with cable tv and watch the Police Academy series back to back, which is in fact what we did (where is Steve Guttenburg now??). You can tell we've seen a few too many sights when our priorities have become this warped!

Satellite tv is indeed one of the main benefits of hostels, along with access to lots of Americans and Australians with views on absolutely everything, all trying to outdo each other on how little money they can survive on and how many days they can make a pair of underpants last! (Combie consideres them also-rans on both fronts!). Those locals renting rooms struggle to understand the attraction of meeting and socialising with other travellers in bunk-bed filled hostels (as indeed sometimes do we). However, the alterantive is not always appealing....when the villagers wheel out granny, who speaks only German following her brief liason with a storm trooper 60 years ago, and promising you her still warm bed for the night, they think the deal is sealed. With little prospect of anything more entertaining than the long uncomfortable silences as you try and decipher the Bulgarian news in their sitting rooms (with Granny staring menancingly at you for depriving her of a bed for the night!), this is rarely an attractive proposition

Our friend in Bucherest, until he turned

.

The cinema is our other link to the outside world. We managed to catch Stepford Wives the other night in Varna, Bulgaria. However, a Bulgarian's idea of a night at the cinema is a bit more all encompassing than their Western peers. It involved very little actual watching of the movie and was more like a night on the Savannah or the streets of Bucharest - scratching, munching, chatting and rooting were all liberally engaged in. We were actually surprised when someone elected to VACATE their seat to go to the toilet. We thought about cancelling the African leg of our tour and getting all the wildlife exposure we needed right here in the plains and mountains of South East Europe.

For the sake of our public, we've resolved to continue and we're off to Turkey to begin the Middle East leg.

Speak to you all from there.