A stream of consciousness retrospective, from more journal scribbles.
May 9, 2011
9:30 a.m. They turn on a movie, subtitled in Bulgarian!
This is a nearly empty bus, I think I'm the only non-Bulgarian...
we are passing mostly boring countryside, racing eastward on an empty autoroute in France.
11:00 a.m.We start passing more beautiful greenery, less cleared farmland - when will we cross a border? Germany?? Lots of wind farms, I think they are ugly, even if they are "good for the environment" and are they?
249 km. to Strasbourg, so that means the border is still at least 2.5 hours away, putting us there around 2 p.m. This is a part of France I've never seen before, wow!
20 minutes stop around noon, we've now just made the same distance as Boston-NYC, barely a dent in the journey, but it's gone by fast and smooth
The weather is nice and the bus is not too hot, especially with so few people! Will more people get on?
12:30 p.m. We just entered a huge, fancy city! BOURGEOIS CENTRAL...is this Nancy? Metz?...METZ, so it turns out, we are making 4 or 5 stops in Germany/Austria before Sofia and the bus keeps going to Burgas! We're picking up people, but it's still a nearly empty bus for now...
Apparently, we're in Germany now, and it's only 1:30 p.m., though I have no clue where in the country. It's been far too long since I've looked at a map of Europe, I feel like I'm in open, unknown space...grateful for the ample amount of stops so far. The dark Bulgarian man next to me is listening to Eurotrash dance music on his laptop, without headphones. He just turned it up, looking to have a party with the beer he just bought. We're driving through some quaint German countryside now and my cell phone has yet to lose service. I am confused! I'm reading the bike journal I bought at the anarchist book store in Houston and it's really been worth the wait, making me determined to rent/borrow/cheaply buy a bike in the East. ça y est, the cell phone is MIA! The man is now taking video of his friends on their journey. Bulgarian seems to have the same intonation as Russian, yet it sounds different and I definitely can't understand it. If it takes (only?) 6 hours to get to the Western border of Germany from Paris, I wonder how long that bike ride would be?
German cities: Uberherrn, Ensdorf, Lisdorf
3:00 p.m. The signs are pointing towards Luxembourg and the dance music is slightly better, as well as the countryside. Suddenly, we're in a huge ass German city, super urban, I don't know where we are! There are tramlines here, that's pretty real...we've started with the American action movies again, subtitled in Bulgarian.
3:15 p.m. So now we are STUCK at this bus terminal of this still unknown German city and I don't have the courage to ask the Bulgarians where we are. We can't get out of the bus either and that's annoying. I'm not sure why we're standing with the bus still running.
3:45 p.m. We're on the road again and I switched seats with a Bulgarian family. I started speaking in French with the Bulgarian dance music man - he is nice and tells me that we may arrive earlier than expected tomorrow, around 19h. He speaks a bit of Russian, but since he has been living in Metz for 5 years, he has forgotten a lot of it.
4:30 p.m. Woohoo, another German bus terminal
5:30 p.m. I am now sitting next to the Bulgarian man, apparently his name is Tiundjel and he has a 17-year-old daughter named Shenay, who only sees on visits back home. Raia, my host in Sofia, later tells me that his name doesn't sound Bulgarian, he's probably Roma or Turkish. Sometimes we have a hard time communicating in French, since his language skills aren't stellar and I don't speak a goddamn word of Bulgarian, basically.
9:00 p.m. The sun is setting, pink and orange over the green landscape. I think we're still in Germany. The Bulgarians have informed me, the silly curious American girl, that we will also pass through Austria, Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia on our way to Sofia. It's nice to find out surprises on the road. The sign just pointed to Munchen and Aubsburg - I guess there will be invisible things in the night. I just finished the bike almanac - a lovely, inspirational read. I've made it through more than 12 hours on a bus, with a dance music and loud children. Maybe I could have avoided this in the front of the bus, but it's kind of funny to interact with these conventional-minded Bulgarians, one who offers me beer and speaks some French, so sits next to me and goes out of his way to be a gentleman.
10:30 p.m. We are in the MUNICH bus terminal! According to the bus placard, this is the last stop before Sofia, which is strange and maybe isn't true. I am watching the Munich metro go by behind the fence on my left. I want to go! There is something wearing about travelling alone long distances after a while. I think I sort of stand out, a lot more than I had expected. I seem to be the only young single female traveller. There is a young straight couple who boarded at the same time in Paris and the girl stares at me strangely, as though she doesn't really understand. Of course, the language barrier doesn't help things, so you can't really tell what people are thinking of sometimes trying to explain. Hand signals need to be read carefully and sometimes I am also not very good.
11:00 p.m. We're about to get moving again. I think if people would quiet down a bit, I could get some sleep with my earplugs, scarf over my eyes and the seat back. It's been awhile again since I've gotten proper sleep. I'm dreaming of 3 weeks of physical labor at Peliti, with restful nights. But I'm going to miss biking!
May 10, 2011
6:00 a.m. We're at the Croatian border! (NO BORDER) They took my passport to stamp it, LOL. For some reason, they check twice. This time, the lady cop come around with a stamp, though I already had one. I slept badly, as in barely at all. I'll try to continue sleeping through the morning. I just missed a photo of the "Welcome to Croatia" sign. It's a beautiful morning, with green hills in the distance.
9:50 a.m. Slovenian border, another document check. So many freakin' stamps in my passport. Now it seems that the bus driver is collecting IDs. Also, I am totally lame and didn't realize that Bulgaria isn't on the Euro, but has its own currency, the leva. Way to travel to a foreign country without knowing a goddamn thing!
10:00 a.m. So apparently, we bypassed Slovenia and now we're at the Serbian border. So many lady cops. You'd think that with all the non-feminist conventional cultures, there would be less women in these roles, but I guess they've increased. Lots of women join police forces - I wonder how they feel working alongside men, probably steeped in sexism? Guarding a border - a seemingly monotonous, bureaucratic job. Their faces are never kind, never someone you'd want to go out for a drink with. These are special kinds of cops, maybe the worst. Apparently the Bulgarian border is supposed to be really nasty.
11:30 a.m. It's still hot and sunny out, maybe it won't rain in Sofia as predicted. Where are my notes from Eastern European Politics Fall 2007 when I could use them? I don't remember the colorful details anymore. It was powerful to be in Prague Spring 2008, but now we're passing through former Yugoslavi and it's like some kind of surreal, alternate reality. We're coming up on Belgrade soon.
11:45 a.m. I asked Tiundjel what life was like for him under Communism and the only real answer I got to my actual question - what do you think of capitalism? - is that the crisis forced him to leave his family, his 17-year-old daughter behind to go to work in France.
According to his story, his wife also left him because of the distance. So I guess no wonder he was happy to talk with a female and to drink - I turned down his offer of a beer though. Sometimes he got slightly overbearing, but still a fascinating person to meet.
Because we don't have enough common language between us to talk much politics - and he says he's not good in this domain anyway - I'm not getting a whole lot of insight but I think he's happy to learn about me. He has never met an American before and he says that people in Bulgaria wouldn't believe him if he said he rode next to one on this bus. He's going home for a month with his small team of Bulgarian contract construction workers. He says he earns 2,000 euro/month in France and he doesn't pay for housing.
12:10 p.m. We are passing through an industrial part now, with Belgrade on our left. I want to go! I can't believe we're passing bu all these cities that I can't stop to visit. Tiundjel's friend can speak better Russian and wants me to meet his daughter, studying in Sofia, at the station. They've turned on another violent movie again, this time in Bulgarian.
15:30 p.m. "Face/Off", with Bulgarian voice-over. We're by Nis and we just passed a sign that points straight ahead to Thessaloniki and Sofia to the East. There are lots of mountains to the right and hills to the left. Nis is a huge, red-tiled roof city at the base of these mountains. It seems to be expanding ever further outwards. Now we've passed the city and entered into more farmland (Stara Plenina).
16:00 p.m. Such beautiful views, everyone gets up to look and I take a video. Really amazing cliffs, a rolling river and train tracks. Tiny villages, farmland, the most beautiful views so far, makes you want to get out of the bus! Signs point continuously to Sofia. Red-tiled slums now or rather poor farmers. Now it's all green plains and hillsides all around - I think we're nearing the Bulgarian border.
17:00 p.m. REPUBLIC OF BULGARIA! Another lady border cop! I guess it's more pleasant to have a good-looking woman walk down the aisle of the bus. She was surprised by my American passport - maybe the only one, or one of few, that she has seen here. I don't see any rainclouds - looks like I get lucky with a nice night.
17:20 p.m. To get across the Bulgarian border, everyone had to get out of the bus and walk through the border patrol. They asked me questions and maybe entered something into the computer - real or just to show their authority? Now I'm wondering if I'll actually be harassed at the French border, but I guess I will deal with that later (yeah, there's no French border back in, but they were quite puzzled with my visa when I was LEAVING France for the last time to go to England. Oh, Europe.) Anyway, the sign said 57 km. to Sofia, so we're getting in a bit early. The placard pointed to Athens and Istanbul - those are really far! We still have beautiful greenery here by the train tracks. The sun is really beating down, casting shadows on the forest. Now it's opening up into a sparsely populated valley on the right. Sofia - 36 km, the first part of the journey is coming to an end.
19h - 19h15 - it's actually an hour ahead here. We're in Sofia. THE END.
May 9, 2011
9:30 a.m. They turn on a movie, subtitled in Bulgarian!
This is a nearly empty bus, I think I'm the only non-Bulgarian...
we are passing mostly boring countryside, racing eastward on an empty autoroute in France.
11:00 a.m.We start passing more beautiful greenery, less cleared farmland - when will we cross a border? Germany?? Lots of wind farms, I think they are ugly, even if they are "good for the environment" and are they?
249 km. to Strasbourg, so that means the border is still at least 2.5 hours away, putting us there around 2 p.m. This is a part of France I've never seen before, wow!
20 minutes stop around noon, we've now just made the same distance as Boston-NYC, barely a dent in the journey, but it's gone by fast and smooth
The weather is nice and the bus is not too hot, especially with so few people! Will more people get on?
12:30 p.m. We just entered a huge, fancy city! BOURGEOIS CENTRAL...is this Nancy? Metz?...METZ, so it turns out, we are making 4 or 5 stops in Germany/Austria before Sofia and the bus keeps going to Burgas! We're picking up people, but it's still a nearly empty bus for now...
Apparently, we're in Germany now, and it's only 1:30 p.m., though I have no clue where in the country. It's been far too long since I've looked at a map of Europe, I feel like I'm in open, unknown space...grateful for the ample amount of stops so far. The dark Bulgarian man next to me is listening to Eurotrash dance music on his laptop, without headphones. He just turned it up, looking to have a party with the beer he just bought. We're driving through some quaint German countryside now and my cell phone has yet to lose service. I am confused! I'm reading the bike journal I bought at the anarchist book store in Houston and it's really been worth the wait, making me determined to rent/borrow/cheaply buy a bike in the East. ça y est, the cell phone is MIA! The man is now taking video of his friends on their journey. Bulgarian seems to have the same intonation as Russian, yet it sounds different and I definitely can't understand it. If it takes (only?) 6 hours to get to the Western border of Germany from Paris, I wonder how long that bike ride would be?
German cities: Uberherrn, Ensdorf, Lisdorf
3:00 p.m. The signs are pointing towards Luxembourg and the dance music is slightly better, as well as the countryside. Suddenly, we're in a huge ass German city, super urban, I don't know where we are! There are tramlines here, that's pretty real...we've started with the American action movies again, subtitled in Bulgarian.
3:15 p.m. So now we are STUCK at this bus terminal of this still unknown German city and I don't have the courage to ask the Bulgarians where we are. We can't get out of the bus either and that's annoying. I'm not sure why we're standing with the bus still running.
3:45 p.m. We're on the road again and I switched seats with a Bulgarian family. I started speaking in French with the Bulgarian dance music man - he is nice and tells me that we may arrive earlier than expected tomorrow, around 19h. He speaks a bit of Russian, but since he has been living in Metz for 5 years, he has forgotten a lot of it.
4:30 p.m. Woohoo, another German bus terminal
5:30 p.m. I am now sitting next to the Bulgarian man, apparently his name is Tiundjel and he has a 17-year-old daughter named Shenay, who only sees on visits back home. Raia, my host in Sofia, later tells me that his name doesn't sound Bulgarian, he's probably Roma or Turkish. Sometimes we have a hard time communicating in French, since his language skills aren't stellar and I don't speak a goddamn word of Bulgarian, basically.
9:00 p.m. The sun is setting, pink and orange over the green landscape. I think we're still in Germany. The Bulgarians have informed me, the silly curious American girl, that we will also pass through Austria, Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia on our way to Sofia. It's nice to find out surprises on the road. The sign just pointed to Munchen and Aubsburg - I guess there will be invisible things in the night. I just finished the bike almanac - a lovely, inspirational read. I've made it through more than 12 hours on a bus, with a dance music and loud children. Maybe I could have avoided this in the front of the bus, but it's kind of funny to interact with these conventional-minded Bulgarians, one who offers me beer and speaks some French, so sits next to me and goes out of his way to be a gentleman.
10:30 p.m. We are in the MUNICH bus terminal! According to the bus placard, this is the last stop before Sofia, which is strange and maybe isn't true. I am watching the Munich metro go by behind the fence on my left. I want to go! There is something wearing about travelling alone long distances after a while. I think I sort of stand out, a lot more than I had expected. I seem to be the only young single female traveller. There is a young straight couple who boarded at the same time in Paris and the girl stares at me strangely, as though she doesn't really understand. Of course, the language barrier doesn't help things, so you can't really tell what people are thinking of sometimes trying to explain. Hand signals need to be read carefully and sometimes I am also not very good.
11:00 p.m. We're about to get moving again. I think if people would quiet down a bit, I could get some sleep with my earplugs, scarf over my eyes and the seat back. It's been awhile again since I've gotten proper sleep. I'm dreaming of 3 weeks of physical labor at Peliti, with restful nights. But I'm going to miss biking!
May 10, 2011
6:00 a.m. We're at the Croatian border! (NO BORDER) They took my passport to stamp it, LOL. For some reason, they check twice. This time, the lady cop come around with a stamp, though I already had one. I slept badly, as in barely at all. I'll try to continue sleeping through the morning. I just missed a photo of the "Welcome to Croatia" sign. It's a beautiful morning, with green hills in the distance.
9:50 a.m. Slovenian border, another document check. So many freakin' stamps in my passport. Now it seems that the bus driver is collecting IDs. Also, I am totally lame and didn't realize that Bulgaria isn't on the Euro, but has its own currency, the leva. Way to travel to a foreign country without knowing a goddamn thing!
10:00 a.m. So apparently, we bypassed Slovenia and now we're at the Serbian border. So many lady cops. You'd think that with all the non-feminist conventional cultures, there would be less women in these roles, but I guess they've increased. Lots of women join police forces - I wonder how they feel working alongside men, probably steeped in sexism? Guarding a border - a seemingly monotonous, bureaucratic job. Their faces are never kind, never someone you'd want to go out for a drink with. These are special kinds of cops, maybe the worst. Apparently the Bulgarian border is supposed to be really nasty.
11:30 a.m. It's still hot and sunny out, maybe it won't rain in Sofia as predicted. Where are my notes from Eastern European Politics Fall 2007 when I could use them? I don't remember the colorful details anymore. It was powerful to be in Prague Spring 2008, but now we're passing through former Yugoslavi and it's like some kind of surreal, alternate reality. We're coming up on Belgrade soon.
11:45 a.m. I asked Tiundjel what life was like for him under Communism and the only real answer I got to my actual question - what do you think of capitalism? - is that the crisis forced him to leave his family, his 17-year-old daughter behind to go to work in France.
According to his story, his wife also left him because of the distance. So I guess no wonder he was happy to talk with a female and to drink - I turned down his offer of a beer though. Sometimes he got slightly overbearing, but still a fascinating person to meet.
Because we don't have enough common language between us to talk much politics - and he says he's not good in this domain anyway - I'm not getting a whole lot of insight but I think he's happy to learn about me. He has never met an American before and he says that people in Bulgaria wouldn't believe him if he said he rode next to one on this bus. He's going home for a month with his small team of Bulgarian contract construction workers. He says he earns 2,000 euro/month in France and he doesn't pay for housing.
12:10 p.m. We are passing through an industrial part now, with Belgrade on our left. I want to go! I can't believe we're passing bu all these cities that I can't stop to visit. Tiundjel's friend can speak better Russian and wants me to meet his daughter, studying in Sofia, at the station. They've turned on another violent movie again, this time in Bulgarian.
15:30 p.m. "Face/Off", with Bulgarian voice-over. We're by Nis and we just passed a sign that points straight ahead to Thessaloniki and Sofia to the East. There are lots of mountains to the right and hills to the left. Nis is a huge, red-tiled roof city at the base of these mountains. It seems to be expanding ever further outwards. Now we've passed the city and entered into more farmland (Stara Plenina).
16:00 p.m. Such beautiful views, everyone gets up to look and I take a video. Really amazing cliffs, a rolling river and train tracks. Tiny villages, farmland, the most beautiful views so far, makes you want to get out of the bus! Signs point continuously to Sofia. Red-tiled slums now or rather poor farmers. Now it's all green plains and hillsides all around - I think we're nearing the Bulgarian border.
17:00 p.m. REPUBLIC OF BULGARIA! Another lady border cop! I guess it's more pleasant to have a good-looking woman walk down the aisle of the bus. She was surprised by my American passport - maybe the only one, or one of few, that she has seen here. I don't see any rainclouds - looks like I get lucky with a nice night.
17:20 p.m. To get across the Bulgarian border, everyone had to get out of the bus and walk through the border patrol. They asked me questions and maybe entered something into the computer - real or just to show their authority? Now I'm wondering if I'll actually be harassed at the French border, but I guess I will deal with that later (yeah, there's no French border back in, but they were quite puzzled with my visa when I was LEAVING France for the last time to go to England. Oh, Europe.) Anyway, the sign said 57 km. to Sofia, so we're getting in a bit early. The placard pointed to Athens and Istanbul - those are really far! We still have beautiful greenery here by the train tracks. The sun is really beating down, casting shadows on the forest. Now it's opening up into a sparsely populated valley on the right. Sofia - 36 km, the first part of the journey is coming to an end.
19h - 19h15 - it's actually an hour ahead here. We're in Sofia. THE END.
Raia met me at the bus station, after my dumb ass spent 15 minutes getting oriented to where I actually was. I was nearly ecstatic to be in Sofia, but I was so tired I couldn't really fully feel it. I had wanted to visit this city for years and as we took a cab down to the center and south, I knew I had finally arrived. I wanted to say goodbye and thank you to Tiundjel, for having chatted with me and let me use his cell phone to text Raia, but I couldn't find him again :( Here's to you, Tiundjel, wherever you are. I am really grateful for your kindness, as everyone else's I've met along the way. I hope I didn't come off as the careless American who just left, but mostly, I wish you the best of luck in your life. It's hard. You don't deserve it. May it get better for you and others like you.
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