Roses and Roses.  Fruits and Orchards.  Beautiful countryside.

We arrived in Bulgaria in the town or Rusya in the north.     It was interesting watching the border guards’ expressions looking at our car as we approached them.

Their jaws, literally, dropped.   They made an attempt to inspect the mountains of junk which we carry.   Then after a few minutes gave up and allowed us to enter the country.   Very nice and pleasant guards.   I showed them our route map and how we plan to get to China.   That stopped the inspection with a very loud, and smiling, GO!

Then came the bribe by the road police.  Apparently in Bulgaria you have to buy a sticker in lieu of road taxes.   We asked at the border and understood (or mis-understood with our zero-level understanding of Bulgarian) that we did not need one.  It was only for the camions – trucks.

We had decided to drive to the Black Sea Coast of Bulgaria (beautiful and charming).  After a few minutes on the road, the highway police stopped us and said we were missing the road permit (which we did).   We had a choice: either pay them 50% of the ticket price, or they would write a ticket which we had to take to a bank and pay before our car would be released.  Bank charge was double what they wanted.  The banks were closed.  They would not let me leave the driver’s seat (well, I did anyway a little later with a stupid smile on my face!).   They only wanted the “madam” (aka my wife, Adriana) to go and negotiate.   So, Adriana speaking fluent Romanian and the police speaking fluent Bulgarian (totally unrelated languages!) started the negotiation.   It seemed too good to miss.  So, despite the police’s stern warnings, I slowly slipped out of the driver’s seat and into the heated negotiations going on behind the car.  I threw in a few choice Persian words for good measure, but otherwise stuck to English.  Suddenly, and to my great delight, I found a Romanian bill in my wallet.  (We usually stop at the last petrol station in the country and use all our remaining currency of that country to buy fuel.  I had somehow missed this bill.)  It was of no use to us any longer and I would lose a fair amount in the exchange anyway.  It was supposedly 1/3 of the price under “discussion”.   Once the money was shown, a hand was stretched, a handshake conducted with the bill in palm of my hand somehow sticking to the palm of the officer’s hand.    Huge smiles all around.  Then genuine handshakes and advise on which road to take and which one to avoid (this was genuine and useful).  Then with a big whistle and stop sign, the traffic was stopped so we could make a U-turn.   With huge smiles on all our faces we bid each other farewell.    …  I know we paid them too much! …  When they smile, stop the traffic for you to turn, shake your hand, wave good bye…. You just know you’ve paid too much.  I know it I know it I know it.

We drove through central Bulgaria, Southbound.  This section of Bulgaria is beautiful.  Again abundance of fruit trees.  Farmlands.

We had to cross some mountains to reach the flat farmlands in the south.  Beautiful scenery.   What was striking, are the remnants of communist-era factories rusting and deteriorating, some in remote places.   I cannot help but wonder about the commercial viability and logistics of getting raw material in and finished goods out to markets from some of these remote rusting plants.  Maybe that is why they went out of business.

This was harvest season in the country side.  Saw lots of new American Farm and construction machinery.  John Deere and Caterpillar.  Dollar is weak and American machinery are more affordable now.

In comparison to Romanians, most Bulgarians’ expressions seemed austere.  Spending a lifetime under hardship can have an affect on you. 

First impressions:

·         Drab towns.  Old Soviet-era concrete high-rises.

·         Beautiful countryside

·         Fruits and Fruit Trees everywhere

·         Gypsies and their carts.