The Sky I Scrape (Bulgaria)

Getting off the train in Bulgaria, the storm clouds loomed above and I was forced into a Lada (mass produced commie vehicle) with a hillbilly looking guy who said he would drive me and two of my companions to the hotel. His car was forty years old and as basic as they come, and as I sat in the front the guy was creeping me out with his awkward enthusiasm to practice a bit of English, making me think he was wrong in the head. I thought I was going to be told to squeal like a pig before too long. But no, he dropped at our accommodation, helped unload our packs and waved us off with his toothless grin. Thanks fella.

Our first stop was a small town called Veliko Tarnovo, and it didn’t take too long to see the scythes and horse drawn carts. It’s a nice town, perched on a small canyon forged by the river.

When I got in a taxi and asked to go to a nearby village for a look, the driver was smiling and shaking his head. I couldn’t understand it, it was only a few kms away, why wouldn’t he take us there? So I repeated myself, said the name of the village slower and offered him a little more money than we were told would be enough to get us there. Again he shook his head with a wide grin. And then I remembered; here, shaking your head from side to side is positive, meaning yes, or I agree, whereas nodding your head is the negative. I got caught like that on a few occasions.

The capital, Sofia, has a great name and a nice church and that’s about it. Like Romania, the action is out in the countryside and up in the mountains.

Next we took a public bus up into the mountains and visited a monastery. It was impressive but I was more taken aback by the mountain landscape, the pine forests, and the streams raging with snow melt. This would have been a great place to stay longer and do a few hikes.

 

Next we stopped in a small village called Gorno Draglishte, and this was one of the bsolutye highlights of the trip. Myself and another guy walked up to a chapel on a nearby hill and had the amazing panoramic views of the surrounding mountains. It was a great afternoon and as we kept walking along the ridge of the hill, the evening set in and the colours of the clouds were changing every few minutes. Joe and I wandered around these empty hills for hours just breathing it all in.

 

 

 

 

 

The house we stayed was somebody’s home and they put on a feast for us. The next day the village had an annual show and we got to see dancing, singing and everybody in town come out to watch. After seeing so many bullshit ‘local performance’ tourist trap fakes over the years, it was nice to see something that they were doing just for themselves, and we just happened to be there on a the right day. We got lucky.

Later that day we drove up into the hills to a bear sanctuary. This organisation confiscates or purchases bears off gypsies who train them to dance, fight each other, or fight with humans. The bears we saw had suffered from years of abuse and malnutrition and most were kept from hibernating. Some looked so gnarly I wondered how they could still be alive, and one or two were obviously mentally ill – and you’d think that would be hard to spot in an animal, but im telling you  these bears were messed up. Some had half their jaws missing, or had big gaps in their face where big rings had been. Some looked healthy though, and for the second time that day we were given a performance; a very rare one we were told.

I rated him 9/10 for stamina, 2/10 for technique.

 

Our next stop in the mountains was Bansko, which applied to host the upcoming winter Olympics. It’s a ski resort town and not very exciting, but its close proximity to the highest and grandest mountains make it a must stop coming through Bulgaria. A few of us did a hike up into the hills to get to an alpine lake. It was one of the most epic landscapes I’ve ever been in.

 

 

 

 

Final town in Bulgaria was Plovidv. Not a whole heap to see here…Our hotel didn’t allow smoking or guns so I had to leave my cigarettes and my gun with the receptionist.

 

In Bulgaria someone flashed the colourful currency of a place called Australia and for a moment I wanted that to be my next country. Same thing happened when I saw a black Prado. But then I heard some news of a footy player doing something dumb or that things were getting exciting on ‘The Voice’ or ‘Masterchef’, and I thought thank F I’m in Bulgaria. And I don’t know where I’m going next, but I know exactly where I don’t want to be.   

From Plovdiv we caught an overnight bus down and into Turkey (with immigration and customs processing from 1 – 3 a.m.). I was so happy to be in Istanbul, because I had booked for 17 days and I thought I could kick back and relax for a couple of weeks. Oh how wrong I was…

 

Vampires, Demons and Graveyards (Romania)

First morning in Romania and I’m standing in a graveyard looking at a painting of a farmer being beheaded. The next picture shows a young girl being hit by a car.

 

I’ve had a good look at graveyards and cemeteries throughout Asia and other parts of eastern Europe, but this one takes the cake. Above the burial mound there is a headstone that details how the person died. I’ve never seen anything so interesting at a graveyard - some of the paintings are quiet extravagant. That’s when I knew I would love this country!

We enter Romania through the region of Transylvania, staying in a few misty mountain towns. Very local and very cool to see. The scythes are out and people are cruising around in horse drawn carts. They are drinking the local spirit (raki) like water and washing their clothes in the snow melt streams. These small towns are very cool and what I was hoping eastern Europe would be like.

Small town Transylvania:

Smaller Town Transylvania:

We stopped for a couple of night at a town called Brasnov, which had a big beautiful gothic church right in the middle of the ancient town. Here we were told that bears come down into the town often and one local said that about one person a year gets killed from a bear attack. After hearing that some of us went on a hike up into the forested mountains for a great view of the town and region.

 

It’s in this region that Vladimir Drac originates. This was the guy who held the Turkish invaders at bay by horrifying their much larger and stronger army by setting up displays of impaled Turks. He shoved a spear through their body, A2M, and could do so in a way to avoid all major organs and have the victim moaning in pain for hours and even days. Arriving at a battlefield to see their fellow countrymen in that sort of state sent the Turks back, and Vlad Dracul, Vlad the Impaler, won the fear of all of Europe. This lead to the Dracula myth, with a lot of creative licence from English writer Bram Stoker. We visited Draculas castle, which ‘he may or may not have visited once or twice’, avoided all the tacky vampire souvenirs, and saw a lot of business trying to align with this market. Vampire camping anyone? 

Near Draculas castle is a great castle ruin with great mountain views.

 

It had to be Transylvania that I got possessed by a demon. That demon was most likely e.coli. And it really messed me up. After hearing that the local water might be drinkable I decided to give it a go. Bad move. At first I thought it must have been some food so I kept on chugging this tap water to rehydrate myself. But that just gave the demon some buddies with whom he could wreck up the joint. And I’m sharing a bathroom with another poor soul! I checked the internet and for the town I was there were warnings that the water supply is likely tainted by biological pathogens from human waste. It left me drained and wilted, looking like a ghost, but I still dragged myself to see everything and only vomited in public once.

(The symptoms would ease considerably but I wasn’t back to normal until a month later when I decided to kick it with a stern course of anti-biotics)

Apart from destroying me from the inside Sighosuara was a lovely town.

 

Okay, so I’m getting a little bit churched out, but that’s okay because I’ve found new faith and every time I go into a church I find my man and thank him for all the great rock and roll in the world. Here he is with JC:

 

The capital, Bucharest, is pretty low key and uneventful; its parliament located at the centre of town is the world second largest building (after the Pentagon), and then there’s a few nice parks and bullet holes speckling the city. In a nutshell, crazy leader in soviet times when people are starving uses all countries money to build himself the biggest parliament on earth, loses the people, cue revolution in 90’s, cue death of him and his wife, civil unrest and gun fighting in the streets follow, adaption of democracy, now democracy with severe corruption but more hope.

 

The city was worth seeing, but to me the soul of Romania, as with many countries, is in the small towns and the simple life.

Thirsty in Hungary (Hungary)

A stuffy and delayed overnight train from Ukraine and we arrive in Hungary. Yeah, its had a better run economically, and it’s got all sorts of ties to central and Western Europe, but to me that just makes it a little less intriguing. In most parts of Budapest I felt like I could have been in any big city of the western world…even Sydney. After the last few countries it felt too…easy.

 

In Budapest (pronounced Budapesht) I ate the goulash, went cycling around the town and took a dip in the public hot baths.

 

After being spit roasted by the Nazi’s and Soviets, the country is a little bitter about the last hundred years. And rightly so, I guess, there’s an interesting museum dedicated to it, ominously called ‘The Museum of Terror.’ But does that warrant a local fella going off at me for wearing a shirt that I bought in China with a large red star on the front? Maybe. Soviets probably killed his parents, and here I was just thinking the star is a cool shape (that poor shirt is buried deep in my pack now).

My roommate Phouc (hilariously pronounced Fok) was heading to Vienna, so it was a sad goodbye. We had gotten along really well and have made plans to meet up again at some point before my odyssey ends. Seeing him off reminded me of all the people I’ve met on this trip. I’m only a few months in but I feel like I’ve had a lifetimes worth of experience just from the people I’ve met and become friends with. The girls in Taiwan were so good to me but now that feels like ten years ago and I might not ever see them again. It’s sad, really, that you have these great, short, intense bursts of relationships and then without fail the itinerary calls and I’m going South, while they’re going East. Bye. (Photo of Phouc and our Russian bride, I mean guide, Jyenya.)

 

Away from the capital we visited a wine region town called Eger. It was a pleasant spot with a really old townscape, but the highlight was going down into the cellars where the wines were being stored, sitting around big tables and trying the wine. These were gnarly, mould on the walls, squeeze through the narrow doorway, hundreds of years old cellars. And the lady who was running the show looked like she was hundreds of years old too. But that didn’t mean

 she couldn’t pour a drink…right into my mouth.

 

Honestly, I had less than a week in Hungary which is a total disservice to the country and to me. But I don’t think I’ll be coming back in a hurry; I know where I belong – I like my countries broken and backwards.

Bulgaria and Romania here we come!

Nuclear Peace (Ukraine)

The Ukraine…this is one place that I could never have imaged going to. And the only thing that I could bring to my about this country was Chernobyl, and the nuclear meltdown. That stereotype is a reality, with 10% of the country being radioactive to the point that it’s illegal to live there, though some squatters still do. Considering the Ukraine is the second largest country in Europe, that’s a sizable area of a ‘no go zone.’ A lot of people died, especially the ones who were sent in to clean up the mess, and many people are still dying from the longer term effects of radioactivity exposure. Despite this, the Soviet casualty count was/is 31.

Another ugly characteristic of the recent past is the fact they were only given back their independence from Russia in 1991. There was originally a Ukraine-Soviet war but there’s no stopping such a big neighbour like Russia when he shows up on your doorstep in the 1920s. It took the collapse of the soviet union, plus the realisation that a large part of the country closest to the Russian mainland was radioactive, to reinstate Ukraine as its own nation again.

But this country seems to be progressing. Yes, there are corruption issues which I have now taken to be a given with these ex-communist countries, but they are apparently handling better than some of those other countries. The land is clean and green, and there is a much more hopeful mood than the dreariness of Russia.

Kiev has a wonderful outdoors street scene, with plenty of buskers and places to buy beer and food and hang out. Plus its all so cheap! We went to the ballet one night, a fully-fledged performance of Sleeping Beauty at the National Opera House and it cost $2.50 for the ticket. (Actually, that’s one of the good things left over from soviet communism. They believed that all art should be accessible to all people, and that’s why it is so cheap. Now that’s a really good idea, like a lot of the ideas which formed the principles of communism, it’s just a shame that you need corruptible people to coordinate it). I explored lush green parks, and watched families have picnics. The Orthodox Easter occurred when we were in Ukraine so we saw how they celebrate Easter (a lot less commercial and family/ritualistic than ours). Also, it was cool to have Chicken Kiev in Kiev.

 

One day I got blessed by a preacher who splashed my face with holy water and the next thing I know my debit account has been frozen…the big guy is onto me. So that was fun to have to resolve wondering if the Russian mafia were off spending my money on black caviar and fur coats. 

We went up to a village in the Carpathian Mountains and did a hike up into the forested hills. The meals we had in these smaller villages were absolutely epic; the best food I’ve had since China and you bet they had their own bootleg spirits which they poured endlessly.

For me, the best things about the Ukraine is being able to see groups of farmers working the one, small patch of land, all using ancient looking farm equipment, such as scythes. It felt like I’d gone back in time a hundred years. They villages are so humble and simple and everybody seems to be working together and helping out in the fields. The cities were quaint and relaxed and the people were pleasant.

Considering what these folks have been through with soviet times and the nuclear meltdown, Ukraine seems like it has finally come in to a little bit of peace and quiet. Like this old couple, who would have seen some pretty crazy shit in their day, but now are taking it easy playing chess by the river in the afternoon sun.

How to Drink Vodka (Western Realm, Russia)

After crossing the expanse of Siberia we came to the western realm of Russia. Here we visited the cities of Moscow, St Petersburg, and Novgorod. And there was more vodka…

Moscow:

 

The capital city is a beast. It took me a few days (I had six in total) to get some sort of grasp on the place. In my time I wandered the red square, which is the centre point of town which faces St Basils church (yeah, that crazy and colourful one above) and the Kremlin (ancient and present government headquarters). This part of the city was amazing and the onion dome churches blew me away. I also had time to visit a pro-communist march at the ‘Victory Day’ public holiday parade, in which I got caught on the wrong side of the barricade and for a while was walking down the street amongst the flag waving and song chanting communist supporters. And I even had a red shirt on that day! I was amazed and a little bit concerned to see how many young people, my age, who were marching with flags and photos of Stalin. They are a significant minority, but it just goes to show the communist old days are looked upon as the good old days by many people, some who weren’t even alive.

 

 

St Petersburg:

The ‘second capital’, known as the ‘window into Europe’, this was my favourite Russian city because it was like walking through a museum. And the museum in the city was one of the best ones I’ve ever been to. It was bloody cold at the time, but I was just happy walking around the canals and seeing the churches. I had never expected a Russian city to look so much like Venice.

Novgorod:

This is the ancient capital and the oldest inhabited place in western (and maybe eastern) Russia. Yeah, the heritage was interesting, the churches were cool, the graveyard was pleasant and the river was pretty, but all I wanted to do was get naked. And I did.

 

A Banya is a Russian bathhouse where you go for a thorough scrubbing, a sauna, a soap, and to be whipped across the back, legs, arms and feet by birch leaves. If your tough, they’ll bring out the oak leaves. I was the only one in my company who wanted to do this so I got dropped off at the place by myself and lets just say the hour that ensued was…memorable. I’m glad I did it because it was probably the most genuine and local thing I could have done in that town – judging by the looks of the forty something naked men, mostly old, they don’t get many foreigners into these places. And its a staple of Russian culture. But the things I saw, both funny and frightening, will stay with me until the day I die…

I don’t have a picture of forty naked men with me squeezed in the hairy and sweaty bunch, so here’s a picture of me wandering a graveyard instead.

What did I eat in Russia?

Buckweat, potato, Borshe soup (beetroot based broth), fish soup, piroshky, chicken kiev and the thing I liked most, especially with a vodka shot, was lard. Just good old fashion fat. Yum. For breakfast salami, cheese, tomato and hot dog style sausages were the norm. (oh how quickly I came to miss spicy Asian food).

I also ate pickles.

I drank vodka, and I know it sounds dumb and typical, but this Russian stuff was actually way better than anything I’ve ever tried at home. It was smooth. And this is how you drink it. Pickle in one hand, vodka in the other. Three steps:

1.       Sniff the pickle until that salty stench is all the way down the back of your throat;

2.       Gulp down the vodka until your eyes water and you’re on the verge of gagging;

3.       Bite into the pickle and chew it vigorously, neutralising the burning effect of the spirit.

When there’s no salami and cheese, this is the breakfast ritual.  And that’s how life expectancy can reverse.

From Russia with love.