European Transit - Bulgaria

An easy 220 kilometre ride had me at my Turkey exiting point, the sky ahead was dark and ominous. A quick stop at the Immigration booth for an exit stamp in my Passport, followed by an equally quick stop at the Customs booth had my motorcycle checked out on a computer. I then stopped at a boom gate where my passport and motorcycle registration where checked again, I was then free to continue. Minutes later I approached the Bulgarian border facility, stopped at one booth, my passport was stamped and my motorcycle registration was entered on a computer, thankyou, welcome to Bulgaria, maybe a three (3) minute process tops.

A short time later the rain started, I rode a further 150 kilometres to the city of Plovdiv in the rain while the temperature sat around ten (10) degrees, I was thankful I had sourced out and purchased new wet weather pants and jacket in Antalya so at least I was dry under my outer layers. I found a Hotel in the old part of town and when the rain eased I set out for a walk, I snapped a few photographs around the city park but the light rain, thick cloud cover and no sunshine meant it was cold and less than ideal for sightseeing and photography.

The following morning the weather was marginally better, it was not raining, though it was cold, I rode 125 kilometre to Sofia, the temperature sat around eight (8) degrees all day and the surrounding hills were capped with what looked like a fresh layer of snow. Finding a hotel in the heart of Sofia proved difficult and by the time I found and settled into suitable accommodation I was a long way from what appeared to be a beautiful old city.

Riding into and finding accommodation in large cities is probably the most difficult navigational issue I am faced with travelling without a GPS, normally I enjoy stopping and asking for a little local help and advice but in cold wet weather both the locals and the enjoyment disappear. While I do embrace modern technology I am a little “old school” and having chosen to travel without a GPS and managing to get this far without one I am not going to change now.

 

I am now however confronted with another issue, cold weather, I have sufficient riding clothing but with limited carrying capacity I have limited off the bike clothing, dressing correctly for getting out and about in the rain and or cold is going to be difficult, I don’t think it is possible to travel the world with ideal weather all the time and therefore my travel experience may suffer a little. Bulgaria is one country I feel I did not fully experience, now that I am faced with a European winter I need to keep moving away from mountainous land locked countries to lower altitude, and hopefully warmer coastal areas of countries where I will not be trapped by roads covered in ice and snow. So after only three (3) days in Bulgaria I continue my ride west into the next country on my adventure.