Lithuania - Bulgaria, 07-09-2011 - 13-09-2011

First days on the road

Just a day before we left for our travel we found out that there was a mistake in the Indıan Visa of Johan (it was valid only for one month). We agreed with the embassy to renew the visa and pick it up in Warsaw.
We left from Vilnius early in the morning on Wednesday towards Warsaw. After spending the night at couch surfer Marek we continued our tour towards rainy Warsaw. There the surprise was waiting for us. When we rang the door of the Indian embassy we got a phone call from Lithuania informing us that the passport with the visa arrived in Vilnius. Good start! Marek helped us again by arranging a place to stay over at his girlfriend's place in Warsaw. Next day the passport arrived, we packed our stuff and continued our trip towards the South.
The coming two days we made a lot of kilometers and passed Poland, Slovakia and Hungary to get as quick as possible to the warmer and new countries for both of us.

Adventures start in Romania
Romania was the start of our adventure to the East. We were impressed by the beauty of Transylvania that is still seen through the big amount of garbage found along the roads where you can see Ferraries overtaking the carriages with horses. We noticed many bike travelers in Romania.
The nicest experience in this country was the staying overnight in the garden of a Hungarian man and Roma woman family in the countryside. We put our tent in their garden and their drunk son took care of a night guard for us - Rex made sure that we would have a safe night. We fell asleep with Roma music coming from the neighboring village. It was great! Suddenly we heard a very heavy noise going into our tent which scared both of us. After a second of tension we realized that we camped just a few meters from a small train station.

The nicest city we passed in Romania was Brasov. The name of the city was shown high in the hill just like in Holywood. Every single building in Brasov old town was unique. It was the fırst day of school so the city was full of young and happy people who created a great atmosphere.

If in Lithuania you can buy mushrooms on the road side, in Poland - prostitutes then in Romania you can buy shiny glasses and vases! Would you ever think about buying the glasses on the side of the road?!

Bulgarian way to say yes and no
Bulgaria and its nature helped us to get used to warmer climate. The environment for us was similar to the one in Turkey. We visıied two nice cities called Veliko Tarnovo and Plovdiv.
In Plovdiv we really needed to get gas. At the fıst small gas station Johan asked, just to be sure, if we could pay with card. The cashier nod her head which in most countries would mean yes. So we fılled up the gas tank and wanted to pay. The lady looked annoyed and told that she meant no. Than we remembered that in Bulgaria people shake their heads for saying yes and nod for saying no.
In Bulgaria we experienced bad camping sites which are mentioned in the local language so also difficult to fınd.

Hot Istanbul
The crossing of the Turkish border went very smoothly. The only thing that we figured out too late was that Milda doesn't need a Turkish visa.

Coming closer to Istanbul we got to know what a real chaotic traffic means. It was so hot with our riding gear that we experienced the Turkish sauna just right on Istanbul roads. Gladly Adil from the Istanbul motorbike club picked us up next to the highway and guided towards the club house where we met other overland travelers and where a warm bed was waiting for us. After speaking with the members of the club we decided to reschedule our route in Turkey and visit the middle part of the country which seems to be nicer and not the Northern part as we planned before.

The greatest thing so far of this travel are the people who we met on the way. They made our travel easy, happy and enjoyable. We learned a lot and got positive energy. Speaking many languages opens doors to different people and cultures. Already with Dutch you can do a lot because Dutch are really everywhere!
And we need to admit that driving the bike helps us to meet the nicest people!
We have our note book where we mark the nicest impressions, things we learned and the costs we had day by day.



Some numbers:
KMs driven: 3010
Money spent: 390 Euros
Nights slept in hotel: 0
Nice people met: Too many to count..

More pictures can be found in the picture gallery


With big smile,
Johan & Mılda