sunflowers

sunflowers
Originally uploaded by damnkeats.

Travelling from Bulgaria to Romania we passed through fields and fields of sunflowers.

Sozopol, black sea coast, Bulgaria

Sozopol, black sea
Originally uploaded by damnkeats.

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Bear beer and good times

We have seen two wild bears so far! And D reckons he has seen a third. Luckily we saw them from the safety of our cable car in which we were acending to the top of a mountain in Sinaia. we saw two brown bears cross a clearing in the forest. I though they were pretty big from that distance. But apparently they are scared of people.

Romanians are obessed with bears. It is like their national symbol, similar to the Nz kiwi. We rented a room from a family in Sighiasoara for a night and we slept in their lounge which was full of bear memorabilia. The national beer is called Ursus, which means bear.

Coincidently mum sent me a bbc article about how Romania bears are being forced to find food in towns. the government has caused a controversy of late because it is allowing rich foriegners to hunt 400 of them this year. Article is being posted below. I feel kinda sorry for the poor creatures...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3854507.stm

I believe Romania is truely underrated by most other Europeans. The countryside and towns alike are really beautiful. It is much more "developed" that Bulgaria, which is pretty rough. I think the EU is throwing a lot of money at it in lieu of its accession to the community in 2007. Everywhere you go whole towns are being rennovated.

In the countryside people are still dirt poor and eek a living from the land.

We are now in the town of Oradea, near the Hungarian border. We arrived here from Sighiasoara which is in the heart of transylvania. The town is the best preserved medieval citadel and it was hosting a medieval festival. It was packed with people. Most of whom seemed to be hard metal fans. There were a lot of black t shirts and long greasy hair. Iron Maiden seemed to be the most popular band on display.

We are renting a car for the next three days and are going to drive around the Maramures region, near the Ukranian border. It is mostly peasant villages where apparenty they live untouched by the modern world. Everything is still done by hand, with no electricity or running water. They even managed to escape the hard hand of collectivisation that communism dealt to the rest of the country.

Romania

After a 13 hour train journey we arrived in the mountain town of Sinaia in Romania early this morning. The last couple of days in Bulgaria we spent camping by the black sea and in a small town with a name too hard to pronounce. The crazy bulgarian who made us dance turned out to be quite a character and was actually great fun. He took us and a couple of Slovenians on a day trip to a national park where we saw turtles and water snakes.

Actually come to think of it, bulgaria is crawling with serpents. I have seen three snakes in three days in bulgaria! for those of you who know me, you will know that I am absolutely petrified of them.
The first two were water snakes, one at the beach and the other at the national park. The third was in our cabin!! I saw it just as we were about to go to bed. I couldnt sleep there so convinced Damon that it was better if we pitched the tent. you can imagine...

Anyway, the currency in Romania is very confusing. There are old Lei and new Lei. The old Lei use 0000's of zeros. So one million Lei is like 100 dollars. But there there are new Lei which have cut of four zeros. So we never know how much we are giving or receiving.

The language is also very unique. Romania is closest to Latin, and sounds like Italian but a third of its words are of Slavic origin. I can almost read some of it, but it still going to be a battle. I was getting rather good at reading Cryillic in Bulgaria towards the end. Damon however is still none the wiser with that alphabet.

We are planning to do some hiking in the mountains for a couple of days. Apparently Romania has Europe's largest populations of bears and wolfs. Nice. Any bear tips for us Gis??

back in bulgaria

We arrived back in Bulgaria yesterday afternoon after a slow bus from Istanbul. It was a great city and I will definitelylike to go back there. We are now near a tiny town on the black sea coast called Sozopol. We are renting a tiny bach from a rather eccentric bulgarian in his "exotic garden".

At the bus station we were approached by a guy offering to take us to a campsite. It turned out to be a garden run by this slightly crazy guy. But it is right on the beach and our secluded hut shaded by fig trees overlooks the sea. All this for only five pounds a night!

Last night our host cooked us a bulgarian bbq and tried to get us and some czech students also camping there to dance with him to his favorite "oriental music". Apart from these strange habits he seems pretty harmless.

battlıng bureaucracy ın the former eastern bloc

I am wrıtıng thıs ın Istanbul! ıt has been a hectıc 36 hours and d ıs crashed out whıle ı am too wıred on coffee and turkısh delıght. We fınally got our vısas to romanına yesterday ın Sofıaç What an ordeal. But ıt was nothıng compared to what the locals have to go through. We lıned up an hour early only to be overrun by a mob of mad women once the gates opened so we ended up back at the queue.

Wıth our forms fılled ın correctly (After our tunısıan holıday dısaster am now a vague as possıble executıve assıstant by way of professıon) and armed wıth $40 us dollars we arrvıed just at the front of the queue as the counter closed on the dot at 12 o clock. tıme for a four hour lunch break ıt seems. sıgh.

The scene ınsıde the emabssy was chaotıc. It was fılled wıth mostly poor russıans and ukranıans tryıng to get vısas to vısıt famıly. There was shoutıng beggıng tears and even a fıght.
Lucky for us they dıdnt really care about a couple of wayward new zealanders and once we got to the front of the counter (agaın) our vısa wasready wıthın mınutes.!

The realısatıon that we got our ımmedıately caused another round of waılıng and dısbelıef wıth the rest of the crowd. we hıgh taıled ıt out of there feelıng all too concıous of how lucky we are to have been born ın a rıch country.

We then caught an over nıght traın to the Istanbul glad to get out of Sofıa and all ıts madness. I am currently over lookıng the sea drınkıng another coffee whıle the somewhat hauntıngly beautıful call to prayer from the famous blue mosque resounds over the cıty.

D and Nush on Tour

D and Nush on Tour
Originally uploaded by damnkeats.

Kamikaze bulgarians

Overtaking tight corners at high speed is a national pastime for Bulgarian drivers. This is the conclusion after a number of hair raising bus and taxi rides over the last week.

We just got back into Sofia, after a night camping in the mountains near the famous Rila monastry. Unless you are an orthodox pilgrim (thousands of which travel there) it was just okay. We arrived at the camping site indicated in the guide book. It turned out to be a restaurant. When we asked about camping the waiter pointed to a strip of grass next to the parking lot. So we slept the night there. It was either that, or rent a cell in the Monastry for the night.

Food is great in Bulgaria. Lots fresh food, which is great as in other countries it has been bit thin on the good stuff. Every meal here starts with a giant salad (usually a greek like salad). I feel so healthy!

We have decided to take a detour to Istanbul in the next few days if we can pull of getting our Romanian visa sorted out here. So it looks like we will be spending our 7-year anniversary somewhere in Istanbul!

mostar river

mostar river
Originally uploaded by damnkeats.

The river divides christian and muslim parts of the city

destroyed buildings, mostar

destroyed buildings mostar
Originally uploaded by damnkeats.

Croatia

DSC01795
Originally uploaded by damnkeats.

Dubrovnik, Croatia

DSC01845
Originally uploaded by damnkeats.

Welcome to Sarajevo

Its pouring down in Sarajevo and its such a relief to escape the opressing heat! We arrived here on Friday morning after a night in Mostar. Sarajevo is truely a beatuiful city, despite the many buildings which still remain either bombed-out or pock-marked by schrapnel and bullets. There is not a building that has not been touched. The oldest part of the city if cobbled stoned and contains lots of mosques, churches and synagoges within close proximity. Yesterday we went on a tour organised by the hostel we are staying at.

Our guide Sonny was 13 years old during the siege. He absolutely hates the UN and told us straight out how useless they were!
We saw the tunnel dug by hand under the airport which connected the city to the outside world and gave the citizens a life line during the war. We also visited the old Jewish graveyard where Serbian snipers shot civillians in the valley below. Sonny said there were countless stories of snipers shooting people dead through their windows while they were eating dinner in their apartments, or just letting them know they were being watched by shooting holes in water canisters being carried home (people had to wait hours in line to get water). The snipers would also kills peoples pets while they were being walked. All this was done to destroy moral.

The food is great here. It consists either of grilled spicy meats or stews, all served with turkish bread. However, most of the restaurants are muslim owned so they dont serve alcohol. Bosnian coffe is dark and syrupy and served with turkisk delight.