Eastern Trail Diggers

Journal 11: Bulgaria, Romania and Moldova Travel

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DAY 32: "Crossing the Balkan Bulgarians and Romanians" Greece - Svilengrad (BULGARIA) - Nova Zagora - VELIKO TARNOVO - RUSE - BUCURESTI (ROMANIA). 500 kms.



At dawn I picked up the bag and came to the Bulgarian border, where I had no mishap.

From now getting ready to do something very unusual for me: a complete change of plans. During the trip had been lucky with my absolute lack of unexpected injury or discomfort (I had the kit to pop pills ....) There were also lucky with the absolute lack of problems on the bike (I had suitcases full of tools). And finally was disciplined enough to get up for a month almost always between 4 and 6 in the morning. With all three days had accumulated ahead of my original plan. So instead of returning home and to all Milestone wanted to play an "extra ball", figured on the map and decided to add some 2,000 km further to the Odyssey to traverse Bulgaria, Romania and visit two countries I missing still: Moldova and Ukraine, and then returning to Hungary. I knew that if he did so now, sooner or later end up turning around to finish what I left.

had no detailed maps of countries or cities, or even a list of places or things to do, or hotels or hostels, nothing, just a poor general map of Europe with the main highways and highways and, yes, my inseparable friend GPS.

Bulgaria I started to cross from south to north, which would not be easy because the signs in Cyrillic language and secondary roads were a clear promise of adventure. Svilengrad

I entered without Bulgarian currency and found a gas station in spite of having no credit cards let me use the Euro, still clearly losing in change. At least the tank was full. I tried to follow the GPS in a northerly direction to Ruse on the border with Romania. After half an hour and walked completely lost and had to retrace the path a long way. Among the bells and whistles spent hours wandering through towns and cities the interior of Bulgaria, great smoky factories that made the shift change with thousands of workers, rural villages and dogs that came my way up to Nova Zagora, a city which I found rather industrial and lack of interest.

After a lake is ideal for camping, and continues to Ruse (Pyce in Cyrillic).



a roadblock forced me to make some 40 km further west, and already recovered the course traversed the Balkan Range, really thick and lush, on a mountain road in which TIR huge trucks piled in corners trying to turn his monsters and ascend the mountain passes.



At the end of the ridge reaches the town of Veliko Tarnovo, the ancient capital of Bulgaria. I was a good time strolling through the old part of town, pretty nice.

Plaza mother Bulgaria.





A s tough ...



Here in these latitudes also the papier-mâché style-police-car.



I and my circumstance.

got

reach Ruse and put gas in a BP petrol station (here in Western Europe gives me exactly the same, but beyond the EEC homogeneous BP gas stations around the world, services are correct and clean, there are several managers and, especially, can be always pay with a Visa card). After the first Bulgarian border and Romanian later. No complication border.

I stand now in Romania in Bucharest soon, because of not having enough planes remember the last time I was here less than a year in Romania in a cuckoo Komando Tour ATCE (review here: http:// atce.mforos.com/613330/6395278-apuntes-expedicion-aerotransportada-a-rumania /)
So find the building of the Casa del Pueblo (Palatul Parlamentului) work of Nicolae Ceausescu and second largest building in the world after the Pentagon.



memory Later I found the downtown hostel in the Bulevardul Regina Elisabeta, but to be filled with very friendly girl phone I reserved a place on another little further out but very correct, and to leave the backyard bike night (Friends Hostel).

Shower and internet for a while later, I go back to visit Bucharest, this time of day in summer and with the bike.

Does Monster family home?



Piata Romana.



Bucharest National Theatre and Hotel Intercontinental.



CEC (Casa de Economii if Consemnatiuni).



Armatei House (National Military Cercul).



Piata Universitati


Piata and Bulevardul
UNIRIO.



Then a peak and the hostel, where via the internet took the opportunity to book accommodation in Kiev, and sleep with the bike locked in the inner courtyard.
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DAY 33: "Moldova and Transnistria, the day I was really scared." Bucuresti - Chisinau (Moldova) - Tiraspol (Transnistria) - Odessa (Ukraine). 650 km.


Romanian
the road has no special complications because the Western alphabet and language of Roman root is easy to understand all directions. So I headed toward the Northeast and landscapes were increasingly rural and vehicle traffic was low, but not instead of horses and carts transporting them is more widespread here.





I came to the Romanian border and passed without problems (country EU (European Union)), and then to the Moldovan envisaged more difficult but I was really well organized and I got no hits. So after a while ... I'm in Moldova!

Moldova The first kilometers are spectacular. The road is in very good condition and the scenery is definitely rural. Villages, tilled fields, rivers, stretches of sunflowers, everything seemed really nice (coming clear to me zillions thousand miles across deserts Arabs ...)















At some point almost disappears entirely as are many (but many) miles of road always flanked by endless rows of trees. You only see the road, trees and beautiful sky. Maybe so.



With a few exceptions.





pastoral scenes between trees and came to the capital Moldova, Chisinau.



The bike also came.



a European capital Chisinau is not too large, fairly geometric terms of planning (in large part based on Soviet streets) and with few elevations, so it is quite circular filed despite traffic.

The problem is language. I sincerely believed that Moldova had come to be like a small part of Romania, but it's not like that at all. Maybe so officially Romance language Moldovan is identical to Romanian, but it is clear that people at least I speak in Slavic (Ukrainian suppose, as the few foreigners who pass through here are from there).

In the city center built around the Avenida Stephan Cel Mare (Stephen the Great). National Teatrul

Mihail Eminescu.



Next to the National Theatre is a small park with a nice street market.



Soviet trinkets for sale.



chess games 8.



Matrioska.



City Hall in Stephan Cel Mare street



Arc de Triomphe (Russian victory over the Turks), in front of the Moldovan government building (government house).



Orthodox Cathedral of the Nativity (Clopotnita). The blonde, and many like her are part of pleasant urban landscape.



Bell Tower (Soborul), also in Central Park Stefal Cel Mare.


Interior
richly decorated Orthodox Cathedral. I could see that the faithful were very devoted.









Central Market (Piata Centrala). Inside is a sort of buffet to eat standing products the market itself.



market entry.



Orthodox Church of All Saints (Ciuflea).



statue erected in front of the academy of science, and Chisinau Hotel in the background.



After a few hours to kick the city and connect in the only cyber city (Sun City Galleries), I unknowingly what would be for me an Adventure with a capital, trying to get to Odessa, Ukraine.

(EYE SUBSTANTIAL BRICK ...)

The eastern part of Moldova and does not have that rural and bucolic nature of the Northwest, but I was running without problems in Tiraspol leadership, which according to me was the road map to follow.

At one point the road has a barrier and there is a police control. I make out of the line, enter the booth and begins the ordeal ...

First the police after checking the passport I say (in Moldova) that there is a problem with fog lights on the bike in Moldova are prohibited and I will open "a verbal process" (ie they will be fined). I tell them at the border entry and nothing warned me that if it takes the dismount right there. I say yes that I removed, but they are going to get them there and pay the fine as well.

Second is that this barrier is nothing less than a border, in particular the border between Moldova and the Moldovan Soviet Socialist Republic of Transnistria (PMR). I had read something of a portion of Moldavia free (as Abkhazia in Georgia), but thought it was four killed controlling some remote mountain range. As it turns out to hear anything killed, Transnistria controls neither more nor less than the road between Moldova and Ukraine, who have mounted a full-fledged border and income tax must be revolutionary explain below. Total

I'm in the lion's den. I tell the cop that if I'm physically out of Moldavia then forget the issue of fog that is no way to treat a tourist, but the guy erre que erre with "oral proceedings" and to leave the fog there . I protested because some cars had fog and were not standing for it, but damn if I did, and here and I realized that they wanted saber. Posts in this plan as soon much a solution to emerge "alternative" to let me leave Modavia ultimately do with the whole bike. I asked and was told that in Transnistria there was no problem, only in Moldova. In short, I demanded a bribe of 20 euros and a promise not recirculated to Moldova, and so this first issue was resolved. Total

I leave and headed Moldova Transnistria. The other side, which are 15 meters away, I waited for some time ...

The first booth I step out to the soldiers with rifles at the ready, give me high and I do go in, and official acceptable English, I said we have a problem as I enter his country without a visa (no bothers you the notes, as I have a visa if there is no embassy in any country!), and I'll have to turn around again and go to Odessa Moldova by herd of more than five hundred miles north. I realize that it is impossible to return to Moldova because the Moldovan police bribe which just now sure will not let me go without getting my fog (which I bet you are collusion ...). The officer said the issue of Transnistria, and finally I said that if they "collaborate with the cause" maybe we can fix it. So $ 10 is attached over bribery and let me in on the border itself without a visa. Then I realized that he himself had cheated me because it really that visas were issued in the office had

later ... I get to the office and control of documents in front of me there are kids coming from London Rally Transmongolia make a small car. Struck up a conversation and what I have done my Moldovans with lights, for they have done with walkie-talkies. We understand that not being an official border that is a nest of rats living in inventing bribery prohibitions unjustified.

But it is equally clear that we went to Malaga to get into Malagon, and thieves from the office Transnistrian call us 25 euros each to give us a transit visa only for a super time, ie to cross the 70 kms of the country and get straight to the Ukrainian border. Never seen before!

a Paddle: revolutionary tax payment on it and give me some forms to enter the country to fill in the next and final step: the office.

This is a touchy subject. In some countries must complete a declaration of assets you enter their territory. In theory you have to declare valuables, including electronic equipment (phones, video cameras, photo, gps, stations, etc), declare weapons, and also the exact amount of money carried, even in this case specifying how much is carried in each different currency. In other countries you put a generous amount of money and does not declare anything to understand what it takes do not have a high value. At first I did normal, declaring that he had no weapons, no special value and the little money I was already in a portfolio (in those rare trips I always carry one spare with some money and old cards in case of robbery , but luckily I've never used).

But I had to do in this case? The circumstances were as follows:

1 - The English boys were ahead of me one side of the office being recorded thoroughly. All vehicle doors, trunk and hood open. All cases with the contents scattered on the asphalt, and the three boys almost in their underwear with the contents of their pockets and empty on the floor while the Customs at all like a bloodhound tracked. I could talk to them and confirmed that I had a problem because the recorder had been found in one of the camera covers a little money (little). The situation was very tense and the lack of customs languages, shouting rather than speaking, did not help at all.

2 - I had hidden (especially in my jacket pockets) the following: video camera, camera Photos, hard disk player / engraver and above the GPS that is sure to put it is illegal in the country. The fanny

hidden in my English had a respectable amount of money he had no intention of declaring watching organized gang of thieves was out there.

And hidden in the old bike was still molten PDA and dagger gift shop at Petra, that is, a weapon. Clearly

a record win half of Londoners would leave me with your ass in the air. And then what? If I discovered all the undeclared material may be committing contraband, and if I got in jail the only Soviet country left in the world and no diplomatic relations and could take for fucking me (and in all meanings of the word). Many images of films of James Bond or Mission Impossible in the harsh Soviet prisons constantly assaulted me ...

But if he admitted the money hidden invent something sure to stay a good slice (now at the office or in any paramilitary awhile I stole into the country) and if he admitted the electronic equipment, especially the GPS, I could dismiss him. The only thing I did while I was watching my two portfolios unify and add to the statement a little more money (a few euros, dollars and other currencies that had the trip). In addition, we were drawing near a fence, took off my jacket and helmet and left lying beside the fence, away from the bike, not worrying or not containing anything of value, hoping that if he had a personal record man at least forget about it and the discussion was only for the money he had in the crotch.

The minutes passed and the issue of Londoners did not move either backwards or forwards and I sweating with nerves waiting for my turn as a resigned animals entering the slaughterhouse. In addition, of course, during all that time was already running the ultimatum one hour visa to the 70 miles to the Ukrainian border. (!). I think I lost several kilos in that time so distressing ...

the end, the Soviet hound sniffing leaves a bit of the Londoners, he approaches me and asks me signed declaration form. Now the bet is made and there is no time or opportunity to change anything, as they say in the roulette casino: "ne va plus." Then it makes me open several suitcases. The stench of clothing a month of travel and the remains of cookies and crumbs made helped it was not too thorough. Then focused on the money, it seems amused that I had pointed out the amount of all national currencies but not enough amount. Also showed him the book open to see for yourself exactly what he had said. I told him that once took more money but it had to pay in the office and at the port. Spent a few seconds of reflection that made me eternal ... and finally the man (who already had time to task for poor Londoners) leads me to the privacy of his hut and tells me that if I make a "present", then " no problemo. " I could not wait to get his wallet and lengthen 5 euros apologizing for not being able to give more because I needed to pay the hotel, and the guy took them, turned around and went back to bite the Londoners who had already lost half the time they had to cross the country. Uffffffffff!


When the guy did not see me I went to the fence, picked up his jacket and helmet, I hopped on the bike and threw palante with the firm decision that if I shoot and I was not going to look back. I fired, and immediately was circulating in Transnistria with a fifteen affright.

Every few miles there was a patrol or the Soviet army, militia or Transnistria, or the police in Tiraspol, all heavily armed, and I was trying not to lose circulation without the GPS, as it had no intention that seized me to the first control. Weather ran against me to get to the Ukrainian border within the time of mini-visa, but was not a road but after crossing a bridge over the vast river Dniester (Trans-Dniester = Transnistria), soon becomes a voyage urban through the streets of Tiraspol, the last Soviet capital, and certainly if you go 30 km / h will crack. And time goes quickly, tic-tac, tic-tac, tic-tac .... But I was not willing to take for me to stop immediately. Those checkpoints gave me very afraid and was sure they were going to extortion had the first chance. I got behind a large van so that when he perceived control and gave no time to decide to stand, and the trick worked, as well spent especially the first part of the country.

I do not know if that helped or hurt me that evening at the National Stadium in Tiraspol (the road runs right next door), it played an international soccer match. The local team is the FC Sheriff Tiraspol, and this company (Sheriff), is the owner of all, stores, gas stations, etc., And from what I know now owned by the family of President of the country, no more to say . I think that game meant more than the normal controls, but instead resulted in traffic that day and time that allowed me to spend perhaps less noticed among all fans.

The truth is that suffering is not too late to the border went through the capital almost on tiptoe.

Memorial Day in the 17 years of independence.



Tiraspol Municipal Park.


Tiraspol
After the enforcement level decreased significantly and without much trouble I got to the exit border, inevitably a bit late, but I was.

me at the border open the bags without much effort, and to check my papers I do go to the office because there is a "grossen problem", we started with ... I said mamoneo the individual that I am missing a sealed paper should have told me that fact at the entrance. Tells me with a map in hand I have to turn around and return to me so. Earth swallow me! He had managed to reach 200 meters from the Ukrainian border and I want to take notes Patras where Londoners have yet to be begging in his underwear! While I was happy as he was looking for paper for a moment I even started the bike and escape coming to the Ukrainian border (as there were no barriers between them) and ask for political asylum or whatever ....

Obviously I did not, and I kept arguing with me last Soviet chupóptero separated from the freedom in that country-dungeon. As always, the "grossen problem" was solved with money, specifically the equivalent of about 6 euros, so I could leave the country a nightmare.

Well because now, in retrospect, and for those who want more information about this pseudo-country comic named, there are some facts:

- The currency is the ruble Transnistrian, and I did not change even a kopek .
- We speak Russian, Ukrainian and Moldavian, but necessarily written in Cyrillic, not romance (school closed to ensure this.)
- The flag and its monuments is riddled with Soviet symbols.




- In this country, which is set out on 14 Russian army, and hosts the largest arsenal of weapons in Europe.
- The economy is based on the Ukrainian border smuggling and trafficking of weapons built in its factories and left unchecked in their arsenals when the Soviet Union collapsed.
- There is still the Supreme Soviet, internal security is allocated to the KGB (yes, yes, I said KGB), and its head is wanted by Interpol for murder.

Supreme Soviet statue of Lenin.



More Information:
Here is a fairly comprehensive page:
http://fronterasblog.wordpress.com/2008/01/09/lugares-que-no-existen-transnistria/

Here the English Wikipedia (the English version much smaller):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transnistria

Here is a long page with a video documentary called "Transmistria, the black hole of Europe." http://transnistria. blogspot.com /

And this is what a blog is an employee of a English embassy (I think Bucharest), still doing more, and talking with Romanian diplomatic passport and Moldovan neither well ... nothing happened
http://banyuken.es/2006/08/10/odisea-en-transnistria-y-cuarta-parte/


As far as I'm concerned I think in my circumstances because I had some luck today that this is the only one of the more than 50 countries I have visited do not want to return.

Arriving finally at the Ukrainian border in the office puts a sign in several languages \u200b\u200bthat bribery is a crime both to the giver to the receiver. So things are done, yes sir!

evening was out of the border, but despite the signs in the Cyrillic alphabet came safely to Odessa, the largest port in the entire Black Sea.

campsite or hotel not find cheaper, but the stairs Potemkin, one of the icons of Odessa. There I left the bike and once on the top hotel sought by asking some of the massive Ukrainian mega-fashion abound in restaurants and super elegant terraces, while I with the dress dirty and sweaty biker I was really the last outcast of the earth.

Prymorski This is the Boulevard with illuminated trees colors.



Ukraine there are several in the picture again be pure coincidence ...


As I walk gaping
by the Ukrainian hear me speak Catalan first time in a month (remember I lost my mobile on the fourth day and I have only communicated online.) Vic were two guys who had already been a few days in Ukraine. It was they who told me they knew a very famous hotel but very shabby nearby, the Passage.

fixed throw me already planted in the hotel and I'll take the cheapest room there, but has no bathroom. Then I go to find the bike and parked near the hotel, not on same side as the porters wanted to charge for parking on your sidewalk. Other ready! I was told that it was Ukraine and myself ... but after like last night in Tbilisi, or Aleppo Amman would not now turn tiquis-Miquis.

to exit the room was crying, but if every hole is trench warfare and the difference to me half a tank of fuel. Suffice to say, to the surprise of not even community bathroom down the hall, a wastebasket with a plastic bag ended up as a makeshift toilet ... (disgusting, scatological, I know, but useful and operational at the end after all) .

party aimed at cleaning the room ... but no water.