Today we actually left Turkey, went into and almost through Bulgaria, stopping in Petko Karavelevo, a part of Polski Trămbeš, about 85km south of Ruse, and the Romanian border.
We took our time leaving our overnight stop, but leave it we did when we realised that, despite amazing similarities, including the flock of chickens, it was not the stop we had used when we first entered Turkey, and its 'restaurant' was nowhere near the quality of that other one. So we drove out, towards Edirna and (ultimately) Bulgaria. We did stop off for breakfast at a roadside stop where we found the staff sitting at the tables playing the oh-so-Turkish game of Tavla — that we know as 'Backgammon'. We had a lovely breakfast of sucuklu yumurta — the Turkish take on sausages and eggs, the sausages being a Turkish salami with spices and garlic. The eggs were a little different, too, as the lad of the establishment had to go out to the back and raid the hen-house!
Harvesting the sunflowers!
Our last tollgate in Bulgaria
Harvesting the sunflowers!
Our last tollgate in Bulgaria
We then continued to the Bulgarian border, and crossed with no hassles. This could not be said for the truckies, who were lined up in both directions to get through customs. It was worse on the Bulgarian side, coming into Turkey. We drove past a highway carpark about 10km long! While crossing the border, we dropped in to a duty free shop and stocked up on Toblerone — life's just not right without Toblerone!
Coming out of Turkey, and through Bulgaria, we passed farm after farm with acres of sunflowers — a spectacular sight.
Our lunch-break site on a highway parking area
Our lunch-break site on a highway parking area
We turned north, and drove across the Stara Planina, a mountain range that bisects Bulgaria, running basically east-west across the whole country. We drove up through Veliko Tărnovo, to where we stopped in front of a derelict hotel (we believe it was) in Petko Karavelevo, in the shade of some well established trees — and much to the amusement of the locals! This will leave us only 164km to drive tomorrow to our campsite in Bucuresti — and then the touring begins in earnest!
Distance driven — today, 205 miles ( 330 km ); to date, 23,163 miles ( 37,278 km )
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