Romanian grey faded into Bulgarian bright skies as I continued the ride southward. The Bulgarian border was a total breeze, and involved nothing more than riding the bike through a 15-meter long pool of disinfectant with border dogs yapping. The flat coastal plains started rising into the Staria Plania mountains, which run all the way to Bulgaria's Black Sea coast. That first day in Bulgaria reminded me of northern California with its winding coast roads and views such as this. I was trying to get to Turkey as quickly as possible, so I blew through Bulgaria pretty quickly, without too much exciting to report. (1-17-05) *

I did, however, stop in Varna to take in the country's finest museum. The archeology museum held objects from the Bulgarian Black Sea coast area from the Stone Age to the 19th century, including the oldest finds of worked gold on the planet (over 1000 years prior to the development of civilizations in Egypt or Mesopotamia). These finds came from a well preserved necropolis that held skeletons that had been subject to complicated and symbolic burial rituals - some graves held skeletons that were huddled in fetal positions, some on their side, and some laid straight out, as here. This guy was obviously of high position, and with some interesting body ornamentation. (1-18-05)

Bulgarian churches were full of iconography, mosaics and wooden ornamentation that was pretty elaborate. This was from the cathedral in Varna. (1-18-05)

In Varna I stayed at the cheapest hotel in town, which obviously had not redecorated since the early 70's-thereby making the hotel unintentionally retro cool. It was actually pretty nice. Check out the two-level inner courtyard with skylight, brown swirl carpet, and the wooden sculpture that was no doubt the result of some hallucinatory vision. I also happen to be modelling the new watchcap knit by mom - a true masterpiece of craftsmanship! (1-18-05) *

Some goats in the Staria Plania Mountains, doing as goats do. The ride here was full of climbs, drops and scenic winding roads - a nice way to start saying goodbye to Europe. (1-19-05)

I made it to Nesebar in the early twilight, flying down a 14 km descent coming off the Staria Plania to the coast, and that was all good fun, especially after spending most of the afternoon in the granny gear making the climb that enabled that lengthy descent. The town was full of churches with some of Bulgaria's best preserved murals, but all the doors were chained shut. I suppose there are advantages and disadvantages to travelling in the off season. (1-20-05)

Cue up the Kenny Loggins Top Gun soundtrack. That's right, I went to the danger zone; gonna take you right into the Dane-jaa zone. Bulgarian signs were once again in cyrillic, but most of the time with partial English or German translations. Although I increased my internal threat alert from yellow to orange and exercised caution, I saw nothing out of the ordinary in this 1 km stretch of Bulgarian danger. (1-21-05) *

The last day of riding in Bulgaria I was getting impatient and I was thinking of trying for a 200 km ride all the way to Edirne, just across the Turkish border, but I fell pretty far short (150 km). I'd been riding in the dark for about an hour when it started raining, so I broke out the tent and caught some z's under a thorn bush. The next morning I woke up refreshed and only had a short ride to the Turkish border, so I think things worked out better that way. (1-22-05) *

The last view of Bulgaria outside the border zone near Kapitan Andrevo, which was lined with shops, currency exchanges, street vendors, and the excitement of a long-awaited border crossing.

The last morning that I was in Bulgaria I briefly had the first loaded rifle pointed at me. I was enjoying the sunrise and coasting down the hill when I heard a rifle report. I did not think too much of it until I saw a Lada approaching in the oncoming lane with a rifle sticking out the backseat window - which would be directly facing me when the car passed. I guess they were some idiots who were hunting from their car. I was a little freaked out about going forward because the person in the backseat was not pulling the rifle back in the car (which would have been the polite and responsible thing to do) and I would be soon crossing its line of fire. Even though the barrel was pointed directly at me for less than a second before we were clear of each other I really can't say that I appreciated it. Also, I was a little surprised that they were shooting a rifle from a moving car in a border zone. But anyway, that was it for Bulgaria.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention the night that I spent in Burgas in the housing projects at some old woman's apartment. I was supposed to have a room to myself in a totally putrid apartment - that was the $6 deal - but when I came back at 10:30 (after getting lost in the concrete towers that all looked alike) there was some Bulgarian guy crashed out on the sofa in my room. At first I wasn't too happy about it, but he spoke English and he had some interesting things to say, so I didn't raise a fuss. It was pretty sobering actually - he spoke five languages (Italian, Greek, English, Bulgarian and Russian), but could not get work in Bulgaria because of a lack of jobs. He had lived and worked in Italy and Greece (hence the language abitity), but it was always a matter of time before the authorities caught up with him and booted him out. At the moment he was waiting for a new passport to get back into Greece. You get the sense that there is a lot of ability and talent going to waste in Bulgaria. (1-22-05)