October 15, 2003
The Bridge to Ruse
Crossing the Danube between Giurgiu (Romania) and Ruse (Bulgaria) is an interesting experience.
At this point the Danube is, as my dear wife has pointed out, frickin' huge. It's big like the Mississippi or the Amazon. More than half a mile across, and deep.
So the bridge is big too. And from a distance, it's a remarkable sight. Almost 3 km or two miles long long -- it arches up and up for a while before going across -- and high: more than 60m/200 feet (say 20 stories) above the water. The view is spectacular. And at either end, there are these... things. Big rectangular towers supported by Greek pillars, like the Parthenon but five times as tall. "Like the Argonath in The Lord of the Rings," said Claudia, and she was right.
Well and good. And then you get past the pillar-things, and you're on the bridge, and it's...
...narrow. Really, really narrow. One lane each way, and not a wide lane. One truck could just barely pass another truck, with inches to spare. No shoulders. No side lanes. No provision for pedestrians or bikers. (Those two people who are biking from Liverpool to Australia claim that they rode their bicycles across it in March 2003; but then, they are insane.)
The road itself is almost deserted. Going over to Bulgaria, there was one truck on the bridge with us. Coming back, one car. Okay, it was Sunday, but still.
At the customs and immigration points on either end, we repeatedly had to wait while officials who had wandered away from their windows came trotting back.
It's weird. Especially when you go home and look at the map and realize that this is the only bridge across the Danube for a long, long way in either direction. The nearest bridge upstream is over 100 miles east; the next downstream bridge is nearly 300 (!) miles downstream.
For bonus weirdness points, at the exact middle of the bridge there is a ditch, and one lane is closed. So, all road contact between the two countries for hundreds of miles around -- cars, trucks, buses -- bottlenecks down to a single lane that goes over a ditch. Which is fine, because there's no traffic anyhow.
The bridge is officially a "friendship bridge". Somehow it makes me think of two people shaking hands while leaning as far away from each other as possible.
Posted by douglas at October 15, 2003 03:59 PMHi!
I do not know about this bridge.. but for many years I did cross the Danube near Braila by boat (ferryboat). Of course.. in the winter it's more dangerous :)
How was the trip in Bulgaria? All the stories ended so far to the border.
Have fun!
Anca & Misha
Posted by: Anca & Misha at October 15, 2003 10:52 PMA bizarre bit of local color, to be sure. But the geography confuses me. Isn't east _downstream_? My Euro road atlas shows a bridge about 60 km downstream (at Oltenita/Tutrakan). The nearest upstream bridge (at Calafat/Vidin) is about 260 km west. Or do these bridges no longer exist?
Posted by: Rich Rostrom at October 19, 2003 08:34 AMYes, east is downstream of course. My bad.
You might want to look again at the road atlas. If it really says there's a bridge at Oltenitsa, it's wrong. There is a ferry, which can carry cars. We considered crossing there -- it's actually closer to Bucharest. But we couldn't find a schedule, though, so we weren't willing to risk it.
The Calafat/Vidin Bridge is the one I meant by "over 100 miles". It's about 145 miles as the crow flies or 160 (260 km) on the river.
They're building a new bridge, but it's going to take a while -- in part because they couldn't agree on the location, so the Bulgarians are paying for it in full.
Doug M.
Posted by: Doug at October 19, 2003 07:33 PMDriving from Bucharest/Romania to Ruse/Bulgaria through Giurgiu will be about 70km by crossing the bridge over the Danube. Seems to be easy to take this trip. But once arrived to the bridge you will find out that you have to pay 17EUR to cross the bridge and 10EUR for disinfecting the car and some euros more for God knows what. After a nice afternoon, when you want to go back to Bucharest a nice lady (!) at the bridge will tell you the 17EUR you already have paid are valid for an one-way crossing. So you must happily open your wallet in order to pay the same amount again. Eventualy you will be able to see, that besides the 50EUR (max.!) you spent for your stay in Ruse actually you payed double because of the taxes. Stay at home and watch some videotapes about Bulgaria!
Posted by: gheorghe at February 23, 2004 10:35 AMHi! I'm from Vidin,Bulgaria. I just wanted to correct you.There is no existing bridge between Vidin and Calafat.This is the 'new bridge' you are mentioning but they will hopefully start building it in year 2005.Now there is only a ferry in Vidin. P.S. Come and see my town.There are some interesting sights in the region.
Posted by: Bobby at August 7, 2004 08:39 PM