January 14, 2004
The cleanest toilet in the Balkans
Is located at the Shell gas station on Route 5 from Ruse to Sofia in Bulgaria, about 8 km from the border to Romania.
Why do I know that?
Well, it's been three months since we last went to Ruse and the car needed to leave the country again - obviously we haven't been able to organise a Romanian registration so far. We forgot over the business with the kids and only remembered last night -- and discovered that we were already two days past the magic date. Since Doug had a big meeting today, it was up to me to drive across the border, turn and come back with a shiny new stamp in my passport.
Let's not dwell on a very unpleasant drive in unpleasant weather on unpleasant streets. We've described the road to Ruse and it hasn't improved much. The only good thing was that the streets were almost deserted, so I didn't have to pay too much attention to other drivers.
The countryside was the same color as the sky, a dirty gray-white, so that one couldn't tell where which ended and begun. I'd been looking forward to seeing the Danube again - a real river, at last! I even stopped smack in the middle of the bridge, left the car, scrambled over the snow that rose up about a meter on the sides, only to take a picture of the river for Doug. I needn't have bothered:
I crossed into Bulgaria, found that Shell gas station, used the meticulous bathroom, had a Bulgarian style sandwich (three cuts into the bun, filled with ham, sheep's cheese and dry cole slaw, then heated - yum!), turned back and left Bulgaria again. When the Bulgarian border guard asked where I'd been, I said "Ruse". Why? "Tourist". Ah, he answered and grinned, to get a stamp, eh? Well, yes. What else should I have said?
I have to add that everybody at the border(s) was super-nice. Single woman traveling in the Balkans. Well, yes.
Posted by claudia at January 14, 2004 09:04 PM | TrackBack