Translated by SFT
Tony used all the English he knew to caution Yi that there’re a lot of
crazy people in Bulgaria, so be careful when riding a bike. ‘ Don’t
worry! There’re always bad and good folks in any country. We will be
careful. We are also crazy, you know...’ ‘Indeed, you are crazy - special crazy,'’
said Tony. Tony just could not imagine we would ride bikes around the
world.
All the ‘crazy talk’, so who is Tony?
Let me begin with the day before we left Turkey. Yi was shampooing her hair and
I got ready to prepare our lunch in a desolate gas station behind a
restaurant.
Tan, a custom's officer, saw us and invited us for
lunch with the company of his friends. We enjoyed Turkish BBQ,
called a kebap.
The next day we met Tan again before we exited Turkey at the
customs.
‘Welcome to Greece!’ The custom officer stamped our passports and let
us enter the country without even checking our luggage.
A passionate driver told us there were 2 checkpoints from Greece to
Bulgaria and offered to give us a ride. We declined his good will and
continued our biking on the highway.
Annetle, one of the ‘brave female cyclists’, gave us a map of Greece. We
gave our Turkey and Istanbul maps to a couple, who plan to ride
from German to China. We invited them to come to Taiwan after their
visit to China. Even though we cyclists may not be familiar with all the
biking routes, we can ride a long way with the help from each other.
Since it was not easy to get water and food in addition to a
monotonous landscape if we rode along the highway, we decided to pedal
on the access roads. Thus, we had breathed the sea breeze from the
Aegean Sea at Alexandroupoli, Greece; walked around Kavala, the second
largest city in northern Greece, and then climbed up the mountains to
have a panoramic view of the town; enjoying the huge, fiery blooms in
the sunflower field.
No sooner did we start to miss the Turkish hospitality than a tourist
from Bulgaria gave us 2 apples.
We asked for permission to camp near a
grapes garden.
Not only was the owner fine with that, he also gave us
a bottle of white wine. Maybe next time we should consider camping
near a sunflower field when we crave sunflower seeds :o)
We came across a kind person in Serres before we left Greece. He is an
owner of an advertisement company. He asked one of his employees to
treat us to Greek coffee and also let us use the computer to send a
note to our friends and relatives. Everything is really ‘Greek to
me’, but I learned how to say ‘ af- ha- li- shih- do’ for ‘Thank you.’
We continued our journey to Bulgaria before it got dark. We
stopped on the road side to buy some cherries. Hmmm, ‘How am I going
to make myself understood how much I want to buy?’
I pointed at 500g
on the scale. Guess what? The vendor filled up our pot with cherries,
free of charge!
About 5 miles away from Bulgaria border, we saw a car stalled on the
road. There were no other people around, so we stopped to help push the
car uphill.
After that, we offered the car passengers water, apples and bread,
but they were hesitant to take the food, worrying that we might not
have enough for ourselves. I tried all the gestures I could to tell
them we had enough. Only then did they accept the food from us. They
waited on the spot for their rescue. We moved on. We broke our
record. This was the first time we surpassed a car.
I had thought it’s very easy to enter Greece. Surprisingly, it’s even
easier to enter Bulgaria. Upon hearing we were from Taiwan, the
Bulgaria custom officers let us enter the country without even looking
at our passports. In order to make sure they did not let us in
accidentally, I went back to them with the passports. They waved us
away, indicating it’s not necessary to stamp our Taiwanese passports.
It’s so easy to enter the country. I started wondering if this was a
mistake. I was finally relieved after I had a chance to check the
website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of China
(Taiwan). It turns out Bulgaria is one of the European countries that
visa is not required for Taiwanese.
We rode northbound and had a minor illness (refer to the article: We
have recovered) on our way to Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. After we
felt better, we sped up so that we could arrive at Sofia on
schedule.
Somehow after we rode to the downtown Sofia, we got lost. It was about
noon, so I figured we might just rest on the road side to have lunch.
However, we could not find any water, so we decided to get back on the
road. Only then came a white SUV and the driver asked if we needed any
assistance. This was the first person asking us if we needed any help
after we had been riding in Bulgaria for 180km. This is the "Tony"
I mentioned in the beginning of this article.
I popped out the question,‘ Which way leads to Romania? Tony took out
the map to show me how to get to Romania and also gave us the map. I
then asked him where I could find some water. Tony opened the back of
his SUV and said to us,’ Put in your bicycles and come to my place.’
Wow! What a nice person he is, so there we went with Tony. Tony is an
owner of a warehouse and works more than 10 hours a day. He took us to
his store and gave us some snacks. ‘Wait for me for about 40 minutes.
We are going to have lunch together after I return,’ said Tony. He
then went about his business to deliver the merchandise to the
customers.
At lunch time, Tony introduced his wife Mimi and asserted that he only
studied English for 2 days and Mimi spoke more fluent English. Mimi
went along joking, ‘I am amazed that you could even understand each
other with 2 days’ English lessons. I think I need to send you to
school to study English for 2 more days.’
We also came to know that Tony used to be an athlete in a Bulgaria
national team. I bet he can even survive in the Sahara Desert.
‘It must be very hard biking around the world. Come to rest at my
home. After I finish delivering the rest of the items, I will cook you
dinner,’ Tony invited us. ‘ No worry about losing the bikes. There’s a
monitor in the store around the clock.’ Surely Tony turned into a cook
after work. Salad with cheese plus a bit of wine after the meal- we
spent a pleasant dinner time together.
Bulgaria is a country full of history. Besides, there’re a lot of
tourist attractions. Therefore, Tony asked us to stay with him for a
few days so that he would tour us around Bulgaria. The first tourist
spot: Rila Monastery
It poured rain the following morning, but it turned clear in the afternoon.
Tony took time off from his work and drove us to visit Rila Monastery.
Rila Monastery is named after its founder, the hermit Ivan of Rila.
It’s at an elevation of about 1150m above the sea level and is about
120km south of Sofia. The Monastery was built in the 10th century. It
is the largest Eastern Orthodox monastery in Bulgaria and it has been
listed as the one of the world heritage sites by the United Nations.
So many tourists visited the place just like an endless stream.
Thanks to Tony. Had we not met him, we would have definitely missed
such a splendid view.
Tony just brushed it off saying it’s not a big
deal. He could also have a chance to relax and spent time with his
wife outdoors.
Oh! God, please bless Tony, be successful in his business making a
fortune, have a happy family and make his country, Bulgaria
prosperous.
..........
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