Day 29--Ruse, Bulgaria to Calarasi, Romania

BREAKFAST BAR NAZI

Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Ruse, Bulgaria to Calarasi, Romania
Distance: 163 km(102 miles)

X+--We cross the friendship Bridge again this morning and re-enter Romania (keep your passports out!). We'll be in Calarasi this evening.

It’s surprising how things somehow seem to work out. We had thunderstorms all night and awoke this morning to 65F with strong southwest winds and overcast skies. This caused me to sail and even sing as I barreled along.

Our route today took us east through many little villages, as it has for the past several days. These villages were up on hills to get them out of the flood plain, so there was plenty of climbing and descending, but with the cool temps and a kicking tailwind it was actually fun.

I flew 84 km before stopping for a break. When I stopped, I ate a chocolate hazelnut wafery thing they had put out for breakfast, and drank from my water bottle. Note the singular. Judy took my other bottle by mistake this morning when she got them out of the room refrigerator. I got her blue topped bottle which had some mixture or other in it. I did not drink from it because the smell was definitely not water. I had a spare bottle of water in my rackpack, so was fine until 20km (15 miles) from Calarasi where I stopped and bought another bottle of water and drank an orange soda.

I got in at 2:20 pm and left at 8:50 am so that makes my average about 18 mph. VERY good for me and impossible without a tailwind and cloud cover. When I got to the room and cleaned up, I decided to eat my sandwich—it was a crumbled mess. No piece of the bread bigger than . . . well, a bread crumb. 

Flowers on the strip of land between the houses and the road; more often this area was planted with vegetable gardens

There were lots of carts early on beginning their day. Also in the villages, many people pulled or pushed small metal wagons with high sides, a long wagon-like handle, and two rickety tires to get their milk, water, morning bread, propane, or whatever. There were several gypsy carts on the road today also. I finally got up the nerve to take a photo of one. A man is driving it and two children and his wife are in a hammock type shelf behind him. They waved at me and he smiled. It is my absolute favorite photo from the ride.

My favorite photo of the trip;note the decorative CD hanging to the left

After writing up this log and downloading my pix, I took a 10-minute nap and then went for a walk along the river and snapped some more photos. There is a pretty big park all along the river front with a couple of outdoor restaurants and statues and many colorful benches. When I got downstairs to go for my walk, Judy and gang had just pulled in (5:30 pm)—Judy in her usual carping mood . . . every driver out to kill her and every peasant a gypsy out to cheat her, etc. Hated the ride in in the traffic, disliked the hills, yadda, yadda, yadda.

A picnic area at the riverside park

Fishermen at the park

The colorful park benches

 We had dinner at our standard 7:30 pm—large very good salad of tomatoes, olives, yellow peppers, cheese, etc but no lettuce, and garnished with a grape leaf; then pasta and pork chops followed by little nut and chocolate crepes. These are Marion’s favorites.

At dinner I asked Alex abut my crumbled sandwich. He asked if I’d toasted the bread. I had not. He said that it is a very delicate bread that if not toasted will crumble like mine did.

Stefania told of the maitre de this morning at the breakfast bar. He nearly had a fit when he saw us making sandwiches, but Stefania had gotten permission from the hotel and had paid them extra. Nonetheless the man was livid and wouldn’t listen to her explanation. All this must have occurred after I’d made my sandwich and left.

My Microsoft Word program locked up several days ago. Tonight my Publisher program locked up as well as my Microsoft Picture Manager program. I’ve now resorted to Works. We’ll see how long this stays open. No explanation for this phenomenon except perhaps a virus. [When I got home, the computer people could find no virus; suspected that Microsoft had locked my computer because it was being used in so many countries and they suspected a hacker. Hmmm. Yes, Big Bro may have been out there, or more likely it was Romanian hackers.]

View from our hotel balcony

Observations:

- I saw a crested lark today at customs after crossing the Friendship Bridge. It’s quite a treat to see as its crest stands straight up.·
- I also saw several more stork nests and several abandoned stork nests. When the stork nests are abandoned, swallows and sparrows flock to it to feed on the parasites left behind—at least I think that’s what they are doing.