Saturday 18. October 2008 Extracts from the Odysse through three cultures
By: FFB Christian
At Volos in the Mediterranean Sea
Danube traverse RO / BG
in the north from Sofia
Cutting fire wood
Sibiu / Drăgăşani (RO)
We made it out of Sibiu. After the city had accepted us as their lovers and we have taken her as slight acquaintance, to say goodbye wasn't easy. The right point of time had to crystallise itself, because the tries of leaving by purpose failured miserable. We left the place were we have lived and live, with closed doors...
... the sun sank in a deep red atmosphere. But before she went down behind the mountains a car stopped by and brought us to our first detination Drăgăşani. The acquaintance to the driver developed in the way, that the driver invited us to have a coffee in his appartment, even with our meagre acknowledgment of the Romanian language. That made us very happy and so we climbed the two floors in yhe newly built house, to get into his flat..
Drăgăşani / Oryhovo (BG)
The day started with sun shine. As we had packed all our stuff, we went through narrow alleys along a gipsy village. The houses held lovely insights willing. Small, decent houses, with natural colours, artful roof decorations and green atriums. The feeling which is always around me in such kind of moments is: this is where i want to stay...
... after a later, long march to the edge of Craiova, a young Romanian guy picked us up in the direction of Bechet, which was the destination for that day. The driving style of that young men was exciting in such a way, that we all went intently through every lurch manoeuvre with our eyes. Filled with alacrity he played out his knowledge of the road and constantly he knew, how to use the horn. " Someone who can't be stopped! ", that could have been the title for a movie, which deals with the way, how to use the achieved freedom. But we don't want to complain, because with him we reached the port, where the ferry went over the Danube to Bulgaria...
Oryhaovo / Sofia
... bread, onions, tomatoes with salt, potatoe salad and salami. A good start of the day and the first steps with the ' charly ' over the shoulders weren't difficult. We bought water and drank coffee, with the hope to find a toilet. But the cafe at the street was a very small one and so we went a bit further on the road and started to hitch hike. After an unsuccessful try of the filling station attendant, to drive us to Sofia for the price of 70 euros, an old men stopped by with his Lada and brought us to the next village. On the way he practiced the technique of engine on and off, which we had already experienced in Romania...
... We already got to know, that Bulgaria plays against Italy in a footbal match today. That's why we thought the men had picked us up. Because he went with an old guy to see the game! For us the outgoing of the evening was uncertain. Until a young guy stepped into the bar and Stefan recognised him from last year immediately. From this moment on the evening took a turn, which could be described with words in it's way, but not the essence of coinsidence itself. ...
Sofia / Volos - Marathos (GR)
... One car brought us to the junction direction Greece and a little later another one 50 kilometers further. So we stood at a place, around 100 kilometers away from the border to Greece and another thing should happen, which is unsatisfied described with the word coinsidence. A car stopped and just seconds later another one. And the second one we shoult recognise very fast, because it was that Audi A6, which we had already met at our first day in Bulgaria, in a village close to the border. There it stopped in the wrong direction and after a short conversation the driver, a carpenter master and contractor from Cologne gave us 60 euro. " Here you have a little something to drink! " And exactly that men stopped again now and the first sentence he said was: " You haven't get that far! " ...
Marathos – Volos
We arrived Marathos close to Volos monday evening and we slept right away. Tuesday and wednesday we swam, enjoyed the sun, we ate a lot, we reminisced about the travel and we were visiting Volos. The Mediterranean Sea is wonderful! The temperature of the water is just great and there's a lot going on at the beach and in the flat water. We were watching the hundreds of details from mother nature. Beside the water we also had to look to all the plants and trees, the fruits from the south and the palms, because oranges, lemmons, olives, tangerines, we only know out of nets and cases and glasses normally. Two lazy days went by, on wednesday we visited Volos. In town we ambled through the alleys and we were very surprised, that a young boy answered: " Bine! ", to our question: " Ce mai facez? ". We told him and his whole classmates the story about the tradition of our journey. In secret i believe that the young boy was in the same way surprised but happy to hear the Romanian language, as we were as he answered. ...