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Km 3820, Pitesti. A quick calculation, we took our delay of 4 days in 7 days. Accordingly, we spent much time in car and for this reason, we always arrived late at our friends’s homes. Fortunately, they are very understanding.

We take the time to start the day with a Romanian breakfast. I believe that this is the first time for me. In the menu, we change Iberico ham for the Romanian ham, accompanied by smoked sausages, eggs, bread and many fruits. We take a few moments to update the blog with articles that we had wrote at the travel. During all this time, Madi and Adrian have tried by different methods to convince us to stay one day more in Pitesti. But we have to give all the material to the Istanbul school and also withdraw our visas for Iran. More delays possible!

We take the highway to the border. Romania is a country of contrasts. It is really striking at car level, it’s possible see a german luxury 4×4 between a lot of Renault and Dacia Logan 1310.

The time to thwart a scam at one service station next to the border (why pay 330 Romanian leu if we can pay 3300?) And we arrive in Bulgaria. As in any good challenge, each day it is in its difficulty. Today, the Cyrillic alphabet. Fortunately, our GPS remains in our alphabet!

We cross Ruse, the first Bulgarian town after the border. The more we are going to the east, the more we are going through cities whose architecture dates from the Soviet era and which have not changed much since the fall of communism. In Ruse, we have a little sensation of being in a post-apocalyptic movie. We mustn’t consider that.

To reach Istanbul, we have to cross all Bulgaria until Svilengrad, border post with Turkey.  We thought enjoy a direct route through the mountains, but it’s not possible, the road closed. 15 km after the last crossroads, we must do a U-turn. Sergio spoke very well with a member of maintenance staff about the road to follow. He must speak clearly Russian or Bulgarian….

After that, we drove a special rally at the winding roads of Bulgaria, under the sunset. A real treat. Finally, when night arrived, we decide to stop in the first “big” city on our way.

Then we arrived to Gabrovo which we didn’t know the existence so far. Maybe a little research on the internet is required. This is not Budapest, but we have a lot of fun. First, our hotel Balkan ***, with its look between the hotel and Shining Lenin’s Mausoleum. We gave the impression of see a James Bond flim of 70’s years. Good moments in Bulgaria! The most amusing was the moment to order in a restaurant: 2 steak cutlets for Segio and Adrian (ok!!!!), 1 chicken steak = a plate of mushrooms for Javier, another type chicken for me = a salad of fresh cheese and tomato , whew, what am I doing well???? All this despite the photos of the dishes on the menu. To finish we had ordered a plate of fruit for each one to put everything in order, except that we receive … a pancake chocolate! The time to find an chash machine to pay the bill and we are going to bed soon.

http://picasaweb.google.com/antoine.derome/2008_07_28_PitestiGabrovo