My sister Laura, knowing I’d be coming to Bulgaria, asked me to go visit my brother-in-law’s birthplace of Chuprene. George, God rest his soul, had first migrated to Italy, and subsequently to Chicago, where he and my sister met. Laura told me that Chuprene is very close to Sofia, so, since my Serbia trip had been cancelled, I decided to make her happy. I also was interested to see where he hailed from. What Laura did not know, I’m sure, is that Chuprene is NOT as close to Sofia as she thought. In fact, it’s 145 kilometers away, reachable along a narrow mountain road with hair-pin turns, and it takes nearly four hours to reach. To make matters worse, today was a chilly, dreary, misty/rainy day, and extremely foggy, making passing the numerous slow trucks difficult, if not impossible.
Be that as it may, I complied with her request. I bet the scenery would have been pretty amazing, had I been able to catch more than an occasional glimpse. Chuprene itself is actually a very small hamlet, pretty much in the middle of nowhere. I found not hard to understand why George and his family decided to find fortune elsewhere (at the time, Bulgaria was also within the grip of the Soviet Union).
By the time I reached town, I was quite hungry, so I attempted to ask a group of aging fruit sellers who were about to close shop if there was a restaurant in town. Obviously, they only spoke Bulgarian, but through persistence I managed to get my point across. One man pointed to a building down the road, so that’s where I headed. There really is no restaurant in town. Where he pointed to was a general store, that has a couple of tables in it, and I assume the lady-owner prepares meals when required. Needless to say that our communication was difficult at best. I got the message across that I was hungry, but it was harder to explain that I had no Bulgarian Levs left, only Euros. Eventually, and reluctantly, she understood, and accepted to be paid in Euros (no chance at all to use a credit card there). She then disappeared into the kitchen and returned with three dishes, which I assumed was the best way for her to tell me what she had available. The porkchop looked pretty good, but I opted for the pork stew with peas and carrots, a good choice. Laura, if you are reading this blog, I hope you are happy.
I had planned to drive all the way to Bucharest today, but because of the detour, and a two-hour delay at the Romanian border, I opted to stop for the night in Romania’s sixth largest city, Craiova. A crazy thing happened at the border. While I was stopped in a long queue, a Bulgarian border guard (nice guy), walked up to my car and attempted to explain that I owed him money. Not really understanding what he was talking about, he motioned for me to park the car and follow him to his. In his car he had a laptop with a long list of license plates, including mine, which he clicked on, and up popped a picture of my car taken on the Pleven to Sofia highway a couple of days earlier. I assumed I had been speeding and was caught (it wouldn’t be the first time), but I eventually understood that I had not paid the highway tolls. I then explained that I saw plenty of toll signs, but never saw any toll booth. At long last I understood that in Bulgaria, tolls must be pre-paid, and that I should have stopped at a booth at the border to purchase a toll pass, which I had no idea about. In the end, it cost me 36 Euros, paid by credit card. If I think about how expensive tolls are in Italy, 36 Euros really does not amount to much, comparatively.
The topography of this part of southwestern Romania is really no better than what I had found on the way down. I was intrigued though by the old-fashioned manual farming methods still in use around these parts.
Once I reached Craiova I simply did not have the energy to explore it. I decided I will do some sightseeing tomorrow before heading to Bucharest. Here I put a couple of pictures of my hotel, another gem for only $49 per night. I love Booking.com. The adjacent restaurant was equally superb. An excellent dish of blackened spaghetti with seafood, a ½ liter of white wine and an espresso came to $15. It’d be great to have these prices back home.
P.S. All pictures today taken by cell phone.Ciao!
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