Writing a blog in this condition... or Cultural Experiences

We were told that the next two days would be long days on the bus. That is okay, we get a chance to take short naps. 

We left Serbia this morning at 7:30 am. Lets discuss Serbia again.  I hope it continues to rebuild and become a free, democratic country which is it's current direction. It is a beautiful country that just needs to get over it's war wounds, rebuild and prosper.  One thing our guide told us yesterday was that there is still a lot of corruption at the government level and even in the police department. We may have experienced a bit of that today. The main highway out from Belgrade is a toll road.  Today when we got to the booth where tolls are paid at the end of the toll road, the local police stopped our bus.

Our driver Marcello is from Italy, and while he drives tours for Trafalgar, he owns the bus and has been with this company for 35+ years.  He is an incredible driver from Italy. Here was the issue. Most tour buses from Italy have Espresso coffee machines on the bus. Ours does not, but the police stopped us this morning looking for coffee. All they took were a few plastic cups that our driver had, but it meant we were stopped for about 10 minutes. Can you imagine the police in Canada doing this!!

So we had only 400 km to travel today, but our highway was under construction, so our travels were very slow and we had one detour due to road closures. We were on the bus for 10 hours, but we had many rest stops along the way.

This brings us to todays Cultural Experience. Our first was in Amsterdam, the red light district and the coffee shops where marijuana is sold and smoked or eaten in cakes, brownies etc. Today's experience was at a rest stop, which was not a planned stop, but because we were on the road for so long with delays, Marcello saw a rest stop with a few tour buses parked. It must be an okay place.

So off the bus we go.  At this particular stop we had to pay to use the toilet, which is not uncommon here in Europe. If you go to a café and buy something like a coffee or pastry, you can use their washrooms or WC.  (Water closet) for free, otherwise you have to use a public restroom and usually you have to pay.

Today however we had an added bonus.  I can only describe the mens room, but Barb confirmed the ladies was the same.  Only stalls in the Mens, and when you went in, there was no toilet as we know it. Only a porcelain plate on the floor with a hole in it. The outside of the plate was where you were expected to place your feet and then aim for the hole!!!  I've heard of these but never seen one before. Thankfully, only #1 was required here, can you imagine the aiming technique for #2!!!

After this stop we went on to the border crossing into Bulgaria, another European country that until recently, was a communist country under Russian rule. Bulgaria however, and it's capital Sofia are much more advanced in modernizing than Serbia was.

We took a walking tour of Sofia when we arrived. They have some older communist style buildings where people live.

There are those magnificent older buildings and churches dating back to the 18th Century.

We also saw the first Russian Catholic Church built here in Sofia.

Then our tour guide took us off of the main street to this hidden gem. This was a church and ruins build in Roman times, century 4 AD, over 1900 years ago. Our guide told us that the roof had caved in a few years ago, so it was replaced, but the rest of these ruins are still in tact and original.

 

We had a traditional Bularian dinner this evening at our hotel and it was wonderful. We started talking with the two others at our table about the day and our Cultural Experience with the porcelain dishes on the floor in Serbia, the necessity of having to do a #2 and you can imagine the conversation. We were all in tears of laughter. So much so, that our companion Karen, Barb and I just stayed for one more drink.

As you can see, everyone else from our group had left by this time. Only Barb, Karen and I were left at the entire restaurant by the end of the night.   We had so much fun though and I'm struggling writing this posting in this over drinking condition.

This trip has cost us a lot, but we are staying in the best hotels throughout Europe. Look at our view from our room tonight.

Tomorrow we pack up again and drive another 600+ km to Greece and the city of Kalambaka. We have also now crossed another time zone, so we are now 7 hours ahead of the time back home.  Soon we will be turning around and coming back.

We love the comments and are starting to miss everyone back home.