My advice is to be alert all of the time..if drivers want to come in they will give you one, or two flashes on the winker (if there feeling generous), then just pull infront of you
this is bloody scarey at 1st , but you soon get the feel of the traffic, the GS is pretty big , so they seem not to bother ye too much , the lorries and taxis rule the road..
if ye do get lost and head up into the carpatian mountains and get lost , like we did
pic of the mountains we rode through it was raining very heavy , as you can see from the photo
like a said if ye get lost up the mountains GPS 10% coverage , isnt ver good, buy a local map at least.
the trick is to stick behind the large lorries, they are very good drivers and usualy know where there going.
stopping behind lorries serves two purposes, one there too big to cut up and push off the road, second they dont drive too fast and if ye keep a reasonable distance behind, the psycho drivers wont try to cut in too much..
we went up the badlands , at night , not safe to stop , dodgy guys with big guns and dubious wimin (hookers) starin at yer , we passed Mad maxes "Barter town " somewhere up those bloody mountain passes, not safe to stop..(we would of got shot or buggerd or sumat so we rode on)
there was ditches at the side of the road very deep concrete and if ye went down , ye was down for good. we saw a few cars shoved in these ditches..
traffic jams half hour stops waiting for the bloody lights to change..loads of road works. one time we were over three quaters on an hour , the lorry drivers got pissed off and drove through the red temporary red lights, we followed of course
most roads were very bad , especially out in the backwoods , some in town were even that bad i though i had a flat or my wheel was wobbling off or sumat...
we were stopped yet again on an iron and wood bridge , every wagon passes the bridge shook violently , bloody scary
One very good point is the petrol stations , theres loads of them
pic
we had just come down from the mountains in one piece and needed a brake notice the bright colours painted on the buildings.
look out for the white powder on all tree and building bottoms, ye will find out what thats for when ye get there
the toilet conveniences are very modern , up to the latest European spec standards ha, ha, a local lass pointed this out
WTF
We headed towards constanta, on the way we saw a sign for SEBES here is another petrol stop (and a ,not very good pic of the road sign), an attendant took offence to me taking the foto for some reason
pic
the petrol station attendants are usualy very helpful and they will even clean ye bike screen for ye, this was a God's send because it rained hard after setting of to constnta and visibility was very bad
pic
digger06 in his "take the bloody pic ye nob" , pose..
Because we decided that it wasnt safe to stop in the mountains with no where to stop and camp at the side of the bad roads , bears in the woods etc
we rode on all night 22hours with only a few stops ,to the next morning arriving in Bulgaria we only covered 800k
most of that was getting lost , my map had died and digger06 satnav was very basic..
the tourist board says NOT to travel at night, so it up to you, the sitiation makes up your decisions at the time.
In towns the zebra crossings seemed to be there just for show, most are nearly worn away with heavy road use..
when we got to our 1st big city, Timisora i think, we stopped at a zebra crossing to let an old lady cross, the other drivers just sped up and drove across the crossing , the old lady dodging the traffic , and a taxi nearly ran into the back of me because i stopped for the old lady..
so we just went with the flow and drove like every one else , do as they do...ye will find out
some will read this and say this is not a good refection of the country , but
this is not slagging off the country , its just a lil snippet of our journey, which was very hard with the monsoon rain conditions .
One city Constanta was flooded that deep the water came up over the high curbs , it was like driving in a large paddling pool
It wasnt all that bad tho, as it dried out you could see the countryside was very diverse , from flat lands , to folk sellin fruit on the side of the road's.
To the mountains wi heavy greenery and deep valleys and gorges bellow.
you looked down on lakes you can see from the road above..and got an idea of how the country grew on you ,the more you drove though the changing scenery.
do ye research, check out the terrain, and keep ye whits about ye and ye will enjoy a very diverse and striking country...
ugg's n digger06
Bulgaria road trip 2008
this is bloody scarey at 1st , but you soon get the feel of the traffic, the GS is pretty big , so they seem not to bother ye too much , the lorries and taxis rule the road..
if ye do get lost and head up into the carpatian mountains and get lost , like we did
pic of the mountains we rode through it was raining very heavy , as you can see from the photo
like a said if ye get lost up the mountains GPS 10% coverage , isnt ver good, buy a local map at least.
the trick is to stick behind the large lorries, they are very good drivers and usualy know where there going.
stopping behind lorries serves two purposes, one there too big to cut up and push off the road, second they dont drive too fast and if ye keep a reasonable distance behind, the psycho drivers wont try to cut in too much..
we went up the badlands , at night , not safe to stop , dodgy guys with big guns and dubious wimin (hookers) starin at yer , we passed Mad maxes "Barter town " somewhere up those bloody mountain passes, not safe to stop..(we would of got shot or buggerd or sumat so we rode on)
there was ditches at the side of the road very deep concrete and if ye went down , ye was down for good. we saw a few cars shoved in these ditches..
traffic jams half hour stops waiting for the bloody lights to change..loads of road works. one time we were over three quaters on an hour , the lorry drivers got pissed off and drove through the red temporary red lights, we followed of course
most roads were very bad , especially out in the backwoods , some in town were even that bad i though i had a flat or my wheel was wobbling off or sumat...
we were stopped yet again on an iron and wood bridge , every wagon passes the bridge shook violently , bloody scary
One very good point is the petrol stations , theres loads of them
pic
we had just come down from the mountains in one piece and needed a brake notice the bright colours painted on the buildings.
look out for the white powder on all tree and building bottoms, ye will find out what thats for when ye get there
the toilet conveniences are very modern , up to the latest European spec standards ha, ha, a local lass pointed this out
WTF
We headed towards constanta, on the way we saw a sign for SEBES here is another petrol stop (and a ,not very good pic of the road sign), an attendant took offence to me taking the foto for some reason
pic
the petrol station attendants are usualy very helpful and they will even clean ye bike screen for ye, this was a God's send because it rained hard after setting of to constnta and visibility was very bad
pic
digger06 in his "take the bloody pic ye nob" , pose..
Because we decided that it wasnt safe to stop in the mountains with no where to stop and camp at the side of the bad roads , bears in the woods etc
we rode on all night 22hours with only a few stops ,to the next morning arriving in Bulgaria we only covered 800k
most of that was getting lost , my map had died and digger06 satnav was very basic..
the tourist board says NOT to travel at night, so it up to you, the sitiation makes up your decisions at the time.
In towns the zebra crossings seemed to be there just for show, most are nearly worn away with heavy road use..
when we got to our 1st big city, Timisora i think, we stopped at a zebra crossing to let an old lady cross, the other drivers just sped up and drove across the crossing , the old lady dodging the traffic , and a taxi nearly ran into the back of me because i stopped for the old lady..
so we just went with the flow and drove like every one else , do as they do...ye will find out
some will read this and say this is not a good refection of the country , but
this is not slagging off the country , its just a lil snippet of our journey, which was very hard with the monsoon rain conditions .
One city Constanta was flooded that deep the water came up over the high curbs , it was like driving in a large paddling pool
It wasnt all that bad tho, as it dried out you could see the countryside was very diverse , from flat lands , to folk sellin fruit on the side of the road's.
To the mountains wi heavy greenery and deep valleys and gorges bellow.
you looked down on lakes you can see from the road above..and got an idea of how the country grew on you ,the more you drove though the changing scenery.
do ye research, check out the terrain, and keep ye whits about ye and ye will enjoy a very diverse and striking country...
ugg's n digger06
Bulgaria road trip 2008