Road to Istanbul! Finally in Asia!

So i wake earlier with my friend and we go for a coffee... We are right next to a big coal mine so there are many truck driving to Istanbul and i should get a ride easy. But it is damn cold and i cant wait outside so i stay in the petrol station cafe and read a bit. And anyway nobody sees me yet, it is foggy and dark... Buses pass, full of workers, the cafe is full of smoke...
An hour or so later i get out and get a ride with a fisherman, he tells me again about the huge fish. not tasty, especially the skin part, you need to remove it. And even then he prefer smaller ones. He drops me further on, where the trucks pass... A paved street, i can not believe it, something mystical with the remaining fog, i believe i am somewhere in the north of France... And a 4 wheel drive stops to bring me closer to the border at the place where the roads to Greece and France split. he works for Peugeot, speaks good French. He drops me and soon a truck driver pulls up. Long time in no truck, plus it is a Turkish one! He speaks no english, little Bulgarian, impossible to communicate. A couple kilometers later he is stopped by the highway control. They check his speed and driving hours in the past 4 hour... he tries to blackmail and fails, he has to stop and i have to find an other ride... i am now a couple kilometers from the Turkish boarder and the next car while bring me there fast.

I pass the 6 or 7 boarder check by foot, get a 15 euro visa and there i am, welcome to Turkey! Soon as i walk a bit, a truck picks me up and will bring me to Istanbul! No englsih so i communicate with basic gestures and learn to count in Turkish. He is a Kurde and drives on and on through eastern Europa wish i would learn more but i am tired and really in a hurry to get to Istanbul. We make a stop to eat and drink tea in a small highway restaurant. Musaka and tea, delicious and very welcome i had nothing to eat today!
As we get closer to Istanbul, 20 kilometers from the center, huge building are being constructed everywhere. I immediately have the impression of a growing, rapidly expanding city. Who will live here? so far from the city?? probably no rich people... Workers? factory workers? i will try to figure out...
I pass the bridge over the bosphorus under the rain and then get of at the next pay toll. I have to cross the 30 lanes of the paytoll to get to the other side and ge back into the center... It is not so hard one by one i make t to the other side. A car is stopped just after the toll counter, i ask for a ride, he is a little surprised but accepts. He is general manager in a drop by drop water irrigation system. This represent 60 % water saving and is an important business in turkey at the time. He brings me to the center.
As usual i go for a sim card, a new phone since mine is lost in the macedonian trains. But i find non cheap enough and soon realize i cant buy anything anyway, i have lost my credit card... I go to an internet cafe and use skype to call the couple numbers i have in Istanbul. Marion is ok to host me!
I rush to her place before she leaves. She meets her boyfriend so she hands me the keys, apologies for not welcoming me properly and tells e i should do as if i was home. So I take a shower and go to sleep :)

From Sofia to ...

I wake up, pack my stuff and go to the center with my host Zdravko who needs to sort out some administrative stuff. Meanwhile i check out the hot water springs on a central square of Sofia, the oldest market hall and a couple surrounding streets, it is a very short stay in Sofia and i wish i did not have to get to Istanbul and had time to visit a little more, check out how things look at night, have a couple beers and meet some young Sofiots.
But we head back of and i have to make it further. Zdravko drops me at a petrol station and i ask very car that doesn't have Sofia plates if they go to Plovdiv or to the boarder. Finally a young kind Bulgarian smiles and says yes. He has a funny voice, a little belly and looks a little like Winnie the Pue to me, cute, smiling and round (not fat). We talk about economic situation, fishing huge over sized old fishes, electrical plants and jobs.

His old golf takes us to destination but first we need to make a pertrol stop. In these regions, people never tank up a full tank, they always go little by little as they need it Money is always low... we need to make a stop on a building sit, my driver rents cherry picker. I have long though these were machines to pick cherries but after a couple confusions, i am explained they are used on construction sites to reach high places, fix electrical lines etc... So we need to go and see one of his machine that is not working anymore on a building sit. he is stressed, hoping it is nothing bad. The business is already difficult to run like this. Fortunately nothing bad, just small electronic issue. We go home and as night is falling he proposes i can sleep at his guest house for 5 euros and be ready tomorrow early. Good idea, we go for some nice qofte, delicious meet balls served with a salad for a very modest price. Before going to sleep i write, he has to sort out some administrative work, fill out his accountability... ahh Europe's bureaucratic obligations... it was not always like this in Bulgaria. Now he even needs a certificate for his cherry pickers... of course they are old and even passing the examination would be to expensive so he needs to make a fake...

Visiting suroundings and goinf to Sofia.

After good rest today, we check ou the souroundings and visit the place were the most famous medium of bulgaria and maybe europe raised a church after her death. A nice place next to a hot sulfurous spring. I am a little to hangover to bath in them, i regret a little would have done me good.
Goce goes for more shopping, Electronics for home. Later we visite the young bride once more before everyone heads of. Separation after about a week of excellent time together... But we will see again in Istanbul! I head of a bit late, the sun is setting and i have to get to Sofia or Plovdiv tonight... And i am lucky to be picked up by a young dude real happy to speak a little german again. he drops me further were i have to walk to a petrol station to find a spot that is not comletely in the dark. I dont like hitchhiking in the night but tonight i will get the best ride of Bulgaria!

A 4 wheel drive pulls up and stops, i open, large guy all smilling and a strong smell of vine. At first i am a little suspicious... Drink and drive on Bulgarian highways, not a good idea... But the dude has clear eyes and seems like a good man! So i step in, we comunicate in basis of german and serbain, funny times. After about 100 meter he asks me if i like vine... Ahhh of course. He pulls over and step out to fill me a small bottle of water with some house vine. He has about 400 litters in the back and want me to taste i am from france after all :)
I test him and propose some. He refuses, he stopped drinking since he had a bad accident and now does yoga. Plus he is driving... I tast, it is good! local production, completely natural, no chemicals, no selling, just for him and his friends. AS we tlk he wanders where i go and where i sleep. Soon he invites me home and to do the small delivery he has to do before driving home. Of course i accept. So we deliver 300 liters in the middle of nowhere. A house in the nature, his friends young “maitresse” cute and smart. And lots of vine, i get to taste the different vines, more or less ready. Delicious! Simple and not very fine but good!
We drive back of and as e arrive hoem, he wakes his wife for a dinner. a very simpel man but he seems to be the major of this suburb of sofia. He is always smilling and gives a very “ rural” and simple impression. He hosts and gives work to 2 men with no family or relations, we bring them vine and check on the goats. They build a house for hi, slowly but shurly. Good man! We share our evening meel, eggs, tomatoes, ognions, fresh cheese from his goass and vine of course!
i fall a sleep fast in my simple hoe, the house next too his house... in renovation, somaire mais connfortable.

Batman and Superman at the Marriage!

Today is a long day of ceremonies, but before we still have time to buy a couple things, i need a proper pair of pants for the marriage (i will buy jeans! but that is ok me and Goce are special superhero guests!) and Goce needs to satisfy his shopohoicness :) he buys toaster, pans, socks, slippers... and much more :)
We then go relax in the water of the thermal pool, warm and good for your health, though it smells a little to much like chlore to be healthy, it is nice and relaxing. Water massage, bubbles, relxation! The whole thing is in a grat hotel, the marriage buffet will take place here later. Slightly communist, mostly modern, this place is comfortable.

As we get out, we go for more shopping (Goce!!!!) and then go get shaver and dressed. I am superman, Goce is Batman! nice dress, the parents react in a very decontracted and positive way. I cant believe, this is the first marriage i attend n a loooong time, and i am dressed as superman!
The whole ceremony starts as the future husband comes up and picks up the bride from her parents house. There the shafer (Goce) has to keep him from coming in for a while. Then he finally walks in with all his friends and family and gets into the room of the bride where he asks for permission to the father (i think, i dind quite get this part...) and gives a pair of shoes. Very nice tradition, everyone is happy, laughing and drinking of course!
After this episode, we join the first ceremony, a melancholic, stoned sounding voice pronounces the union for the first time at the majors house after a lot of walking (drive for the bride :) trough the city. Then a second ceremony takes place at the Church, full of symbols and traditional protocol.
Then we walk to the hotel for the banquet! A nice banker with very nice vine. It gos lat into the night and i have the pleasure to meet many great people. Dancing, eating, drinking and a little singing go on and on...

Hecktick day, but Goce stays cool

I will write short more note like posts for the next days since as i am posting for the next 20 days were i will be off in the nature of south Turkey. I have not written these before and might make more mistakes...

So first of all, i forgot to mention Goce knows Sandra the swearing juggler and he makes fire wings for her. Today, after a needed night of rest, we go out for a hecktick day, first we go pick up the vine at his grandmothers place, as i said Goce is a trader and he bought 100 bottle of a 0 year old vine. He promises an excellent vine, and hopes to make a good deal out of it. So we bike to here place(without any cops stopping us this time). And guess were she lives? 100 meters from aurelise flat, in Avtokomanda! How funny it is to be in these strets again.
I meet Goces cousin, hangover, in bed after a long party night. He is over 2 meter and supposedly a very good basketball player. next we rush to the train station check for my phone. e go pick up stuff at the post office but it is closed, so we go to the market, try to find a new phone to replace the one Goce lost on the train. So i want something simple and cheap, so the guys try to rip me of :) I am not stupid try the phone, no speaker... as i mention the problem, the seller sazs ma nema problema and put on the loudspeaker... hehe no way!
Fuck it is past 3 pm, e need to be home and ready in 10 minuts.
So we cycle, fast! And pack, fast! but we are still 3 minutes late for the bus to the south eat of Macedonia. We get into a taxi but the ride is announcing like a big rip off so we get out after 5 minutes, Goce and Elena his girlfreind get all fired up at the fcking driver... So we sit down in the grass and chill, wait for the next Bus. Bus comes, we get on, then on a taxi to the Macedonian boarder.
The boarder we pass by foot and t is almost a catastrophe, Goce misses a paper, he has a group visa but this is not valid without the paper from the hosting hotel... Fortunately we joke a little in French and the fact that he is the Shafer at the marriage helps... O forgot to mention, or didnt i??? We are going to a marriage! A Bulgarian Marriage! hehe Goce is the shafer, something traditional i will explain tomorrow for his cousin.
After the boarder a cousin comes to pick us up to bring us to the cousin house for a small snack and a couple rakis :) We then o out for billiard, tomorrow is the great day for the 22 young people !