Pazardzhik – Smederevo

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28.4.2013

Km counter: 44752 today: 434 sum: 9636

N42°15’56” E024°18’31” – N44°40’23” E20°58’06”

I wake up only a few hours later. The sun is out, it smells like spring and the birds are singing. I quickly make some instant coffee and leave. Passing some beautiful rivers again the landscape gets more hilly soon. At the last hill petrol becomes tight again but soon I see Sofia when rolling down. At the city entrance I spend my last money for petrol just to stop in the city center without even a coin. It’s a beautiful Sunday and there are people on the streets so I grab my guitar and half an hour later I have enough money to get a nice breakfast. I like Bulgaria! After breakfast I make a little walk. Soon a flower shop appears so I ask the owner for a flower. It takes me only a second to explain even though he doesn’t understand a word. Of course I can have a flower he makes me understand, and gives me one of the most beautiful roses in his shop!

It is lunchtime when I leave Sofia heading to the close by border to Serbia where I expect cheap petrol. At the roadside of the city limits I see an old couple hitchhiking and of course I stop. Even though we don’t understand one word of what each other is saying we love each other immediately. Petrol is very tight so I have to stop only five kilometers before the border to pay in euro for a crazy exchange rate and get just a few litres. When I get petrol on the other side of the border I find out I was empty then. A few meters after the petrol pump I drop my new friends offering them some dried roses from Pakistan. He offers me a wooden lucky charm in exchange and so we take some of each others energy without any name, address or any possibility to contact. It is fine – this is love!

Between the borders a guy and his incredibly beautiful girlfriend (?) have a problem with their car. Battery is finished and it doesn’t start, she has no driving licence, very high high heels and no motivation to do nothing but looking incredibly beautiful… The guy and I get the engine running within a minute and I continue to enter Serbia. The guys ask me for weapons and as I hardly can stop laughing at them they let me go without bothering me. I get petrol and a few kilometers later I stop in a cosy valley at a restaurant to get the local food: cevapcici! I enjoy a lot and when I go on I feel very sad for having no camera again. I pass wonderful canyons and amazing rivers before I reach the flats of river danube a little after sunset. I get a coffee and half an hour later I am at the banks of my home river, only 800km downstream of my house. I stop at an expensive looking place and get some not that expensive but incredibly beautiful arranged and well tasting zander. The internet signal is strong enough to reach the car so I spend the night at their car park. You can find the place, not far from Belgrad at the destination mark of the map link above – its truly recomended!

Istanbul – Pazardzhik

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Thank you for the mails and messsages! I am sorry for the delay! By now I arrived at home safely and I will write down the last two days of my journey within the next two days. Currently I am in Innsbruck waiting for a friend with whom I want to make a little motorcycle tour next weekend. I will write about this one too so no worries!

27. & 28.4.2013

Km counter: 44318 today: 445 sum: 9202

N41°00’13” E028°58’26” – N42°15’56” E024°18’31”

Leaving the city is easy at night. I get a little more petrol and go on the highway. There is only little traffic and I have music so I arrive at the border very quickly. Border itself takes not even five minutes. When entering the European union the Bulgarian customs just take a short look but step back immediately when I tell them where I come from. I get rather cheap petrol at the first petrol pump and keep on driving. After sunrise I realize the beauty of the landscape. Real wild rivers! Amazingly beautiful! I never saw rivers like this in Austria. I miss my camera! A little after sunrise I become very tired and decide to take a rest. I stop next to the highway in a beautiful hilly landscape enjoy the scenery for a moment and fall asleep. I love Bulgaria!

Istanbul

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26.4.

At 4 am I wake up after 1.5 hours sleep. Somebody is standing in front of me inside Suryananda. I start shouting so he grabs my camerabag, jumps out of the car and runs. I am behind him but no chance to chat him at the first meters and I am afraid to they might be two and Suryananda will be stolen if I run after him. Of course the door is open as I just jumped behind him as fast as possible. I am very shocked when I go back inside and make coffee. I never believed this could happen – being robbed in suryananda while sleeping – less than 100km on European soil! It takes nearly an hour before I calm down. All camera Equipment is gone! No more pictures of this journey! I don’t expect the highway through Bulgaria and Serbia to be that beautiful but having no camera really hurts. After one hour I become very tired and sleep until 11. After standing up I contact my insurance at home and go to the police station. The police is very friendly and they come with me to check everything and look if maybe there are camera recordings as the whole area is covered with private and public cameras. Unfortunately all cameras look in the wrong direction so they just have pictures of me running behind him from the back side! When everything is clear they send me to another police station…..

Here I have to wait several hours before we go back to Suryananda again, check the lock, the cameras like before to return to the police station where I get the report just before sunset. Not my day. But very emotional days make me sing so I spend all evening at reggae café making music again. A friend of Suecrue from Olimpos whom I wanted to meet finally contacts me and apologizes for the delay. Back pain…. I tell him I will be there tomorrow and see what I can do. At night I meet two very nice guitar players from Libya. We make music together and they convince me to drink two beers with them. I am drunk in no time and forget about what happened in the morning. All fine!

27.4.
When I wake up I have massive hangover – I can hardly move so I have my first coffee when I should be at Kemals place already. After an Odyssey on public transport in Istanbul I arrive at his place. When he opens the door he is bent over and I can see the pain in his face. Still we smile at each other – we like each other immediately. After he is better we have food together and Kerman invites me to stay at his place whenever I am in Istanbul. Even though what happened yesterday I still like the city. When I come back to suryananda it is dark already. Saturday night in Istanbul – perfect time to leave the city!

Istanbul – Austria – Istanbul

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22. -25.4.2013

Monday I quickly do what needs to be done so I can leave like printing the ticket, going to a barber, packing my stuff and cleaning Suryananda. Way too quickly! I am ready around ten thirty and my shuttle is leaving at two. Reggae café is not open yet son ne yapabilirim (what to do)? I walk down to the ocean and a little around town. I like Istanbul! When I get back to Suryananda it’s way too late. The shuttle is supposed to leave in 4 minutes so I quickly grab my bags and run. At the travel agency there is no shuttle. I get a coke and some chocolate, open the coke, put the chocolate in the hand luggage and check my stuff. I don’t find my money! Except a few Lira I have nothing on me. I ask when the shuttle will be coming and if there is time to quickly check the car. I run to suryananda and back – without any success. I need a chocolate. In fact not that much of a problem as a friend will pick me up at the airport in Vienna and the wallet must be either at the car or somewhere in my luggage. I don’t find the chocolate! Seems like the small bag is eating my stuff! When I am just starting to check the big bag the shuttle arrives. At least I found the chocolate. I close the bag and try to feel satisfied with the thought that I will find the money like the chocolate and it will be no problem. At the airport I finally find my wallet in a side pocket of my bag.

At the check in I ask for a window seat but they tell me no possible – plane is full but I can sit in the middle. When I get on the plane an old lady is sitting on my seat (6 in a row I had D) and the window seat is free. I say nothing and take the window seat as I believe it is probably hers. A minute later a man who obviously knows her comes, takes her seat and she swaps in between us. Another minute later she stands up and I never see her again. I have no idea what had happened but I have a window seat no neighbor in an airplane that is completely full! Nice! A nice flight later I meet my friend Stefan at the airport. I am very happy to see him and we go to his flat in Vienna where I will spend my first night in Austria. I can’t wait to get a hot bath so I go to the bathroom full and step in just after turning on the water. Hmmm, no hot water… I ask Stefan for help but after a few attempts we give up. No hot water!!!! What for did I come to Austria but hot spring water from the mountains? Probably that’s the price for the window seat I think. The evening with Stephan passes much too fast and soon both of us go to sleep.

Tuesday I take a walk through the city first. After half an hour I stop at a new Indian restaurant to drink chai. The chai tastes like shit. I contact Sybille, a friend and yoga teacher colleague who lives close. She is surprised about me being here and invites me for breakfast. I can’t wait to get real bread! And real jam! Cheese! Hot bath! All my wishes are fulfilled now! Thank you once again Sybille. In the afternoon I have an appointment I came to Vienna for (fish pass needs to be built) and then I go on to my mothers place. I would love to get my motorbike as temperatures are around 25° but this is unfortunately not the plan yet. Wednesday I spend a nice day with my mother visiting the town where she grew up. Austria actually is amazingly beautiful…. If many of the people were not that strange it would be a great place to live! Ne yapabilirim I think. We get very nice dinner at a restaurant on a hill and enjoy an amazing sunset. We get back late so my mother goes to bed soon and I leave again to meet a friend who is living just around the corner – I have not much time here and I have to spend it wisely.

Thursday I sleep long and have nice breakfast with my mother again. We arrive at the airport having a lot spare time, go for another coffee and I check in. The stewardess at the check in counter seems to like me and gives me a window seat, without neighbor, on a plane that is full…. Wtf? Even though the cold water last time I decide this to be a good omen and enjoy the flight.

Today is Helins birthday and I can’t wait to see the girls in the evening. For a moment it seems like they have to study but soon Helin and two friends and then Versile and Deniz arrive. The evening becomes an amazing surprise party for Helin. When I sang “Start wearing purple” last week Helin was singing with me as she knows and likes the song so my birthday present for her is a purple Indian pant. She looks amazingly beautiful wearing it and it will be great for the yoga classes too! We all enjoy the evening a lot and again I fall in love…. Istanbul is a really amazing place and its seems like there might be a need for yoga teachers here! Another evening passes much too fast and we have to say good bye much too fast. I promise to be back after their exams and that we will do a yoga weekend then.

Tomorrow I want to meet Evelina whom I know from facebook because she is writing an amazing blog too (daily witchcraft). When we found out we are in Istanbul at the same time we decided to meet immediately of course. Unfortunately she missed a boat so she couldn’t come today. So tomorrow I will meet her, maybe store some yoga mats at reggae café and then definitely maybe move direction to the Bulgarian border. Inshallah.