On the way to Istanbul
30 Mar 2013 | София, България
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It's now time for me to go further away. I'm spending a lot of time in the area, and even if I like it, I want a little change in mentalities and cultures, and also time leave that winter which doesn't want to end properly. So I will go to Istanbul, a stop in Sofia on the way wll do.
Leaving Bosnia was actually quite hard, I don't get anything better that these 5 or 10 kilometers ride to the next city, I even have to walk 8km to the little border which I cross by feet. But the landsace is really wonderful, one of the most beautiful countries I've seen so far, breathtaking at each turn, each new mountain, and being told the history on the way is so much emotion...
I finally end up North of Niš, too cold to continue hitchhiking I just go to sleep, but that doesn't make me much warmer... The following day is much better as I cross the road of the Turkish trucks drivers, I even think about going with them directly and skip Sofia, but well it would be a pity not to stop at least for a night.
I didn't like Sofia. I only spend one night there so I'm no one to judge really, but after the ex-yougoslavian countries, it makes kinda a shock to be back into the European Union. First I walk through countless poor suburbs where children play in the mud, having nothing really, and then I enter the city center: countless clubs, casinos, sexshops, loud american music everywhere... It feels like a mix of Amsterdam and London, the cheap version. As I didn't find a place to stay anywhere, I end up in an hostel also, and even if the owners are nice, it's the same crow of 'cool' americans or europeans who have probably spent all their budget in London and come here to drink and party hard at cheaper price. Now I really understand why in the ex-yougoslavian countries most of the people I've been talking to are so hostile to join the EU.
I leave the following day to Istanbul, I try to get directly one of those Turkish truck drivers to make it quick and confortable, but fate wants otherwise and I make the way in several cars and trucks before I find one to the border. Once there it's night already, and not much traffic at the border. But finally someone stops to take me, we agrees that he will leaves me on the ring of Istanbul as he is going farther...