Sofia, Bulgaria - Sibiu, Romania
This was to be our longest drive... and it was. We were up early... for realzies this time... and heading north. We somehow managed to refrain from getting lost as we headed north towards the Danube. We eventually made it to the river and sat waiting for the ferry to cross. It probably took almost two hours to cross that river, but eventually the ferry did make it, and eventually we made it to the other side. There were no issues as we cleared the border into Romania, and soon we were on the road again.
Waiting for the Ferry
Melons
The rest of the day was spent driving, but there are a few things to notice. Guide books mention that if you are lucky you might see horse drawn carts when you drive around the Balkans... Um... they were everywhere! Imagine, zooming down the highway at 110 km/h (since that is about the fastest you can go and stay on the road) and then you fly around a corner and right in front of you is some dude texting while his horse pulls him up some enormous hill. Horse carts on the streets in the cities... horse carts on the highway... horsecarts everywhere!!! Another part of our driving difficulties seems to be that every single melon from every single farm became ripe on the same day. This means that there were thousands of melon farmers sitting at the side of the road with a mountain of melons. Evidently there is no major buyer to pick up the surplus... millions of melons... The next interesting point did not hinder us, but it was amazing. Everywhere we went there were enormous birds' nests atop the little ramshackle power poles. Storks. I didn't know they were storks, though they look it well enough, but they were huge and their sitting on the nests on the poles seemed like a lapse of the rules of nature. Anti-gravity nests... so it seemed...
We continued driving, and by the early evening we had reached Sibiu. Sibiu was voted the culture capital of the EU a year or two back and it lived up to the name. The old city was incredible in so many ways; with cobbled streets, and gorgeous architecture. Somehow we managed to park the car. Somehow we managed to find our hostel. And somehow we found our way to a little restaurant on one of the town's major squares. Quatro carne pizza... mmm.
The Square
The Tunnel
A Sibiu Street
Church in Sibiu
Sibiu Sunset
It had been a looong drive with over 10 hours spend in the car. We needed sleep, and we deserved it.
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