A trip where my GPS doesn't know the road

[francois]

I really love the stare of the old man…

[OnlyNorth]

I really love the stare of the old man…

Yes,but I was a bad guy and a bad Christian because I took that image as a "protest" against the prohibition of the photos taken inside this monastery.Thanks for your appreciation.

[OnlyNorth]

Being a clear day with the sun shining over the wood,the patches of shadow and light added interesting human shapes to these common places.

[OnlyNorth]

Before we left those quiet places,a whistle or maybe a good-by kiss caught my attention for a while.I said "quiet" but short time after we arrived at our home,in Asenovgrad,Bulgarians set the fire to the palace of Kirov,the Gypsy Tsar,protesting against Gypsy minority abuses.Remembering my micro-adventure with those "he and she" at Asen fortress,they having too dark skin to be Bulgarians,I could say when someone goes deeper into the east he could experience unexpected situations.

[OnlyNorth]

The clouds covered the sky so we hurried to the car to go back to the hotel.In its ignorance my Garmin Nuvi told continuously to go to the principal road.When we arrived on boulevard Tsar Boris III Obediniteli the GPS recognized the road and our stress finished.The weather changed suddenly so when we discovered the ruins of the ancient Philippopolis we had to renounce to visit them for another time.Toghther we discussed about the Grigori Bakuriani's reason to accept to receive landed properties on these places.One of them should have been to put him and his family in a safe position in front of Seljuk Turks threatening because the distance between his Georgia and Constantinopole(Constantinopoulis) is (and was)around 800miles and between Constantinopole and Philippopolis(one of the oldest town in Europe)is around 200miles.So he put 1000miles between Turks and his family.The life proved that was not enough.

[OnlyNorth]

Next day was a very good one for travel,so we drove back to Bucharest.Being near Veliko Tarnovo,the old historical capital of Bulgarian empire,we discussed again about the life of Grigori Bakuriani.This man who lost a battle with Turks,who was involved in a coup d'etat against the man who believed in his loyalty,received for his treason the title of commander in chief of the West Byzantine field army.Only the death put an end to his ascent.At first view,an interesting lesson

[OnlyNorth]

Here,as in Romania the Sunday traffic is not busy so we arrived at the Romanian border without problems.Waiting to pass I thought that the length of Danube border between Bulgaria and Romania is roughly 300 miles and there is only a bridge which was built by the communist power with political prisoners in 1954.Now under the pressure of E.U. there is another bridge under construction.It says that on the Bulgarian side it is finished,on Romanian side who knows if 2013 or...