Bulgarian snows

Hello there,

It's been a strange week really. We are now in Kyustendil, Bulgaria and taking an enforced break due to some heavy snowfall. Winter is starting to get a bit long, boring and complicated. It seems that the whole of Europe has had a really hard winter and now this strange system has attacked Eastern Europe and Turkey just when we thought that we had felt Spring coming. Basically a huge cold front pushing down from the Baltic.

Apart from the weather, we've been on the front page of a newspaper, climbed over more mountains, snapped a chain, stayed in a 'love hotel' as well as loving Kosovo and finally got behind the facade of a Macedonian. So, we were interviewed by the principle newspaper of Skopje, Macedonia's capital city. I will post the link at the bottom. Skopje does not seem a very interesting place on arrival, communist apartment blocks etc but on closer inspection is actually an interesting place. The river basically splits the Orthodox from the Muslims. Religion again plays a part in everyday life in Skopje even if people are not actually that devout. It seems the population have to have an identity and that has to be according to religion. Ridiculous yes but true. It is also very difficult to have an objective opinion as everyone is saying different things depending on which side you talk to. I liked the city though. Both sides had their good points. I had to find a new stem for my Georgina because after supporting my handlebar and steering column for over 5000 km's on just one bolt instead of two, it had just become too dangerous to continue. I had an adventure in the city with bike shops but l found some corners to hide away in, to reflect, have a beer in, which was good.

Kosovo was great. Nearly every car would hoot their horn at you. This resulted in waving at virtually every car that passed. The Kosovars expelled virtually all Serbs at the end of the conflict and the burned houses and churches are still very present, in Prizren for example. War is very ugly and you see it everywhere in the Balkans. It's scary how much these people have been fighting only too recently. Most Kosovars are of Albanian descent but are very different and do not share the same traits apart from religion of course. It is the same again in Macedonia. The area around Tetovo is dominated by Albanians and also an area where we passed to the north of Skopje. You can tell by the presence of Mosques, some of them brand new. Religion makes these people different, then they want to be recognized, then independent, then War. I have said this before but it's bloody complicated. Albanians here, orthodox there, those Albanians not the same as those from Albania! Maybe it would be a good idea to just have a coffee and not believe in anything. Coffee is very important to all these people and most have it in the same way although some are getting fancy with their Italian machines.

Mountains, valleys, rain, wind, snow and cold. Unfortunately  we are not out of the reach of bad weather. We have had all of this but never really that bad. Now we have at least 35 cm's of snow and it's pretty cold so there is nothing to do but to let it pass. The mountainous part of the Balkans is over in about 200 km's so l believe what we have done so far is pretty good considering it's still March. We just got over a pass of 1162 m's before the heavy snow came so it could be a lot worse. My chain snapped that afternoon so with fixing that on the roadside and then a steep climb and the 25 minutes wasted with the drunk exchange office clerk on the summit before descending was a really close call. The border post was right on the pass as it always is. Not strange how countries here like to look down on each other. With a relatively firm 'nothing to declare' to the friendly Bulgarian customs officer we were off. We were freezing our bums off and with darkness approaching we needed to get to the first town in Bulgaria which was still 20 km's away. Lucky it was all downhill and quite a descent it was. Oceanne was all wrapped up as at high speed and especially in these type of temperatures she needs to be. Twilight and 60 km/h down a very big hill l definitely check on her but our trailer hasn't ever let us down. She just looks at me nonchalantly quite happy with her situation which is nice. We were obviously going fast for our safety, she must think which would be right of course.

Macedonia was an interesting experience. After Kosovo, it was at first very quiet with no horns and people not jumping on you wanting a piece of you. Slightly disappointing l suppose. However apart from hotels being very expensive it just takes a Macedonian a while to warm up. They are very guarded and it just takes one individual to break the ice. This happened in Stracin after a visit from a police officer after we had put our tent up. He took our details during a slightly cold exchange which l didn't particularly like. The situation changed completely when a really nice guy came with his friend during our brush with the law. Chocolate and crisps for Oceanne of course and very strong alcohol for me from the next guy to come along. The whole village was soon there and the policeman was not to be seen. Everyone wanted to find a warm place to sleep for us because it would be cold tonight. The answer was the school where we had a wood burner in the corner. We had soon moved all of our stuff after about 15 trips and were again showered with gifts. You cannot refuse although l had to when l was offered all types of hard spirits. Anything l wanted from Vodka to schnapps. Not taking no for an answer, they brought us Pepsi and mineral water probably thinking l was some sort of health freak. Very untrue and l'd already had ten shots of the other guy's homemade schnapps. These people are all very poor and it's difficult to receive but that is the wonderful thing about the majority of the people scattered about the globe.

The minority are those that stole my pump and nearly my beloved seat and so finely adjusted Thomson Elite seat post in the lobby in Skopje and those governments that give the go ahead to attack their neighbors because they might be Muslims, Orthodox or whatever. Personally l just like running away from snow down a big hill with Oceanne looking on nonchalantly. Watching cycling on television today, Oceanne calls racing bikes, 'velo go go' because that's what people say when they support them on the roadside. Simple.

The link for our article is:

http://www.vecer.com.mk/default.asp?ItemID=BE7C07915425A54E86E874887729F442

Waiting for the snow to melt, Rupert.

5203.0 km's and 11 flats.