Lying on my bed in the bridal hotel in Momchilgrad, listening to the chill out music James is playing on his laptop, I ponder on the day. Wonderful, friendly people in a bleak landscape, penetrated by a shiny bright new EU road that, one day, will connect Bulgaria to Greece.
Momchilgrad
Today was bleak partly due to the grey, cold (but dry) weather, and partly due to the run-down towns and villages. The landscape is littered with empty bottles, wrappers, and other random rubbish. Coming from the west, it seems a small effort to put rubbish in the bin, but, it seems not to be done so widely here.
Rubbish at a drinking spring
The Bulgarian people have all been lovely. Rather than aggressive horns from annoyed drivers, we were constantly greeted with drivers waving, giving us the thumbs-up or a salute. The lovely owners of Hotel Flora in Zlatograd gave us each a pair of hand-knitted woollen socks. These will be treasured on the cold nights ahead.
Our lovely warm socks
We finished early in Momchilgrad. There is a high-pass between us and the next town, and not enough daylight. We spent some time looking for a hotel, cycling through high-rise apartment buildings before we spotted the hotel we were looking for.
Momchilgrad
Momchilgrad
Momchilgrad
On seeing the hotel sign, James dropped to my feet and asked for my hand in marriage.
Hotel Konak
There is a wedding reception here tonight. Maybe I will catch the flowers thrown by the bride, and James might have a chance.
arctic-cycler.com 
excellent progress Matthew! good to see your daily progress and the great photos and accompanying thoughts on your travels.
As for the rubbish thrown out everywhere: it is the same observation I made when I was in Hefei, China – back in 1985. There too our campus was littered with plenty of abandoned bottles, papers, and wrappers thrown everywhere. My Chinese students and friends would not see it as “ugly” and disruptive to the landscape. It was just junk and, being of zero value, it was not noticed. I think it is a matter of time and prosperity and then (now?) my former Chinese students will probably notice the strewn rubbish as “not so nice to look at” and so they will be less prone to just throw it in the nice flower beds.
Keep pedaling!!!
Hi Alessandro.
Let’s hope they will notice the rubbish more. It is such a shame to ruin the landscape with the rubbish..
All the best from Turkey!
Bon tu avances bien et le fait de faire le trajet à 2 doit etre beaucoup plus agréable !
A bientôt Matthew
Gilles et Yvonne
Salut Gilles et Yvonne.
Oui! C’est bien à faire ce tour á deux!
Je suis content de recevoir votre message!
A bientôt!
Matthew
Haa… ! Tu me donnes envie d’aller en Bulgarie 🙂 Continuez bien tout les deux, et passe le bonjour a James!
Clem
Heeey Clem. C’est bien à recevoir ton message! J’espère tout va bien chez toi. Ou est tu en moment? C’etait bien, le ‘road of death’? 🙂
Salut!!! 🙂
Matthew
zoals in het vorige commentaar ook al wat zonde van het land met al de afval, dan denk je al snel het is ook overal het zelfde, waarom nemen de mensen het niet mee terug dat is zo’n kleine moeite.
maar wat lief dat je nachtsokken heb gekregen zullen vast van pas komen 🙂 ooo laat even weten of je het bruisboeket heb gevangen hahaha groetjes Trudi
Hoi Trudi. Nee. Ik ben nog steeds single. 🙂