Upon entering Bulgaria from Romania, we were not greeted with what could be considered the warmest welcome ever. Immediately, we were struck with crumbling reminders of Soviet life and how little the Bulgarian countryside had managed to move forward since. Given the fact that we were driving hours away from the much nicer capital of Sofia, and our intent to be in Istanbul as soon as possible, we barrelled through the countryside.
Or, we would have, if we hadn’t encountered the worst “highways” in existence. Unless by “highway” Bulgaria actually meant “partial gravel hiking path including potholes sufficient to break your car,” in which case the designation would be correct. It is an honest miracle that our car made it through in one piece, as we both lost count of the number of times the car bottomed out with a horrific crunching noise in potholes deeper than Mariana’s Trench.
To make matters worse, we (and by ‘we’ I mean Mom) decided to use Apple maps rather than Google maps this time to guide us through these roads that were akin to the worst ever game of Minesweeper. I had marked all our routes on paper maps before we arrived in Europe, so I should have noticed that the route Apple maps gave was slightly different, but alas. Apple maps cheerfully guided us to our route which, for the most part, was correct. What Apple maps didn’t realize was that a portion of the road halfway through Bulgaria hadn’t been open in over 20 years and was only now under construction to be rebuilt. This was made all the more frustrating in that had Apple maps realized this (as Google maps and my paper maps from Michelin had noticed), we would have been spared a full hour of the worst roads in Bulgaria.
With guidance from our paper map and a helpful (and confused) Bulgarian construction worker with excellent English, we successfully found our way back to the correct route. The drive to the Turkish border was mostly okay but for a small portion where the potholes were so large and so spread out that cars on both sides had to slalom just to get through.
Ironically, it was after this last bad patch that this sign appeared:
Really, Bulgaria?! This sign should’ve been placed at least 200km earlier!
I shouldn’t be so cruel to Bulgaria. The country towns may have been tiny and empty, but the scenery was fantastic! The forested mountains and tree-lined roads were lovely to drive through. Our time in Bulgaria may have been short, but it was certainly noteworthy.
Frances
August 22nd, 2014 19:09
lol danger zone. I would think Quebec roads would give you at least some practice for dodging potholes.