Bulgaria and Romania
During last year's trip to Europe we boarded an Air Austria flight in Vienna and flew to Sofia Bulgaria. Over the next week we drove through both Bulgaria as well as Romania.
Rosalynn and I had driven through Romania in 2010. It is an absolutely beautiful country but at the time almost every guide book warned you about the condition of the roads and the craziness of some of the drivers. It was both rough and crazy. It reminded us a lot of the County roads in East Texas and more specifically the streets in the City of Sulphur Springs where I have worked as Finance Director these last 21 years. At the time we found and drove on a small just completed section of Romania's new proposed Autostrada network. There seemed to be hope for the future. But like Sulphur Springs, at that time the country didn't seem to be in a huge hurry to fix its' worn out infrastructure. Not that they didn't want to, though. Unlike Sulphur Springs which has other more important priorties, they just didn't have the money!
What a difference 7 years makes. The amount of positive change in the country is nothing short of amazing. Romania can no longer be used as an example of bad roads; that just leaves Sulphur Springs. The roads in Bulgaria
were surprisingly good. The rural areas can be a bit of a challenge, though. The picture to the left is a street in Brasov, Romania; below a highway heading towards the Danube River in the western part of Romania.
On the Danube we found a carved likeness of Decebalus, the last king of Dacia who waged war against the Roman Emperor Trajan. On his part Trajan figured he needed to build a bridge across the very large river, which he completed in 328 AD. It was 3,724 feet long, 49 feet wide and 62 feet above the surface of the river. A replica of a section of the bridge now stands prominently at a main traffic circle in the present town of Drobeta-Turnu Severin in Romania, close to where the actual bridge stood.
Bulgaria does a great job of preserving its' heritage. The city of Plovdiv is one of the oldest continually inhabited cities in Europe if not the world. Evidence of the original settlement date back 8,000 years ago. It's street network is kept in great shape as the two pictures below show.
One of the other places to visit in Bulgaria is Veliko Tarnovo which was founded 5,000 years ago. The picture below and left is from our hotel window. There was an outstanding light show at night. To the right below is a typical old city street scene. Finally, eating was a pleasure in both Bulgaria and Romania. Below Heather is enjoying her meal in a small secluded courtyard in the oldest section of Veliko Tarnovo.
We covered a lot of ground last April and May. It was all beautiful. None more so than Romania and Bulgaria.
