this was, like, totally LAAAAAAME

This post is about a 21km walk from Asenovgrad to Plovdiv. I walk on the service lane of a highway. And then there is a terrible bridge.

When I looked at the road to Plovdiv on the map I felt worried: there seemed to be no way but the highway. I hated walking on highways, and I wasn’t sure if it would be legal for me to even be on this one.

leaving Asenovgrad

Anyway there was nothing to do but to slowly walk out of town and see how it would go. Asenovgrad seemed bigger than any other place I had seen in Bulgaria so far, and yet there was a quiet feel about it. Easy traffic, slow pedestrians, a lazy cat here and there. I bought some lyutenitsa and some bread and some cheese. I had some hot tea in my thermos. It wouldn’t be so bad.

And then, once I got to the highway, I realized that everything was actually going to be pretty good: it was a highway, yes. But it was lined with businesses, which meant that there was a service lane that I could walk on.

the service lane

I walked for a few hours. There was some retail, some wholesale, some agriculture, and some heavy industry. One time a guy selling fruits by the roadside gave me a few apples. I asked him if his business was going well, and he said no. There was too much corruption, he added. When I asked him if the corruption was old or new he threw one hand in the air and said it had always been this way. Always!

Then I reached Plovdiv.

the bridge

First I saw a bunch of prefab buildings with some Soviet-looking artworks on them. Then I arrived at a bridge. It went high up over some railroad tracks, it carried the highway into town, and it looked like it was very long. There was a sidewalk, though. It was separated from the car lanes by a guardrail. A tree grew out of the sidewalk, which didn’t look like a good sign, but I chose to use it anyway.

So I squeezed past the tree, and then I walked on the sidewalk on the bridge for what felt like 15 minutes.

the total lameness

And then it stopped. The sidewalk just stopped in front of some shrubberies. FUCK, I said, and when I noticed that I couldn’t even get off the sidewalk and walk on the car lane because the guardrail went past the shrubberies, I said FUUUUUUUCK.

And then the Caboose and I plowed our way through the motherfucking shrubberies and into Plovdiv.

pictures

Cat in Asenovgrad:

Church:

Residential building:

The service lane to walk from Asenovgrad to Plovdiv:

Apples:

Memorial to Mladen:

Wedding parlour:

Heavy industry:

Soviet-looking mural:

The sidewalk on the bridge into Plovdiv:

The end of the sidewalk:

Laaaaaaaame:

In Plovdiv:

Someone got themselves a nice balcony up there:

The Eastern Gate Of Philippopolis:

Old Plovdiv:

Hisar Kapia Gate:

Boutique Hostel Old Plovdiv:

Cat: