Friday, Oct. 3, 2014

Yesterday we sailed upstream all morning with Romania on the right hand side and Bulgaria on the left. We don't see much as the surrounding countryside is so flat -- just trees. After lunch we arrived in the Bulgarian city of Vidin where we were loaded on busses for the hour long trip to the "little white town" -- (Belogradshik). Here we drove up the hill to the giant rock formations above the town. These formations were quite spectacular. In the 3rd century (Roman empire time) they built a few walls between them to provide shelter for travellers.As the centuries went by they built more and higher walls. Eventually the Turks rebuilt it in the 19th century and this is what is like today. Everywhere we go we hear about the wars between the Turks and Ottomans and this place was no exception. We had three stages to walk through and of course I included stage 3 which meant many stairs up to the top of the fortress. Spectacular views except it was a cloudy day. Don's having his usual balance problems so doesn't walk far.

Also in this area are the Magura Caves which I must look up on Google when I get home. There are 750 drawings there made with bat guano. Obviously the bats also use the caves to live in. They figure these caves were occupied by humans as far back as 800 to 3000 BC.

As when we were in the other area of Bulgaria a few days ago, their sunflowers are all dead in the fields. I assume that the heavy rains prevented them from being pollinated. Sad to see. Bulgaria is 60% mountains and there is hunting done there -- boar, rabbit, wolves but bear and deer are protected. We again saw the usual deteriorating buildings.

The Bulgarians managed to keep their language, religion and pride despite 500 years of Ottoman domination.

If someone dies, their obit is printed on a poster and tacked to trees.

In the evening some young people came on board and entertained us with local dances.

Today we are on a full day of sailing. We are going through the "Iron Gates" which is a section of the river which goes through gorges. We are now between Serbia on the left (south) and Romania on the right (north). We first went through the largest lock on the river. It has two sections, not the usual one, and took 1 1/2 hours. They also have two locks and we went up the right hand one which is on the Romanian side so we flew that flag. They switch sides each month -- one side handles up traffic and the other down. This Iron Gate area is 84 miles long but it widens in places with little villages and farms along the way. Lovely green fields around the houses but I can't see a reason for them. Not an animal in sight. There is also a dam at the site of the lock and this controls the river levels. They had a lot of rain earlier this month so more sluices were open to take care of the extra water. They also use the dam for hydro power. By building the dam, many villages had to be moved as they are now under water.

The Danube looks dirty but it is actually clean. I guess it is like the Fraser -- full of sand, especially since the heavy rain.

Weather: cloudy and cool. About 17 C outside. Some people are bundled up in down coats, toques, etc. I'm out walking the deck in a sweat shirt and sandals.

They had some traditional food (sausages,etc) set out at 11am (probably because lunch was going to be late due to the interesting views in the gorge). I just couldn't face it even though I'd been walking the deck for an hour. I'm trying to be sensible but it's hard. I had soup, a small sandwich, apple, cookie then the bad thing -- bread pudding with cream sauce. I have my usual granola, fruit and yogurt for breakfast but do add a croissant and slice of bread along with Nutella. Supper is a salad, soup sometimes, main course and, of course, dessert. The meals are excellent.

Internet has been spotty. I managed to get a blog out this morning just before it went off again.