Hitchhiking XVIII (Plovdiv - Edirne)

Thanks to hitchwiki I didn't have to research a lot on which bus to take, and thanks to my lovely host Vladi I didn't have to worry about looking for the station, because he brought me there :)

From the stop I walked about 2 kilometers until I reached a gas station. There was no cars, so I just stood on the road. 

After 10 minutes, Peter offered to drive me to Parvomay, but ended up driving me double the distance until Haskovo. He spoke a decent English and used it mainly to warn me about "the gypsies", who supposedly are a "big problem" in Bulgaria, because they don't work but get social benefits from the state. When asked if Bulgaria would be better off without the gypsies, he said no - maybe they're not such a big problem then after all? He also warned me about the Albanians, the Bosnians, and Bulgarians with mustaches (Turkish!), because "they will all want to make sex" with me. Oh really? Thanks for the advice. 

In the end he asked if I wanted to have sex with him. I laughed, thinking it was a joke. Turned out it wasn't - but he didn't even have a mustache?!?! ;) I didn't try to explain his own hypocrisy, considering that we were almost in Haskovo, and just silently shook my head. Someone understand those men.

From Haskovo there was two direct
roads leading to the border: a road that has been in use as a trade route since Roman times, and a newly built highway. Peter had told me that no one really uses the highway yet (whaaaat?), so I stayed on the old road.

After 2 minutes, a truck slowed down. I asked the driver if he was going to Edirne, he said something I didn't understand, but with "Turkiye" in it, I tried to explain something with my hands, he didn't understand. I waved him to move on.

When he drove off and I was alone again, I tried to understand my logic. I had just declined a ride all the way across the border, just because he probably wasn't going to the city center of Edirne (which is about 10 km further). WHY WOULD I DO THAT? I would've been there in no time. 

Probably god punished me for my stupidity: I waited for another 30 minutes until the next car stopped. Miško only went to Liubimec, around 25 km away from the border. He didn't speak English, but managed to explain that he would drive me to the highway. I said "No no!" - he drove me anyway. I didn't see a chance of explaining my point, so I just got off. There had to be some cars on that brand new highway after all!

Indeed, I hadn't even reached the actual highway when a small truck, which was about to enter, stopped. He was going to Kapitan Andreevo, the last Bulgarian settlement before the border. The highway turned into a normal street again, while trucks were already lining up for kilometer after kilometer, waiting to go through the customs. 

I got off before Kīci left the road - still 3 km to the border - and started walking. Truck drivers were having tea and smoking, curiously watching me as I passed. Two long-distance cyclists overtook me; I was determined to overtake them again before the checkpoints.

And I did: after 10 minutes of walking and only a few cars passing, Šefik, originally
from Kurdistan, slowed down to pick me up. I waved to the cyclists as we passed them, and after quite some time at the checkpoints, the first mosque came into sight. Hošgeldiniz to Turkey! :)

Šefik dropped me right in the center of the city, where I got myself some Turkish Lira and after that sat down for a (disappointing) Frappe. I was quite proud of myself, because I had arrived one hour earlier than my host would be back from Istanbul. Unfortunately his bus was half an hour late, and for reasons I still don't understand, he met with a friend after he had arrived, so I ended up waiting for another 2 hours, because he kept telling me he would arrive "soon". When we finally went to his place, he insisted on playing a stupid videogame while drinking coffee. 

I was super frustrated and annoyed of course, because I had arrived so early but still didn't see anything of the city. One of the ambivalences of Couchsurfing  - you depend on one single person, instead of having a 24/7 reception at your service ;)