emilyonearth

Im in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, right now, but before I tell you about Plovdiv, let me tell you about the journey to get there.

Originally, I was supposed to take an overnight bus from Bucharest to Sofia, spend the day in the city, and then take another bus in the afternoon to Plovdiv. The morning the bus was to leave, I figured I should probably have a look at where it leaves from, as there doesn’t seem to be one main bus station in Bucharest. I couldn’t find the information anywhere, so I contacted the company I bought the ticket from. They were no help either, so I panicked and lost all confidence in taking the bus, and I cancelled my ticket. I then booked the train for the next day, changed the ticket for the second bus until later in the day, extended my stay at the hostel by another night, and headed out for my day. A lot of organising before 9am!

On the (new) day of my journey, I made my way to the train station and found my train. It was delayed, but that was fine. I was initially alone in my compartment, which was nice, until a woman probably in her 80s came in and started talking at me. I tried telling her I didn’t understand and she just talked more! Eventually she realised I wasn’t going to respond, and she moved on, though I saw her walking up and down the hallway a few times. Then a young Hungarian couple joined me – it wasn’t their reserved seats, but they sat there anyways. They seemed nice enough. About an hour later, the old woman was back, and now it was all three of us trying to tell her that we didn’t understand. She decided to have a seat anyways, and started trying all of the languages she knew until she got to German. I told her my German was very bad, but she didn’t care, she had found someone to talk to.

Over the next eight hours I had to listen to her talk about Beethoven, wildfires, the war in Ukraine, the relationship between Moldova and Bulgaria, her daughter who now lives in England, the train system in London, her friend who was a composer but who died last year at age 88, Trump, Putin, climate change, the decline of the Bulgarian village, her lifelong search for “harmony”, generational differences, how ridiculous it is that Austria and Hungary are two countries, Russian aggression, the moment she found out her daughter was pregnant, changes in fashion over time, the benefits of trains over buses, and Goji berries. Plus probably some other things that I’ve forgotten. It was the longest, most complex conversation that I have ever had in German. It was a challenge.

Goji berries were her true passion. She even showed me a pamphlet about them which I couldn’t read as it was in Bulgarian, but stated that a man who ate goji berries once lived to 256 years old, which was a true fact because it was printed in her brochure. She told me about how to prepare them (one large spoonful in a teapot – ceramic, not glass – with hot water, leave them for half an hour, eat the berries and drink the tea), and assured me that if I had them every day my eyesight would be fixed and I would no longer need to wear glasses.

It was a long train ride. Somewhere along the way, a man from Iran who lives in the States joined the compartment. He too was annoying, but the worst was when he and the woman wanted to talk and insisted on me translating for them. Can I please reiterate here that my German is very average!! I basically haven’t held a conversation in German in the last 15 years. It is not good!

Anyways, we eventually arrived in Sofia, and this woman insisted on taking me from the train station to the bus station which was right next door. I wish I had known how to dissuade her, because holy moly did she make things complicated. Let me just start by saying that there was a clear sign in the train station pointing the way to the bus station. Could we follow it? No. We had to ask at the information desk of the train station for information about my bus, which clearly they did not have. I pointed at the sign and started walking in that direction, but she stopped me and instead went to ask the taxi drivers for information about the bus station. The pointed in the same direction as the sign. We got to the bus station and she started walking to random bus company offices asking for information about my bus, which again, clearly, they did not have. At this point my brain was sore from listening to her all day, and my German was absolutely at the end of its limits, and I may have just been really blunt with her and told her to please not talk to anyone else, as she was making people grumpy. Even then it wasn’t until an English-speaking bus driver came to talk to me that she finally gave in, gave me a farewell speech about all the good things she wishes for me in life, gave me a hug, and finally left. Oh! And she recommended I try sour milk while here in Bulgaria.

Anyways, it was exhausting. Here are some photos from out the window of the train: