Horse cart, a typical means of transport in rural Bulgaria
The term “roads less travelled” was coined to describe areas not often visited by tourists. In the northwest of Bulgaria, it takes on a literal meaning. We drove over bits of roads where the weed crept through the cracks in the tarmac. Here Bulgaria gets as rural as it can get.
Sunflowers, sunflowers, sunflowers in all stages line the deserted road, where horse / mule drawn carts definitely outnumber gasoline sucking vehicles. The small city of Lom, right on the Danube, seemed the perfect place for a late lunch on a hot summer day.
Road near the Romania, Bulgaria, Europe
Horse cart, a typical means of transport in rural Bulgaria
Horse cart, a typical means of transport in rural Bulgaria
We must also admit we liked the name LOM: it was easy to read even in Cyrillic, but it got even better. The city center is completely closed off to traffic – you could hear a pin drop on the main plaza at midday. We slumped into the chairs of a bizarre restaurant, where the air conditioned inside was full of young people smoking up the storm. On the patio outside family munched away on great looking pizzas and gigantic meat dishes. When the waitresses spotted us they seemed to discuss first who should take our order. This reminded us of China, where often some poor young girl was “chosen to deal” with us. But pizza, Shopska Salad and Coke were easily communicated and our waitress felt like a star that things went so smooth.
Continuing towards Vidin, we stopped at a few look-out points, with an excellent view over the Danube and its evergreen bank on the Romanian side.
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