I have to admit it, I had some kind of fear about crossing Bulgaria, even only since a lot people, Croatians and Serbians mostly, told me that it may turn out to be a little dangerous; contrary to those sayings, it showed up under every aspect as a wonderful country… A mix of mountains and hills.
I found walking here really enjoyable, and as the days passed I understood the true reason I started this journey… A place such as this can touch your feelings with his daily beauties. I slept among the wheat and the sunflowers, tall as basketball players, among meadows and orchards, and Bulgaria, as I thought, is preparing me to what awaits further. I also passed several night under the stars, and I can assure you that the night sky is becoming astonishing. In comparison to Italy, there are likely a billion more stars to be seen… It’s unbelievable! It’s so beautiful that sometimes I set my alarm to go off in the middle of the night just to sit there, even just for five minutes, watching them. Without all the light pollution I’m used to, I’m able to see a sky that could be like this only on the Alps.

As always, for the umpteenth time, the real beauty of a foreign country is the people living in it! I felt cuddled, before and after I had been interviewed on television… They love travelers, most of all those who choose a difficult way to travel!
Farmers offered me fruits and barmen offered me coffees. There has been a lot of smiles by the persons who saw me, and those encouraged me so much that it remembered me the first week of my journey, in Piedmont.

Gypsies here are really different from the ones who live in Italy! They never asked for money, they’re not used to that I guess, plus they work in the fields and when I see them in the cities they usually do socially useful jobs, coexisting perfectly with the rest of the world. They travel from place to place on their horse-cars and always smile to me. People are, first of all, people. They may have different habits and thoughts, but they remain people in flesh, blood and soul.

It rained a lot in the last days, and I remember running away from cloud-shaped hurricanes… Trying to seek shelter for the night, I often found myself laughing out loud, because I love how I’m living, because now my biggest problems are only to find a sleeping place for the night, to find food and to run away from thunderstorms.
This kind of life is made by simple problems and thoughts… For many years I tried to be alternative and different to look unique, but now I understand that I am unique as anyone is!  Nowadays, in my opinion, simple is the new alternative.

In the next message, all the technical issues I ran into and the arrival at the Turkish frontier.

Always smile!

Thanks to Francesco Angiolini for translation! 🙂