One of the Few

Ohrid

Sleeping giant

Friday 07.10.11 Since Tirana there have been ups and downs. Mainly ups though. It’s almost full-moon, and the nights are beautiful and light. I have enjoyed them by just sitting outside, doing nothing, listening to music, playing some, or smoking my pipe.

It took all Monday to get Wombosi fixed. We had to change the gasket (pakning) between the engine and the turbo. This didn’t take long. After we were finished, and had cleaned the engine we found a little hole in the motor block, which was actually the main leak. 

We glued/silicone it, something that didn’t take  too much time either, but to wait for the silicon to get dry took the rest of the day, so it was 5 pm when I left Vasilis garage. The sad thing was that as a consequence of the long reparation, I missed Berat. The day at Vasilis was nice enough. There was another customer there, and us two customers, and the two mechanics went to the across the street- restaurant and had some spaghetti, and we took apart an accident Land-Rover.

There are not only nice churches in Ohrid

From Albania I went straight to Ohrid, which was good. Surely a must see, in Macedonia, but Macedonia was not the country that inspired me the most. For me it was mainly driving. As for Bulgaria, I got to say what a lovely country. It’s sad that I had so little time here. I have been driving and driving these two days here. The landscape is so beautiful. It’s not breathtaking and extreme, but hilly forests, small rivers and now in autumn the forests are so colored. Bulgaria has a lot of mixed forests, something that makes it shine in all tones of green, red and yellow  

Everydaylife 1 - Shower

Everydaylife 2 - Dinner

Yesterday (Thursday) ended badly. First I got caught in a police trap, and had to pay 45 lv (23 Euro), and then, as I was looking for a place to camp, my steering got heavy. I pulled over, checked the tires, before I noticed that red fluid was flooding from under the hood. It was obviously servo-fluid, but why was it flooding out. After some time I found the error. At that time it was already dark, so I decided to wait to the morning doing nothing. I went to bed with fear of another day at the garage, and not reaching my appointment with Trygve in Burgas on Saturday Morning. I had called Pat in Germany and confirmed that if I continued driving, I would ruin the servo-engine (if it was not already broken). I had also called the ADAC, and confirmed that they could get me to the nearest garage free of charge.

This morning I got up before 6, and started to work with the problem. First I removed some parts, to get better access, and believe it or not, it was just to take out a bolt, and the pipe in it, put a small gasket in place, and fix the bolt firmly again. A quarter to seven, I was on the road.

Everydaylife 3 - Filling up the water-supply

Red tree, blue sky

The stars are so beautiful. If you get up at three or four a clock in the morning, when the moon has gone down, they still light up the night. A Bulgarian hiker said, when I mentioned the beauty of an alley, where every tree had a different color: “these are the things we take for granted” he said. It’s so true. When one walks the same streets every day, one gets so blind to the beauty. Bergen attracts so many tourists for its beauty, and we who live there forget to see it. Some mornings at Troldhaugen were just breathtaking. When the morning-sun was reflected in the mirror of the water, or when the light drizzle fell down on the same dead calm sea, and everything was quiet and peaceful.

Monument on the Sipka-Pass

I encourage you all to get up from your books and screens every once in a while, and just put it all aside, and go out, if just for some minutes and enjoy what God has put right outside your door, and really see it.

Monday 10.10.2011 So, I didn’t get time to post what I wrote the other day, and now we are already in Eceabat in Turkey. Meeting up with Trygve wasn’t a problem. I got to Burgas in time, and Trygves aircraft was just some minutes delayed. The first day was wonderful, and we camped on a beautiful beach. The last two days have been nice enough, but heavy rain has made Turkey look more like Bergen then Turkey (except for the mosques). 

Not a bad place to have all by oneself

At the campfire