Water battles

Oh man, what a day it was.

After waking up and showering, I looked at my motorcycle from the hotel room balcony. The blue bag with the sleeping bag was gone.

I asked at the reception if they had seen anything. Since the fastening strap was tightly tightened again, I assumed that I had left it outside the door. But no, nothing was found.

Then, with drooping ears, I went to breakfast and googled to show me an outdoor or camping store.

Shortly afterwards, the receptionist said, "I controlled the video recordings, you put it in the box."

I stuffed it into the motorcycle case in front of the hotel after I had taken out my luggage 😬😬😬😬

Now I owe the nice lady a coffee.

Okay, then everything is fine, luggage stowed away and started. I only got a few centimeters far. Then the forgotten brake disc lock blocked the front wheel and Berta tipped over.

I tried to lift the fully loaded machine back up and had already gotten it far enough that I could let it rest on my thigh to catch my breath. Then a taxi pulled up, the driver got out, asked where he could help without damaging anything, and helped me lift up Berta.

Great helpfulness 👍👍

Now the journey could finally begin. After about 20 km, it started to rain. Not bad and with occasional interruptions.

The Bulgarian border came into view. I have already experienced this in the Balkans. A border guard walks and collects papers from 5-6 vehicles, which are then processed one by one. The border was passed quite quickly. On the Bulgarian side, there was an endless truck jam. Mostly Ukrainian trucks, probably on their way home. It started raining again. It became heavy with several thunderstorms. It went downhill to the city of Varna. The sewer system was completely overloaded if available. Water masses flowed partly almost knee-deep down the mountain, as many side streets are only gravel, there was also a lot of mud. Some drain or manhole covers were missing, which was indicated by sticking poles or sticks into the openings. It was already a little adventure slalom through a big city. But the rain from above was not enough. There were partly real lakes formed and the oncoming traffic visibly enjoyed driving through this lake landscape at full speed. Pedestrians, cyclists or motorcyclists had many free showers 😅 luckily it was over 20 degrees warm despite the rain. After passing Varna, I looked for a guesthouse. I didn't feel like camping in this weather.

Hardly arrived at the guesthouse and settled into the room, unexpectedly the sky cleared up and the sun shone for the rest of the afternoon.

Overall, I drove about 220 kilometers today, about 200 of them in rain and thunderstorms.