Could have been worse though...
You sometimes hear stories of people that do the same as us, and end up dead.

Bulgaria. Holiday. Me and a friend decided to go to a small town, after visiting many large cities and thinking “a city is a city, they’re all the same”. At random, we picked a little town called Simeonovgrad. Getting off the train in Simeonovgrad we looked around expecting to see some sign pointing to the center, or maybe a hotel. There was only a small bar with 4 guys drinking vodka (the locals!) and no sign or even a something that resembles a town. We asked them for directions to a hotel. But there was none. We asked for a camping. No such thing in Simeonovgrad. Completely in vain we asked for directions to a hostel, but of course there was nothing. So, we decided to hitchhike to the next town… which should have been no problem if there had been at least 1 car going there.

As it was getting dark, we decided to walk back to the guys at the bar, and ask for directions to the center… But they already ordered us vodka while we were walking towards them, so we sat down and had a few drinks (they paid). They offered us a place to sleep (a cozy 2 person bed where me and my friend could crash). One guy even took us to a restaurant where we had some excellent chicken livers (that guy paid).

And then this guy wanted to take us to a “special” place ("very good!!"). Our translator had gone to bed by then... We realized that we had no idea where we were going… and since our bags were already inside the house and us outside we did not think it was such a good idea to go. But try to explain that to a drunk Bulgarian who speaks about 5 words of English. So, off we went. We just hoped we weren’t taken to a dark bush to get raped or murdered.

After a 15 minute ride (Old Lada, drunk driver, dark roads with more holes than asphalt) we arrived at something that is best decribed as a dodgy motel. It turned out to be a brothel where our “guide” quickly pointed out one girl that was supposed to be mine at that moment. No way out.

After doing what obviously had to be done (the condom didn’t break, yay!) I found out that the price she had said was only for the sex. I had to pay for the "accommodation" too. I was still happy to be in that brothel rather than being dead in some Bulgarian no-man's-land, so I was happy to pay and avoid problems with the local mafia.

We went back (same road, same car, same asphalt, but a more relaxed driver, thank god)… And we even got some proper sleep.

Next day we tried to hitchhike out of town, but took a bus after trying for 5 hours in the full sun at 35 degrees (Celcius, you Fahrenheit-using-bastards!). Stupid to try to hitchhike of course.

Apologies for length, as is the custom for every post that is over 10 lines. :)
(Captain Panic, Thu 7 Sep 2006, 14:41, Reply)