Yup, it happened again…

I’m sick on another trip.

It’s actually crazy that I’ve been sick or injured on almost every trip I’ve go on.

I’ve had it all before, food poisoning, heat stroke, really brutal sunburns, and severe dehydration.

As I type this, it’s 10:30 at night and I haven’t left my bed here at my new hostel for 7 hours except to go to the bathroom.

Anyway, still got a blog to write…

Goodbye Romania

Last night was another bad night’s sleep.   Yes, the room at our new hostel in Bucharest had (moderately) better a/c in the rooms but the other rooms like the bathroom were a sauna.

Also, the hostel was literally right on the main party street in Bucharest where all the bars and clubs pounded their music until the wee hours of the morning.

Even with my amazing earplugs, you could still hear the rhythmic boom, boom, boom of the music.

So, yeah, I probably got 2, maybe 3 hours sleep last night.

We had decided yesterday that we’d take a private taxi over the border to Ruse, Bulgaria and then switch to a 4-5 hour train heading south to Veliko Tarnovo.

At 8am, our personal driver, Stanislav from Bulgaria, came and picked us up and we were on our way in a nice air conditioned car.   Now, this was travelling in style!

Oh, my, how short lived that feeling would be…

Hello Bulgaria

We crossed the border around 9:30am, and soon we were dropped off a this little quiet train station in the border town of Ruse.

Our train didn’t leave for another hour and a half, so I spent the time completing and uploading yesterday’s blog.

I also got to have my first experience with a public Bulgarian toilet.

Oh, what fun!

So, yeah, make sure you bring your own TP and your toilet probably won’t have a toilet seat on it so you’ll be sitting on the narrow ceramic piece.

Little did I know how many times I’d be sitting on a toilet the rest of the day…

A bumpy train ride

At just after 11am our train pulled up to the station.   This train, covered in graffiti, looked like it was from the 1950s.

Obviously there was no air conditioning and some windows didn’t slide down while others kind of half went down.

When the train started moving, at least we got the wind blowing in but there were patches where the train moved at a snail’s pace or just outright stopped.

Oh, and the ride was so bumpy!

By the time we finally arrived in Veliko Tarnovo at 3pm, my stomach was in knots and I was in bad shape.

Finding the damn hostel

To get to the hostel, we either had a 25 minute walk or a 5 minute cab ride.

Now, normally, I never take a cab and just hoof it down the road to the hostel.   After all, it’s part of the adventure navigating new foreign streets to find your destination.

Today, though, there was absolutely no way I was walking that far.

Hell, I could barely stand.   I was literally keeling over.

The taxi dropped us off at a hotel near our hostel since our hostel wasn’t really on the main street and accessible by car.

No problem, I just have to suck it up for a 8 minute walk.

And, even though it was only 8 minutes and we were going down stairs instead of up stairs, it was a struggle for me.

I had to stop several times and was using the handrail to get down the stairs.

Yup, there was definitely something wrong with me.

We finally arrive at the Rooster House and knocked on the door.

No answer.

Hmmm…

Then a few minutes later we figured out that this wasn’t the right address.

Yeah, there’s two places called Rooster to stay in this little town.

Sunofabitch!

I seriously cracked at that moment.

The hostel we wanted was all the way back up the stairs we had just come down and then further down the road.

I just couldn’t get my legs to move and I was actually contemplating stopping someone passing by and pay them $20 to carry my big backpack for me.

Eventually I put the backpack back on my back and started walking up the stairs.

Holy shit, that wrecked me.

I was in really, really bad shape.

After stopping on a bench for a good 10 minutes, Nathan offered to carry both his and my heavy backpacks the rest of the way.

Even without lugging the backpack, it was a supreme struggle to get to the hostel.

But, hey, we got there eventually.

A night in

With the way I was feeling, all the plans I had for the first night here were thrown out the window.

To that end, I extended our stay here in Veliko Tarnovo by one extra day and changed up our reservation at our next city by a day.

At least the hostel I’m staying at has a nice, big comfy bed with full on a/c in the room so it’s a great place to recuperate.

We checked in at 3pm and, other than taking a shower and sitting on the toilet, I didn’t leave my bed all night.

Compromised system

So, obviously something is seriously wrong with me.

I don’t know if it’s heat exhaustion from the warm train cars both yesterday and today, bad drinking water, food poisoning, or what, but my system does not feel right.

While I’ve been chugging water like there’s no tomorrow to stay hydrated, I was still pretty dehydrated this afternoon and, without getting too graphic, I was literally sending all the liquid away by sitting on the toilet multiple times tonight.

I haven’t actually eaten anything today and the last food I ate was more than 24 hours ago.

As I write this in the late hours of the night, I don’t even feel hungry.

I’m hoping after a nice night’s sleep, I’ll feel much better in the morning but I’m also accepting of the fact that I may be sidelined for a few days like I have been previous times I’ve been sick while traveling.

I’m just going to play it by ear.   Obviously I’m not going to push myself and getting better is my number one goal.   In fact, it’s my only goal.

So, yeah, it was not the start I wanted for Bulgaria and especially for Veliko Tarnovo.   I’ve been looking forward to coming to this little town for quite awhile and it’s probably up there on the places I’ve been most excited about visiting on this trip.

Anyway, here’s to hopefully a better day tomorrow…