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After Nakia successfully received a 2 month visa (THANK YOU Serbian consulate in Istanbul) we embarked from Edirne, Turkey to cross Bulgaria in less than 10 days (Nakia only got a 10 day visa from Bulgaria upon the second application since the first was refused for no good reason).  Although there were doubts as to if we really could cross all of Bulgaria in 10 days, we did it with a day to spare.  Excellent.  Photos of Bulgaria will come later.  My initial impression of Bulgaria is that there are few people but plenty of beautiful mountainous countryside, at times reminding Jim and Netzy of their home in Montana, and there even was a Bulgarian town named “Montana.”  Many small villages are falling apart and abandoned, perhaps as younger people have gone off not only to Bulgaria’s two big cities, Sofia and Plovdiv, but also to Western Europe in pursuit of brighter economic opportunities now that Bulgaria is a member of the European Union (EU).

Netzy, Jim’s mom, cycled with Jim for all of July (mostly in Bulgaria back and forth), and with Drew, Nakia, and I for the last 2 weeks of July.  She quite an amazing mom, and she did excellently with us, even camping daily. Autumn (Jim’s sister) and Jay (Autumn’s boyfriend) also made the journey over to join us in Europe, but unfortunately, due to Nakia’s difficulties with getting a Bulgarian visa both in Istanbul and in Edirne, most of their time was spent bicycling with Netzy and Jim in Bulgaria back to Turkey to meet Drew, Nakia, and I for 2 days in Edirne on the border before they had to head back home - an unfortunate outcome of Bulgaria’s terrible visa service in Istanbul that had us camped out at midnight in line in front of their consulate for a night only to not get in the next day, being told rudely by the guard to “try arriving earlier next time.” 

On July 27th, we entered Serbia (part of the former Yugoslavia) and are now in the middle of the country about 2 days away from its capital, Beograd, for some reason known in English as Belgrade.  In Beograd, we will be staying with our friend, Lela, whom I met in Beijing last year.  Lela has graciously invited us to stay with her and her family for an indefinite period of time while Nakia applies for the most difficult of European visas, the Schengen Visa, which is for all of Western Europe.  Please see Nakia’s earlier post, “Visa Support“ with e-mail addresses of French and Hungarian officials to e-mail to show your encouragement and endorsement of Ms Nakia Pearson and the nature of our trip to help Nakia receive a Schengen Visa. 

I have been looking forward to visiting Lela in her home country since we departed Beijing last Sept (2007) when it was still uncertain how far we would really get.  It is so great to now be so close to her home, only 2 days of biking away. 

It really is amazing when I stop and consider all of the infinite baby steps and small, seemingly insignificant events that have happened to get us all to this point right now in this now 10.5 month journey.  Time and Time again I have seen God provide for us, showering us in blessings through people we meet, people who invite us in for coffee or to sleep, those who show us the way, and through those who put money in our Er Hu case upon hearing our music on the street to buy us enough food for a few more days…  God’s provisions are most obvious when we put ourselves out there in vulnerability and uncertainty; things always work out….it is always OK…and we are again and again provided for.

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 2nd, 2008 at 4:14 am and is filed under Pete's Posts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.