Broken Hearts On Boulevard Unirii novel Chapter 44

At that point, I didn't know yet what was hidden beneath that beautiful floor.

The next morning we left in two cars; the rented one I drove and Angelo in his new four by four. Elena, his new girlfriend, sat beside him, Claudio and Roxana sat behind them and Elia and Silvia in the back seat. Angelo led and I followed. Oana was sitting next to me cracking sunflower seeds and throwing the shells that she accumulated in her hand out of the window. Behind us Fabrizio and Luciana sat, barely speaking to each other. I could not understand why they insisted on going together, but I decided not to intervene. Gert and Sofia, who sat in the back, seemed to get on nicely. It turned out that Sofia had worked for several years as a nurse in a hospital for the disabled and as Gert was a doctor, they had something in common.

Leaving the city was always a problem because of the heavy traffic, but since Angelo knew the shortcuts we were able to get out of town quickly.

When we were finally on the road to the border Angelo picked up speed, leaving me lagging behind. I asked Fabrizio to call him and to tell him to slow down and keep me in sight. After about eighty kilometers we reached the city of Giurgiu, where we crossed the Romanian Border, taking the Friendship Bridge over the Danube into the town of Rousse on the Bulgarian border. The border control in Bulgaria was more rigorous and it took longer because the officers were having coffee. When they finally got to us, one of the border policemen ordered us to pull over and turn off the engine.

After inspecting the cars and our passports, we were told that we could continue to Varna. We drove for a short while, and arrived at the village of Bazan, where we decided to stop for lunch.

We found what looked like a popular restaurant. It was open-sided with a large thatched roof, under which there were long wooden tables and benches. On one side there was a large charcoal grill and a fat cook wearing a hat, probably once white, that had seen better days, preparing meat patties.

We ordered beer and some meatballs called kebab, that were served with shopskasalata, a large salad made with vegetables, cheese and hard boiled eggs.

The kebab patties were delicious and the salad was also tasty and filling. We concluded that you should never be prejudiced by the dirt on the cook's apron or the simplicity of the restaurant, especially those with straw roofs.

For the first half of the trip the roads were very bad, but in the second half, after the Fanajut junction, the road became wider and much easier to travel on.

We were greeted at the reception by a woman with an annoyed, sour face, as if we were unwelcome guests. We felt very strange. After all we were paying guests of the hotel who had made our reservations a month ago. Why was she angry?

We found out later on that that was her natural facial expression and she just didn't know how to smile. Perhaps she was trying to hide her rotten teeth. Who knows?

The sour-faced lady accompanied us to our rooms on the first floor, where she gave us our keys. We also received the remote control for the television, which was totally unnecessary, since all the channels were in Bulgarian except for one, which was in Romanian. There was nothing in English, let alone Italian.

Oana was really excited. She wasted no time, and immediately changed into a colorful bathing suit. Roxana did the same. Elena and Sofia, the two Bulgarian girls with us, went to the lobby (if you can call two chairs and a small table a lobby), sat down and ordered coffee.