Burgas to Drobeta - A tale of two countries

June 15th - Burgas to Rish - Up up up up up up.
The day got off to a terrible start when about 100m from the hotel Mum's water bottle fell off her bike and a car behind us diverted its path to run the bottle over. They then laughed as we looked at the ruined water bottle splattered all over the road. We were both then in a terrible mood which wasn't helped by the hot, busy city exit, with frustrating cycle lanes ending on motorways. Eventually we got out onto the road we wanted to be on, and it was not a fun time.. Turkey's nice wide shoulder had disappeared and the road was busy busy with lots of truck traffic. These trucks were driven by mean Europeans who thought nothing of pushing us off the road. I'd been so excited about being back in Europe but it was mainly shit. It was also raining. We were also climbing. Every town we went through was pretty depressing - honestly people in Bulgaria are all in a bad mood. There were some road safety signs with the message "Drive carefully. somebody loves you". I wish they said "Drive carefully, somebody loves the cyclists you just nearly killed". Eventually we got to the top of a hill, diverted into a forest and set up camp.

June 16th - Rish to Razgrad - Bad Bulgaria
Today (I'm having real problem with tenses, sorry literary readers (including a published author)) was pretty similar to yesterday and we were (are?!) getting sick of the busy roads, and of Bulgaria in general. The towns were all dismal and people were (are?? Why is this such a problem today?) just not at all friendly. Frequently people would slow down in their cars and just deathstare. Mum was enjoying practising her Russian again, (she's apparently been reading Anna Karenina in Russian so is obviously pretty pro) but nobody was giving her anything back. It was mainly agricultural land so the scenery wasn't exciting either, although there were beautiful fields of wild flowers.

We decided to do as many miles as possible to get out of Bulgaria ASAP. Bulgaria really is terrible towns sandwiched between a massive wild camping site. This means we could just pull in as it got dark, and we found a beautiful place. We still haven't (right I'm switching to present tense) been able to methylated spirits which really limits our cooking options and makes evenings pretty miserable, but luckily we have the kelly kettle (massive shoutout to El for being a LEGEND). Life always looks a bit better with a cup of tea, and it also means we can cook very quick cook pasta which is what we had tonight (??? I'm having a shocker). Anyway, it's always nice staying in a wild camp site where there is no chance of being discovered, it makes it a good night's sleep.

June 17th - Razgrad to Romania - Is everyone drunk here?
We left Razgrad with the aim of getting out of Bulgaria which we achieved. Yay. I feel like I shouldn't really do anymore Bulgaria bashing on this blog so I won't... We managed to make it to the border bridge and crossed over to Romania! The border officials smiled at us! What a relief. Not all of Europe is horrible! On the other side of the border we met two French walkers who recommended that we stay in the hotel in the border town as there weren't many other safe places in Romania. This annoyed me a lot because how could they possibly know that? Anyway we ignored them and rode on throughout Romania. Everyone was really really nice, but they were also really drunk. Literally everyone. Frequently cars would drive past and we'd get a whiff of ethanol out of the window. Lots of people stopped us and were very friendly, in a very drunk way. We had a tailwind which we knew was rare so we decided to cycle on for as long as possible. It then started raining so we looked desperately for a wild camp site, but it was all farmland and not hopeful. At the start of this trip this would have made me a bit stressed, but now I really do know it will all be okay. After the disastrous first night in Morocco I'm pretty sure it can't get any worse. We eventually found a field of chopped down reeds(?) and decided to camp on there. We put up the tent in the rain. We ate sandwiches in the tent listening to the rain on the roof. I made a cup of tea in the rain whilst Mum took this arty picture.

 We fell asleep listening to the rain on the roof.

June 18th - Romania to Corabia - Does it always rain here?
We woke up listening to rain on the roof. We ate breakfast listening to the rain on the roof. We packed up our bags in the rain. We discovered the reed stems had formed tiny knives and made lots of holes in the bottom the tent whilst listening to the rain on the roof. We took the tent down in the rain. We set off in the rain. We rode allllll damn day in the rain.

Romania is very different from Bulgaria, you can definitely tell it wasn't in the USSR. Mum just told me it was. I've done some googling and I'm still not really sure. Anyway the Romania we saw is all pretty villages with flowerbeds and a bench outside every house. Despite the rain, everyone was sitting on these benches, most of them drinking beer, even as early as 7:30 (AM). This makes for a cheerful atmosphere. Eastern Europe women are great. They've all got really dirty faces and none of them wear any shoes. They're so unselfconscious and it's fab. Romania really does feel like going back in time - horse and carts everywhere, we were practically in a Thomas Hardy novel. As Mum said "I am Tess". We stopped for lunch in a bus shelter and were joined by two other cycle tourists, one of them a Cardiff grad living in Bristol! They had just met each other and we had a nice lunch despite the torrential rain.

Actually our lunch was a bit substandard because the bread went seriously downhill after we left Turkey. Mike and Luce had both stayed in the same cheap hotel an appropriate distance away and their positive reviews and the continuing rain convinced us - we headed there ASAP. Once we got there we dried everything out, had showers and went to the hotel restaurant. They only had pizza, and it was only $1. This is far too cheap for a pizza but luckily hunger is always the overriding emotion for us. The restaurant was absolutely crammed - but everyone seemed to be working there? They were also all eating? The world is a strange place.

June 19th - Corabia to Rast - "Why is there always something to be frightened of?"
We were convinced there was going to be a hotel breakfast in the morning, but went down to the bar to find the remains of everyone's meals the night before. This made me feel a bit sick. Anyway we cracked on with yoghurt and muesli and got back on the road. It quickly started raining again and I was very miserable. It really isn't nice cycling in the rain. You'd think after 22 years of parenting, Mum would be good at pulling me out of these slumps in a motivational and inspiring way. No. She normally says something along the lines of "oh for goodness sake phoebe stop being so bloody pathetic", which at least changes my emotion from sadness to anger. Anyway the rain stopped in time for coffee.

 We had coffee on a picnic bench next to a roadside memorial. Along these tiny country lanes there are a worrying number of roadside memorials and they're all very extra, with massive photos and gravestones. It turns out we chose the wrong bench as lots of people came to visit this memorial, looking scathingly at us as we made a literal fire (kelly kettle) next to them. For lunch we stopped by a well, which Mum played with. Suddenly people came rushing out of their houses to tell us we couldn't drink it. We've been drinking well water all the time in Romania so we weren't sure why this way. We didn't even need any water but we were unable to communicate this and they all went back into their houses and brought us out a bottle, then sat with us while we had lunch. One young man (maybe 25?) got out his phone and showed me a video of a dog appearing to drive a tractor. It was sort of funny, but it turns out it wasn't his dog or his tractor. He was crying with laughter, and he'd seen it lots of times before... After this he showed me a video of a group of youths beating up a man with dwarfism. This made me cry, but not with laughter. It was genuinely incredibly traumatic. I hope I managed to at least slightly awake him to the ethics of this, but in reality I think he just thought I was a party pooper. The sun actually came out in the afternoon and we had a nice ride.

When it was time to camp we found a field by the side of the village.

June 20th - Rast to Burila Mica - Hornets are not nice campmates
We woke up in the morning because an old couple were weeding the sweetcorn at 6 AM. They were very cheerful and unfazed to find two "turistas" camping in their fields. We weren't sure why they were quite so keen to weed so early but there you go. Soon after we set off - the rain started again. The landscape wasn't really changing much but it was very enjoyable riding.

We had stopped for lunch when a policeman came and talked to us, and then drove off and came back with three chocolate bars each! They were traditional Romanian, and of course were very alcoholic. It rained on and off all afternoon as we meandered through farmland along the river. We cycled as late as possible, intermittently trying to buy methylated spirits to cook on. This led to some very funny conversations, including one pharmacy where they really seemed to know what I meant - and then came back with Vitamin C tablets.. When it was getting dark we stopped to camp in a field near a village. We weren't very hidden but at least it wasn't active farmland. We cooked, and then a massive buzzing insect started flying around me. I swatted at it and Mum gave me an irritating lecture about not aggravating it. Suddenly we were surrounded by these massive insects, which we thought were hornets. We reckoned we might have camped over a nest and packed up supper stuff as quickly as possible whilst doing complicated dance moves to keep them away. Once we were safely in the tent they all swarmed around, hitting the fly sheet and making lots of noise. We were pretty safe inside - but how would we get out?

June 21st pt 1 -Burila Mica to Donji Milanovic - Into Serbia .
We set off early and made good progress to the border town of Drobeta. The road to Drobeta is a european trunk road and was very busy - we expected this as all the other cycle tourists we'd met had warned us. We stopped for a coffee in the city and then passed through, into Serbia!

Istanbul to Burgas - Gulë Gulë Turkey

June 10th - Restanbul

We started the day in the best way - with a breakfast buffet. After that we walked into town and hit the tourist sites which was a lot more restful than usual - maybe we're getting better at this? I don't think it's possible to see Istanbul in a day and we definitely didn't manage. We did get a bit of the flavour of the city though. 

June 11th - Istanbul to Yassioren - From "the worst place in the whole world" to one of the best 

We’d decided to leave Istanbul via ferry as everyone we’d ever met had said it was horrendous to cycle out of. We chose to take the Bosphorus Tour boat, a tourist trip up the bosphorus river. Most holiday makers just sit on it all day (ahhh to be a holiday maker) and enjoy the views, but we got off around half way up at a place called Saryier. The ferry left at 10:30 which gave us lots of time to enjoy a leisurely breakfast, and… fight with the hotel owner about the price. On their website it’s quoted in dollars, but they gave us a quote in euros, and wanted us to pay in lira. It was all very complicated and their main technique was to do a lengthy sum on the calculator and hold a number at us. In the end we paid what we knew we had to (we booked via booking.com so it was v legit) and left. We caught the ferry by the skin of our teeth and settled down to enjoy the ride. It was awesome seeing Istanbul by boat – it really is massive. It was specially cool seeing Europe and Asia on different sides of the river. During this journey the crew came round selling these delicious looking creamy things. Practically everyone bought one and obviously I did too. It turns out it was slightly fermented sour yoghurt. What a disappointment. I can’t imagine anyone selling that in the UK with anything like the reception it was having. Eventually we reached Saryier and had to get off the ferry. The road was immeadiately the nicest road we’d been on for a long time. It was so nice to be able to enjoy the countryside without lorries whizzing past. It soon all went to shit though as suddenly the road was only lorries. Waste disposal lorries. With dust spilling out of their (??). The road was covered in dust mud and we couldn't breathe from all the congestion. It was hilly hot and miserable. As Mum said "This is the worst place in the whole world". Eventually we managed to find a turning and got off the road - wherever it went. By this time it was getting pretty late and we were looking for a campspot. The wild exposed terrain was not great for camping so we pulled into a village and asked if we could camp in a school garden! The English teacher spoke just about English to communicate and said it was fine to pitch the tent, so pitch the tent we did! We definitely were the village attraction, with probably the entire population coming to talk to us. Quite a lot of children actually got into the tent, and didn't want to leave at all. When it came to breaking Ramadan time two different families brought us massive suppers, and we'd had a very late lunch so even for us it was a bit of an effort to finish. Don't worry though, we managed it!! Everyone was so nice to us. 

June 12th - Yassioren to Vize - "This is the worst town I've ever been to in my whole entire life" 

We had lots more free food for breakfast and then set out on our way. European Turkey and Asian Turkey have completely different landscapes and the European side of the Bosphorus is mainly rolling farmland which is a nice change.

 For lunch we were on a desperate search for Pide which is delish Turkish pizza. Sadly the search was fruitless so we settled for Moussaka (which is still incredible). The food in Turkey is all amazing but pretty samey - I think that's especially true of Ramadan. I was hoping for things like pita bread and hummus and falafel but they only seem to be available in hipster cafés in touristy places. Anyway we got to a restaurant and the owner phoned the family's English speaker. This is pretty common and usually the person can't speak any English at all and has been lying to everyone. This presents a problem for us as we try not to give them away. It turns out this dude actually not only spoke English, but lived in Coventry! We had a nice chat and at the end of our lunch the owner of the restaurant told us the man had paid for our meal!! This is absolutely classic of Turkish people. After this lunch we headed further towards the Bulgarian border, and went through a horrendous town. Everyone stared at us in a horrible way, and suddenly we were in a different country again. The women were all wearing burqas, which we haven't seen at all in all our time in Islamic countries. Lots of men directly asked us "how much" and blew kisses and made inappropriate gestures. I was back to hating Turkey. We did find this amphitheatre. Eventually we managed to find away out of the town and found some deserted ish looking farmland to camp in. We did go past this amphitheatre 

June 14th - Vize to Bulgaria (just) - Back in the EU! ! ! !

The Bulgarian/Turkey border is on top of a mountain range - who knew? The climb was very gentle though. In the last sign of civilisation we went to a small supermarket and the owner tried his absolute best to upsell as much as possible - in a very friendly way. Most of his suggestions looked absolutely revolting (dried grey fish) but he did convince us to buy some aubergine pesto which was delish. We managed to make it to the top of hill (just) and crossed over the border into the EU. WOOOOOOOOOO. Seeing that beautiful blue with those nice jazzy stars made me soooooo happy. We stopped at the first petrol station and asked if we could camp, and the petrol station owner said no without even looking up from his phone. Mum tried to wash her face in the bathroom and the woman kicked her out. Everyone was ignoring us??? I'd often craved this in Turkey but now it felt so cold. Is this what the UK is like? We cycled down the road and camped in a small forest. There was practically no traffic. 

June 15th - Bulgaria (just) to Burgas - We meet our second favourite ever German Daniel 

We were rolling down the hill into Burgas thinking how weird Bulgaria is when a German cycle tourist called Daniel caught up with us. Bulgaria is full of neglected Soviet apartment blocks and everyone was drunk. At one point I got chased by a drunk man with no teeth on a folding bike. Luckily he wasn't drunk enough to forget that he was going to go back up the hill... We were enjoying the descent when a German cycle tourist called Daniel caught up with us. We're predisposed to like Germans called Daniel and we liked this one, 

He'd learnt English by listening to political podcasts and was much more up to date than we were. We got into Burgas and went to a restaurant for lunch, and he said that not only was it the first proper meal he'd had on the trip (he eats dry bread and drinks milk) but also the first restaurant he'd been to for over 10 years!  He was saying in hotels every night so he clearly wasn't short of cash. I don't really understand people who don't prioritise food in their daily lives - but cycle tourists? What is there to look forward to apart from eating? Everyone we'd met in Bulgaria seemed to be mean!! Without exception. The waitress was really snappy and had lots of scary piercings. After this we checked into a cheap hotel for an afternoon off, and Daniel continued up the coast. We spent the afternoon trying and failing to do jobs, cooked in a disgusting kitchen and went to bed.. 

Samsun to Istanbul - Is this the final leg?

June 3rd. Samsun to Havza – The mountains were calling and we couldn’t resist.

We had a dilemma in Samsun, there are two routes from there to Istanbul, with different pros and cons. The other cyclists we’d met had taken the route all along the black sea, which has lots of short steep hills. This is also the longer route (by about 200km). It’s meant to be very scenic with lots of small villages providing a genuine insight into Turkish culture… The shorter inland route hits a much higher altitude, but the climbs are more gradual. This is a much more main road meaning more traffic, and also doesn’t go through many towns, so it’s less culturally interesting. Anyway Mum and I have had enough culture, we want to get to Istanbul ASAP, and we hate short steep hills so the choice wasn’t a particularly hard one – we turned left and went inland. The road was very nasty to start with and we were wondering if we’d made the right choice, but we’d committed by that point. It quickly got nicer and the scenery was pretty good. The best part was though, we had a roaring tailwind! We went uphill very gradually, ending up at around 900m. 

When it got to the evening we decided to camp in a petrol station. This has the advantage of being safe, with easy access to food/water. We actually ended up in a town with a dearth of petrol stations after it, so we camped in the gardens of a restaurant. We had kofta and endless cups of çay before sleeping. We had a nice chat with the owner who spoke some English. We were telling him how beautiful Turkey is and he told us how ugly the UK is. He did say he’s seen pictures of London Bridge, which looks “quite beautiful”. I’m the first person to diss the UK but I really did feel quite affronted by this. Some of the countryside in the UK is up there with the rest of the world! I found some pictures on my phone of the beautiful welsh hills, and St Mawes in glorious sunshine. He wasn’t very impressed.

June 4th. Havza to Ovakisusu – The most beautiful petrol station in the whole world

We left the petrol station and went downhill for ages. This was very frustrating when we knew we were going to have to climb again. 

On our way we met a peloton of cyclists out on their club run. Seeing them I got real pangs, I miss clubruns so much! (shoutout to my VCM pals for the most fab clubruns ever). Anyway we rode with them for a bit and then we stopped for tea all together. We couldn’t say no to this but we were a bit reluctant because we’d barely done any distance, and stopping for a break too early really kills morale. Anyway we had a fab time! Apparently they didn’t have to do Ramadan because they were cycling, which they all seemed okay with. There are a lot of excuses for not doing Ramadan it seems. They all worked at the local factory which made buttons for Topshop clothes. They showed us endless pictures of these buttons. And I mean endless. After this we had the obligatory selfies and then went our separate ways.  We went down some more, and then started going up. We had a picnic lunch and kept on up through the mountains. We went past the Ankara turning and the traffic halved. The scenery was also gorgeous, a mountain valley.

 We found another petrol station and asked if we could camp. Lots of people came over and one of them was doing all these weird gestures. Eventually we worked out that he wanted us to sleep in a pullout bed in his truck. Hello, no. The petrol station owner suggested that we sleep in the women’s prayer room, which we were a bit worried about because we thought the women would need to pray. The owner was very clear that they wouldn’t so we decided to go for it. Once in bed the disadvantages became obvious, the entire building’s lights were in a series circuit with one switch miles away from our room. The light was also the brightest light I’ve seen outside an operating theatre. No joke. Also, at 3:50, just before breaking fast, many groups of women tried to come in and pray. Why the owner thought this wouldn’t be a problem I will never understand. Anyway they were very shocked to us in our sleeping bags and had to pray in the men’s room. I imagine this is a first worldwide.

June 5th. Ovakisus to Ilgaz - Not so nice.

Neither of us slept particularly well with the bright lights and the praying women, and we perked up with the obligatory cup of çay. We carried on along the road, which was very beautiful with rice paddies and mosques and other exciting things.

 We also met two men on a motorbike, one Russian and one Turkish, and had a fight about the EU. This is quite a common theme as brexit is obviously the hot gossip. Unusually both of these two were pro brexit. The Turkish man told us that in 6 years we’d be really grateful, and when I tried to fight he kept saying “you’re 22, you know nothing”. Anyway Mum said I got a bit “Sally Somers-ish”. He says Turkey are going to try and join up with Russia. It all got a bit heated and then we went our separate ways. The road was really beautiful, winding its way through a valley gorge. In Turkey there’s been a lot of unwanted male attention, like cars slowly down and blowing kisses and asking “how much?”, and lots of cars overtaking us multiple times to get a good look. Two boys came past me on a motorbike and I waved at them, and then they were stopped further ahead. When I went past they blew kisses at me and I shouted “NO” at them. Then I got to a downhill and was speeding along at 30mph ish (probably not) when they came alongside and grabbed me. I screamed at them and they let go, and then drove ahead of me for a while laughing. I swore incredibly loudly and they rode off. I was literally shaking with anger for so many reasons. Then it started raining very heavily. We went into a petrol station and camped in a building site which provided a bit of shelter. I was still absolutely livid. I really tried to remember their numberplate but all I can see is a red hot fuzz of rage. Ughhhhhhhh. I felt so betrayed because of all the Turksih people I’d been really nice to when I just wanted to read my kindle. Obviously that’s ridiculous.

 

June 6th. Ilgaz to Bayindir - The nicest petrol station in the whole world

More of the same today. Although the main road has a considerable wide shoulder and feels very safe, it does slightly ruin the beautiful scenery. I was also feeling pretty negative, mainly because of yesterday, and also because GU9 is SO FAR AWAY, and I really really really miss lots of things now. I don't want to go home but I do want to feel like home is in grasping distance, and it just didn't feel like that. It also rained pretty solidly all day. We only had one more hill at altitude but we got to the bottom and both decided we wanted to do it the next day. There was a petrol station right there and we stopped for the night. The petrol station was run by a woman called Finjan who was kurdish, and the most sassy person I've ever met. She kept hitting us and rubbing our cheeks and spoke constantly in very loud kurdish(??). She was doing lots of useful actions but Mum and I differed in our translations. Once I thought she'd told us she'd had dental work done in Georgia, and Mum thought she'd said her daughter was about to start wearing the hijab. They gave us free supper and breakfast, and endless cups of tea, and I felt a lot better about people and the world in general. 

June 7th. Bayindir to Bolu - We can practically smell Istanbul

We'd been looking at the hill all night and it wasn't pretty in the morning. Eventually we made it to the top and then it was rolling all day. Still very beautiful though. I also rescued this tortoise from the middle of the dual carriageway. 

We camped at another petrol station, played backgammon, and the petrol station staff wanted to play. It became clear that they were up against an opponent of a very high calibre, and they quickly resorted to cheating. They literally picked up the dice and put it down on a different number, whilst speaking very seriously in Turkish. The cheating escalated I was defs going to win, and in the end they were just moving the counters shamelessly. It wasn't even jokingly. In the end I only won by 1 throw. Outrageous. 

June 8th. Bolu to Sapanca - Down and down and down. 

We descended horribly quickly from Bolu. Days and days of climbing gone in an instant. Gutted. 

The road also became hideous quite quickly. Lots and lots of traffic and slip roads. Although we were still 200km away from Istanbul, you can really tell 11 million people live there. On the way down we were stopped by a man who said he owned a "riding room" 20km down the road and we should come and find him. I was very reluctant to do this, I'm really sick of having frustrating conversations with people aided by google translate. And what even is a riding room? We did go though, and it turns out it was a horse themed restaurant! They gave us a free breakfast and generous slices of Baklava. (I don't think I've written about how much I love Baklava, I've eaten so much over the past month I'm practically a piece of Baklava at this point). 

After this we cracked on, stopping for an Iskender kebab for lunch. This is deep fried bread cubes, tomato stuff, donner meat and yoghurt. Delicious. (I can feel Alison and Sally wincing).

June 9th. Sapanca to Istanbul - Back on European soil and IT FEELS SOOOOO GOOD. 

I woke up with the call to prayer, and checked the exit polls for #GE2017, and then obviously couldn't go back to sleep. I was really really really happy. I'm not going to say anything else. Just before we left Sapanca we booked a hostel for Istanbul for that night. If we hadn't booked this we definitely would not have gone there. Anyway we set off, and it poured with rain all day. We'd met a Malaysian cyclist the day before who'd told us there was rain forecast, and he wasn't joking. It wasn't nice rain, it was horrendous. To start with nothing could stop me from smiling, but it turns out it definitely could. The roads were rivers and we kept being overtaken by massive lorries throwing up spray. We decided it wasn't safe and we had to stop. We waited until the rain got a bit better, and then had to cycle solidly for 5 hours to make the ferry to Istanbul. It was really bad. Eventually we got on the ferry and sped towards Istanbul. When we got to Istanbul it was dark and rainy and the hostel was through the town. We had a bit of a dodgy ride there, including disturbing an actual gunfight. Not joking, actual shots. As soon as they saw us they all shouted "No problem no problem!" and ushered us through. Eventually we made it to the hostel, discovered the advertised "bicycle parking" was on the street, carried our bikes up a flight of stairs and fell asleep.