In Germany, a while back now, we met a very caring German teacher from Mainz who warned us of how dangerous Eastern Europe was. In Hungary people told us not to go to horrible Romania and in Romania we were told countless times that Bulgaria is a very bad place, the mafia will get us and we’d be simply crazy to go there. The Irony is that the people just get friendlier, more relaxed, more family orientated, we feel safer, people want to look after you more, the food becomes less synthetic and we see more life in the villages and towns.

For us Bulgaria is by far the most special country of this trip, we have only experienced a small part but what we have seen have made the last week a lot of fun and to think we nearly skipped Bulgaria to get to Istanbul quicker. We arrived just over a week ago across the Danube in a very small but laid back town of Orjahovo. Once again you could see and feel that you were in a new country and the pace of life seemed to go down a gear. By chance an English guy called David spotted us cycling around the town and became our friend over the next 2 days. He showed us the surrounding villages, introduced us to his very nice Bulgarian friends and let us crash in his apartment for a night.

The road was fairly hilly as we headed south and it was also 36 degrees and making cycling a bit tougher. Arriving in Vratsa we couldn’t believe our eyes as the city lies at the foothills of the Balkan mountains, providing an amazing backdrop to what we found to be a relaxing and picturesque city. The next day we were strangely excited to take on the Balkans and after talking to some locals found an ideal route that cut around the side of the high passes and then through an amazing valley all the way to Sofia.

Sofia turned out to be a fun city to visit, we had no expectations and although it doesn’t have all the impressive sights as other cities, the atmosphere is great and again we felt relaxed there. From the capital we decided to keep heading south and try and see some of the sights along the way. The road south was big and busy so we took a couple of trains to the most interesting places for sightseeing such as Rila Monastery; a must see in Bulgaria and the health and wellness town of Sandanski in the South. 

We loved Bulgaria, the people the food (they put cheese on everything!) but sadly, to get to Turkey in time, we left today by train to Thessaloniki in Greece. No Istanbul for now but we get to add another country to the list!