We’ve reached Bulgaria!

We rolled our bikes across the border and made sure to follow the “do not give bribes” signs at the passport booth…although I would’ve been glad to give away my now useless and heavy dinar coins.

We ended up crossing the border with our new friend Barbaros, who was close to finishing his own cycling tour from Amsterdam to his home in Turkey. He works as an illustration artist and takes a bike tour every year.

After entering Bulgaria, we pulled into the small town Dragoman to stay the night before we headed to the capital of Sofia. We got some great food (cornflake-coated chicken is officially authentic Bulgarian food) and dipped our feet in the pool.

We even managed to make a couple friends: a friendly mutt who followed us after a few pets and a sweet little calico who may have been interested in my chicken. Like other cycling blogs had warned us, there are a lot of stray dogs in Eastern Europe, but we’ve personally found they’re nothing to worry about. They seem to either be very friendly and just want some love or shy and will keep some distance if you come towards them. We have had some instances of them chasing the bikes. Like the time Kyle was ahead of me and caught the attention of a dog in a construction site. By the time I got there, 10 dogs had emerged and were barking! But like all the other times, if you get off your bike, they’ll either walk away or come try to get a pet. I worry more about crashing into dogs chasing me than them actually biting.

The next morning, we grabbed some breakfast at the corner bakery and made our way to Sofia. Although it called for some climbing, the landscape was beautiful with its rocky hills and colorful wild flowers.

With the heat, we’ve been needing to refill our water bottles several times throughout the day. We normally do this by stopping by gas stations or finding public fountains if we’re lucky. But after cycling to the top of a particularly tough pass in a remote area, we both arrive with empty bottles. Right on cue, some Bulgarian guardian angels (a group of guys on their way to karate camp) pulled over and gave us a cold two liter bottle of water after watching us go up the hill. People are always so kind to us!

After riding down that huge hill, we arrived in Sofia. Glad to have a bike lane as we entered the city, we rode easy and took in the views. Especially this very interesting restaurant.

We took the next day off to explore the city, but unfortunately were met with a day of thunderstorms. We weren’t able to attend a walking tour, but we managed to fit in some sites between the rain. St. Sofia is a gorgeous church, with gilded domes and deep toned murals. The city had a young vibe and we loved seeing the contrast of the classical statues in the city park surrounded by half-pipes and ramps with groups of teenagers showing off their tricks.

After enjoying our day in the capital, we are headed back on the road and on our way to the ancient city of Plovdiv!

The next morning we rolled out early to avoid as much heat as possible on our 60 mile ride south to Jagodina, Serbia. The route we took was a highway through Serbia but thanks to the fancy new toll road that ran parallel, our old road was made redundant and pleasantly devoid of traffic.

While refilling water in a small town, a dude called us over and gifted us some sunglasses. The fact we were already wearing sunglasses didn’t faze him at all.

About halfway there, another dude called us over but this time invited Kat and I to sit with him at a cafe and have some beers. This was a much better gift.

His name was Sasha and he was fascinated with our trip. We chatted for a bit and discovered Sasha was really into was rock’n’roll. He had just watched Greta Van Fleet and the Cure play a concert and loved telling us about all the bands he’d seen live. Kat and I also love music so we talked shop for a good hour before we had to get going. Just to solidify his status as an awesome guy, Sasha gave us his phone number and told us to call if we ever ran into problems while in Serbia.

The last 30 miles into town were brutally hot and we drank about 6 liters of water each. We finally arrived in Jagodina but not before Kat found a stray kitten and tried to convince me to sneak it into our hotel…

A lot of the area was pretty fancy and new, a contrast to the rural scenery we’d seen in North Serbia. Pretty beat and seeing signs for a nearby “aqua park”, we took a day off and enjoyed a reprieve from the high temps. Sasha had warned us earlier not to go to the Aqua Park as it was run by the mafia. Given how hot it was, Kat and I decided to risk a visit anyways. It was $5 each and inside was a totally normal looking water park. We had a great time swimming in their large, mafia-pools and tubing down their many mafia-waterslides.

After cooling off and now with a much higher opinion of the mob, we continued on to Nis. This was another 60 miles but with highs in the 80’s, the day felt way more manageable. The signs for local businesses are always a treat thanks to literally nonexistent copyright enforcement.

In Nis, we grabbed some traditional Serbian food from Kafana Meze. Kafana’s are basically the cafe/bars in the region and serve a variety of food a la carte. It’s super affordable and our huge, tasty meal was less than $15.

Today we arrived in Pitor. It was supposed to be a “short” 42 mile day but with two giant climbs, gravel roads, and scattered thunderstorms, we didn’t arrive until almost 9pm. The terrain and weather were tough but made for some beautiful scenery.

Tomorrow Kat and I say goodbye to Serbia and enter Bulgaria!

*Bonus Pic* Our first road sign to show Istanbul!

Before we jump into bike shenanigans, I just want to share one last flight story.

As we were boarding the plane to leave the US, one of the Delta gate agents alerted us to an issue. We would be refused on the flight because “we didn’t have Serbian visas”. I explained that US citizens do not need a visa (the stamp in my passport showing we were just there three weeks ago was a paradox beyond comprehension). Because gate agents are never wrong and I wouldn’t back down, a supervisor got involved who parroted the same visa nonsense. After power tripping for a bit, they eventually relented when they couldn’t actually find anything to back up their claims and we boarded our plane (but not before a stern warning that Delta wouldn’t take responsibility if we were refused entry to Serbia). We were relieved to get on the flight but now Kat and I started to worry: were we wrong?

Despite every leg of the flight getting a delay, we did indeed arrive in Serbia. First thing we did was grab some dinner with our friends Vladmir and Milena who had agreed to watch over our bicycles. We had some phenomenal food at a nearby restaurant which (after 48 hours of eating exclusively fast food and airline dinners) Kat and I happily scarfed down. Afterwards we picked up the bicycles and said goodbye to our friends

Our first day leaving Belgrade was HOT. We missed the Spring weather as today’s highs creeped into the 90’s. Combined with some hill climbs, Kat and I chugged through twice the water we normally use.

This was no problem though because a seriously rad dude on a motorcycle pulled off the road ahead of us and ran over with three giant bottles of water and powerade. He told us they were a gift and chatted for a bit before he sped off. Between him and the occasional motorist waving us on, we quickly remembered why we love Serbia so much.

Now I’m writing from the town of Smederevo, where we found a cool campsite/hostel overlooking the Danube. They have some cute pups we’re playing with as we chill outside. We’d bought some pasta ingredients earlier in the day for dinner, but the owner offered us a home cooked meal instead. Naturally we said yes.

Tomorrow will be the first day we veer off the Danube river since we started following it way back in Germany. The route will start meandering South/Southeast to Sofia, Bulgaria and eventually Istanbul. Feeling refreshed from our detour back home, Kat and I are glad to be back in the saddle 🙂

 

 

 

Good news ya’ll, we got our Chinese visas! This wasn’t a sure bet by any means and initially it seemed liked we might be denied. In hindsight, my application photo may have had something to do with this.

Now for the bad, our flight from Pittsburgh got delayed and it looked like we would miss our connection in NYC to Europe. No worries though – Delta Airlines booked us on a later flight that would fix things. Relieved, we arrived to JFK airport to learn

1. Delta didn’t actually do this
2. The next available flight to Europe was now 25 hours later 
3. We would be sleeping in NYC 💀

Despite it being Delta’s fault we were staying a night in New York, they lived up to their reputation and told us to pound sand when we asked for hotel accommodation. It was approaching midnight at this point, so we begrudgingly booked a nearby airport hotel hoping things would go better tomorrow. John Mulaney sums up our feelings well.

The past three weeks have gone better. We enjoyed the unexpected R&R by hanging out with our friends and family. Some of our favorite memories were

1. Handing out bridesmaid invites to Kat’s friends
2. Playing Dungeons & Dragons with our Pittsburgh oil & gas friends
3. Secretly catching a train to Philly to surprise our friend Alina after her engagement to Mike

Delta-willing, our next post will be from Serbia. Wish us luck!