Cycling to Gdog’s – Romania (Part 2)
Having left Romania for Bulgaria, we spent a rest day in Ruse. The contrast between the Romanian town, Guirgui, and Bulgarian town, Ruse, is huge despite them being a bridge apart. Ruse had a beautiful town centre filled with water fountains, a town hall, opera, and plenty of cafe’s and bars to sit outside in the evening. The first part of our rest day was spent lying in bed. Once up we found Planet Food, a coffee shop near the centre and bought the equivalent of two meals per person (it got a look of shock from the waitress).
Cycling to Gdog’s – Romania (Part 1)
Having met Ed and Mark in Serbia and cycled with them for nearly a week, I decided to change my plans. The original plan, I would cross into Bulgaria at Ruse, cycle one day to Varna, a second down the Bulgarian coast, and a third day cycling to Kirklareli in Turkey where I would take a bus into Istanbul (the roads are awful going into the city, so best to avoid them). Instead I decided to cycle an extra day to Constanta and from there either take a bus direct to Istanbul, or stop off along the Bulgarian coast for some more cycling (probably the former!). It meant doing around 150km less but I didn’t mind.
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Cycling to Gdog’s – Serbia
Entering Serbia was easy, and took only a couple of minutes at the border control. At first I was surrounded by farms, and relatively poor villages but as I got closer to Novi Sad the surroundings slowly became wealthier and roads busier. I had left at 1100 and arrived by 1400 so had cycled in the heat of the day… around 32C. It wasn’t very pleasant, especially as there were hills. I told myself I wouldn’t do it again (how little I knew!).
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Cycling to Gdog’s – Croatia
Entering Croatia, psychologically, felt great. I had been 8 years before and really liked the country and people so was happy to be back. As I entered a huge thunderstorm ran along side my towards Hungary with flashes of lightning and cracks of thunder. I smiled to myself, glad I was out of Hungary. I sped on, averaging over 30kmh as the thunderstorm a bit too close for comfort. It was quite exciting being so close yet not actually in it (like I’m used to). I was so close that when the wind changed direction I could feel spots of rain. This continued for around 20km until it started to change direction!
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