The end of the beginning

Day 76 (Saturday, 28th of November, 2015):

Damn. 76 days. It seems a bit late to start journaling but better late than never I suppose. I’ve decided to do this for the trip and hopefully continue even after. I feel it’ll be a very healthy, stress-relieving improvement in my life.

Today we left Skopje and entered into Serbia. We got a relatively early start, went to the post office, grocery store, and went in search of Insulin for Joseph but was told we couldn’t get it in Macedonia. In a lot of Slavic countries there are often highways right next to freeways and so we rode on this for the entirety of the day. We entered Serbia, country number 11, just before we stopped for lunch. It’s interesting to see a lot of the ethic boundaries. Eastern European countries, and even parts of the countries, have different amounts of Islamic influence. A village is always easy to spot with a thin, narrow minaret pointing to the sky. We continued north to the town of Vranje and finally found a pharmacy that supplied insulin. We’re trying to push for Sofia, Bulgaria, 265 km from Skopje in 2 days to allow for some relaxing days in the last week or so before Istanbul. Leaving Vranje we planned to bike another 25 km in the dark as it was raining but settled on 8 and took shelter under a bridge when the rain really picked up. The road under the bridge had little traffic so we sent up our tents to the side of it and called it a night.

I woke up to the now familar tone of the police sternly repeating “NO SLEEP!” We handed over our passports and got slightly frustraded as they continued to say “NO SLEEP!” even as we were packing up. They left and we rolled out about 6km down to road to a field where the police where sure not to bother us. We had to cover 100 miles the next day to reach Sofia so we set the alarm clock for 4:30.

Day 77 (Sunday, 29th of November, 2015):

Today has been once of those days that’ll be memorable for a long time down the road. Sleeping in past the alarm and leaving camp around 7:30 we had some doubt whether we’d make it all the way here to Sofia, 100 miles later. We biked on and to our sides the hills rose with the snow line clearly visible. Pretty soon we were in those hills and for the first time of the trip, it was snowing! My feet became colder and eventually (and thankfully) became numb for the remainder of the day. We climbed higher and higher. Higher than we expected. The snow picked up and visibility became poor. We got up to an elevation with about half a foot of snow to the sides of the road. We were in it! It was thrilling, exciting and even better because we knew we would get a hot shower that night. We crested the top and headed downhill approaching the Bulgarian/Serbian border. To our sides the snow rapidly decreased on the trees and ground as we coasted down. We reach the border and finally entered into a new time zone having been in the previous since Portugal 10 weeks earlier. We’re now 10 hours ahead of the clock back home and the next zone will be in Georgia. We had about a little over 2 hours of daylight and 95 km. The sky began to clear up really for the first time since Rome and a beautiful sunset was revealed. We stopped in the first town we came, 40 km later, to check on our Warmshower prospects. We got a positive response with an address! It was a crisp -1 degrees Celsius as we biked into the darkness for another 3 hours. Not unusually, I had my mind on Asia and post Istanbul. I thought a lot about about mental preparedness and the importance of it. It was below freezing and it was incredible. The stars were clear without a cloud obstructing them. My feet may have been colder but I couldn’t feel them. There wasn’t a whole lot I could do about it at the moment either. Coming over a hill and looking into the valley we could see the many lights of Sofia and the surrounding suburbs. We coasted into the valley towards the sea of lights. It was just slightly below freezing and the ground was slightly wet. A perfect recipe for black ice. Coming down a straight stretch of road my bike with all it’s weight suddenly lost control and crashed to the ground. My bike and I slid along the black ice for 10 yards with my leg trapped underneath. My knee and hip were scrapped and bruised up along with a rip in my down jacket but besides that I was great. I took a bit of time to recover and bend back some parts on my bike. I took the remainder of the down hill pretty cautiously and decided on changing both of my tires in Istanbul. We rode into Sofia and reached our host’s house by 10pm. Success ran through our minds having finished 12 hours of biking. Our hosts are a super friendly couple with a 1 year old son. The man, Georgi, is an avid outdoorsman and it’s been interesting hearing about the climbing scene in eastern Europe. I’ll sleep real well. Goodnight!

Day 78 (Monday, 30th of November, 2015):
And sleep in I did. As usual when we make it to a big city, we lazed around long into the afternoon. We made food and played with the host’s adorable 1 year old boy named Vladimir. Eventually we made it out around 6:30 after Joe patched a flat that mysteriously appeared over night. Sofia is a beautiful city with massive rectangular buildings that reminded me of London oddly enough. Passing the largest church in Sofia, St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, we then rode to the oldest building in the area, the St. Sofia church. There we caught onto a free guided tour to a fantasy land looking Russian church. After we biked back to the apartment, chatted with our hosts, Rumi and Georgi, we watched the second Austin Powers movie.

Day 79 (Tuesday, 1st of December, 2015):

The first of December! A month of relaxation as we take our time to make it down to Istanbul and I fly to Greece to be with Astrid for a little over 2 weeks. I can hardly wait having just booked my plane ticket and made hotel reservations for 4 nights. I also sent out Warmshower requests and quickly got a reply from a man who will me stay for 6 nights between arriving in Istanbul and flying down to Greece. I’m constantly surprised by the amount of hospitality of we receive. We got out around 4 and said our goodbyes. We have less than 350 km to cover in the next 4 days. That means waking up late and setting up camp set while it’s still light. I’m excited to be living real easy these next several days. The weather will be clear as we head to the coast of the Black Sea and approach on the final days of Europe. As I’m closing in on the beginning of Asia, I’ve never been so confident about my ability to face the hardships that are guaranteed to exist in the Winter alone. The foreignness of the remainder of the route has never felt to intriguing. I won’t say that I don’t miss home but I have still so much love for this trip and ready to push my mental and physical limits. Asia is where it starts to really get physically demanded. Temperatures will be below freezing for days on end and the Turkish interior consists of rugged landscapes of beautiful mountains, lakes, and lush forests. I just want to be there now! It’s hard for me to not think of it when I feel I should be soaking up the ease and celebration of the next month. It’ll have the completion of Europe, celebrating hard with Joe, Greece with Astrid, Christmas, New Year Eve, and looking forward to the mystery and adventure of Asia. And with that I’m going to close up the laptop and go to sleep with a smile on my face.
Day 80 (Wednesday, 2nd of December, 2015):

Today we continued east and after sleeping in and reading in the morning, we headed out around 10. Before lunch, Joseph’s chain had broken again. Four day with a new chain was all it took. I think it’s fair to say it’s a problem with his components as it’s a Shimano chain and of high quality. Hopefully it doesn’t break as often as the last. From Sofia to 5 days later in Burgas we’re riding on one highway for essentially the entire time. It feels like a sample of some of the roads I’ll be on in central Asia where I may be pushing a thousand kilometers of monotonous steppe on a single road . Except the highway we’re on is just over 350 km with beautiful hills and peaks to our sides. I’ve really enjoyed it so far as I feel more in touch with the natural landscape surrounding me. A highlight of the day was definitely a dwarf herding his cattle that must’ve been nearly twice his height. Good for him though for not letting his height stop him. As it was getting dark we took a separate road into another valley that led to a town architecturally preserved in the tradition Bulgarian style of the 19th century. It was too dark as we got into town to view it but we’ll check it out tomorrow. It’s starting to rain but I hope the forcast for nice weather is still right.

Day 81 (Thursday, 3rd of December, 2015):
We woke up after a night of little sleep as the loud wind kept us up. Fortunately, when it got light the rain subsided. We camped on the higher part of the town on an open hillside. I was standing outside a hotel waiting for Joseph to be ready when man inside invited me in for tea. Another kind act by a stranger. We scoped out the town. Joe and I rode back to the main highway both agreeing that the 25 km deviation probably wasn’t quite worth it as it didn’t seem that different. We continued east down the valley to a city where Joseph could finally find a bike shop and get another tube along with a spare chain link. Farther down on the highway a man we had exchanged a couple words with earlier in town flagged us down for a couple of drinks. He was a pretty odd guy but we graciously accepted the drinks. We pushed for a super late lunch past 4 in a city with a Thracian tomb dating back to to 4 century BCE. A couple miles on we camped. Dinner was more exciting than usual. As I was unscrewing my canister of fuel from the stove a fireball of an explosion a couple feet high appeared right in front of me. Frightening as it was no one was hurt and my noodles were ready to eat. Somehow the canister wasn’t quite screwed on directly and gas began to leak.

Day 82 (Friday, 4th of December, 2015):

Today was a relatively simple day. The landscape was beautiful as we continued through the open valley. The flatness allowed us to comfortably crank out 130 km. We set lunch to be at a spot 100 km from Burgas which happened to be in the middle of nowhere. After a long lunch with some reading we headed back out for another 50 km. It feels pretty wild to have just 5 more days of biking till the end of Europe.

Day 83 (Saturday, 5th of December, 2015):

We finally made it to Burgas around noon after an easy 50 km in the morning. We were planning to stay with a friend of someone we met at the Thanksgiving dinner but that fell through. We rode to the Black Sea and it marked a point of accomplishment. I looked out into the vastness and envisioned myself way out there in Turkey, Georgia, and Russia. We rode to a hostel and relaxed a while before celebrating at 2 bars and a disco tech. We collapsed into our beds at 4 am.

 

Next post will be from Istanbul!

Into the snow!

Alexander Nevsky Cathedral

Russian Orthodox Church

Riding down the valley

Feeling accomplished on the Black Sea