Countries visited: Romania, Bulgaria, Georgia
Cycled mileage in June: 874.4km
Cycled mileage per country: 269.4km Romania, 561.7km Bulgaria, 43.3km Georgia
Total cycled mileage incl. June: 4,016.2km
June mileage not cycled 1,394.8km (walking, ferry, bus)
Days per country: 4d - Romania, 21d - Bulgaria, 5d - Georgia
Days cycling: 12d
Technical failures: 1 Puncture, 1 broken pannier hook
Link to this month's route
We had finished May a couple of days short of Romanian capital Bucharest. The ride there was mostly uneventful. It was awfully hot, stray dogs kept chasing us and the cities we passed through were rather lacklustre. On the last day before Bucharest we bashed out 130 kilometres by early afternoon just because we couldn't wait to get to our Warmshowers hosts in the outskirts of Bucharest. After our tyre disaster back in Belgrade Continental had kindly agreed to send us two full sets of new tyres to Romania. Our hosts allowed us to use their address and so we settled on staying with them until the tyres would arrive.
 |
| New tyres! |
We used the waiting time to stroll around Bucharest. The Romanian capital is another of those cities that keep fascinating us even though we've both been there several times. This time we finally came to visit the Palace of the Parliament, one of the world's biggest buildings.
 |
| Parliament Palace from the outside... |
 |
| ...and from the inside |
The next day the new tyres arrived and we were good to go. Another day of cycling brought us to the Bulgarian border and to Ruse. We stayed for a night and spent some time wandering around town.
 |
| Sand sculptures in Ruse |
The next stretch through the Balkan Mountains appeared to be exhausting and it felt sensible to relax a bit beforehand.
From Ruse we set off to Razgrad. Despite the mountains the ride wasn't too bad.
 |
| A bit hilly in the Balkan Mountains |
 |
| Amazing landscape along the way |
We arrived pretty early in Razgrad and explored the picturesque old town.
The next day disaster struck once more. Dominik didn't feel particularly well when we started and it got worse with every hour. To top off things Simon hit a massive pothole which caused the inner tube of his rear tyre to explode and a pannier hook to break. The last kilometres to Omurtag were a serious struggle and we were so glad to discover a hotel on the edge of town.
 |
| The middle of nowhere has a name - Omurtag |
 |
| City centre of Omurtag |
It took 4 long, boring days in probably the most lacklustre town in Bulgaria until Dominik recovered and we were able to carry on.
Next destination was Sherawna, a historic village that had been recommended to us. In fact it was an interesting place and we thoroughly enjoyed our time strolling through the narrow cobblestone streets.
 |
| Posing for a picture with our host Marin in Sherawna |
 |
| Relaxing on the veranda of the guesthouse |
 |
| Sherawna is famous for its historical houses |
 |
| Exploring the narrow streets |
 |
| Traditional Bulgarian breakfast |
From Sherawna we pushed on to Yambol. We had a great time with two Couchsurfers there and were surprised about how much there was to see in Yambol!
 |
| Esky Mosque in Yambol |
 |
| Covered bazar |
Originally we had intended to continue from Yambol to the Turkish border and follow the Black Sea shoreline to Georgia. This route would have meant a lot of mountains and Dominik didn’t feel like he would have had it in him to cycle another mountainous stretch after his stomach flu in Omurtag. Also we realized that we were a bit behind schedule already to get to the Chinese border before winter. In the end we settled on taking the Black Sea ferry from Bulgarian seaport Burgas to Batumi in Georgia rather than cycling through Turkey. Certainly the most difficult decision on this journey so far!
We backtracked a couple of kilometres from Yambol and reached Burgas the next day after a leisurely ride. We instantly went to the ferry operator's office just to learn we were too late for this week's sailing. The earliest sailing was the week after and we booked two tickets for the 3-day cruise.
We spent the waiting time exploring Burgas, relaxing on the beach and exploring nearby historic cities Sozopol and Nesebar.
 |
| Approaching Burgas |
 |
| "Kilometer Zero" in Burgas - "Kilometer 3999" for us |
 |
| One of the ancient churches of UNESCO site Nesebar |
 |
| Another ancient church - in Sozopol this time |
 |
| Remains of the fortress of Sozopol |
 |
| Excavation in Sozopol |
On June 24th we boarded the ferry - and discovered there was another German cyclist on the same sailing, André. The next 3 days went by rather uneventful. We spent some time talking with André, sitting on the sun deck and planning the route ahead.
 |
| Relaxing aboard the ferry to Batumi |
Even though the ferry mainly caters trucks it felt more like a cruise to us!
After nightfall on the third day Batumi got in sight and there was quite a bit of excitement.
 |
| Batumi in sight |
Just before midnight Georgian migration and customs officials arrived and soon we were stamped in to Georgia. Obviously we weren't to keen to leave the ferry in the middle of the night and so we were allowed to stay in our cabins until sunrise. We got a bit of sleep, left the ferry and headed to a café serving breakfast.
Once we had checked in at the hostel we went straight to the Azerbaijan consulate to apply for visas. The guy in the consulate sent us to an agency to do the application for us and so we did. We were then told that it would take anything between 2 to 5 days for our visa to be approved. We decided to stay in Batumi for 2 more days and then continue along the coast should the visa not be ready by then. We would then simply return to Batumi by bus to pick up the visas.
 |
| Relaxing at our hostel in Batumi |
 |
| At the beach in Batumi |
 |
| View of Batumi |
 |
| Downtown Batumi |
 |
| Somewhere in the Batumi Botanical Garden |
 |
| Outskirts of the Botanical Garden |
