EUROVELO 13 – Ep 8 …Bulgaria to Greece and into TURKEY!

THIS EPISODE… Into TURKEY!!

Here we have one more monster day in Bulgaria to Ivaylovgrad in Eastern Bulgaria, tackling yet more huge hills and finding more remote villages and towns. Definitely one of the toughest days, given the wind and cold too. The next day proves to be a whole different world as we enter Greece, and of course the sun comes back out after a few weeks of pretty much winter. After just a few hours, we approach the Turkey border and continue into beautiful Edirne….

Accommodation:

Zlatograd – see last video

Ivaylovgrad – Hotel Armira – 6/10. did the job. Spacious and around 20Euro with en suite. Locked bikes in outside around the side of the hotel.

Greece – just cycled through to Turkey

Edirne – Hotel Edrin – 9/10. One of the best apartment style hotels we’ve seen. Clean, cheap, amazing breakfast included. approx. 20Euro. Great location to walk everywhere in the city. Locked our bikes in the stairwell.

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We’re cycling from London to Istanbul via the Eurovelo 15, 6 and 13 from July until November 2018. Feel free to subscribe for updates on new videos! I hope you enjoy watching them, I certainly love making them! Even better, we would love our videos to inspire others to cycle tour. If you have cycle, route or tech questions, please leave us a message and I’ll be happy to answer!

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Monte is Harriet’s Dawes Karakum, and Komodo is Mat’s Fuji Touring. Full kit and tech gear list in blog.

Music: 
www.epidemicsound.com
www.bensound.com/royalty-free-music
Sigur Ros

today 87 we’re going today house mom children [Applause] this is slaughter grad and we’re leaving going towards cars alley today to mom chill grad I’m really worried that they’re gonna get squashed cuz it where they are I’m gonna just put something sort of in their way I’ve made a bit of blockade [Music] so we just got some moment your grad 57k really easy day a few big a sentence but nothing compared to the mountains last week and we’ve got this place it’s called the aparthotel and it’s about 18 pounds absolutely massive day 89 and today we’re gonna go 90 kilometers basically to the Greek border we haven’t booked anything because it’s quite long day and it’s still quite hilly so if we don’t make it we’ll have the white camp or find something different but I think we make it there’s loads of options in this town house it just saying goodbye to our friends so after leaving mom chill grad our apartment we thought would be relatively flat and level and slowly up we’ve been going up for 45 minutes straight now it’s quite tough when you’ve woken up really cold well it’s cold outside it’s warm in our apartment huh pretty tough so we just got to a big cross point crossroads and basically it says as a diversion we rather go right but it adds on about 50 kilometres to our trip today my hamstring is absolutely burning already and I think I’ve got a slow puncture or we carry on going straight and we risk it I think even if they’re doing roadworks we can push our bikes around 50 kilometres or a bit of road closure walking with the last name Bulgaria we have adventure that’s where we’re supposed to be going to that place that’s basically been boarded up we’re going for it worryingly we are going left but we want to go to criminal grad happens Krueger drama grad slash bro I knew that be the case eyes to stare through be a good man straight away around the corner this is where we’re going alright slowly slowly it’s probably not good with that for that long wow that’s had better days there we go so imagine get through yeah we don’t speak we don’t speak Bulgarian they told us to walk it was like so like okay we walk I think they just gave up and we just got through in the end but that has saved a very very long detour so we’re very happy and down there it’s back to the old road a downtick roma grad find some lunch and crack on the big benefit to blogging our way through that roadblock is that we’ve now got probably about 10k of empty downhill road that looks a little bit like this here we are in kromagg rad about quarter of the way about third of the way today again another pretty ugly communist little town unfinished buildings abandoned buildings a lot of people were staring at Hauser she’s got long cycling shorts on but from tomorrow we’re gonna she’s gonna wear my black trousers I think stop people staring but also our respect as well give them respect and they’ll respect you back kind of thing but yeah didn’t expect to have it in Turkey but this is the last day we’ve got in Bulgaria so we’re pretty close to the borders now ROS ROS gone there’s a lot of improvements going on to the roads around here and there’s big EU signs saying how much they’re spending on it which is great to the country so hopefully it brings more businesses and things when the structure improves I think this has been one of my personally one of my least favourite days all we’ve done this morning for the last 50 kilometres pretty much it’s climb up and up and up on broken roads roads that just been repaired with no view as well because the forest is all around us no real villages to go through the town where it was forgettable good food though and I think there’s also we know the exciting times going forward going forward we’ll get to Greece tomorrow and Turkey which means hopefully souvlaki and summer Tatsuki and it’s flat as well it always the food dear and also today nearly 90 K day so it’s just like oh I just want everyone done with plus my saddle still going down and I’ve got a bit of a flat on my back it’s just a bit of a killer really this is the magical pancake Borik cheesy stuff and this is basically what’s inside so it’s got like all this lovely hard cheese has a bad example what day how many K says 87 km/h last 20 was mostly down which was a just a dream what are they so tied last name Bulgaria want to remember looks like we’ve got a nice base tonight they de 90 today we’re leaving Bulgaria our second longest country in terms of duration on this trip and we’re going into Greece for lunch I’m turkey for dinner and finish up in herbs and a Oh third day on the trip where we visited three countries in one day but first we’re repairing the first flat tire that we’ve had all trip can’t believe we made it 90 days we’ve got four spare tubes and that’s gonna just change us back to higher so Hey look a bit faster today not bad getting 90 days was that that tires pretty good going we found those little spikes in there from the thorns I think and eventually it just got our slow puncher and luckily we only got about 45 K today to do today so loads of time the Sun is finally out again and we’re back on the flat roads [Music] everything’s good everything is good on the last week now pretty much leave it so yeah today is day 19 of our trip and we’re going to the Greek border we should reach there by around lunchtime and then we’re praying we find a lovely little Taverna on the Greek side and look at the weather I finally got my sandals back on as well most importantly let’s see what has managed to spend of our remaining live what did you end up get in and try to buy everything Oh God already bought exciting all good take it we can take that wherever we go and course you bought some cheese all raisins Oh crepe cranberries nice for porridge aha yes hydration yes oh you don’t know Oh salt as well really good well done house [Music] we’re in Greece here we are you can see if we can spend our last five Bulgarian left in this little shop no finish Istanbul what did you end up with that brilliant okay well apples for lunch dinner breakfast lunch dinner breakfast lunch dinner yes all right what do you see in front of you apart from that key little puppy great no mountains no more heroes and the Sun back I told you it’s always sunny in Greece no Jon enough oh we’ve got about 18 [Music] so over here in Greece instead of mass littering and pollution and stuff like you’ve got in most of Eastern Europe it’s just replaced with cotton so because we’re only increased for literally probably three hours as we cross the top corner into Turkey we don’t have any euro so as you’ve just seen we just spent our last he left at once and Burak some pizza bread to eat and then we just seeing opposite or Taverna over there and the guy just came across the street and just gave us a couple of cokes I don’t know where just said you go have some cokes fresh cold yeah so friendly we’ve got no mind given they just said just put the bottles back over there when you’re done and just really friendly luxuries love Greece [Music] those three things we’ve got to do in the last we’re any spending off Thank You official to turn the roaming off we’re leaving the EU good mouth turkey doesn’t have free internet so downloaded the OP by Max we’re out three layer up that’s houses on tip-top [Applause] you’re showing off now laughter that lovely little stop for a couple of beers and a bit football with a little Greek lad okay just coming to the end of our time in Greece now the full two hours of it and we’re getting up to the turkey border you’re going through customs and houses Charles is on my trousers our hunt we’re ready to go so excited this is absolutely momentous can’t believe we deciphered the turkey like legends [Music] no man’s land between Greece and Turkey we did it we just reached Turkey can’t believe we just cycled from London to Turkey amazing not just I called bet 90 days 90 days feels great to be here it’s only about 10k now to Adoni and then we’re gonna relax got to night so we’re never a relaxed day tomorrow find a bath somewhere spa bar and eat all the Turkish food how’s that you’re amazing we did it oh my god first side priest and bull crazy [Music] no idea we’re on a cycle way just coming out the immigration area and going over little river heading towards adonai and we’re on a cycle path cannot quite believe it so just crossing the bridge now and we’re going to surely be in Eden a we can see the massive mosque in front of us as well what’s not cool remember to never lost cool but we’ll find out we’re getting nvidia tomorrow we got a whole day off tomorrow beautiful old bridge [Music] [Music]