Date: February 25th, 2016
Distance: 168km
Song of the Day: The Rules - The Tragically Hip

Yesterday I was hoping to make more miles so the ride into Istanbul would be easy. That didn't happen. I was also hoping the wind would change, since I was tired of the crosswind. That did happen. The wind had turned 90° and was hitting me right in the teeth.

The landscape in the area wasn't all that fun either. It was rolling hills covered with large farm fields. At least many of the fields are turning bright green with the coming spring.

Unlike Bulgaria, which had many derelict communist era factories, this area of Turkey was dotted with new, modern factories and the pungent smells coming from them told me they were operational. These plants needed a steady stream of materials coming in and products going out, which meant lots of trucks on the road. It wasn't so bad, for the most part there was a nice wide shoulder to ride on. I wasn't concerned about the safety of the road, it just wasn't that fun. Boring landscapes, bad smells, noisy trucks, and a headwind.

I was making good time, though. Part of that was that I knew I was going to hang out in Istanbul for a few days getting some visas. The thought of getting some time off to relax and update this website was really encouraging. I even almost made it to Istanbul before sunset. I forgot about three things, though. First, Istanbul is huge. At sunset I had arrived in the suburbs of the city but I still had 40 kilometers to get into the center of town. Second, Istanbul is built on some large hills. The road to the center of town seems to head over each one of them in turn, which wasn't exactly what I wanted to be doing at the end of the day. The third and final thing I forgot about was the traffic. Istanbul has grown so much that the traffic here is wild. I put my skills as a bike courier to good use and had a great time. This was something that I really got a kick out of, passing cars literally left and right. I had so much fun I even made a video of it. I hope you enjoy.

Ripping Istanbul Traffic from Dravis Bixel on Vimeo.

-Dravis

Date: February 24th, 2016
Distance: 117km
Song of the Day: Little Wing - Jimi Hendrix

Today was another day of crossing borders, as I'm now in Turkey. It's country number 10 for this trip. It was also the most difficult border I have had so far, I think because of the influx of Syrian refugees. Both sides have tightened their frontier security. For me it actually meant that I got scrutinized. I mean, a little bit. On the Turkish side they actually checked in one of my panniers. I think the guy looked into it and had no idea what he was seeing. (It was my stove and bike tools.) It ended up taking me a little more than an hour to pass through all the checkpoints, but mostly that was time waiting for other people.

Once I was through the border things went okay. The highway I was on was busy, but at least it had a wide shoulder on it. It was also straight and easy, so I could just go and not worry too much about navigation. The countryside was just rolling hills, though. I was also being pushed around by an annoying crosswind. It didn't ruin things, but it just made the day less pleasant than it could have been. It also rained occasionally. Really, if I can say anything, it was just a boring day. Another hill, another field, another mile.

It got dark just before I arrived in Lüleburgaz. I wanted to get closer to Istanbul, but I wasn't excited about riding more in the dark and the rain. I stopped for some dinner and the local guys eating there were really helpful. They showed me a place where I could stay. Good enough for me.



-Dravis

Date: February 23rd, 2016
Distance: 148km
Song of the Day: Rock & Roll - Led Zeppelin

The roads east out of Plovdiv were boring. I will take doing hills over flat farmland. At least the wind wasn't so bad.

This part of the country has been reminding me of Africa, all the little shops along the side of the road and market stalls set up next to the highway. I'm getting excited to be out of the more modern world and out into places that have a much slower pace of life.

The day was otherwise fairly uninteresting. I ended the day just a little short of the border with Turkey, which I will cross in the morning.



-Dravis

Date: February 22nd, 2016
Distance: Rest day

Okay, I took another day off. I didn't want to, but I really wanted to get a new chainring for my bike. If I had known this would happen I would have tried to find a new one in Sofia, but it was too late for that. Plovdiv is the second largest town in Bulgaria so I figured it would have something. If they did, I couldn't find it. I also now realize that the chainrings I am using are a new style. New is not good, in this case. That means finding a replacement part is a total pain. After vising eight different bike shops I was still left with a worn out chainring. Maybe I can find something in Istanbul?

Plovdiv is also one of the older towns in Bulgaria. It came highly recommended from a couple of different people. Since the bike repair was a bust I decided to at least have a bit of fun with the day, so I took a tour of the city in the afternoon. It has apparently had people living in it for about 3000 years. Founded by the Thracians, it was invaded by the Greeks, Romans, Bulgarians, and the Ottomans. There is a Roman hippodrome under one of the main streets in town, and a Roman amphitheater that wasn't found until the '70s. The old town is a funny mixture of buildings. Most of the buildings have been torn down and replaced in the last two hundred years, and that process still goes on today. But now each new building is required to look old, or at least maintain the visual fabric of the neighborhood.



-Dravis

Date: February 21st, 2016
Distance: 162km
Song of the Day: Romeo and the Lonely Girl - Thin Lizzy

While getting into Sofia was miserable, leaving the city a piece of cake. There is only one road that goes east out of the city. Eventually the freeway splits off from it, but really I was on the same road all day long so there was no need to do any navigation, just keep heading east.

The first part of the day I was just riding up into the hills to the east of Sofia. The only interesting bit was the section that hadn't been maintained in 20 years. I was all over the road dodging pot holes and puddles. At least the poor road condition kept all of the cars away and I had the whole place to myself. Eventually the surface improved and cars started to join me on the highway. That was okay, though, as I had also picked up a bit of a tail wind.

The second section was the a ride down out of the hills. It was a long, shallow descent--the kind I really like. I could just coast all the way down. The valley I was riding through was quite nice, dotted with all these little industrial towns. I imagine they were located here originally as mills along the river. They were turned into big factories with the advent of industrialization, but now many were abandoned. I got to one town and the highway was lined with little shacks selling napkins and toilet paper. I was confused for a bit until I passed by the Belov paper mill. It makes me wonder about the future of industry towns like this. Not just in Bulgaria, but all over the world.

For the last part of the day I was riding along the flat river plain. That was just good riding. In fact, the only bummer part of the day is that I wore out my top chainring. (For those of you not so bicycle inclined, that is the big cog the pedals are attached to.) I can still ride on my smaller chainring, but when riding down long flat roads you really want to put your full power into it. Instead I was left to spin the pedals. Oh well, it was still a good day.



-Dravis

Date: February 20th, 2016
Distance: Rest day
Song of the Day: Have a Nice Day - Stereophonics

I spent today going to see some of the historic places I had walked by yesterday. A few of them were churches, and I actually had to put on long pants for that. Those who know me know what a rare event that is. I had the most fun at the Sofia Archaeological Museum, though. You should have probably figured out by now that I am a history nerd. What could be better than looking at almost three thousand years of history? I was very impressed with a lot of the ancient metal work. They had some objects about two millennia old that I thought would be difficult to make today. The craftsmanship of ancient people is truly impressive. I know a lot of people think of ancient cultures as stupid and unsophisticated, but you just can't when you see their work. They might not have had the technology we have, but the intelligence and attention to detail is at least as good as modern people.

That evening I went to hang out with two brothers from Australia. They are awesome and hilarious. How they play off each other reminds me of my brother-in-law and his brother. We ended up meeting up with some local Bulgarians we had met the night before and went out for some fun. I hate to say it, but before I came here I never thought much of Bulgaria. It was just another place on the planet I didn't know much about. But the people here have been so nice and are excited to share the history and culture of their country. What a cool place.



-Dravis

Date: February 19th, 2016
Distance: Rest day
Song of the Day: Can't Hold Us - Macklemore & Ryan Lewis

Took a day off today. I might take another day off tomorrow because I have just scratched the surface of what there is to do here. In the morning I went around with a tour group just to get a sense of the city and a bit of the history. It's hard to cram a few thousand years of history into two hours. I also got a special tour of Sofia University before going out for a traditional lunch.

In the evening I went out for drinks with some people I had met. Sofia has an interesting and relaxed nightlife. It's a neat city in which to grab a drink with some friends and just chat for an hour or two.



-Dravis

Date: February 18th, 2016
Distance: 165km
Song of the Day: Driver 8 - REM

The wind was back this morning with the dawn. It wasn't quite as bad today, though, and the first part of the road was amazing. There were 13 tunnels along the Sićevo Gorge and giant rock formations on either side of the Nisava river. It is just such a cool part of the earth. Frankly, it is hard to believe there is a road there. Even more strange, there is a set of railroad tracks on the other side.

The fun couldn't last forever though. The road from there to Pirot wasn't very good. In fact they were rebuilding it, but as a freeway. At some point no other cyclists will be allowed on the road. The riding wasn't very good anyway, so other cyclists won't miss out. Riding with large trucks on a road with no shoulder isn't all that fun.

I did have a good time once I got to Pirot. The town was much more interesting than I expected. I stopped at a bakery to spend the last of my Serbian Dinar and along with my bread the owner also gave me a bag of cookies, then wished me good luck on my trip. I like that telling my story is interesting to people. Plus, something little like a bag of cookies can really make your day. I left Pirot feeling so good.

Outside of town there were a lot more trucks on the road, and no shoulder either. This is one of the main routes for trucks into Bulgaria. I didn't feel unsafe, but it wasn't fun. Left of the highway, on the other side of a ditch, was a brand new freeway that was still under construction. Two ribbons of fresh, black tarmac, each one twenty feet wide. The best part was that there wasn't one other vehicle on them. All I had to do was get there, and I found a gravel access road that crossed over the ditch onto the unused freeway. That is also something that can really make your day. I had ten kilometers of perfect roads without any traffic on them. I turned the music up, put the hammer down, and just cruised. There were occasionally road crews working on things, but they didn't try to stop me. In fact, they seemed excited to see me riding along, giving me big smiles and thumbs up.

Eventually the pavement ran out and I was riding on gravel. It was a good, hard packed road bed so it wasn't bad riding either, just not as good. I was now on the other side of a river from the main highway too. I could either choose to turn around and hope to find another way over the river, or keep going and hope the freeway didn't end somewhere. I kept going, and the road climbed up into the hills. At that point I was really hoping the freeway wouldn't abandon me in the middle of nowhere, but as I crested the hill I found something very different from what I expected. There were two bridges, one for each direction of traffic on the eventual freeway. They were fully complete except for the asphalt and railings. Each bridge also had a tunnel right behind it. Fresh concrete was being poured in the right-hand tunnel, so I went through the left. On the other side was another set of bridges and tunnels that were even longer than the first set. I think the second tunnel was almost a kilometer long. This is one of the best experiences I have had on the trip. I was riding on an unfinished freeway in Serbia. They had spent all this money for tunnels and bridges, and at that moment it was all for me.

There was a security guard standing at the end of the tunnel when I came out. He was just looking at me, flabbergasted. The guard asked a bunch of questions in Serbian which I didn't really understand, so finally he gave up and just told me to leave the freeway before the next bridge because it wasn't finished. Taking the unfinished freeway was the best decision all day. I will probably be the last cyclist to go along that route. What a cool little adventure that was.

Getting back to the highway was a pain. I had to cross a ditch, a set of train tracks, and climb a set of stairs.

By the time I was back to the main highway I was less than a kilometer from the border. I crossed into Bulgaria, country 9, without any issues. Well, there was one issue. I still had some Serbian Dinar left. I wanted to exchange them for Bulgarian Lev, but none of the exchange offices on either side of the border would do the trade. I was so confused by that. On the Serbian-Bulgarian border you can't change Serbian money for Bulgarian. When you try they look at you like you are an idiot for even thinking about it. I was hoping to use my Bulgarian money to get food, but since I didn't have any I had nothing to eat except for the cookies from Pirot. I was so grateful for those.

The sun set soon after I crossed the border. Unlike the previous night when the wind died with the sunlight, in Bulgaria the wind picked up. I was slogging along a narrow highway at night into a brutal headwind. Halfway between the border and Sofia I ran out of cookies. That last bit into Sofia was miserable. I was exhausted and struggling into the wind. Such a day of ups and downs, and I don't mean the terrain. But I guess it's to be expected that the highs and lows can come back to back like that when you are cycling around the world.



-Dravis

Date: February 17th, 2016
Distance: 159km
Song of the Day: Call Me the Breeze - Lynyrd Skynyrd

Last night I had been thinking it was so nice out I should just push on. It wasn't really raining or cold, I was feeling good, and most importantly the wind was calm. This morning, the wind wasn't calm. I had a good headwind coming right at me, and I regretted not doing more miles the night before. The land around Kraljevo was pretty flat, mostly farm fields with occasional small towns. I don't actually enjoy flat terrain all that much. Riding up hills is harder, but at least you get to coast down the other side. Usually there is a good view at the top, too. With wind, you don't get any of that. Riding a bike is just less fun. The only real bright spots were the few times I could follow along behind a tractor. For those who don't know, motor-paced bicycle racing has a long history. I am not sure how often it was done behind farm equipment, though.

Toward the end of the day the road made a wide detour around a set of hills and the winds began to pick up on the other side. The road also got considerably worse. I was struggling. The only good thing I could say was that the day was good. The sun was out. I was at least treated to a gorgeous sunset. The odd part was that as soon as the sun disappeared, the wind stopped. It was like a switch was turned off. One minute I was pushing hard against the wind, the next it was gone. I couldn't complain. I did the last little bit to Nis in the dark, but at least without any wind.



-Dravis

Date: February 16th, 2016
Distance: 159km
Song of the Day: Interstate 8 - Modest Mouse

Today felt much better. The place I stopped at for the night was a little tourist hotel, which was quite nice.

The town of Mokra Gora was famous for its little railway. And by little, I mean narrow gauge. Originally built as a rail connection between Belgrade and Sarajevo, it was abandoned for 30 years. Now the tracks have been rebuilt and it runs a tourist train through the loops and tunnels up into the mountain. I have already explained my love for castles, but one of my other secret passions is for trains. There is a certain elegance and romance to train travel that you don't get on other methods of transit, like a bus. Planes used to feel that way, but more and more they feel like buses with wings. Trains have kept the slow, old-fashioned charm. I also enjoy the engineering involved in building a rail line in areas like Mokra Gora. The Sargan Eight is a great example of what can be done with the proper application of bridges and tunnels. The train only runs in the summer, though. I would like to come back and ride it one day.

It's funny that everywhere in the world you go there are little unexpected things. I didn't know a thing about the East Bosnian Railway before I came here. Interesting little places like this exist all over the world and I'm sad I can't explore them all. The worst truth about living is that one lifetime isn't long enough to see it all.

As the tracks wound up into the mountains, so did I. My road was on the other side of the valley and had a much steeper grade. The first few kilometers in the morning were slow, which was fine. I was a little worried about navigation again. The road signs aren't any better here in Serbia. I did find one that pointed me to Uzice so I went that way and it all worked out. I didn't realize that the town was at the base of this river gorge. I bombed out of the mountains, through a couple of tunnels, and along a canyon all the way to Uzice. I have to admit that was pretty fun. I was keeping up with traffic the whole way except to stop and take pictures. Uzice is a cool place to ride down into. I would do it again if I could.

From Uzice my road followed along the same river through Pozegra and onto Cacak. (I think it is pronounced "cha-check", like a roadie testing microphones before a concert.) The road between those two towns was great. I think that is what I missed by crossing the border in the dark last night. I'm guessing it was designed by the same road engineers, at least. Another rocky valley with cliffs on either side. A river in the middle of it. A few monasteries here and there. Fantastic.

The sun set just as I reach Cacak. I wasn't ready to stop, though, so I kept riding until I got to Kreljevo. This time I didn't feel like I missed anything exciting by riding in the dark, just flat farmland.



-Dravis