Your Hotel is the End of the 60 km

We knew from day one this portion of the trip was going to be different. From our day one cycle of 53km (the most I had ever cycled on a bike in one goat that point) to !00km on my birthday. We weren't sure what the motivation was to make us (Sy and I) cycle more then ever have day after day. Either it was the fact that the end of the days ride was where you slept or there was nothing else to do so just get on the bike and ride.
Riding in Turkey, our first country on the list, was a great start. Our day one cycle of 1.1km brought huge generosity out of everyone around us. Seeing we were crazed, stressed and swearing shop keepers young and old would just make us stop and have a cup of tea with them. We could not give or even say anything (thank you meant nothing to them) to them besides asking the only English speaker in the town to give them our thanks. The bent chain wheel got people helping either driving us to metal presses or trying to bend it themselves. Thankfully there was a hotel and the next was a start. My gps guided route through small back roads worked perfectly except in a rather bumpy section the gps fell right off the bike mount and got caught up in the spokes. This left a huge crack going up the screen and a quarter of the digital screen gone. Still after 53km we found a hotel and ate, ate, ate. Day 3 ended up being on a larger road to the Greek and Bulgarian border. We tried to cross into Greece that day but were unable because of lack of accommodation in the near by Greek towns. Our final night in Turkey was spent in Edrine with its huge mosques and bustling pedestrian walk way.
We did Greece in one day spending no nights in the Northern part. It was a beautiful sunny day for a 70 km day (a new record for me at the time). We had no gps route because my map detail ends until Hungary. We managed alright:) We were in a relatively un-touristed part of Greece so all the villages were tiny and the few shops weren't even open. This meant we couldn't get a Greek Lunch anywhere and had to wait till Svilengrad, Bulgaria to eat. Crossing the border was no issue except that the duty free shop had no Greek sticker so we will have to wait till Canada.
Bulgaria the largest country we have passed throught thus far was again differnet from the rest. We crossed from Greece into Svilengrad (a town mentioned on the website of another cycling couple who did a route like ours but after Bulgaria the went to Ukraine and east. Our route brought us from Svelingrad to Topolovgrad, to Nova Zagora, to Tvarditsa, to Veliko Tarnovo, to Pavlikeni, to Pleven, to Belene on my Birthday, to Svishtov and then into Romania and back in to Bulgaria at Vidin before entering serbia. Internet access was less of a challenge then we first thought and many fo the hotels we stayed in had wi-fi. our first 100km day ride was in Bul and on my birthday no doubt. It happened after Amb wrote lets go do 100 on my card (being sarcastic).
From there we crossed into Romania and spent 3 days cycling and 1 rest day. Hotels are even more scarce in Rom and we had to train further a few times.
Crossing the Danube back into Bulgaria was no hassle and the next day we were on our way to Serbia. The Danube cycle trail was a bigger thing in Serbia , with signs and funny quotes (story later) at every turn. Hotels were easier, and it felt that tourism was a bigger thing. Spend three days riding along the Danube and spend a rest day in Beograd before cutting across and crossing the Danube yet again into Croatia. Reach Osijek on the first day and then take a train at five in the morning to Zagreb. Don't have worry about bikes a they are in a bike shop getting repaired (cleaning, tune up , etc). Spend one night in Zagreb at the Carpe Diem Hostel and parents even go to a concert (Leah's life long dream was to go to a classical concert in Zagreb). Train back to Osijek and Head up into the wine region of Croatia. Cross the border into Hungary two days later.
Hungary was a whole new country again. A very controlled environment, felt like it at least. Internet hard to find even though it was probably one of the wealthiest country's we have been in to date. Pasterys got better and better as we cycled further north and they keep getting better. Weave our way though Hungary in order to be in Budapest on the set date to meet Paul and Ed. Hit a small wine village, a thermal spa with long beach like accommodation, and Hungary Holiday Resorts only 9 km out of the nearest city and in a converted horse stable. Last time we book ahead on line. Train into Budapest and stop at the airport to successfully ship a parcel to graham with FedEx. Our panniers are light again!!! Spend three days hanging out doing, math journaling, exploring. Train out again with 5 bikes and 6 people. First day with Ed and Paul is huge hills and we see that even after 1.5 months of cycling Ed and Paul are both still stronger then us.
I will stop my blog there and continue through Slovakia, Czech Rep and Poland in my next one!