Bulgaria was a new country on the journey, we were curious to discover this for us less known territory.

Photos can be found here: The return: Bulgaria

We were excited as this was the door to the European union. Would they let us back in?? Well they did and there were no checks whatsoever besides the passport of course. While we had just crossed the border we ran into Trien. She is a Belgian traveling cyclist on her way east. We met her at the Lukoil petrol station which had WIFI. What a luxury 🙂

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From the Turkish border to the sea we were cycling in forest and came across small villages. We were reintroduced to cyrillic and enjoyed figuring out what was written on the signs. In many of the Bulgarian villages we noticed that people spoke Turkish, which we really hadn’t realised beforehand.

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Our route took us along the coast for quite a while and we were entering touristy beach towns. One of our goals was a swim in the Black Sea and on this wonderful afternoon we made it happen. We were more interested in the culture inland. So we ventured inland just south of Burgas.

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The countryside of Bulgaria did not wow us with its sights. We enjoyed the everyday life in the villages, visiting the shop, checking if the local monastery is open and camping in the fields.

The fields with sunflowers were amazing. Golden and yellow fields as far as the eye could see accompanied us on the road. The sunflowers enjoy saying hello to us and it is a very happy sight.

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In the north of the country the feeling became more of a post-soviet country with more square buildings and a lesser Turkish presence.

While cycling we talk about the feeling of returning back to Europe and not being in Asia anymore. Although the change has been quite fast we are happy with our decisions. Also, Bulgaria is still not so developed. On a daily basis we come across horse carriages working in the fields and on the roads. The villages are very rural that we pass through. Still we find good shops and a bakery every morning where we are happy to eat a snack before getting on our way again.

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The fields gives us numerous wild camping possibilities.

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One afternoon we are delighted by a gift from a farmer. We have been cycling along raspberry orchards for quite a while. In most of them the picking season has started. We stop at one of them wanting to see if we can purchase some raspberries and are gifted a whole box of them. There are so many our tummy aches when we have finished them. Definitely a highlight of Bulgaria.

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Another highlight is the city Ruse. We didn’t know before but it is a very scenic and historic city on the south bank of the Danube with nice buildings and a square. It was the night before we would venture into Romania. We didn’t take the opportunity to take any photos so they are incepted in our minds…..

All in all our trip through Bulgaria was fast and we didn’t get to see a lot of the country but we were happy to have enjoyed a dip in the Black Sea, cycling along the Black Sea coast, meeting the Danube at Ruse and learning more about this historical city.