In Hungary there are often good bicycle roads.
But many times you see signs like that below.
Of course you belive that you have to find alternative routes but actually most often there are none! Not far behind this sign I passed a police controll and they did not stop me.
Hungary is not always as flat as I belived!
When I passed it the weather was hot an no wind.
This is a white heron I zoomed in at the Balaton Lake
This is the same bird with wide angle.
There were also storks on almost every lamp post.
I am not sure if this thermometer showed the right temperature, maybe it had got fever. But as I told you before, it was really hot.
After two days I arrived in Szedged
and watched a beutiful sunset.
Next day i came to Arad, where I visited a friend of a friend who had a store at the market. He and his family sold everything you could think about!
In the evening we ate at a restaurand and did some sightseeing in Arad, a beautiful little town.
Next day we also visited my friends grandmother.
In Romania they have a lot of mountains.
Appearently some of them they try to dig away.
I followed a river north of the Carpathians. Although the sky sometimes was very dramataic it was still very hot and dry.
The Carpathians are more than 2500m high so there was still a lot of snow on top of them. I was told that the road over the mountains still was closed after the winter (in the middle of June!)
On the roads I could see more and more horses.
And in the meadows grazed sheep...
...watched by happy shepherds
Many of the churches were orthotox.
Finaly I came to Bran, where I visited the famous Dracula castle.
It was mot as big as I thought
but quite nice!
In Romania there are a lot of dogs without an owner. They get puppies and they often begged me for food when I rested and ate. This puppie really looked sad when i left him, He wanted to follow me!
I also spent a day and a night the famous tourist town Brasov
Then I continued southwest. over the Carpathians to the flat Danube valley.
I followed the Danube and on iys northern side I could see Ukraina.
In Tulcea I decided to take a ferry the last 50 km to the black Sea
There were no roads going to Sulina, so everything was transported on the ferry or in overloaded private boats.
It was an impressive experience to go through the delta.
I saw a lot of different birds, even the White Pelican.
On the ferry there was a touring bicyclist ca;;ed Peter from Australia, We decided to ride together the last three kilometers to the Black Sea.
There I took a swim.
Then we shared a room and next day we decided to try ro ride 40 km south to the southern arm of the Danube. where the town Sfantu Gheorghe is.
They had told us that the path was flooded on two places but the water was not so deep as they warned us about.
In the water we also saw a snake
In Sfantu Georghe I had a lazy afternoon on the beach
In the evening Peters wife came with a ferry, in company with a young couple from Australia.
We ate dinner at the hotel, then Will, Alison and me found a nice space for wildcamping near the beach,
Next day I took a ferry back to Tulcea
and continued my way south. towards Bulgaria.
Around Constanta I found really nice beaches and one night I decided (for the first time ever) to check in at a camp ground. It was not expensive but I did not sleep better than in the woods...
In northern Bulgaria there were no tourist at all. But suddenly, around Varna there were a lot again.
I decided to also visit the botanical garden...
...which was very nice.
In Burgas I left the Black Sea to ride up the shortest way to the Turkish border
There I met Boris and Claire, a french couple, who also were heading to Istanbul.
Close to the border the road was not so good, but as soon as we came to Turkey it changed.
On the picture above I tried to show that it was very hilly. Actually you can not see how deep the valleys are in between.
When we ate lunch on the last high hill (440m) a shepherds dog watched us.
Then I rode downhill as fast as never before.
In the evening we made a delicious dinner with threee dishes.
Actually the hills did not stop before I came to Silivri at the ocean south of Turkey.
But even then they continued on the crowded highway with an altitude up to 200m/
The last 60 km to the airport were quite challenging. because there was no space for a touring bicyclist and the cars were really fast and close,,,
At the airport I bought a ticket to Nairobi. then I visited a warmshower host.
Next day, which was today, I spent downtown visiting all places you are supposed to see as a tourist.
Actually I was really impressed by most of them
I also went to the pier where the ferries are going to the Asian side of Istanbul...
and looked at one of the bridges
There I probably will go tomorrow. Tomorrow night I will go to the airport again and take the plane to Africa!
