We started the bike trip 4 of us; after the tragedy of Budapest,  I continued from Vienna until Beauvais with Sashko; We were finally back in Bulgaria much earlier than the original planning and I decided to bike alone in Greece and Bulgaria.

Here are a few memories and stories about the week I spent on the bike.

The original plan was to escape from Sofia (and from Nina) with the bike and to cycle to the South, in the direction of Greece, and then to cycle to the east until the Turkish boarder, to cross Bulgaria and to come back to Sofia. I finally took the train till Kulata, the last bulgarian city before the greek boarder. There I biked up and down till the town of Kavala, where I took the boat for Thassos island; after 2 days visiting the island it was already time to bike back to Bulgaria...

- being chased by shepherd's dogs in the mountains of Greece; after a nasty and scary experience, I was more carefull and I was grabbing some stones each time I was meeting such dogs the following days.

- after being chased by shepherd's dog, it was my turn to chase wild pigs on the road down: they were escaping from me but they were in fact going a few meters ahead on the road; when I was arriving they were staring at me and escaping again. This game continued for a  few hundred meters before they escaped in the nearby bushes.

- passing in the ruins of ghost villages on the slope of Rhodopi mountains.

- arriving in a dead village in north of Greece. It appeared that it was a muslim village and it was the time of prayer: all shops were losed, all streets empty...

- listening at sunset the melody of the muezzin and its call for prayer; or being woken up in the middle of the night by the someone playing the drums. When I came back to Sofia, I checked on internet this point, to be sure if I was dreaming or if I was getting mad that night. In fact, during Ramadan the noise of drums beating at night to wake people up for the predawn meal is a turkish tradition. And this night, I was sleeping next to a muslim village in remote part of greece, not far from turkey.

- being woken-up by the the growls (grogrements... ) and the barking of street dogs turning around the tent; it was a little scary but it was so early in the night that I had no problem to fall asleep again.

- going to bed at 8pm every night (we are in october and it's alreay dark since half hour at that time).

- eating walnut and grapes grabbed in the abandonned fields.

- going up and down and then up again looking for a way to go to Bulgaria (between Greece and Bulgaria, there are only 2 boarding points distant by more than 400 kms. After looking for a path that did not exist I tried to approach the boarder climbing up in the mountain till the last greek village. There, apart from the greek police, I met a group of old muslims people, they were not very hepfull to show me the way through the forest to bulgaria; I took the sandy path just behind the police checking point, going up in the forest and in the bushes. After passing the top of the mountain, I went down  on forest paths for 10 kms,  using the french flair to choose between the different forest roads. I finally achieved the bottom of the mountain and was quite happy to cycle again on an asphalt road. I asked to the first person I met, if I was really in Bulgaria. He answered to me but I didn't cacth anything, it did not sound like bulgarian language. But He also moved his head left and right a couple of times (which you have to know, means yes in Bulgaria). I was so happy to be back in Bulgaria. The other alternative was a little too extreme: to bike 250 kms to the first boarder point (and also to climb back the 2000m denivelation I did the same day..)

- biking on stony and sandy roads to achieve wonderfull villages.

- biking a 12 kms up-hill road without water, in the heat of a hot Indian summer. I planned to take water 2 kms up the hill, at the first village. In fact all the villages indicated on my map were in total ruins and no more people were leaving there. A few kms later, I had to stop a truck and to ask for water...

- swimming in the agean see, and diving for shells to bring back to Nina;

- biking for 180 kms under a heavy rain to catch the train in Plovdiv in order to be in Sofia the same day;

(...)

3796 kms, this is the exact number of kms between Sofia and Beauvais. Please, do not lose your time to check in viamichelin or other road map - it will for sure give you a lower number of kms. But anyway, this is the distance we have done between these 2 cities, following Iskar river in Bulgaria, zigzagging in Serbia and Hungary to avoid roads with heavy traffic or to reach the most beautiful lake of Serbia, being lost in the suburbs of Wien, following the different radweg (cycle paths) in Germany, looking for a bike shop in Switzerland, and going up and down in the countryside of France…

We arrived in Sofia a few days ago. Nina, Mira, Dancho and Vladko were at the airport to meet us. We left them respectively 1 and 2 months ago but it looked like yesterday. All these kms for nothing? Yes it’s true: 2 and ½ month after our departure we are back at the same place with our bikes and our yellow bags… We are the same, maybe we are a little more tanned by the sun and the wind, maybe we lost a few kgs (at least for me). But we came back with a lot of nice memories, a lot of nice moments to share and a strong desire to repeat this experience. Anyway Nina and Mira were with us only half of the way and were so sad not to be with us until France. So we’ll do it again in the future - from Sofia to Paris. And to be sure not to take the same roads and to have the pleasure to discover new places, we’ll bike to the East this next time (it means we’ll pass by Tibet …).

We were in Olivet on the 17th of September (originally it was our final destination, where my grandmother Mimi was living), in Paris on the 21st and we finally disassembled our bikes in Beauvais on the 23rd...

I called at home on the 14th of September; Mum told me Mimi left us the day before; I was so sad, I was crying the whole morning on my bike. I wanted to see Mimi again, to laugh with her, to listen to her singing, to play scrabble or ”hide and sick”, to cook with her, to meet at her place with my cousins and all the family… The arrival in Olivet was very strong; before the satisfaction to have done this wonderful experience, I was so moved and happy to meet all of you, to be with you …

We biked a lot during this last stage, doing in average more than 100 kms per day! I wanted to go fast, to be on time to say goodbye to Mimi. Sashko was incredible on his bike, he has never been bored or exhausted!! Of course he was sometimes tired, going up and down, passing in the hilly regions of Doubs and Franche-Comte. In Olivet, some of you have been astonished by Sashko: when we arrived at the end of the afternoon, after more than 100 kms done this same day, he just jumped on a small bicycle and continued to bike in the garden until the dinner, just for fun…

For this last stage, the road was very pleasant: we passed so many rivers and quiet places: the Rhein, the Doubs, the Saone, The Loire, the Seine, the Oise but also little tiny rivers like the Cousin, the Cosnes, the Tille… and little village like Flaverie sur Ozeraie, Vezelay, Frolois.. The road was nice, we tried to bike only on secondary roads, it brings you through beautiful landscape and villages but it usually requires additional effort due to the hilly roads… The ride around Paris was not so bad also: I was expecting much more difficulties around Paris and roads with heavy traffic but in fact it was ok: we passed nice places like Chevreuse region or Vexin and when the road was too busy we had the pleasure to discover cycle paths: it is still far away from what you can find in Austria or in Bavaria but France is getting better with cycle paths.

When we left Sofia, and the months before the departure, I was so concerned about this first part of our World trip: will my knee be hurting me every km of the bike trip? Will the kids be able to bike more than 25 km per day? Will we crash with a car in the suburbs of Sofia or will it be during the next day in the curves of Stara Planina? Will the bikes be built and ready on time for our departure? Will they fall apart after the first holes on the roads of Bulgaria? Will Nina or the kids get ill after the first week? Will it be safe, or will we lose our luggage after the first night in the countryside? … Most of these fears quickly disappeared after a few days biking: my knee was ok, the kids have been biking so well; we had some problems with the bikes but we managed them; kids didn’t get ill and Sashko was supporting the bad weather better than me, in the cold and rainy weather when we crossed the Bavarian Alps; One detail I forgot to plan: I forgot to teach Nina how to break on a wet road… I was imagining a lot of different scenarios but I could not imagine we would finish the trip only 2 of us! But please, give us of few years and we’ll do it again, but all together this time…

We are now all of us in Bulgaria; Nina has removed her plaster on the 24th and she is doing exercises everyday; Mira and Sashko have a lot of stories to share and uncompleted games to re-invent. I'm back on the bike tomorrow morning, and will try to bike to Greece and Turkey in the following days. We are also preparing for Madagascar and quite impatient to be there…

We've done it !!!

After about 3800 kms, we finally arrived in Paris on Friday night...

Please be patient. Give us a few days before updating the blog : time for us to take a shower, change and clean our clothes, unpack and order our luggages and we'll be back with some pictures and some stories about the last stage, from Basel to Beauvais.

Sashko and Damien

After 2 months and about 2850 kms, we are finally in France!!!

The week that just passed was not an easy ride;

The other night in Munich I didn’t sleep so well; I was quite afraid about the weather forecast for the following week and the perspective to cross the Bavarian alps with the rain was worrying me a little. The first day, on the 3rd of September, we left Mathieu’s flat at lunch time. After a stop at the cycle shop (to buy oil, new break pads and new pump), we finally achieved the center of Munich, and the rain started by that time. We planned to visit Munich with the bike but we got out of Munich quite quickly, in the direction of the South and the Bavarian Alps. It was just a horrible afternoon, at least for me: a cold and strong rain will follow us all the way to Starnberg. When we checked the weather the day before, it was predicted bad weather for the whole week  and while biking this afternoon, I was imagining us, biking in such rain for the following week; starting with wet clothes in the morning and being frozen by the cold wind after the first meters… Sashko was a little cold but eager to bike to achieve the next town and stop to eat something.We finally arrived in Starnberg at about 6pm, wet until the bones, and frozen. There was no way to sleep in the tent this night; all what we needed was a hot shower and warm place to sleep.

When we got up on the next day, it was still raining outside and I told myself, “only 3 more days of rain’ (it will be 4 in fact). The target of the day was to stay dry as long as we can. We had to wait 1pm to jump on our bike. Then we biked between the drops and stopped each time the rain was starting. Applying such rules we did not do a lot of kms but we did not get wet at all and we had plenty of opportunity to play UNO (card games for the ones who do not know it). In fact, we decided also to adopt the following rule: each time it started to rain and we had to stop to bike, we would play Uno. I was hoping the sun to shine and to warm us, Sashko was hoping the rain to come, so that we could stop and play cards… The road (“romantische radweg”) was very nice, up and down in the hills and the villages of the Bavarian alps, and we had a beautiful light: dark black sky and sunshine from time to time. We arrived before the sunset in the village of Kinsau, and as we started to put the tent, a man living next door (or next field in fact), invited us to sleep in his garden house: we could not refuse such gift and we finally slept in a dry (but not so hot) place…The next 2 days will be as predicted: cold, rainy and windy. Once, waiting for the rain to stop, we played Uno during 3 hours, under the roof of an old barn. Sashko did not suffer from these conditions; and has been cycling impressively well on the steep roads of the Bavarian alps. As far as I concerned, I enjoyed the nice scenary and I was quite pleased to cycle up-hill : first you go slower so you don’t have the cold wind attacking you, and also going up is the best way to warm your entire body. After 5 days, we finally achieved Bodensee (Konstanz lake), and we also left behind us the heavy and dark clouds. We didn’t swim in Bodensee, but the weather was much warmer and dry. Nico joined us in Konstanz for the week-end and it was so pleasant to bike altogether. He adapted to our way of life quite easily. He joined us for a little more than 24 hours but it was very nice to meet and discuss while biking on the side of Rhine River. After he left, we followed the river which guided us to the French boarder.

Biking with one pedal

Sunday morning, one of Sashko's pedal fell down (for the ones who are interested in the details, the axis of the pedal was twisted and the thread of the crank-arm got worn out and finally the pedal fell down…). Anyway, on Sunday, no bike shop is open in Switzerland. And with Nico, we had to improvise and to try to repair it by ourself. Our first attempt (with tapes) lasted for 3 kms; the second repair was to replace the pedal by a wooden stick, but it failed after less than 500 meters and we finally gave us and decided to pull Sashko till the end of the day. I’ll pull Sashko the next day also: you have to know that bike shops are also closed on Monday in Switzerland. After 150 kms, biking on one leg and being pulled, Sashko arrived in France. The bike is now fixed and Sashko is ready to bike again.

From the 3rd till the 10th of September

From Munich, we passed the Bavarian Alps and the cities and villages of Starnberg, Diessen a. Ammersee, Kinsau, Schongau, Buching, Fussen, Oy i Mittelberg, Immenstadt, to finally achieve Bodensee. We crossed the lake in Meersburg, and then follow the Rhine River to Stein a. Rhein, Schaffhausen, Rheinfelden and we passed the French border in Basel. We arrived on the 10th of September in France, after 2850 kms from Sofia. During the rainy days, we were leaving late and we were not progressing so much: 45 – 55 kms per day. But after that we had to catch up in order to be on time on Saturday noon: we agreed with Nico to meet at 1pm in Konstanz. So the day before the meeting, we bike 101 kms !

We are leaving Florence, Ludovic, Marius and Emile this morning. We’ll be near Orleans in one week from today and in Paris in 10 days. We are close to the end but still eager to bike.

Nina and Mira left us on the 22nd of August; at the train station in Vienna, Sashko was silent, Mira was happy about the big pack of chips she would eat in the train, I was running back and force trying to find their wagon and their seats, and Nina was still  crying… To change our mind after their departure, Raimund invited us to an ice-cream in Modling, the biggest ice-cream Sashko ever had in his all entire life…

The end of the bike trip will never be the same: I’ll not ear anymore the laughs of the kids, their passionate discussions about how many animals we will have in our future house, their “Ooooh, Aah, Viiiiiiiiish …“when they’ve just caught a frog or a lizard, or when they’ve just seen a deer in the fields (which was a wild rabbit in fact but don’t tell them, …). I’ll not hear the Bulgarian melody around me when Nina and the kids were talking to each others (I do not talk in Bulgarian with Sashko). The following morning, we finally left our hosts to reach the Donauradweg (Danube cycle way). I was so sad the first day, when we passed thru Vienna. We were there with Nina in February, only the 2 of us (sorry but the kids had to go to school so they stayed in Kiev with Larissa, our babysitter). Passing thru the same narrow and paved streets, biking in front of the Opera, in front of the Stadtpark, it reminds me the time when we were together in February and I was even more missing both of them. Vienna is such a nice city, there are so many things to see: big avenues with massive baroque buildings, small streets with charming houses, but I didn’t like Vienna this time, I wanted to escape from there and we crossed quickly the city centre to join the Cycle way to Passau.

Donauradweg

From Vienna to Passau, we followed the Donauradweg; it’s a beautiful cycle path along the Danube. It’s quite a tourist tour also: we crossed a lot a bikes on our way (usually going downstream); few of them answered to our “Hello”, maybe too busy to keep an eye on their front wheel; the grass was sometimes too green and the paths too well maintained but it has really been a pleasant and easy ride for the following week: most of the path from Vienna to Passau was on dedicated roads for bikes, and the landscape was changing every day: one day, we biked between the fields of corn, apples or pears at a respective distance from the river; the next day, the road was sticking to the river; another day, we passed between vineyards, we crossed charming small villages, or we followed the curves of the Danube at the edge of a luxurious forest… 2 things never changed: the direction of the wind, which was constantly blowing in our face, (or at least this is the impression I had) and the fact that wild camping is strictly forbidden. As we are not planning where we are going to stop for the night, we were usually far from any camping and it was sometimes tricky to find a place to sleep. But don’t worry, we managed: sometimes we slept in campsites (only twice in fact), sometimes we asked in a farm if we could put our tent on the grass boarding their fields, another night in the garden of a guest house, end even once hidden in the middle of vineyards. I know, it is forbidden to do wild camping in Austria and Germany but it is so nice to wake in the middle of the fields, between the grapes, and to have your breakfast with a panoramic view on the valley of Wachau.

Mecheto

Mira will be happy, we are taking care of Mecheto (mecheto means little bear in Bulgarian and it is the name of Mira’s bear: she gave it to us when she left for Bulgaria so that he can finish the bike trip with us); he is not staying in the yellow bags as before (there you mentioned that he had difficulty to breath and he was a little squashed).He is now sitting on the top of the yellows bags, at the back of my bike: he is breathing fresh air all day long and has a wonderful view.

From the 22nd of august to the 2nd of September

We were progressing quite fast on our way to France; we left Vienna on the 23rd of September and we arrived yesterday in Munich, on the 1st of September. Sashko is still not tired and still willing to do more kms: The last 2 days, we were biking 95 kms each day and it was still not too much for him!! Since we left Vienna, we were biking in average 75 kms per day, and we have biked so far 2300 kms since Sofia. From Vienna, we followed the Donauradweg, along the Danube River, passing thru Tulln, Krems, Melk, Ybbs an der Donau, Wallsee, St Georgen a.d.Gusen, Feldkirche. We left the Danube in Passau; we crossed the German boarder a little before Passau but we didn’t even notice it: there is no more check-point and I think we missed the signs indicated the boarder between Austria and Germany. we have crossed 3 times the boarder without noticing it in fact!! After Passau, we followed a very nice path next to the Inn River, we passed the cities and villages of Scharding, Pfarrkirchen, Gars a.d.Inn, and achieved the suburbs of Munich.

In Germany, we were trying to follow different cycle paths but it is sometimes confusing and we also appreciate to bike on secondary roads: it brings you to nice villages of the Bayern region and the roads are so quiet and pleasant (but do not dream, they are not flat at all). Tomorrow, we jump again on our bike, towards Konstanz Lake, getting closer to France and our final destination. It is still time for all of you who want to join and bike with us on the road!!

Messages on the road

The other day, in Passau, as we were leaving the Danube and its cycle path, I had to find the correct way to go to Munich. We arrived in the city at 6pm, it was not too late for an ice-cream but it was definitely too late for the tourist info office. Next to it, there was an internet access, we checked the roads to get to Munich and I quickly checked the webpage. It was so nice to read your comments; back on the bike, and the next day also, I was remembering the messages I had read. I was imaging each of you: one playing guitar (but very gently not to wake up the baby), the others spending their evenings on the drawings of their future house, another lying in bed at 6am and at the same time talking on the phone to launch the production of electrical motors; another climbing in the Alps, another coming back to the office at 3pm, after 2hr spent in the lake nearby lake… I’m busy all day: packing, preparing breakfast, trying to catch the magic of the morning light with my camera, cooking dinner, shopping, packing and unpacking again, biking, looking for a place to sleep, making the fire, swimming in a lake a pond, a river or a pool but each day, I have plenty of time to think about you…

Thanks to Hrisimira and Evgeni in Pfarrkirchen, to Patrick from the guest house in Hossgang, to the owner of the farm in Glasberg and in St Georgen a.d.Gusen, to Mathieu from Karlsfeld. Thanks for your hospitality and for the nice time spent with all of you.

Moa from Munich...

Half dream or half way through a full dream

Today (20^th Aug) I was crying too much but certainly less than the rain which is falling down over Vienna … so it is already an optimistic view of life, isn’t it? I should stay in plaster for 5 weeks. It is not the full me, only my leg, but it seems to be enough to make the end of our bike trip. We will try this evening with Damien if it is possible to bike with one leg and the other just hanging down but the chance of success is very low.

I had this incident on the 9th august. We were going out of  Budapest, the asphalt was wet after rain, we were crossing the rails of the train and suddenly our straight line of 4 bikes fallen down like a wave at a big football match… Damien’s bike slipped on the metal rails and Mira’s bike, which was attached to him, turned on its side with Mira inside… I was so shocked from the view, just like a stupid hen, so I screamed, break sharply and strongly, and fall down like an avalanche. My sudden and sharp scream stressed so much Sashko so he also break and fall down… Funny scene to watch.

There were nice people at the accident who helped us a lot. Later Damien’s friends arrived with their camping car (it was our first day together with them..) to collect me and Sashko. This night we slept at camping for first time during our trip and for first time in my life. I arrived sad and in pain at the camping entrance but the owners – couple with their daughter – met me so nicely: they almost carried me to the chair, they put my leg up and they shared with me their usual ‘evening glass of clean water’. I felt warm with them. Next day the man put a bandage on my knee and assured me it will be ok. It is not the end…

The next day, 10^th of August in the evening, Damien and Pit took the bikes and went to the supermarket to buy things for the dreamed quiet, pleasant, slow and tasty dinner with nice food, good red Hungarian wine, nice green meadow next to the Danube River in the beautiful old village of Szentendre…  It stayed only a dream. 10 minutes after they left, Pit came back – white like our white silk sleeping inserts. While biking happily and freely Damien bumped into a small stick hidden in the grass and fall down on a pile of stones with metal fence around them. We arrived at the place – Damien’s face, hair and ear covered with blood; 2 policemen standing next to him trying to keep him quiet and trying to stop him from escaping with the bike (he was arguing a lot with them, wanting to leave with the bike, to wash his face in the river and to renew again his travel to the shop…), an ambulance car coming very fast and very noisy from the direction of Budapest. The ambulance was for Damien, it was called by the policemen…

Damien and I had our first trip with an ambulance car to Budapest– driving at full speed with the well known relaxing melody of the ambulance cars at max volume. Sorry, Pit but we had to mention one small detail: during the time we were travelling to Budapest by ambulance, Pit used the opportunity to go shopping as the accident was so close to the shop (how to miss such chance…) and left Elodie alone with the kids, without camping car and any luggage.  She was trying to manage the 4 hungry kids, splashing mud and wet sand on themselves and jumping in the river with their clothes on… She succeeded!!

The ambulance car brought Damien to a very nice, modern hospital (almost like a space shuttle station from the Star wars). There they made him stitches on the 7cm long crack of his head and the 1cm long crack on his year… Doctors’ conclusion: no changes in the brain from the hit. For me it was enough only to ask for the near by pharmacy (as I wanted to change my bandage) and the doctors grabbed me, cleaned my elbow and changed the bandage and put my leg into a gyps. We were funny, going back to our tent – me, walking slowly with the heavy gyps covering my leg from the top till down, Damien – with a bandage on his head and dried blood on his face. People were asking us if we are coming from the fight which took place at the concert at Szeget…

Damien after the hospital:

10 days later, after the removal of the threads, Damien’s head looks like a Bulgarian asphalt road tired from the damages caused by a strong winter.  His right ear is as beautiful as his left one (in the beginning it was little hanging down… but Damien managed to give him the right direction). His glasses – a little twisted of course (as usual).

Nina after the hospital:

4 days spent in the camping car… Removal of the gyps, half hour ‘physiotherapy’ in a swimming pool under the professional guidance of Damien, put on the bike…and another big disappointment – I was not able to turn my leg and to bike… Again in the camping car for one more day – the last one as our friends (Pit & Elodie) had to leave in the evening back to France. The evening came, we said goodbye and we stayed little more in a small café to collect some courage before trying the bike again.  While Damien went to look for a close place to put the tent on, I was trying to train my leg (making circles in the air) and my mind, and soul – I was so very afraid it will not work again. Damien discovered a place 3km away from the village, we put all our luggage on the bikes, Damien was holding my bike and asking me to go (as if it was just a normal day of biking), go, go, go … and I went!!! It was such a happy moment for me and for Damien!

Next day we did 26km, the days after – 31, 47, 29, 71km! We arrived in Vienna! We were so happy, I was so optimistic - I thought I am already able to have Mira’s bike attached to my bike again (for the last days she was biking alone in order to be as easy as possible for me), in front of us was only beautiful landscape, magic evenings in the tent, Austria, Germany, Switzerland (wanted so much to see it!), so colourful pictures in my head how Damien’s parents and relatives will meet us – so proud and happy, in Orleans… We anyway decided to visit a doctor to check my knee as it was a little swollen and still not so flexible. Once more fears from the conclusion… When I said to the doctor I did 70km biking she asked me why I came to the hospital at all… I felt so happy, I wanted to run and to jump and to sing but I just was sitting on a chair, impatiently waiting to pass the obligatory x-ray and to escape with the good news to Damien and the kids! X-ray was awfully quick: 2 photos (front and right side) and immediate conclusion – 2 cracks in the patella (the cover bone of the knee). All that requires minimum 5 weeks of gyps. I cried so much in the hospital that the doctor told me she is so sorry they put me in gyps. She was very, very nice, I liked her smile – I needed such smile a lot.

Packing for home

Damien just packed Mira and my bike and sent it to Bulgaria.

I was packing the luggage today (22^nd Aug) - for the first time during our trip in separate back packs: one for Mira and me, and another one for Sashko and Damien. Tomorrow Mira, I and zaicheto are taking the train Vienna-Sofia and Damien, Sashko and mecheto are taking the Danube cycle path, direction Paris. I miss them a lot, I miss the evenings with the tent: Damien collecting wood for the very slow wood cooker, cooking spaghetti or omelette with toasted on the fire bread, kids: talking fast, loud and a lot in the beginning , and slow, quiet and a little at the end as they always became  very sleepy after a biking day, me: every time trying to impress Damien and the kids with the speed I can make the tent, failing consistently every time (either the earth is very hard and difficult to put the sticks keeping the tent to the ground, either I cant stretch the tent enough or it is enough but in the wrong direction, or I manage finally with everything but it takes me 1 hour and Damien is asking me for 3^rd time to go for dinner as the food is getting cold); I miss the cold air of the evenings and the pleasant feeling to go in the warm sleeping bag; I miss the star sky before bed ; I miss the mornings when Damien is buying bread and chocolate for breakfast and kids are still sleeping like babies. When I was packing today, taking with me the sleeping insert of Mira, it was smelling so much of the grass from the fields next to all small villages in the countryside. This smell made me cry and reminded me again that I finished with the bike trip. Damien told me today that we managed to do half of the dream, so I felt like in the song Vesi and Descho recorded especially for me on an MP3 for the trip – Lucky You! ‘We are chasing the moon and the falling stars, after we land on the ground which make us see how the things really are… we can’t stop the rain – it will fall on every roof, I have a proof.’

I am so happy that we saw so many people through our way - in Bulgaria: the big, nice gypsy, guarding a lake with fish and feeding it with blood from chickens killed in the close factory, who took Mira and Sashko in his boat for a boat trip on the lake, protected us from the scary big dogs and at the end helped us to push our bikes up on a steep hill; the old woman who was looking after goats, who came to talk with us a little and gave us banica as it was her grandson birthday; the gypsy family who allowed us to sleep next to their garden, tried to put more grass on the ground to make it softer for us, gave Mira a ride on their donkey, invited Damien to drink rakia with the men in the evening and prepared for us home made bread; the man, who after discovering that we were sleeping on his field, gave us four full hands with tomatoes from his garden; the woman who was so happy kids like Mira and Sashko can bike to Paris and she gave us cucumbers from her garden; my friend Elza and her mother who prepared for us so delicious dinner and so warm welcome late in the evening; my cousin who was so helpful together with her husband when our green bike broke; the bike repair man who woke up at 5 am from the thoughts how to fix our bike; the old, very old woman, living just before the boarder with Serbia, who gave us water and kissed 5 times Mira and Sashko; in Serbia: the couple from the hotel we slept the first night, who gave us huge quantity of hand made lemon juice when they saw we like it and after made for us sandwiches for the day; the family who agreed us to sleep in the garden of their nice farm, prepared for us dinner, showed us all their animals in the farm and gave us hand made jam; the man who managed to find bread for us at 8.30 pm in a small village where everything was closed and brought us after to beautiful meadows next to a small river – a reservat which he owns as he assured us and we were welcomed to put our tent there; the 3 middle aged pensioners who invited us for a drink and ‘nazdrave’, told us their stories and asked a lot for our trip; the grandmother who cooked our soup for us after she saw how slow is our wood cooker and her angry looking daughter who prepared coffee for us in the morning and helped me to wash our plates and pots; the very nice family with 3 kids (all boys!!) and their friends  who invited us for a beer and sweet talks on the street, invited us at their home and watched with such enthusiasm our internet site, gave Mira and Sashko a ride with a big and powerful motor bike and prepared lunch for them; the lonely guard of a castle under repairs who invited us to sleep there and gave us clean bed sheets, showed us the view from the roof terrace where we were the closest possible to the big full moon and all the evening was sitting and watching us silently; the skinny man-nurse and his wife who invited us to sleep in their garden, prepared for us dinner and wanted to give to Damien so many of the hand made salami as they saw how much he liked it; in Hungary: the hotel owner who prepared for us dinner as the only shop in the village was closed; the family from the camping where we slept after my accident, who helped me and gave me lots of courage and warmness; in Austria: the cheerful man with big belly who was so excited from our trip and offered us his map of Vienna in order to find the place we were looking for and finally Raimund, Elly, Florian and Johanna who welcomed us so well in their beautiful house and accepted patiently the unexpected prolongation of our visit until we manage to organise ourselves to depart in two different directions…

I am also very happy and very proud that Damien and Alexander continue. Now I will be one of the readers of the internet page and will be so impatient for news and photos. Damien and Sashko will breath for us the smell of the meadows of Austria and Germany, of the cows of Switzerland and of the perfume of the Paris mademoiselles...

From the 9th to the 20th of August

After finishing our internet message (we spent 3 hours on the computer of the tourist info office of Rackeve) we quickly ride on the bikes to the AquaPark to have a jump in the thermal pools and in the same time to pick up the kids (they were alone there for the whole afternoon). And we continued our way to Budapest. On the next day, 9^th of Aug, we had a meeting at 10,30 am with Elodie, Pit, Paul and Alix in front of Gellert Hotel in Budapest. We managed to be on time and we waited for them... They insisted they were on time but I still believe they arrived 10 min late. After the greetings we climbed up Gellert mount to enjoy the panoramic view of the city. We spent the afternoon in Széchenyi baths at the other side of the city. We had great fun in the pools, happy to have the rain in the warm water, naively ????? how the day will finish. The following day we advanced slowly along the curves of the Danube river, passing through the cities of Szentendre (and its craft and ice cream shops), Visegrad (and the 3 star view on the Danube according to Pit and its Michelin guide. To have such view you need to deserve it and to climb the 5 km steep road to the top – with the camping car for some of us and with bikes for Damien and Pit), Esztergom (and its huge basilica 1 Michelin star), Komarom (and the thermal pools), Gyor – a charming town with quiet and coloured paved streets  (and the best thermal pool ever rated by Mira and Sashko), Lipot, Bratislava (and its Radisson breakfast), Hainburg, and finally 30 km ride through the surroundings of Vienna to achieve Maria Enzersdorf, where we are still today also.  The road was flat but the wind sometime made the ride difficult. During the first part Damien was biking with Mira and Pit, Elodie and Paul were biking with us. After they left Mira was biking alone for the first time in order for Nina to rest a little.

We are now in Austria and most of the roads are cycling paths following the Danube curves. It is 20^th of August and we have biked so far 1640 km! We are half way to our final destination.

Different days – different breakfasts

After 12 consecutive nights in the tent, some time under storm, wind and rain, we finally stopped in a hotel (for a night only!) in Radisson SAS Bratislava. It was quite a change and so pleasant to sleep in a large bed after a long and relaxing hot shower (2 min shower for Damien...) Mira was concerned she sleeps so far away from Sashko – 2 meters away instead of the 10 centimetres in the tent.

The next morning - huge breakfast was waiting for us downstairs. Kids did not manage to stop to Ohh and Ahh and Auu the first 10 min and they ran to the food like bulls in front of red silk, and prepared for themselves plates full with million things…

Some of you might think that the reaction of the kids shows we do not feed them enough during our regular biking trip days. I strongly disagree – our food is plain and simple, without extravagances. Our usual breakfast is bread and chocolate (the chocolate is shared between us by either Mira or Alexander – like that they are practising multiplication and division – it is a sweet way to learn math). Sometimes our breakfast includes as well melon or water melon and sometimes even croissants or banica from the local bakery.

The following day after Radisson, the morning and the breakfast were quite different. During that day we quit Bratislava, passed the Austrian boarder and biked along the Danube River. We stopped and slept in a playground meadow, next to the village of Stopfenreuth. When we woke up we had the nice surprise to realise it is Sunday morning in Austria: no shop open the whole day. So one tablet of chocolate and one melon shared between four of us was our breakfast and lunch…

One week with Pit and Elodie (Aug 9 – Aug 14) – from Nina

I had the silver opportunity to learn French finally and I missed it again… 5 days in Pit & Elodie’s camping car, I dared to talk French only with the 7 years old Paul who was amazingly patient for a kid but anyway advised me to go to a French school if I want to learn to talk in French…

Though often I was frustrated and afraid if I will manage to continue to bike, the time spent with Pit and Elodie was very pleasant. Damien, Paul and the kids were biking either with Pit or with Elodie, I was sitting in the car together with the 2 years old Alix, watching through the window the small Hungarian villages or sleeping. I was often very envy to the others who were biking and very sad I can not be with them. In the same time we managed to see very nice, old, small villages – Damien, Sashko, Mira, Paul or Pit – pushing or pulling Mira’s bike where I was sitting with my gypsed leg, we saw a rainbow above a small green hill next to a beautiful castle, we slept at very nice meadows – their camping car staying next to our tent made us feel cosy and not alone, we had so nice dinners with funny games after and so pleasant breakfasts with milk, cacao, corn flakes for the kids and lots of chocolate, we spent lazy afternoons at mineral water swimming pools and we felt happy listening to the kids playing and laughing or arguing and laughing after. We were all little sad the day they had to leave. After they prepared and left for us 2 bags of food and we all have eaten a good-bye ice cream, we were waving long after the camping car left..

This same evening I biked 3km – for the first time after I removed my first gyps. I was so happy. Damien was so happy. Kids understood and became excited. We slept next to pine trees. It was happy night.

Tour de France stopped 10 days ago but we are still on the road. From Vrsac (you have to pronounce it Vershatz), we passed through Velika Greda, Stari Lec, Secanj, Lazarevo, Becej, Ada, Kevi, Palichko ezero, Roszke, Szeged, Opustaszer, Csepa, Kecskemet and Kunszentmiklos, Apaj.  We are missing the mountainous landscape of Bulgaria and South Serbia. We are now crossing large plain with fields with corn and sun flowers. We are also missing the friendly waiving and ‘bip-bipping’ of the Bulgarian and Serbian drivers. Only Bulgarian trucks, importing old cars from Austria and Germany, are still waiving to us. Hungarian cars are passing so fast that they don’t even have time to notice us. It is the price to pay to be in the civilized part of the EU.

On the 6th of August (Damien’s birthday by the way; keep the presents when we will be back in October) we passed 999 km on Damien’s meter. We have now done more than 1100km. It is more than planned (in good days we even do 67, 77, 72 km per day) We are biking on nice secondary roads in Hungary with less cars, nice forests and fields. In the late afternoons we are counting the animals crossing the fields and roads (as per the precise counting system of the kids, they saw about 19 rabbits, 7 dears, 1 hedgehog, 1 fox and 1 wide mouse). We are not staying all our day sitting on our bikes but we also have some break. We enjoy the thermal bath and swimming pools of North Serbia and Hungary. We are stopping every day, since one week, in a water complex for the afternoons. We are now expert in that (if you need some advice please contact us). For the maps it is a different matter – on Damien’s excel spreadsheet it was planned 921 km to Budapest; we have done 1100km so far and we are not yet there…

Weather

The sky was little capricious with us for the past 10 days: after heat we had storm, rain, wind and sun again.. After our first serious rain on the road we know now it is very important to keep your clothes dry when you have only 2 pairs to change and it is better to stay a little longer under a bus stop then to try  to face the rain. Damien knew it before but Mira, Nina and Alex was pushing and pressing him to ignore his knowledge and to go. We quit the mountain but in the open fields we feel the wind attacking us from the right, from the left, from the front… and very rarely pushing us from the back. It is very frustrating to push so strong on the pedals and still to bike with 10km per hour on a flat road.

Passing the boarder

It was not the great success we expected.. After heavy biking we spent a lazy afternoon at a lake in Serbia (ezero Palichko which was supposed to be the nicest in Serbia...) As usually we left late, too late for the still 20-25km left to the boarder. We had a bad surprise – the small road we were biking on was going to an old boarder point, not in use anymore and we had to bike back to the main road - 4 km on a fast road with the bikes, overtaken by heavy trucks, awfully fast cars, blown almost out of the road from a strong wind and with dark sky and clouds threatening us. We get wet and cold from the rain which started exactly between the Serbian and the Hungarian boarder. After the last passport control it was completely dark. We biked slowly and carefully like bat ghost in the dark. Few kilometers after the boarder we found a small place for our tent, protected by a tree from the wind and the rain. We fallen asleep, hoping Hungary will be more friendly to us in the days to follow. Our legs are tired and hurting sometime but for Mira – no problem till now, except stomach ache for one day. For Sashko we are always biking too slow and he impatiently waiting for the day we will do 100km. On the trip kids are always inventing and playing new games, even on the bike. They have also long and serious discussions about the future house we will build in Bulgaria, they make drawing of their rooms, of the garden, they still have some point of disagreement about the animals to have there but they still have 11 months to solve it. One of their favorite occupation is to chase animals (not only the dead one on the road…)

Sorry, we will try to be longer next time (you are not obliged to read everything). We will explain you our daily life, sleeping in a tent 6 days a week, packing and unpacking 4 times a day, cooking omelet in the dark with a wood cooker…

Thank you to the family of Velika Groda for the nice afternoon spent together (when Mira was a little ill), to the man who invited us to sleep in a castle under repairs, to the Hungarian couple in Kevi for the hospitality.

Almost one month we are on the road – happy to be there with moments of joy, moments of tears (when Nina is tired), arguments..

Tomorrow, 9th of Aug, we will be in Budapest and meet the Guilleman family. It is also the birthday of Damien’s father (Bon anniversaire, ‘pa)

Yesterday when we got up at 7.3am, our intention was to start early, to arrive before noon in Kunszentmiklos, spend a lazy afternoon in a pool or in a park and have plenty of time to update travel book and prepare our next internet message. In fact the day was quite different…

We woke up in a beautiful forest, small paths here and there, our tent surrounded by small pine trees, the warm sun of the morning making them smelling so nice, like in a village by the sea – small snails with funny colorful spirals on their backs climbing the grass, we – absolutely sober after the previous night when it was Damien’s birthday (no alcohol drinks as this is @ the world trip and not an orgy) but intoxicated from the morning around us.

1^st thing Damien does every morning is not to brush his teeth but to take his camera and to start making photos. Nina – she writes sms to Vesi, as usual, but this time ‘sending message failed as no money on account‘… (the mobile telephone for the trip in Europe was supposed to be used for emergency only…)

Kids: sleeping like small babies after the 72km of the previous day; waking up with smile when we call them for breakfast.

The breakfast: the smallest possible water melon – 3.5 kg– as we can’t carry a lot of things. Kids eating like small pigs, water melon all over their faces and clothes (Nina instead to be happy they are eating healthy food, cant stop thinking another hand washing is waiting for her); after that lazy breakfast with bread and dark chocolate; after the favorite for the kids activity – brushing their teeth without water; Damien repairs Mira’s flat tire; removing the tent and packing; last goodbye to the beautiful place…and the clock is already at 10.30 am… So after biking 200m it’s time to stop to put sun cream and to refill our bottles with water.

Finally the real biking starts. We’re lucky this day- road is flat but with forest on both sides. The spirit of the team is high sky (the watermelon in combination with the chocolate, nature, small horses farms on the way, nice houses with beautiful green gardens passing by, the feeling of freedom mixed with sweet memories for the childhood instigated by the smell of the pine trees and the golden colors of the sun burnt grass – all that is giving strength to our muscles and to our souls) At around 20km biking we see a garden almost hidden in the trees -  with the greenest grass, with small swim pool full with laughing boys and girls, with tiny river zigzagging through the green meadow, next to the meadow- a horse yard with wooden fence and gracious horses inside with wooden benches and tables here and there – everything attracting us so much to go, go, go there. It’s 12 am – exactly the time to stop for a lazy afternoon. But me and Damien know from experience – it’s very difficult to leave a nice place before 6.30pm and after the time is not enough to make another 20-25km. We try to convince the kids it’s not good to stop exactly now but as we ourselves are not convinced, we do not succeed, so we just order them to go quick back on the bikes and to stop to talk and we leave this small piece of paradise. Anyway we know we will find another piece – there’s  so many on the earth.

The forest almost finishes and biking continues through flat and hot area – only big fields around, leaving not a single hope for a tiny shadow. Little tired, thirsty, little angry to ourselves we effused to stop, trying to argue little with the kids to push our anger out, we saw a small horse farm – another piece of paradise. We stopped to drink our last drops of water and to talk a little wit these clever and noble animals, also to share with them our bread (of course the fresh new one is for us and the yesterday leftovers are given to the white, curious, hungry and friendly horse)

Again on our bikes, the stop can not rest more than 15min as the hottest part of the day is running towards us and we still have 10km to the 1^st town on the road (where we also intend to stop). Last kms are combination of dry fight with the heat (no more water left..), fight with the weight on our bikes, fight with our legs to force them not to stop, with the pain in the neck and the shoulders, fight with our minds to concentrate on the beauty of the trip and the world in general, as this is the purpose of our trip at the end. The heat and tiredness are almost always stronger than us but at least we keep the stubbornness to continue.

Finally the town! 0 we see in the distance the top of the clock tower of the church 0 this is always a sign for the central place of a village. We stop the bikes in front of the 1stbig shop – we want to buy all their liquid products (even the shampoo will work) Drinking as the bulls after the end of the dry period we are again happy with open eyes for the beauties of the world.

Damien, fast as usually, finds the tourist info office and the location of the town water complex. The already routine procedure: buying the tickets, asking (with hands and eyes as our Hungarian is restricted to 3 words) if we can park our bikes inside the gardens as all our property is attached to them and we will be upset if we loose it, ticket officer agreeing with smile (or asking his superior for permission and the superior agreeing with smile), answering to the question where we come from, proudly announcing (always it is Nina to show off) that we bike from Sofia to Paris, impatiently unpacking as our hearts are already in the cold water, changing quickly (not even in the changing room) and jumping in the water (Mira, Al and Damien really jumping, Nina – slowly advancing, using the stairs of the pool..), after all 4 taking as much pleasure from the water as the wild mermaids. When we swam as much as we wanted, Damien prepared the lunch (from the happiness, water, biking, the sun, we are very very hungry). And then, when the salad is ready and bread is cut the rain starts! It’s beautiful dark grey sky with yellow on it from the last sun beam who managed to escape from the clouds, a yellow house sharply outlined on the sky together with the green big tree standing next to it. Kids grabbed their food and climbed on the top of a wooden slide, covered with triangle roof. Damien grabbed our food and all the clothes and we went to have lunch in the 1 sq m changing room – with roof but open door to the beauty of the summer storm. Of course immediately after he jumped out to make photos and me, I was eating big slices of soft bread with salad and was afraid some Hungarian would enter to change … nobody came! – urra! The most clever thing while you are on a bike world trip and there is a storm is to be with your swimming suit – all your clothes (which are so few!) stay dry, you get a shower (rare pleasure) and you remember the feelings from the childhood – a mixture between running naked in the sea while your parents are trying to catch your and force you to stay on the sand and jumping purposely in the ponds on the road after rain – so all that makes you feel so pleasant.

After the storm (it was forbidden during it due to the thunderstorms) we jumped again in the water – in the pool with the warm brown mineral water. It was only us, an old couple, trying to rest (little bored and irritated) and 10 kids (6 gypsies and 4 white Hungarians)All the kids stayed around us, laughing at us, splashing water in our faces, disturbing the old couple, talking as fast as TGV in Hungarian, trying to make us understand them, staring at us with their big yellow-green, deep sky-blue and cow brown curious eyes. We spent an hour with them – they didn’t stop to talk, they showed us so funny ways to jump in the water (Damien tried all of them, Nina promised to herself she will try next time, Mira and Al were trying to impress the other kids with their funny ways of jumping)

6pm - time to leave… saying bye to all the kids, see ya (in Hungarian) and to the people form the pool, kids running after our bikes for the 1^st 50m – laughing and talking a lot, we  - fresh and full with happy energy. We biked around 10km, Mira put alone our tent, Damien cooked, we ate, went to bed, started the beginning of our 1^st dreams and woke up suddenly as Damien remembered he didn’t lock the bikes…we discovered quickly that Sashko forgot the keys at the swim pool…10km behind from us…

see part 2...

A few pages from Mira's Travelbook

The castle just at the entrance of Golubac

Mira chasing a tadpole

Mum and Mira passing in the tunnels

Mira saw wildberry (kapini) which she loves

Mira swimming under the water, bubbles above..

The storm at Golubac – the scary night

Mira in her sleeping bag lying on the grass, waiting Damien to set the tent again during the storm

from the 21st of to the 27th of July

On 21st of July, after the last 3km hill we achieved the Serbian boarder. We had to wait 2-3 hours at the boarder - Nina forgot the power of attorneys for the kids in Vesi's car... We finally entered in Serbia at 1 pm and continued our way to Negotin. We lost 2 days in Vidin due to the green bike problem; we recovered part of the delay taking a shortcut in the mountains of Serbia. With the help of Ves and Des, with their cars (for the kids only) and Vesi biking Nina's bike, we climbed up the last hill in Plavna. There we put our tent in the fields of a big Serbian farm. Kids had lots of fun chasing the little chickens, feeding the pigs, saying hello to the 14 days old cow... We had nice time with Martinovic family and it was our first night under the stars (it was so hot that we did not use the tent, putting our sleeping bags on the grass..). Next days, we were going down to the Danube, biking on its right side, climbing up again, slaloming down through 17 tunnels, reaching the coast of the Danube again. On the 26th we crossed the Danube at Ram, we left it behind us and we will meet it again in Budapest, in 2 weeks from today. We are now riding between the fields of Serbia, cycling North-West to the Hungarian boarder. We've done 550 km so far!

Language Problems?

Dovidjenia, Dosvidania, Dovijdane, Dowidzenia... using a little of Polish, Russian and Bulgarian, we managed to confused everyone but somehow we are able to understand and to be understood in Serbia. Next step in Hungary we will practice our body language... 

About the Kids

We thought the heat will exhaust the kids, will make them weak, slow and easy irritated, complaining all the time, sleepy, lazy, bored and not interested in anything. We believed that we 2 will be strong for 4 to give strength and enthusiasm to the kids or at least to be able to force them to move... How we bear the heat: me and Damien fall asleep in the afternoon (Nina at any occasion) - on the grass, at the beach, in a chair, on the table after good lunch. Mira and Alexander can't stop to play when we stop for a rest - they are swimming, running, catching tadpoles, chasing frogs, digging holes in the ground, talking, laughing, arguing, writing in their travel books. All that under the heavy sun. Alexander seems he can't stop to bike - when he finish his lunch he jumps on his bike and makes circles and circles and circles until we finish lunch or until Mira finish so she can play with him. These kids are not normal.

Weather conditions ...

44 deg Celsius - for the first time in our lives we experienced so high temperature! For the first time in our lives we are biking at so high temperature. It's good I've read the book for Tuaregs - I was trying to imagine I am a stone, not to feel the heat. It does not help - I think the stones suffer more than people from the heat. Sashko was biking silently, with red face. Mira was almost falling asleep on the seat (as she is attached to my bike she can afford to do that). Damien did not stop to say 'Aide, aide, aideee, push!!'

3 days ago temperature dropped to 33 deg.! - cycling at 2pm is pleasure again! Saw the weather forecast today - it seems we will experience our first small rain on Mon-Tue next week. Good - we will start to learn what to do in Sep & Oct...

We had our first storm. Golubac, 24 July, our tent set next to Danube, 10pm, Mira and Sashko sleeping in the tent. Storm started so suddenly - all our plastic bags full with clothes, bread, cheese, tomato, cooking equipment, rubbish, shoes, swim suits, tooth brushes, rope for hanging the laundry, books wanted to fly chaotically in different directions; I realized how flexible can be a tent - trembling, bending left and right, almost jumping; all paper rubbish on the beach flying around, making it so difficult for us to understand in the darkness what is our luggage and what is toilet paper left from the tourists (we were trying to run after all of them, chasing what looked bigger and more precious first...); Damien holding the tent, trying to push it down to the earth; Danube turned in an ocean - big, noisy, with white foam on the top; trees kissing the earth with their tops... it was scary... I was begging Damien to run to the closest hotel... he did not give up of course... We stayed, we collected the luggage which we managed to catch, we put the kids out of the tent - Sashko ran fast out as he realized the tent is falling on his head, Mira - sleeping while standing, crippled slowly to the new place for the tent and lay down on the ground, waiting patiently Damien to set the tent again, protected from the wind by a garage for boats. He was a magician, he managed to set it again, we all entered - inside it looked much more secure, especially when you zip all the zips and when you fall asleep... In the morning - very light wind, blue sky, yellow sun, no people around - quiet and fresh, cold shower at the beach.. It was so nice.

Thanks for all your messages , from Cuba, Kazakhstan, Norway, USA, France, Bulgaria, Japan. John, I only have an orange dress – I hope it will be suitable... or delay as much as possible.

Message in Bulgarian for mama I tatko!

Mamo, Tatko, mnogo ni lipsvate poniakoga. Kogato minavame pokrai borova gora ili kashtni gradini palni s borove, mirizmata na darvetata mi napomnia ujasno mnogo na nashite kasno-letni, ranno-esenni razhodki na Vitosha I mi stava taka hubavo I nostalgichno. Mua (vesi ste vi prevede ostanaloto dovechera, kato surfirate iz internet) Ot Mira: mnogo vi obicham. Iskam da vi kaja che vidahme mnogo praseta, mnogo kravi, 1 malko tele, mnogo malki pilenca I kokoshki I peteli. Hvanah 1 malko pilence, no beshe trudno. Otidohme v 2 fermi. Mnogo vi obicham pak. Chao..mua, chao mua

from the 19th to the 21st of July 2007

After gorgeous farewell at 7am, organised by Nina's cousin, her husband and 2 kids and after lots of photos in front of the block, we said goodbye to Vidin. We were all so inspired that we are leaving Bulgaria, our 1st country in the trip! Nina and kids singing the famous Bulgarian song 'Pred nas sa blesnali jitata'  (The wheat fields are glittering in front of us), speed at max, smiles - wide, so happy when we finally climbed the very steep hill (Nina and Mira partially biking, partially pushing the bikes, partially pulled by Damien..), waiving and explaining so proudly our route Sofia-Paris to the suspicious road workers putting new asphalt on our way! And suddenly - cluch!!!.. - Damien's bike, the green beauty of the team, refused to continue... After 1.5 hours handy dismantling and reassembling, the greeny was as dead as in the beginning of the 1.5 hours. Unpopular but needed decision was taken: Nina and the greeny put in a hitchhiked car back to Vidin, Damien, Sashko and Mira - with bikes turned 180 degrees started the difficult way back to Vidin - heat 40 deg., time - 1pm, the same wheat fields but not glittering anymore, the same workers so hardly convinced 2hours ago that our small team is going to Paris... Our feelings: Napoleon at Waterloo.

So, back to my cousin in Vidin, she coming back from work to cook, her husband - coming back from work to take the greeny and bring us to the best Maistor in Vidin, their kids ready and happy to play again with Mira and Alexander, the neighbors... - hope they didn't see our return...

The bike workshop - as déjà vu of Damien's repairs of greeny at the road: dismantling, reassembling, dismantling, reassembling, dismantling, and reassembling - certainly much more than 21 times… The T-shirt of the Maistor - wet from sweating, after every reassembling - such hope in the hearts, such light in the eyes, sweating drops - stopped on their way to fall down as if they are also in suspense what will happen - would the repair be successful this time... 2.5 hours of the afternoon spent like that, the Maistor did not manage to sleep, thinking how to win in the battle with the greeny bike, he had arrived in the workshop at 5.30am, waiting for us to come to start the battle again. Damien - so ready for any compromises, just to keep the greeny in the team (he was ready to bike, having one speed only!); Nina - either angry and nasty or sweet and patient.

Last hope died on the 2nd day at 1.30pm Vidin time. Decision taken: to buy new bike and send the greeny to Poland (her native country) for repairs. Nina and Damien finally took a deep breath - final decision taken, the team continues next morning. Kids - they were curious what will happen but more busy with playing than with worries...

Another challenge! You won't believe but it was bigger than the bike repair - how to send greeny back to Poland on Fri afternoon from Vidin?.. Packing box - even DHL patiently explained they do not submit box if it is not standard size (and greeny is not standard size of course..) Where to find it??? - it is a "customer care" to know.. Deadline for sending - 4.30pm. Damien was optimistic and brave we will succeed! We checked:

Damien and Nina deserved one big, cold draft beer!

New bike bought from the Maistor. In the evening Vesi and Desi arrived to give strength and happiness to the team. In the early morning the team starts its 2nd attempt to leave Vidin and Bulgaria! Mira's hopes: I hope this time Bulgaria will let us go as I do not want to climb again these hills..

Vidin shops for refrigerators and microwave ovens, for bikes, for recycling paper, for furniture - almost everywhere it appeared that few days ago they had exactly our size box but threw it the previous day.. We checked the bins of the city, we were like hyenas - ready to grab a box from any place as far as it suits greeny's size. 3.30pm - arriving at the bike workshop to take the greeny, having with us only tape, scissors and plastic folio for wrapping. We were the luckiest guys! - Maistor had one old box greeny size!!! Quick!: dismantling greeny (painfully familiar picture), wrapping, putting in the box. 4.10pm - called to the post office to ask them to wait 15 more minutes after the working time. On Friday... 4.20pm - running through the city centre with the greeny in its box put over the other bike: Damien pushing the bike, Nina - holding the back of the box; Damien - sprinting like for a competition, Nina - breathing like pig at the Christmas Eve. 4.45h - greeny finally sent successfully: Bon voyage, greeny! Hope, you will come back soon!

Wednesday, 18 of July, 11h am, we conquered Vidin !! 238 km from the beginning! All by ourselves (except for the 10 km steep up road where the bikes of Sashko and Mira was traveling in VesiDesi car and Vladko's car driven by Pesho).

For all who didn't believe that we will achieve Svoge (it is 40 kms away from Sofia)  and were betting that we will be back in Sofia after 2 days, we invite them to meet us tomorrow in Bregovo, at the boarder with Serbia.

First day we left at 12h instead of the planned 7.30h am... we were saying goodbye to Nina's parents, cousins, nephews, aunt and uncle around 2 hours – in front of the block while Damien was making the last adjustments of the bikes for the trip... Vladko and Desmond were escorting us out of Sofia, through the main street...- It was so exiting and safe with them; Vladko continued until the end of our first 28 km – with his white shabby Skoda crapping after us through the turns..

We spent the first night at the side of Iskar River, in Vlado Trichkov village. On this first day, we were climbing our first steep hills, Damien had his first sun burn, we had our first night in a tent, we met our first goat keeper, we had our first dinner under the sky, the kids had their first nightmares in a tent... The first week of our itinerary brought us from Sofia to Vidin, a city in the North West of Bulgaria, at the boarder of Romania and Serbia. It means that we had to cross one of the mountainous areas of Bulgaria, Stara Planina, to achieve the banks of the Danube.

Sorry, it's 3 am and we have to get up tomorrow at 6.30 am. We do not want again to find ourselves biking in an overheated landscape... 2 days ago, thanks to Damien's planning (as he is scientifically looking at the map...) we followed him in a small road in order to reach Dobridolski Monastery. We found a beautiful, relaxing, greenery place. But before that we had to bike and push our bikes through burned fields, on a stony path...

Next time we will tell you more about our new life, spending the afternoons with the Shepard, listening to the stories of a fisherman, being greeted by the Mayor of Studeno buche, being guests of a gypsy family... Mamo, Tatko, don't worry – kids are ok, they are eating well, we put lots of sun cream on them, they wear sun glasses, Sashko is the king of the mountain, Mira is getting more and more concentrated (it means she finds herself sleeping less and less on the bike while Nina is pooling her), we are learning how to organize – not to sleep too close to a river, packing and unpacking our 150liters of equipment 3 times per day, biking early morning to avoid the heat wave. Strange – we were wondering what we will do during the day (we are only biking 3-4 hours per day) and we haven't find yet any time to open our travel books.

We are leaving Bulgaria tomorrow – for the kids it's just another holiday day where they'll try to catch fish, frogs, to run after kittens, to dream about the farm they will have in the future; for Nina it's a little sad, getting further from friends and family; Damien will miss the scenery of Bulgaria, the steep slopes of Stara Planina, the ljutenica and snejanka dishes, the Bulgarian hospitality : since the beginning we always have on top of our luggage few peppers, cucumbers or tomatoes given by the people we meet on our way...

Thanks for your message, thanks to VesiDesi, Pesho, Vladko, Dancho, Nia who were with us during the first steps of the trip, thanks to Elza's family in Montana for the Bulgarian hospitality. Don't listen to John: the numbers we gave you are correct!!

- to have more datas about the whole trip, click on  http://atworld.canalblog.com

- to follow our Bicycle Trip in Europe, http://atworld1.canalblog.com

- to read our adventure in Mada, http://atworld2.canalblog.com

- to join us in Asia, http://atworld3.canalblog.com

Click on the link to see where we are (or where we were ...)