My shadow comes with me as we leave it all, we leave it all, far behind...

Cycling in Bulgaria has its own unique challenges. I left Burgas and made my way to Veliko Tarnovo on Thursday/Friday last week. The ride took me two days - a full 115km the first day, and slightly over 100km the second. Friday had me climb over the central mountain range in Bulgaria. There seems to be a bit of a theme in Bulgarian hills - just when you think you are at the top, you find yourself on a continuation of the same hill with little or no relief. Veliko Tarnovo was a nice little city nestled on the banks of a valley with a river running through the middle. A few hundred years ago the city was home to the Bulgarian Tsars, and parts of their hilltop settlement have been preserved/restored as a tourist attraction. In the evenings the castle area is lit up by a short lightshow, with the entire hilltop flickering in red, blue, green, and purple. Apparently it has proved to be a good way to entice visitors to stay for the night, rather than just taking daytrips from other cities. I’m not sure why you would want to limit yourself to just one day in Veliko Tarnovo. The history and charm of the old town area is accented by the numerous opportunities for hiking in the nearby hills. I didn’t get around to hiking, but fellow travellers at the hostel I stayed at spent a fair bit of time out in nature. I get my fair share of nature and exercise by cycling! And cycle I did! I left Veliko Tarnovo on Eastern Orthodox Easter Monday - the small roads were more crowded than usual with people trying to get back to Sofia from visiting family in the country. I was flagged down by a man at the top of a hill on the first day and was offered lunch. I had just eaten, but the man insisted that I take a painted hard-boiled egg, and some traditional easter bread. The bread was not entirely unlike paska, just missing the icing! All the traffic on the roads created a backup in traffic in the afternoon - I was able to pass around 200 cars on the shoulder while they crawled along! Day two of travel from Veliko Tarnovo to Sofia was rough. There was much more climbing on the road than I had anticipated, I was mocked by the freeway by snaking underneath it 16 times while snaking up through the mountains, and it was so hot that I ran out of water. The weather has been sunny and in the mid-twenties all week! I don’t mean to complain, but after some chilly days in Turkey, the abrupt change to more summer-y weather has caught my body a little off guard. Sofia was nice! I really liked that they seemed to have intentionally planned to have a lot of public parks, and, those parks were all put to good use once the working day was done! It’s legal to drink alcohol in public, so people go to parks to hang out and have a few social beverages! I went on a walking tour the morning of my first day - spent two hours learning a little bit more about the history of Bulgaria, and the history of Sofia itself. I found a nice coffee shop in the afternoon and ended up chatting with an American woman that now lives here. We ended up getting kicked out of the coffee shop and went around the corner to a neighbourhood bar to meet a former co-worker of hers. She was able to give me some recommendations not only for my time in Bulgaria, but also for the rest of the Balkans! My second day in Sofia was spent mostly just walking around - I also found a couple minutes to clean and re-oil my chain before getting ready to cycle to Rila. I psyched myself up for a long day cycling from Sofia to Rila. I knew that it would for sure mean I had to cross a mountain range, but it can be hard to judge on maps.me how much elevation is lost and gained over the whole day. I ended up climbing around 700m before descending down towards the guesthouse I am at here in Stob. It’s a good thing I saved some energy because I spend another couple hours today on the bike on my “day off.” I cycled the 30km/800m up to the Rila Monastery this morning. Not a small feat, but thankfully I was able to do it without all of my luggage and camping gear! The UNESCO listed site was nice, but almost a little too restored for my liking. Much of the compound dates back to the 19th century, while a tower beside the church is the last remaining part of the site that dates back to the 14th/15th century. Nonetheless, it was a nice ride! Tomorrow I am starting on the trip across Macedonia. Although I’ve heard nothing but good things about Skopje, I’m just going to head straight for Ohrid to make sure I stay on schedule to make it to Kaliningrad in two months. The next month or so has a lot of unknowns. I have places that I made a mental note to visit, but I can’t for the life of me remember why I thought it was a good idea to visit these places - if that makes sense? I’m sure I’ll have a great time no matter what I decide to do!