A Four Hour Bus Ride over the Balkan Mountains in Bulgaria

When we put together the itinerary for our Paris-to-Istanbul bike ride, we realized that the total distance of 1900 miles was a little too much for us to cycle in the 5 weeks that we had budgeted for the trip. So we scheduled two train rides and one bus ride during the trip, totaling about 250 miles. Today was the last of these segments, a 4-hour, 100-mile bus ride over the Balkan Mountains from Razgrad to Yambol, Bulgaria. The ride, and the bus stations along the way, were far from first class, but the bus driver and passengers were friendly and helpful.

Most of the towns we’ve seen in Romania and Bulgaria, other than the fairly large ones, have been in bad shape and without niceties such as picturesque squares in the town centers. On top of that, the food has generally been poor to mediocre, and we often have to buy food from supermarkets because we can’t find restaurants. Peter, a bread and pastry lover, has suffered through tasteless, stale bread and unappealing pastry in these two countries. More than balancing that, however, has been great weather for biking and wonderful company (each other).

Waiting to load our bikes and baggage on the bus

With a new "friend"; Peter's bike is on the back seat of the bus

On the way

We each used the bathroom in a bus station halfway through the ride. Guess who had the better experience.

Around the corner from our hotel in today's destination town of Yambol

Not exactly a traditional Bulgarian restaurant, but at least we found a place that served food in Yambol. We rated the food as so-so, one of the higher ratings we've given in Romania and Bulgaria