We had two favourite foods in Istanbul: lahmacun, a thin crust pastry with red meat and spice sauce, which you get a bit of vegetable with. You can pile the veg on top of it and then roll it up and eat it.
Arriving to Istanbul was not that hard that we thought. The traffic is acceptable, the only thing you need is to flow with others. This is the key element of driving in Asia I can say. So do not be bothered by nothing, even if you see a burning car.
(watch your video about arriving to Istanbul here!)
We left Edirne in the morning. Ali joined us for the first 25kms before we stopped in a village for a tea.
The locals were sitting at the tables, were playing cards and drinking tea. It was half lira so we had some too and also bought a large box of ice cream for 3 liras. During the break we cleaned the chains cause it was due despite they were still in working order. We said good bye form Ali, we had a good time with him, it was a nice change before three of us hit the road again.
The road was still undulating; we planned to go till Kirklareli, 60kms from Edirne, but the hills tired us out so we arrived there only in dinner time. Zita and Dani went shopping to the local BIM while I looked after the bikes. Read more…
We didn’t ride to Istambul via the quickest, simpliest way (D100), cause we knew it’s a nightmare. We thought it will be a piece of cake getting into the city of 8 million people on recumbents…
Recently I finished when we arrived to Ali in Edirne, who was very nice with us; we spoke all night and he told us a lot about Turkey. He gave us not just good advices but also his flat key. Next day he had learning lessons as he is studying chemistry, but I think we already said this. During Ali’s lessons about the medicines, we slept until early afternoon. When we woke up to eat something we just find that water melon which was carried on by Dani in the last 170 km. We made a lunch from the rest edibles. Dani blended the roundel cake from the rest flour bought in Temesvar and I cooked it while wrote this entry. Hurry we just drop up the pancake in the air so didn’t scratch Ali’s pan. For stuffing Dani made bulgur, which is a type of Turkish rice (boiled Turkish wheat): spiced with everything and cut a lemon in that + vegetables and cream cheese. We made such a big portion food that everybody was eating this also in the night. Somebody asked the roundel’s recipe. So here it is (I’s very simple): water, flour, spices. You have to make a pan cake and to sauce (we used to use the followings): pepper, garlic, sage, balm, mint. But you can use also ramsons (bear’s garlic), the taste will be genius.
A Turkish wedding at the building estate
At the afternoon we went out to see Edirne’s sights but just get a sight of a turkish wedding among the panel houses. We stopped and the childrens came to us and also the adults asked us to go with them for dance. Read more…
Vratsa – Getting up in the Canyon and breakfast from CBA
Dani as usual had got up by the time we got out of our tent near Vratsa, under the huge rocks. It was the first time we had seen the canyon in daylight, it was really wonderful, just as we had suspected at night, at the light of the stars. Dani had been sleeping just next to a board commemorating a young guys motor crash. The only fact that made it clear it was not his grave was that the Bulgarians do not bury people in such places. However, it was still a little bit morbid that Dani had been sleeping there. Of course, it did not disturb us at night, we found a place here, Dani found two trees, so we stayed here. There were huge rocks above our tents, and it was a real experience to start from this place we only had to roll down in the Canyon, back among the rocks to Vratsa.
We purchased the breakfast in a CBA, yes, the Hungarian Shop Network in Bulgaria. Opposite the shop we found a grass-covered area, so we settled there to have breakfast. Dani had eaten so well that he even got down while we were gathering our stuff and bought some fizzy tablets in the pharmacy.
We make up for the „lost” days now, so let nobody get frightened, we did not return to Bulgaria, just we do not publish the diary in chronological order. The events contained in this section and the following one happened to us after Serbia, and before Sofia.
With one leg to Negotin
Last time I ended up at our arrival in Negotin, the last town before the Serbian Bulgarian border. This day, Zita lost from her shoe a screw that held her SPD cleat. We removed the cleat so that it should not fall because of being held only by one screw then we changed shoes. So, I was riding to Negotin with one foot.
Just as we entered the city, we caught sight of a bike shop, I showed the cleat and explained that we needed a screw. The guy was very helpful, but he did not have kind of screw, only longer. He showed me to wait because a huge guy started to bargain for a motorbike. As I saw the situation, without understanding what they were talking about, it seemed to me tha guy wanted to buy a motorbike for the price of a croissant on credit. Read more…
Alexander, Lubomir and the story of the 100 km watermelon
The starting from the church garden wasn’t so easy that we thought.
Dani woke me up and I started to pack, leaved Zita to sleep. I packed the tent, so she was just lying down in a little blanket; only the outside sheet was there when she woke up. We had our breakfast in the park between the church and shop, the menu was bred with margarine and honey.
After the first hardest 10 km (when we are in the sleeping-bag yet in mind and our muscle are stinging) was everything quicker. Before the first top of hump, we met a pair with country bike and not so much pack, just one of them had a backpack. We started to talk with each other: they were Alexander and Lubomir, father and son, who were bicycling for 5 days from Sofia to Burgos and back. They are reeling 200 km per day which is very hard, even if they are doing this “just” for 5 days. We were talking just for few minutes, didn’t want to retard them so everybody can go further to reach their goal. At the hump we started to laugh very much as just remembered that we are carrying a gift watermelon more than 100 km. We made also a video from this but as our camera is so new and made in HD version which is so big (more mega) – we cannot upload or play or to just over code with our notebook. The solution will be the following: we will use the old, spare camera for making videos. One of us will make the videos, the other one the photos.
:) Read more…
On our rest day in Plovdiv we woke up around 9:30 when Petya was already at work, the rest of the family just woke up too and finally his little 4 year old son befriended us. .
Stanimir couldn’t make to be our guide but we arranged a meeting at lunch with Petya. We sat in a restaurant next to a tiny park and it turned out to be the jackpot. The place was very friendly and cheap and even the toilet was fascinating, we liked the design so much Zita and I agreed to make our future bathroom like this. We had a good time with Petya despite the short time. Read more…
Dani woke us up at Svetla’s around 8 in the morning saying the breakfast is ready. This felt embarrassing. They were too kind with us. George, who helped us yesterday was here too, told us how he has 3 heart attack and a surgery too, but he still smokes, drinks. It was great to see the way he was smiling, and enjoying life. I will have really good memories of Gorno Varshilo, thanks to his joy for life. He spoke simple English, Every 5 minutes he said I’m happy, or I’m very happy, and my friends, also Love. :) He really liked us and we saw this on his face. I remembered those who we welcomed in Budapest, Henry and Jamie, who are in South East Asia now, or Előd and Lehel who have travelled across the entire Europe since. We tried to help them and make their time at Budapest be as good as possible, which made us happy too. We saw something similar on George’s face, that made the farewell better. It’s difficult to accept such love from a stranger, but it was easier as I remembered myself being hosts for other strangers. Read more…
Honeymoon around the World. Coz' we only live once.
About the English site
If you can read this, it means you are on the English version of our site. The English translations are a bit late, so if you are curious about our newest adventures, switch to the Hungarian version(which is much more up to date) with the red-white-green flag above, and use google translate until we can translate our posts to English. Thanks for your patiente! ;)
Ha unnátok már a 360°bringát, vagy nem lenne új bejegyzés, de épp nagyon olvashatnékotok van, íme néhány gyűjtemény vagy írás, amiket ajánlunk, és amelyek megváltoztatták a gondolkodásmódunkat:
bought a large box of ice cream for 3 liras. During the break we cleaned the chains cause it was due despite they were still in working order. We said good bye form Ali, we had a good time with him, it was a nice change before three of us hit the road again.
The road was still undulating; we planned to go till Kirklareli, 60kms from Edirne, but the hills tired us out so we arrived there only in dinner time. Zita and Dani went shopping to the local BIM while I looked after the bikes. 
Recently I finished when we arrived to Ali in Edirne, who was very nice with us; we spoke all night and he told us a lot about Turkey. He gave us not just good advices but also his flat key. Next day he had learning lessons as he is studying chemistry, but I think we already said this. During Ali’s lessons about the medicines, we slept until early afternoon. When we woke up to eat something we just find that water melon which was carried on by Dani in the last 170 km. We made a lunch from the rest edibles. 
Dani as usual had got up by the time we got out of our tent near Vratsa, under the huge rocks. It was the first time we had seen the canyon in daylight, it was really wonderful, just as we had suspected at night, at the light of the stars. Dani had been sleeping just next to a board commemorating a young guys motor crash. The only fact that made it clear it was not his grave was that the Bulgarians do not bury people in such places. However, it was still a little bit morbid that Dani had been sleeping there. Of course, it did not disturb us at night, we found a place here, Dani found two trees, so we stayed here. There were huge rocks above our tents,
and it was a real experience to start from this place we only had to roll down in the Canyon, back among the rocks to Vratsa.
We removed the cleat so that it should not fall because of being held only by one screw then we changed shoes. So, I was riding to Negotin with one foot.
I packed the tent, so she was just lying down in a little blanket; only the outside sheet was there when she woke up. We had our breakfast in the park between the church and shop, the menu was bred with margarine and honey.
.
I will have really good memories of Gorno Varshilo, thanks to his joy for life. He spoke simple English, Every 5 minutes he said I’m happy, or I’m very happy, and my friends, also Love. :) He really liked us and we saw this on his face. I remembered those who we welcomed in Budapest, 
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