Mounted 1

Dear friends, I am sitting in an internet cafe in Tbilisi, I have never seen anything like it. Nothing is working and so you have to settle for a short summary. We are doing well, we are safe, healthy, and enjoying the journey so far. After a nice farewell brunch with most of you, Ingrid, Christel, and Hickel took us to the train to Frankfurt in the afternoon of April 18th. From there, we spent a relatively good night on the Flixbus and arrived in Budapest after 18 hours. We were lucky and got a sleeper car to Bucharest for the night. This journey was an adventure for our bikes, my bike ended up in the shower, Stephan's bike came into the compartment, and we gave the conductor 40 euros. (Unfortunately, there is no picture - you have to imagine it.) Since we already knew Bucharest, we quickly found our hotel, after having met some nice people in a cozy cafe who gave us a little talisman. We felt right at home in the same guesthouse as our last stay. In the evening and the next day, we met our friend Marina, who went with us to the farmer's and flea market, and we had a short, beautiful time together. We liked Bucharest even better than three years ago. It is a modern city with many events, good pubs, restaurants, and interesting libraries that invite you to browse. But unfortunately, we had to continue with the train to Constanta after two nights, where we stopped three years ago and started from there. We arrived in Vama Veche (southern Romania, 3 km before the Bulgarian border) in the evening, actually a hippie place, but still completely sleepy. It is relatively warm during the day, but it gets bitterly cold at night, so we had to keep ourselves wrapped up. Then we went along the Bulgarian coast. Finally, we sat on our bikes, enjoyed the emptiness as well as the good road, the sun came out, shepherds with their flocks of sheep and goats, farmers with their horses or donkey carts were coming towards us, the landscape was somewhat hilly and therefore not boring, just great. In the evening, we arrived happily in Kavarna, but since it still got bitterly cold at night, we took another room (which unfortunately has not changed until now). We cooked something for ourselves, luckily we had brought something, because there was nothing where we could have eaten. The next day taught us what it means to ride along the coastal road. It started with a 3 km long, steep climb and to our horror, it remained like that all day long. It went uphill more than downhill and after only 30 km, we were totally exhausted. We felt every kilogram on our bike, our knees, and every single muscle in our arms from pushing so much. But as bad as the stress was, the amazing landscape around us compensated for it. We arrived in Balchik and decided to stay there for two nights, which was worth it, a still quiet seaside resort, nice pubs, and really cozy. From here, we went on excursions by bike and on foot. Between Balchik and Varna, we also made a short stop at the famous Sunny Beach. It's nothing compared to Mallorca, just funfair, German pubs, and only alcohol, chips, and snacks to buy. We couldn't even take a photo there. Then we went on to Varna, where we stayed for three days. The city is great, since it was not yet the peak season, we could move around the beach and its surroundings (during the peak season, it will surely be a horror). We were pleased to find that Bulgarians are very, very child-friendly. There are many intact playgrounds for all ages, and in the parks, you can play on the lawns, between the flowers and trees. We also enjoyed the wonderful fish by the sea, we especially liked the fried sprats. The vegetables, the fruits tasted very good to us, because for example, a tomato tasted like a tomato, etc. We decided to take the train to Burgas until Burgas because everyone advised us not to continue cycling along the coast. Somehow we felt quite stupid, but we still need our knees a little longer. We didn't like Burgas as much as Varna. Here too, we made many excursions. We visited a great bird park about 20 km away, visited the cathedral, and everywhere we found that at this time, there is not much going on, as it is still too cold for tourism. We have noticed that Bulgaria is a very poor country, the people live very modestly, in dwellings that no one would want to enter anymore, and that are unimaginable for us. Many are unemployed, hang around on the streets, and drink enormous amounts of alcohol. So we also had a very unpleasant encounter with a group of young people who wanted to steal Stephan's backpack and almost got physical. Luckily, we had our bikes. Otherwise, Bulgaria is much cleaner than Romania and, as I said, very, very child-friendly. They are reserved towards strangers and initially seem unfriendly, but that changes when we start a conversation. On May 3rd, we took the ferry to Georgia. The crossing took three nights and was really comfortable. We had a four-bed cabin for the two of us, also met other cycle tourists for the first time and were a group of two Belgians, two French people, one German, and the two of us. There was a lot to talk about and exchange. In Georgia, Regina and Reinhard (Stephan's sister and brother-in-law) picked us up. We spent a week together here. There is a lot to see in Tbilisi and we walked around a lot, from one cathedral to another, through the city, to the castle, along the river, and enjoyed the good food, which is very simple but very tasty. From what we have seen and read about Georgia so far, there is great poverty here, people live in apartments, houses that no one would enter anymore and there are many beggars. But the people are friendly. Tomorrow we will head up to the Caucasus and on Monday we will cycle down to Russia. Greetings to all of you and I hope that next time I can send pictures. Stephan and Corrina