Firstly I want to apologise for the late post. My arrival in Istanbul was much earlier than planned and as I had so much time I completely switched off and soaked up the experience that is this intense city.
Only now that I have started moving again that I have been proactive in keeping the blog up to date.

My first 2 weeks were spent in a bustling hostel called “Chillout Cengo”. It was a fantastic place to stay, staff and guests were so friendly, the location was brilliant and next door kebabs were about 35p! and all for £6 a night.
On several evenings we would all go out to watch live music and play backgammon over a water pipe.
One day we even had a trip to the beach on an island.

On occasions I explored the local markets and the Grand Bazaar. Traders selling everything from local craft to elegant foods.

There was a specialist touring bicycle shop in the city. Here I got some essential maintenance done for the mountains that await!

Istanbul really is a city that never sleeps, the early hours of night are busier than daytime and the entertainment never stops. Tram rides through the crowds are a common sight.

A must visit are the mosques. Some bigger and busier than others. Below is the blue mosque.

Views over the Bosphorus river from another mosque.

On week 3 a close friend from home, James, visited me. It was so nice to see a familiar face and catchup on everything thats been going on at home.
Thanks for coming out!

Chatting over dinner with a nice view.

We visited the Hagia Sophia, a very impressive building internally.

We also took our own walking tour of the city outskirts, escaping the busy streets and admiring some great architecture and views.

A local cat finding the book stall the most comfortable place to sleep!

One of a few nice parks to relax in.

As James’ time here ended a fellow traveller Barry, arrived.
We met up in England earlier this year and arranged to cycle together over Asia from Istanbul. He is cycling from London, England to Auckland, New Zealand.

Our ride now continues, as we take a ‘V’ shape through the country to Georgia via the stunning region of Cappadocia. We will also be chasing visas for our central asia stint. Not great fun but essential as this will be the remotest and extreme section of my entire journey!

In Bucharest Endi was staying with a warmshowers host. We had met her with Endi whilst we were there for a quick drink in the evening.
She invited us to a beach in Bulgaria to camp for the night.
The beach was on our route and a decent distance from Constanta. Perfect!

We reached the beach by mid afternoon and met up with Elena and her friends.
We swam in the sea, ate at a local restaurant and had a campfire then slept in our tents on the beach. This was a real treat, it was a great day.

The next morning I was lucky enough to wake up at sunrise (5.30am)
I’ve dreamt of taking a photo like this for years.

Group photo.

After parting ways we continued along the Black Sea Coast for another 2 days before making our way to the Turkish border inland.
Bulgaria didn’t make it easy for us to leave and the terrain got very steep, however it did provide for some incredible decents and a few nice views!

We entered Turkey on the morning of 4th June.

As we approached the first town Endi had a problem with his pedals. Whilst waiting to get them fixed we were given some tea, Cai (chai).

This happened again when we had a quick kebab to eat. Delicious!

The next day we carried on eastwards towards Istanbul. 1 main road through the hills and forest. Our last night wild camping together was here.

The last day cycling as a trio was for 70miles. Surprisingly this was our first proper encounter with aggressive wild dogs.
The road also widened out to a 3 lane motorway.

However this didn’t stop some dogs from having a good old scratch in the middle lane!

The road then climbed up and over the hill in the photo above.
Halfway up a group of road cyclists overtook. Stubbornly I decided to race them. I managed to beat one of them to the top, which I assume may have knocked their confidence as I was on a fully loaded steel touring bike!!
Their support vehicle, seemingly impressed, handed me a reward out of the window for my efforts, cheers guys!

15 miles before reaching Istanbul both sides of the motorway turned into single file roadworks. I can honestly say this was the worst cycling experience of my life. Literally inches from massive trucks our lives were completely at the mercy of the competence of each driver and there was no escape.
Thankfully we got through.

Upon reaching Istanbul its been a case of relax and unwind, hence the delay in posting. I haven’t done too much as I’m waiting for a friend to arrive in a week.
I’ll update you all of my time here in a fortnight.

So thats Europe done, next stop, Asia!

The stats:

Miles cycled: 3000 (4800km)
Countries cycled in: 10
Punctures: None!
Shortest day: 35miles
Longest day: 80miles
Biggest hill: A measly 750m elevation

Favourite scenery : Serbia
Friendliest country: Romania

In Bucharest we met up with Endi, the Spanish tourer we travelled with from Vienna to Bratislava. We arranged to travel to the Black Sea together.

The first day we travelled quite quickly back down to and along the river. We covered 75 miles.
The villages were larger than before and finding a camping spot in the evening was proving difficult. We cycled up some dirt tracks and bumped into a farmer. I pulled out my translated paragraph…. Could we get lucky again!?

Of course!

He welcomed us with open arms into his house. We met his family, friends and they provided us with a feast of food and home made wine.
We all ate and drank till about 1.30am before collapsing into bed. We had a truely fantastic evening!

Showing us a headless chicken. This was then plucket before us and cooked on a fire.

Group photo.

The next morning I woke up horrifically hungover and the days riding was slow and hard.

There was one last river crossing.

This turned out to be the final time we would see the Danube river.

During the day we bumped into 2 French tourers who were going to the Black Sea, they had been travelling since the beginning of March and even had their dog with them in the trailer!

We wild camped 50miles from Constanta, the stage 1 finishing line. However a herd of goats and a farmer did pass through which was nice. He didn’t seem bothered we were staying here.

The next morning we woke up with great anticipation. This was it! The final push.

The whole day we hit big rolling hills but it was great fun. My knee has healed and I’m feeling strong.

We stopped along the way to buy some honey.

Quick stop at the top of one climb.

As we entered Constanta the adrenaline really started kicking in and we progressively got faster. When the Black Sea became visible we raced like men possessed to the edge! This was a lot of fun.

We made it!

Team photo!!

Our journey as a trio now heads south along the coast to Bulgaria and finally into Turkey. We hope to have a rest day at the beach before our final push for Istanbul. This will take about 1 week.