Bulgaria and the Turkish Visa

The Sea!! we have reached the coast and it is time for a holiday! :) It has been almost three months since we have seen the sea we are both so happy to be reunited. We arrived at the Black Sea at Constanta before heading South down to the Romanian coastal resort of Varma Veche. This is a small Romanian party resort with beach clubs, restaurants, shacks and accomodation options. Varma has a feel of a new party destination so I would recommend a few nights here if passing through. Varma is also right on the border between Romania and Bulgaria, so once we passed over we were in country number ten :)

In Bulgaria we cycled 30km to the coastal town of Krapets. This is a beautiful little fishing village high up on the bluff, There is a shop, atm and two restaurents and a bar and is a really nice little chill out spot. We drank beer in the small bar overlooking the sea then set up a wild camp up on teh headland.  Perfect camping spot. From here we then headed south again past Varna and towards Sunny Beach. Sunny Beach is famous in England as an 18-30 party resort and something I thought we should best avoid but it is actually quite nice!! The beach is very nice and although it is very busy  in the middle of the strip, the bars at the end of the strip are very nice and cheap (40p a beer.) We also met some of the reps trying to get tourists into their bars and they were really nice and sat us down in their bar and gave us three free beers each!! Sunny Beach Woohoo!!

It is now very wise to point out that Bulguria is seriously hilly. We thought that the road would be flat since it followed the coast but the road actually rises and falls again and again and the further south you get the more this increases until you are shouting at the hills and wondering what you doing! Think Muswell Hill but you have to go up and down it all day! We did however meet a man at the top of one of these hills who saw us stuggling, His name was Krasim and  he seemed quite drank so we were quite hesitant at first but he invited us into his home for some Pilinca (home made local spirits made from plums) We drank and it turned out he was the record javelin thrower from the 70's and a massive Julio Englasis fan so we spent the evening singing spanish eyes at his friends house. Never underestimate the drunk guys on the street!!

We then headed towards Turkey and this was the first time we needed a real visa. We cycled to Malko Tarnovo, the most eastern border post between Bulgaira and Turkey. Please note that the border post is about 900m up the mountain and the road from Malko Tarnovo goes straight up for 9km so please give yourself time for the climb since it sapped us of all our energy. At the top we changed some money and went to the border post to pay for our visa. This can be done in USD or Euro. We paid USD since it was what we had and cost us $30pp. We wanted to get our visa on the border as opposed to an Evisa since we did not have access to a printer and there were no problems. We were given a 30 day visa and waved onwards to enter Turkey. Please note this infomation is correct as of 15/06/15. 

Turkey is a fantastic country and the people and hospitality is exceptional. We have recived places to stay, food, water, advice and lots of tea! We will update again with our views of Turkey and the people we have met :)

Thanks

Tim and Fin


Mileage: 5455km
Top Speed: 54.90km/h
Countries Visited: 11
Cheapest Country: Bulgaria
Highest climb: 1600m Turkey