Nylon sheets! So not a great night’s sleep as slithering around a lot. Breakfast was half a pint of yoghurt with a spoonful of muesli and the cherries we bought in the market. I cycled into the town to find a cashpoint and stumbled into a Bulgarian bakery. I love bakeries, particularly those in other countries. I want to buy one of everything but even I realise that’s not practical. I chose two large pastries – one looked cheesy and the other just yummy.
We cycled from the hotel – our dinner of cheese, tomato and cucumber salad, grilled chicken, chips, wine and a half-pint of yoghurt with berries came to Lev5 – that’s about £2 for the two of us. Weather was great – we had a pitstop in Lidl as Neil needed a pump and then another stop at a bike repair shop run by a handsome Bulgarian heavy metal fan that wore a top that had “I like to drink blood” and “death is good”. Maybe the translator had misheard. Bike fixed we puffed up to the top of a mountain through pine forests. We passed people picking wild strawberries and mushrooms and a few horse-drawn carts. We stopped for lunch by a beautiful lake. Am getting used to the enormous salads. Neil had trout – vaguely hoping it had been caught that morning but couldn’t say for certain. I had deep fried cheese (Walking Ladies’ favourite snack – but it has to be Wensleydale). We also tried the local summer soup – honestly, it was like watered down tatziki – maybe we needed a hotter day. After lunch it was a freewheel down to Dospat – a town where the people live in the more traditional way.
Dinner (what’ll it be tonight?) is coming up now. Tomorrow is cave day!
Summary: it’s still cold – should have realised cycling in the Bulgarian mountains would not be balmy. But 37 miles in the saddle was good fun.
Snoo's kitchen 