Anna Kristina Vidin

Late last night I picked up an email from the danish girls suggesting a new rendevous and date. And it sounded feasible if i got a move on. So looking at the map I saw a road which seemed to head directly for the Bulgarian border rather than all the way round a massive loop in the river. The map indicated two steep hills so this wasn't a free ride.<br><br>The hotel quietened down a bit after 1am but having aircon was glorious.<br>I woke up to another ...

... check out the countryside. Today Im going to get on a train and hopefully somebody that I dont know will pick me up at the train station. If not Im sleeping on a park bench next to Billy the Bum. There is an International Valley of the Roses Festival this weekend so I have to stay for that. I was planning on staying in Bulgaria for two nights and it looks like Ill stay over a week (Who am I kidding, I dont plan).

Rest day. Rented a car from the hotel for £15 and went for a drive with a girl called Mandy who is also staying at the guesthouse. Saw a great medieval village and some churches cut into the rock in the local national park. Had the biggest gin and tonic ever which seemed to ...

102km Best: rolling hills and empty roads Worst: Snakes crossing the road And the riding just gets better..... I will let the photos do the talking, but just leaving Svishtov I passed a massive Roman site at Nove. Needless to say had the place to myself. Arriving at Ruse I checked into a super place called the English Guest House. Strongly recommended if you can get a room (only has 6 ...

... about two words of bulgarian (although i can add to this my few words of Czech and Russian which seem to help!) Anyway, despite this weakness, at lunch I found a little cafe and was able to point on the cyrillic menu at a picture of a tuna sandwich covered with juicy salad eggs olives etc (yum yum). What could be simpler? What arrived was a SPAM sandwich with chips inside plus a tomato. And whats more, it was delicious!!! Oh well... At the internet cafe this evening a couple of ...

Lom to Zagrazhden 145km Best: Finding somewhere to sleep Worst: Having to ride past some ruins without stopping The best bit of today was the end. In the scabbiest place on the Danube, and when my legs had absolutely given up the ghost, there appeared a lovely guesthouse out of nowhere (OK, it wasnt super lovely, but all these things are relative). Of course they spoke no English, but a fisherman was having a beer ...

Donji Milanovac to Negotin Distance 125km Best bits: More danube gorges (Iron Gates) Worst bits: Not getting through a telephone job interview! There is no money in the Serbian economy to properly protect/display most of the archaeology. This worked in my favour today as I was the only one on site to explore a substantial Roman fortress at ...

Golubnec to Donji Milanovac Distance 50km Best bit: Castles for breakfast Worst bit: running over a lizard This was a fun town to be in. The lady at the tourist information was fantastic in finding me somewhere to stay, with a lady called Angelika who too was lovely. I sat in the garden sipping some green alcholic liquid which burned the insides, while a ...

Belgrade to Golubnac Distance: 145km Best bit: Sunset on Danube Worst bit: fear Animals: huge mushroom It is hard to describe how it felt driving out in the Belgrade early morning traffic. If you have seen the movie, Speed, a bit like being selotaped to the front of the runaway bus. In other words, fear! However, every cloud has its silver lining on this holiday, and it wasnt ...

... in their school, each with a bouquet of wild flowers for us. The people in the villages were very glad to see us and happy to speak with us (or should I say play charades) since we do not share a language! As ridiculous as we must look with our limbs flailing about, we always seem to get our points across. Well... we think so anyway! The visit was a great opportunity for us to see the work World Vision has been doing ...