//Day 26 /06-04-22 /Constanta-Balchik

Pffff, what a day. A day of cycling a very busy road, cycling through the fields, fighting headwind for 130 K, cycling a beautiful descent into the sleeping tourist village Balchik…

When I left Constanta my plan was to cycle towards Varna via a National Bulgarian cycle route.My expectation was to cycle around 120 K to one of the coastal villages near  Varna. I left Constanta (after luckily being able to retrieve my cap I forgot in the restaurant the night before). To leave Constanta I had to follow a busy road circling around the industrial harbour. Unfortunate the road continued on a busy road direction Varna. 

The busy road was to busy and I replotted my route to take a longer route but smaller roads closer to the coast through the touristic estates lining the Romanian coast between Constanta and the Bulgarian border. I cycled around 25 K through road lined with big hotels (called Comet, Astroid, Calypso,…), apartments,  resorts, swimming paradises, bars, shops, restaurants, new, modern, derilict, non-finished,…and ongoing construction works,……a concrete orgasm for real estate developers..

Eventually I arrived at the Romanian-Bulgarian border. My covid pass was checked by a doctor which I assume was the sister of the doctor who checked me on the Bulgarian border some day’s ago…

Once I crossed the border the difference with Romania could not have any bigger ; no more touristic estates, no concrete estates, no more growling dogs chasing me, ….only fields, farmland,the sea in the distance,..…I continued to cycle…starting to notice a strong headwind. The next 90 kilometers I would continue to cycle against a strong headwind bringing my average speed to around 16 km/hour…I followed smaller, paved and non-paved, roads close to the coast, slow but long ascents (“valse platte”), no villages or people, but always a strong headwind as a companion …..Not unexpectedly a lot of windmills in the area…I counted roughly 200….

Black Horse and I were happy to eventually take a turn to the left…resulting in less headwind, but as a compromise cycling  again a busy road…passing Kavaran , a small city were I hoped to retrieve some Bulgarian currency out of an ATM. The only ATM in the small city did not accept any of my cards but I got to see a nice mural of Billy Idol….I wonder how Billy Idol - a 90’s rockstar - becomes a mural in small Bulgarian city…..

It had been a though cycling day…but eventually I was rewarded. The last 15 Km I was send on a coastal road descending into (the off-season sleepy) touristic coastal village Balchik. The sun was shining, the wind blowing through my (cut) hair, a descent of 50 km/hour..a working ATM , a hotelroom with sea view…a dinner of fresh mussels with white wine. 

Tomorrow I need only to cycle 40 K and will arrive plenty ahead in Varna to avoid the expected rain. I will probably stay 2 nights in Varna, visiting the city, have some rest and do some bike-maintenance.

Lessons learned :

• One can get emotional attached to a head cap.
• Great mussels in Bulgaria.
• I expect headwind the next 800 Km.
• Interesting to see how a national border is also a concrete border.
• I saw a lot of airplanes at a certain moment today all heading in the same direction.After checking Flight Radar 24
• , It seems I cycled under  the Middle-East - Europe airplane highway.

Song of today : Against the wind - Bob Seger