'The barks worse than the bite'

So after waving our mates off to Budapest airport after what was a busy few days it became apparant we had to get back on our bikes. Our next scheduled "rest" was to be on Sunny Beach in Bulgaria in two weeks time, where Luke and Sams birds were coming out to play dominos. Unfortunatly for the two lads they had to go through Serbia, Romania and a good chunk of Bulgaria before they could catch up on snuggly wugglys.

We have become well trained in the art of leaving big cities, but always seem to meet the local police and Budapest was no different. Apparantly it wasn't safe for five lads to fly down a Hungarian motorway (for reasons unknown to us) but in the end, after several map checks and a McDonalds we managed to escape. We had heard stories about the 'aggressive' Romanian strays which roam around in packs like blood thirsty wolves, and had even met some French lads earlier in the trip that had huge sticks strapped to their bike incase they came face to face with these rabid ridden muts. On hearing this credible intel we took oursleves to a local DIY shop to get 'tooled up'. Stephen, Luke and Sams weapon of choice was a snapped metal broom handle attached to the rear right pannier for rapid extraction. Tom went a bit more conventional with a sharpened stick and Jamie the non-aggressive pacifist of the group used an electronic 'dazzer' which sends out a high pitched noise. We had warned him that he would be struggling for defence if we encountered any deaf dogs, but he was lucky we never encountered the 'pissed off' deaf dog.

Entering Romania we had practiced and rehearsed our drills for the almost certain stray dog attacks, the 5th man on the road was said to be in "death zone one" and the 1st man was the eyes of the outfit. We have never encountered more timid, shy, scared dogs in our entire lives, if you were to walk up to one it would set off at a rapid pace in the opposite direction! The problem (if we can say that) were pet dogs, who werent scared of human contact. Ocassionaly we found oursleves in a wild west kind of stand of with the more macho dogs, but we found that stopping the bike and shouting seemed to do the trick.

We had planned our route to follow the picturesque river Danube for aslong as possible, for the good scenery and ample camping and washing capabilities. We joined the Danube early in Romania and managed to stay with it for a week or so. A word of warning is required here for all you mozzy haters, the Danubian mosquitos are not the be laughed at. Stephen took 13 bites to his arse that were itchy enough to keep him awake all night begging for relief that never came. Apart from the occasional section of unpaved road it is a route we reccommend to all you cycle tourers. Romania seems to be a country where anything goes. From 80 year old women pulling trees along the road, 30 stone men being pulled along by little donkeys and main roads that look like they have been hit with mortar fire. The locals don't seem to understand the dangers of potholes and fast driving after watching one unfortunate man blow his tyre up after hitting one at 40, it would seem they are used to the occasioanl blow out as he was faster at changing his wheel than Lewis Hamiltons chief mechanic. Saying that Romania is one of the friendliest places we have been to so far. The kids run out to the road to give you high fives and the old men applaud as you pass the local pub. Romania really is an up and coming hidden gem that more people should see.

In order to keep ourslelves as close to the Danube as possible we crossed the border into Serbia, a country none of us had been to or had planned to go into. Our memories of Serbia are somewhat slim as we only stayed there one night. By now we were getting itchy feet to arrive at Sunny Beach as our alcohol consumption was at an all time low. Crossing into Bulgaria from Romania took us over the Danube on a rather large bridge. As usual the border sprint was carnage, a 'welcome to Bulgaria' sign mixed with a down hill finish meant Tom nearly tail-whipped his sherpa whilst going head to head with Sam for the border sign. Fortunatley we all crossed in one piece and were ready to put some miles in to get to Sunny Beach. The difference between the Romanian and Bulgarian town was alot more than we thought. In Bulgaria there was a brand new shopping mall complete with games arcade and cinema. This was the first time we had really felt out of place when buying food in our scruffy vests and porno cycling shorts, we must have been scruffy looking as the security guard even moved us on when we tried to have some dinner outside. The route to sunny beach looked relatively flat, so flat infact that Luke had declared if we went over a climb a mile long he would do a 6-foot belly flop.... He would be flopping in Sunny Beach!

Sunny Beach can pretty much be described as an up and coming Benidorm, where free shot vouchers come as standard with night club entry and drinking to excess is encouraged. Not that we would be taking part in such a disgraceful culture.....
Sam and Luke were wining and dining there other halves at the local restaurants after a long spell of being apart whilst eight nights on the bounce by Stephen, Jamie and Tom produced some of the worst hangovers known to man. Including some pretty weird hallucinations from cheap vodka. It could be said that Stephen, Jamie and Tom were more creepy than Edward Hill on chat roulette at 4am after a night out in Newcastle. We would personally like to thank the girls for participating in this event and helping three 21 year old lads keep their testosterone under legal levels. Thankyou. P.S. 'Keep it gangsta dog, keep it gangsta.. I wanna thank you all, I wanna thank ya'.

We now found ourselves back on the road on our way to Istanbul, after leaving Sunny Beach behind we knew it was time to put some good miles down and get back to what were used to doing. Riding 50-80 miles all day, everyday. Riding into Turkey meant tackling a 5 mile climb up to the border crossing point and buying our first visa for our passports. We had heard that cycle touring in Turkey was supposed to be great, with such good hospitality and we havn't been dissapointed. All the locals offer you enough Cay (Tea) to sink a battle ship. Occasionally we found ourselves short of a place to sleep, but the locals never minded us pitching up on their ground. We had been warned that riding into Istanbul would be a nightmare, and it was. This didn't stop us flying down a four laned motorway at 50 mph though, with Stephen taking the speed record at 51.8 mph. We can only imagine the look on the drivers face as 5 lads on 40kg bikes came flying into their rear view mirrors! So again, we've made it alive to our biggest city yet, Istanbul to meet Sams family.

As usual we have people to thank; Dale how could we not put you in the blog? The crazy manc that we met in sunny beach who knew the price of everything. A real 'top' lad who would do anything for anyone, dont forget we shall be visting Manchester on our return home so be prepared. Also a big thanks to the GF's for bringing out some much needed gear that clogged up their suitcases more than they already were on the flight over. Oh yeh, and thanks Amber for plucking Mac's eyebrows to pristine condition, one of the few absoloute essential requirements that a bike tourer needs for a world trip.

Look out for our next blog shortly and dont forget to check out our website: www.mission-oz.co.uk and our Facebook and Twitter pages for photos and videos.

P.S- We hope to revamp the website in Baku to make it more up to date with more pictures and videos for all you none facebookers so keep an eye out!