Sofia to Istanbul

So I went to the US embassy in the morning, and it turns out they can't do anything to help with a license since it's a state issued ID, which I was somewhat expecting. So it was off towards Plovdiv. I took the E80 to Bulgarian route 8, which was a smaller, more forgotten in parts highway that looked like this:

After two days I met a host in Parvanets which is a small town south of Plovdiv. Turns out he is a pilot in the Bulgarian Air Force, so he had Friday off to take me biking up into the mountains south of town, and then ride down them at ridiculous speeds. It was at this point I realized that even though I have a mountain bike, the road tires are fairly useless for traction, particularly the new rear tire from Sofia. I spent most of the way down afraid I'd fall off the side of the mountain, but I still had fun. I then made my way the 10km into Plovdiv to stay at a hostel before exploring the city the next morning.

Plovdiv has a fairly interesting old town with Roman bits, such as this still in use theater:

And this chunk of the old Hippodrome, just chilling below the city:

Of course they also have their fair share of Orthodox churches. I was lucky enough to observe what I assume was a baptism for a while.

I left Plovdiv around 4pm, and made it quite a ways into the mountains, and enjoyed this view while camping (and being afraid of bears):

The day after was fairly uneventful, and ended just past Svilengrad, camping on the edge of a field, before crossing the border. I decided to skip Kardzhali, which was recommended by my host in Parvanets because it seemed like a lot of extra climbing.

I awoke early, as has been the norm when camping for the last few weeks. The sun comes up around 6am, and by 8am I'm burning up in the tent. I can roll over a bit and open the sleeping bag which buys me another 30 minutes or so, but after that it's hot enough I can't stand it inside the tent. I made it to the border early, where I was expecting to be searched thoroughly, but they didn't even open a bag. Another uneventful border crossing except this time it cost me 35 lira for a visa.
In case you weren't sure which country you were entering they added a landmark for you:

Shortly after I made it to Edirne where there is this gigantic mosque:

While I was getting fast Turkish food for lunch, I heard the Muslim prayer call emanating from every mosque in the area. I have to admit that as an American the only time I've ever heard that has been in a movie or video game and it's usually used as the foreshadowing for something terrible about to happen. So, hearing it in person for the first time, it gave me chills, even through the 100 degree heat.
I made it all the way through Lüleburgaz, which is a town of 100,000 people, built around a large main road. Scenes like this really helped cement the impression that I was living in a video game:

I again camped hidden beside the road. The next day I made a large detour planning to camp somewhere north of Istanbul to come directly into the city and avoid the large sprawling crowded roads along the coast, but I made a wrong turn and ended up headed exactly in the direction I didn't want to be headed. In the 20ish miles I was on smaller back roads I was invited to tea by a bunch of Turkish guys sitting at a shop along the side of the road. I joined them and was bought two glasses of tea and two packets of Ayran which is a Turkish salty yogurt drink that's not half bad. While I was there I watched as a truck driver parked his huge truck in the middle of the street and walked over towards us, only to also have his tea bought for him by the same guy that bought mine. That night I made it to the Aegean coast and found a spot at a campsite for 15 lira.

Next day and it was off to fight the traffic and constant hills into Istanbul to meet my parents at a hotel.
Next day and it was off to the Kazakh embassy to apply for a visa. Turns out the embassy is miles away from the center of town and I didn't make it there until after noon, and they were closed until 3. At about 3:15 the guy showed up, and told me to come back tomorrow morning to apply for the visa.
Tomorrow I went back and it was the same guy who handed me the application, so that was rather frustrating. I then made my way 25+ miles all the way across town to the Uzbek embassy, where of course they were also closed from noon to three, so I waited around for a while only for them to tell me that I should have printed out the visa application online and they don't have a single paper application. So that was a mostly wasted day. The embassy wasn't going to be open over the weekend or Monday, so I decided to skip applying in Istanbul and apply elsewhere, probably Baku.

While riding around town I got to enjoy Turkish drivers, and by enjoy I mean hate. The Turks may be nice, but not when you put them behind a wheel. It's impossible to go more than 30 seconds in Istanbul without hearing a horn honk. It's like all Turks are two year-olds who found out their car has a horn and they honk it every chance they get. They honk if you're in their way. They honk if you're near them. They honk if you're not moving out of the way fast enough. They honk if it even looks like you might do something to inconvenience them. They honk at every chance they get.

Next day was the first real day of playing tourist in Istanbul, and oh boy are there a lot of tourists. The blue mosque had a long line to wait to get in.

So did the Hagia Sofia:

And so did the Basilica Cistern:

The rest of the day was spend on a Bosphorus cruise which didn't even go up as far north as I had been the day before when I rode to the Uzbek embassy. Bike > boat.
Saray Palace was the focus of the next day. This was the home of Ataturk for much of his life:

Totally not supposed to take pictures in there but here's a few:

That was the last day in Istanbul before flying to Izmir while waiting for the visa, and I will do a separate post  or that.

Sofia + Bulgarian bureaucracy

So I arrived in Sofia with no host lined up after getting having a few people decline. I love it when you can see the start of a city:

I checked into the "Hostel Mostel" which is a nice place with lots of people, and for about 10 euros they have all you can eat breakfast and a bowl of pasta + 200ml of beer for dinner if you so desire. They offer a daily tour to the Rila monastery which is about 120k south, and up into the mountains. Since it cost 20 euros I opted to pay to make it a day trip rather than spend 2-3 days riding there with all my gear especially since there is only really one way there and it's mostly highway. It's the most famous monastery in Bulgaria, and there were quite a lot of people there.

They yell at you if you take pictures inside, so these were taken sneakily:

 This is a new art style I've never seen before. The halos and hands on many of these figures are actual metal (silver or gold?) nailed to the painting:

We returned from the monastery just in time for me to catch the free bike tour around Sofia, which lasted 3 hours and took us around lots of monuments and landmarks, including many monuments to the soviets that apparently many bulgarians don't like and they're constantly debating about removing/destroying them.

Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. The golden domes can apparently be seen for miles on sunny days:

This guy is pointed right at the parliment building and he's supposed to be watching over them, but I guess the joke is the actual deliberation rooms are underground, so the officials are hiding.

The guy in the middle here is a Soviet, protecting the weak Bulgarian peasants:

A chunk of the Berlin wall:

I had dinner with the three other people who showed up to the tour who happened to be students at a university in Istanbul.

The Next day I rode out to the Boyana Church, which was fairly underwhelming. It's a UNESCO heritage site because it has tons of old frescoes in it, and surprise surprise they also don't want you taking pictures in it.

After that I returned to the city to get some closer looks at the things I saw on the cycling tour.

Such as the Ivan Vazov Theater:

The inside of the Nevski Cathedral:

That night I was out grabbing food around midnight, and I had my wallet stolen. Luckily I was able to change all of the coins I had been hoarding for months, and with breakfast and dinner included in the hostel I had plenty to eat. I also had just been to the grocery store to buy food for the next few days of travel. However since I hadn't paid for the three nights in the hostel up front, and I didn't have the cash to pay for them, I was stuck in Sofia waiting for a replacement ATM card. I spent about 6 hours filling out a police report on Friday, and spent most of saturday, sunday, and monday sitting in the hostel. I did however enjoy riding around Sofia late at night, to get pictures like the Nevski Cathedral at night:

The old communist party building at about 1am:

Today my replacement card arrived, but I got to enjoy the circus that is Bulgarian bureaucracy so I wasn't able to get a copy of the police report until 3:30, and I wasn't even able to visit my own embassy without an appointment. Tomorrow I will visit the embassy, and after 8 nights in Sofia I will finally head towards Plovdiv and Istanbul.