Biking the Bulgarian Balkans | Bikepacking Across Europe Ep.22

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We bikepack through the Bulgarian Balkans and across the country of Bulgaria as we continue our biking tour across Europe. Liz experiences horrendous saddle pain and our bikes begin falling apart making us question if we will be able to complete this journey.
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Liz & Alex
About us: We are Liz and Alex, a married couple that makes outdoor adventure and travel videos. We strongly believe that dreams are meant to be pursued, and we hope to motivate others to get outside their comfort zones and do the same. We are full-time nomads and divide up our time between traveling abroad and the other part of the time in our self converted van all the while fitting in loads of outdoor-based adventure along the way! Our goal is to show you amazing places and inspire you to get outside your comfort zone and pursue your dreams...whatever they may be.

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6 сен 2024

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Комментарии : 83

@soulman.9835 Месяц назад

As a Brit living in Bulgaria..Haskovo, there are lots of those small window bakeries..cheep as well. The street food at these small window shops is good. If holidaying in Bulgaria, on a tight budge, you can eat cheep at these small places. Liz, you should have played it safe and visited a hospital to see to your problem..reduce the chances of a serious infection. Anyway, glad you made it.

@rkivlogi 2 месяца назад

Can we all just agree on the fact that Liz is a trooper! Just pushing on with saddle sores 💪

@PursuingMountains 2 месяца назад

Aww thanks! ☺️

@angelmitov8587 Месяц назад

I can't fathom why didn't you spare some 25-30 dollars to see a doctor and get a prescription?

@AndyMacBG Месяц назад

I live not far from Veliko Tarnovo. Going over the pass from Elena was my first proper bike ride. Almost killed me, I won't lie. That downhill the other side though was lovely! I hit a right at the bottom and went back over the Shipka pass towards Gabrovo towards home! Good video guys.

@user-gq2vw8ef6o Месяц назад

There are camp sites but they are more in a remote areas.. Anyway in Bulgaria you can put your tent everywhere no problem, tho you won't have showers, toilet etc.

@tihomirr Месяц назад

Pleven is my home town. For a while I was the only Warm Showers host there.

@ppmquerido3436 5 месяцев назад

👍 Thanks for sharing your traveling experience, We enjoy your vlogs

@PursuingMountains 5 месяцев назад

Thanks for commenting! So glad you enjoy the videos ☺️☺️

@trentr9762 5 месяцев назад

a few recommendations for your future travels, i highly recommend getting an upright bike with a step through frame (azor are easily the best to use as you'll be able to find parts pretty much anywhere in Europe and further a field) and in my experance very little ever goes wrong with them, though you will cover a little less distance the ride will be much smoother and hopefully with less issues, if you do get one id upgrade the gears, hub and crank so you can have more gears for the bigger hills, its what i use and i couldn't be happier. They also come with dynamo lights and frame locks so you wont have to worry about carrying locks or your batteries running out on your lights. Second, Schwalbe marathon plus tyres are amazing, whilst they require tubes, they are surprisingly durable. iv had mine for 2, going on three years now and i have yet to have to change them or the innertube, no punctures, very little wear. Iv put thousands of km on them and they are still holding up amazingly And a question if i may, im looking to tour western Europe in a month, what are you using to find hotels/guest homes? be good to know since you seem to be finding great prices? Aside from that thanks for sharing your adventure with us, happy riding :3

@PursuingMountains 5 месяцев назад

Thanks for the advise, I'll look into that, we really like our bikes, I think we just should have done some more prep before heading off on a long trip like this, and maybe next time, we'll consider getting a gear box like a Pinion or Rolhoff. Western Europe is pretty easy to find lodging, you can often find campgrounds just by searching on Google Maps, and hotels can be found on various online platforms. It got a lot more challenging to find lodging once we got to Croatia and I think Bulgaria was the hardest place to find lodging, but that may be because we weren't on a well-worn tourist path and we were passing through a lot of small towns and ghost towns. Most of the time, I just used Booking, Airbnb. Sometimes I would use Google Maps just to see if there was lodging in a town, but it often wasn't accurate. Sometimes we would just get to a town and ask around, and be able to find something.

@michaelvikhman7926 5 месяцев назад

Liz, you are such a trooper. If I was in your place , I am pretty sure I would not last, let alone be as positive as you.

@PursuingMountains 5 месяцев назад

Aww that’s so kind ☺️ Thank you! It was tough, but glad we made it through 🙌🏼

@Naufrago_Sur 5 месяцев назад

Another great video, thanks!

@PursuingMountains 5 месяцев назад

Thanks! So glad you enjoyed it ☺️

@Marcoshouse 5 месяцев назад

Thanks for sharing. Looking forward to your final episode.

@PursuingMountains 5 месяцев назад

Thank you!

@seanbeaudreault3198 17 дней назад

i appreciate you guys Liz is a tough cookie I wonder where she gets that vim and vigor from

@PursuingMountains 13 дней назад

@@seanbeaudreault3198 aww thanks! ☺️

@vanomadcyclist3474 5 месяцев назад

I have experienced chafing in the Netherlands…. It is not much fun biking with it so kudos to you for your perseverance Liz. Keep buttering up the buns…lol😊

@PursuingMountains 5 месяцев назад

😅will do! Thank you! 🙌🏼

@charliebamford2807 5 месяцев назад

I feel your pain. I admire you for staying positive & posting interesting videos. You are both stronger, mentally & physically, than me. Supporting each other is so important.

@PursuingMountains 5 месяцев назад

Thank you so much! We definitely had days were it was really hard to push through, but we also had a lot of really good days.

@u3pyg Месяц назад

Lovely. You stayed in mu home town that I lived 40+ years already (Sliven). Glad you liked it. Bike lanes are a little screwd but at least we have it.

@mrindependentbg Месяц назад

Awesome journey!

@bjornjensen3382 5 месяцев назад

Hi guys. We could feel the pain all the way to Sweden. Liz, you are no joke!!💪👊 On a scale 1-10 how good was that cup of coffe?😅 Looking forward to Turkey and hopfully the bikes hangs in there🤞 /Bjoern

@PursuingMountains 5 месяцев назад

Hi Bjoern! Thank you ☺️The coffee was a 9/10. Surprisingly very good for a machine!

@tonyg3091 3 месяца назад

Wanted to try Bulgarian yoghurt and buys a kids’ breakfast fruity version 😂 This is not it mate. The real stuff comes in bigger packagings and is unflavored and uncoloured. Good vid. Shows why many of us Bulgarian road cyclists are slowly transitioning to gravel bikes on fatter tires-countryside is lovely but the quality of the roads just calls for fat tires at low pressure. 😂😂 Some form of suspension wouldn’t go amiss either. Good job on pronouncing Veliko Tarnovo, nailed it. 😅

@PursuingMountains 3 месяца назад

We actually had the regular Bulgarian yogurt for the rest of our trip! We just didn’t show it on camera. So good!😋

@tonyg3091 3 месяца назад

@@PursuingMountains Good, that´s the one. Matter of fact the best you can get is when passing through some villages-homemade stuff is the best. Supermarkets are hit and miss, some good some not so good.

@Bulgarian_Jedi_Ninja Месяц назад

Simple white Bulgarian yogurt is one of the healthiest things in the whole world!

@PursuingMountains Месяц назад

We had so much of that there, but didn’t film it. So good! Probably our favorite yogurt we’ve had!

@Bulgarian_Jedi_Ninja Месяц назад

@@PursuingMountains ❗"Lactobacillus Bulgaricus"❗ A gift from the gods that protects us from premature aging, from various types of cancer and from almost all kinds of diseases and allergies. And it's phenomenally delicious🤤👌😋 Bon appétit❗👏

@path.1462 5 месяцев назад

Can’t wait to watch!!❤

@PursuingMountains 5 месяцев назад

Hope you enjoy! ☺️❤️

@ninarisy2200 5 месяцев назад

Love your journey!

@PursuingMountains 5 месяцев назад

Thank you! So glad you enjoy it. Our biggest adventure for sure 🙌🏼

@ChristaBusch 5 месяцев назад

Ihr seit Helden 😊🎉

@PursuingMountains 5 месяцев назад

Danke schön!

@arcoulant87 5 месяцев назад

Great video!

@PursuingMountains 5 месяцев назад

Thank you! ☺️☺️

@kevbutler81 3 месяца назад

I cant believe how well you guys are doing id be dead 1200k ago 👍

@PursuingMountains 3 месяца назад

Aww thanks! It was hard but glad we did it 🙌🏼

@FiftiesForward 5 месяцев назад

I see the gloves tan lines 😅 troopers 🎉

@PursuingMountains 5 месяцев назад

Good eye! Gotta love the glove tan lines from adventures like this 😂

@paulpenfold2352 5 месяцев назад

Is that a walnut tree at 2:48? At the right time of the year, there's nothing nicer than fresh walnuts off a tree, especially on a walking or cycling tour. They were so useful to me in Northern Spain doing the 'French walk' I resolved afterwards to only do European walks at that time of year (early October) so as to sustain myself with them.

@PursuingMountains 5 месяцев назад

Interesting. I'm not too familiar with tress, but it's possible. I bet fresh walnuts would be great on a long journey.

@ivanilarionov1893 5 месяцев назад

It is a walnut, but quite young and probably there aren't a lot of walnuts on it, if any.

@Scor-ah 5 месяцев назад

Have you tried cortisone cream for your saddle sores? I swear by it, it takes down pain a swelling pretty quickly and also mixes quite nicely with your chamois butter . I feel your pain Liz

@PursuingMountains 5 месяцев назад

Aww thank you! I actually haven’t tried that. I will have to give it a go on our next adventure. Thanks!

@donnadehardt5728 4 месяца назад

There seem to be turkeys everywhere. Were they named after that area of the world? Im glad you are healed & road worthy now. Im gonna look for that book . Mechanics Stove died, bike problems, geesh. Im a single lady & was thinking of trying to find an adventure minded companion for a (shorter for sure) little trip. But you guys DO have more mechanical skill than we ladies do. & Things are made so cheaply now days. No more reliable American made hardened steel (which it should be). So Id be a bit afraid to strike out. Kudos to you!

@sulaimansulaiman3403 5 месяцев назад

👍👍♥♥🇮🇳🇮🇳. India Kerala

@PursuingMountains 5 месяцев назад

Thank you! So cool that you’re tuning in all the way from India 🙌🏼

@zeez4178 5 месяцев назад

Love the peak on the helmets are they practical ? 🤙🇬🇧

@PursuingMountains 5 месяцев назад

Thanks! They are awesome! We love our Dabrim visors. They help so much with the sun on a long tour like this

@rickputnam8816 5 месяцев назад

Don't forget that as you head eastward, you lose an hour every time you enter a new time zone. Sooner or later,that has to take a toll on you.

@PursuingMountains 5 месяцев назад

Yeah, we were surprised by how much that impacted us!

@malytse5900 5 месяцев назад

We love watching your videos! Thank you for sharing your experience. Do you have plans to maybe sell a map of the routes you're taking from London to Istanbul? We're planning to do this in the next 3-5 years? Also, what kind of bikes are you guys riding?

@PursuingMountains 5 месяцев назад

Thank you for watching! We don't having any plans to sell maps, but I was planing on getting our route compiled and posting the GPS tracks on our website, I should have that done by the time we finish posting this series. We both have Salsa Fargos, they are gravel touring bikes, so they basically have the geometry of a touring bike, but they have large tires, and a steel frame. They've been great, but we do want to do something to solve the shifting problems that can occur on a long tour, so we have considered upgrading them to include a gear box like a Pinion or Rolhoff

@purelyacademic 5 месяцев назад

Sorry to ask but could do an indepth review of your bikes and kit, please... Inspiring video, by the way! Thank you

@PursuingMountains 5 месяцев назад

Thank you! We have a review of our bikes from the first time we biked the GDMBR: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-OfvWJSLh6Z4.html but this was in 2020. These are the same bikes we used for our trip from London to Istanbul. However, I think we do need to make an update, and after we finish posting this series, we're planning on posting some more informational videos about the route and lessons learned, etc, so stay tuned!

@purelyacademic 5 месяцев назад

Thanks for the link... Also, can you tell me (in general) do you have breakfast firstly...or do you prefer to get on the road and then stop after a few km's to eat?

@PursuingMountains 5 месяцев назад

@@purelyacademic we generally eat after mostly packing up everything. We find it easier to eat before heading off so we don’t have to grab everything from our stuff again and can use water from campground or guest house etc.

@kevbutler81 3 месяца назад

Saddle sours are so painfulll

@PursuingMountains 3 месяца назад

Right?! So bad 😔

@kevbutler81 3 месяца назад

@@PursuingMountains it’s hard to explain how bad they are to someone that doesn’t cycle for hours at a time. No padding will help!

@pxatzis 5 месяцев назад

keep calm and carry on

@PursuingMountains 5 месяцев назад

👍

@lostnorwegianx 5 месяцев назад

How do you find and book these guesthouses? Do you book on the fly or in advance?

@PursuingMountains 5 месяцев назад

That's a difficult question, and we may end up covering it in depth in a video we plan to post in the future. Basically, it was a combination of Booking.com and Airbnb, surprisingly some of these guesthouse could be found on these platforms. Other than that, sometimes I would just look on Google maps for lodging options, but it wasn't always right, and other times we would just show up in a town and stop at a guesthouse if we found one.

@SonnyDarvishzadeh 4 месяца назад

Out of curiosity, what were your typical average speed?

@FiftiesForward 5 месяцев назад

Nobody would ever know about your lady parts if you didn't mention it 😅

@neychev Месяц назад

wow for people who basically live on the wheels and managed to bike thorugh thousands of miles you sure complain a lot :D and why is all the riding if you dont take your time to enjoy the significant touristic spots like Tzarevets!?

@randallgd 5 месяцев назад

If my wife had no first gear I would find a way to solve this for her period. Swich wheels,cassette,cable,shifter whatever it took or even last resort switch bikes with me. Bike mechanic skills are so important. Both should learn as a lifetime skill especially on these types of tours. Having followed you two for a long time this is not your first rodeo. Im I not the only one thinking this? I'm sorry but this hard to watch.

@PursuingMountains 5 месяцев назад

There was no option to fix this. Liz’s cassette was worn out to the point where it wouldn’t stay on the first cog. I even took the bike to multiple bike shops and the professionally trained mechanics said there was nothing that could be done without replacing the cassette, and I’m not sure how much you’ve traveled but these bike parts are nearly impossible to get in this part of the world without waiting for weeks. If you’ve been following us for awhile you would know that I am significantly taller than Liz so switching bikes wouldn’t work, switching parts wouldn’t work either since we’re running different drive trains on different sized bikes. But fortunately it only became a major issue a handful of times about a week before finishing and Liz is tough, so she was able to handle it.

@randallgd 5 месяцев назад

Curious why couldn't you swtch casstes yours for hers (with of course keeping same chain with that csssette) ? For me the lesson here might be maybe don't started a trip that long without replacing the cassettes, chains, brake pads and tires on both bikes. One thing I do to make a bad situation better, is I make sure we have same speeds (12) and brand drive train. Then we could swap each others parts if needed to get us home. Not trying to be jerk and probably came off that for that I'm sorry. Wish you well on future tours@@PursuingMountains

@ivanilarionov1893 5 месяцев назад

@@PursuingMountains rule number 1 - don't start big tour with worn out exotic parts. But I really doubt that it is so exotic that cannot be found here in Bulgaria. There are a few well stocked online stores which ship in 1-2 days.

@dwartbg1 Месяц назад

The Balkans are 99% in Bulgaria, what's up with that "Bulgarian Balkans"?

@PursuingMountains Месяц назад

There’s a large portion of the range that runs through Serbia

@dwartbg1 Месяц назад

@PursuingMountains The Balkan Mountains, also known as Stara Planina, stretch approximately 560 kilometers from eastern Serbia across central Bulgaria to the Black Sea. However, the portion of the Balkan Mountains that lies within Serbia is relatively small compared to its total length. Only about 20-30 kilometers of the Balkan Mountains are located in Serbia, primarily in the eastern part of the country near the border with Bulgaria. This accounts for roughly 5-6% of the entire length of the Balkan Mountains. The majority of the range is situated in Bulgaria, where it forms a significant natural feature.

@PursuingMountains Месяц назад

Yes, we biked through the Balkans in Bulgaria as opposed to the Balkans in Serbia. The title is also meant to highlight the fact that we were biking through that particular section of Bulgaria as opposed to the coast or somewhere else within the country. I don’t see what the problem is.