{"id":1466,"date":"2011-06-04T21:21:20","date_gmt":"2011-06-04T19:21:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onmytodd.org\/?p=1466"},"modified":"2015-11-17T14:42:53","modified_gmt":"2015-11-17T13:42:53","slug":"pleven-popovo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/onmytodd.org\/?p=1466","title":{"rendered":"Pleven – Popovo"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Left early-ish. Roads were mostly very good and the countryside wasn’t too hilly. Had a bit of a tail wind and did more than 30kph easily at times. Using the road I was riding on from Pleven wasn’t permitted for either cyclists nor horse-drawn carriages. But not even the police seemed to care when I rode past. Traffic was OK. Temperatures peaked at over 40\u00b0C (in the sun) again.<\/p>\n

At Byala I retreated to smaller roads with less traffic (and lower quality at times). There’s a ‘lateroman’ fortress called ‘Kovachevsko Kale’ near the road, of which only (restored) foundations are visible.<\/p>\n

I’m now in Popovo, about 160km from Varna, a sleepy town of about 15000 inhabitants.<\/p>\n

Music in Bulgaria (the contemporary pop I’ve heard so far) has a Turkish\/Near East-ish touch to it.<\/p>\n

I’ve been asked why I do this trip.
\nWhy do I do trips like this one in general? Because I’m interested in other cultures, other countries, other people. Because I want to see how people live in non-western societies. Because I’m curious. Because I can. ;)
\nWhy do I do this trip? Because I want to see the Georgian and Armenian medieval towers and churches.<\/p>\n

Cycled: 148km<\/p>\n