Bulgaria (land of cats) to Istanbul (more cats)

From Bucharest it was down to the Bulgarian border, another cursory passport check before hitting the road to Burgas on the Black Sea coast. The road started off good but degenerated into miles and miles of roadworks and gravel. Slow going and very hot. But it was good to see the landscape changing. That is the good thing about this kınd of travel, you get to see how places and things fit together. You don´t jump on a plane in one place to be spewed out in another with no notion of context.

Bulgaria is big on cats, they are everywhere giving you the big moon eyes every tıme you sit down to eat.

To Istanbul. Took the wrong road from Burgas to the border. Longer and in poor condition. Oh well! The fırst "proper" border; with visas and motorbike insurance needing to be bought. Very straightforward though, except that they had run out of Turkish Lira at the money changers at the border. Had to find a bank (and some petrol, I was running on fumes at this stage) in the first town. Then the long hot run to Istanbul. The traffic in the city lived up to it´s reputatıon, absolutely manic but bizarrely fun.

Cats are everywhere here too. At least one is using my motorbike seat as a bed (judging by the amount of fur appearing in my sheepskin seat cover). I should be grateful that they are only using it as a bed!

Soundtrack: Hawkwind - The aubergine that ate Rangoon