My bike has been shipped to Thessaloniki in Greece, three weeks before I fly there from Frankfurt. After a relaxing weekend, I collect my bike early Monday morning from the logistics company and ride immediately to Gelibolu in Turkey, across the Bosporus from Asia.
It's nearing the end of the tour and I'm on my final country before returning to Germany. I have two days in Czech which allows me to confine myself to the quiet country roads.
It's the third country today and I'm not really sure where I want to go. As part of my pre-trip planning I highlight interesting places, towns and cities on the map based on guide books and online sources.
Finally back in the EU after a long wait at Polish customs. As with Bulgarian customs, they were thoroughly checking the contents of every bag in every car.
Leaving Pridnestrovia and crossing the river into Ukraine, I am soon onto a dead-straight road to Оде́са (Odeca). This whole region is flat and geologically very stable, hence the straight roads everywhere. The only thing that isn't flat is the road surface, which is deeply rutted by all the trucks that drive this route.
Wedged between Moldova and Ukraine, only 30km wide in places, and recognised by no other country in the World, is the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic (Приднестровская Молдавская Республика) also known as Transnistria.
Leaving Galați after very little sleep as a result of a wedding on the Danube, I head for the EU exit for the second time on this trip. The border with Moldova is just a few kilometres away along the river, on the other side of an old industrial area.
Despite both Bulgaria and Romania being EU members, neither are part of Schengen, so consequently there are border controls. Fortunately these formalities do not take long and my Bulgarian Lev is soon exchanged for Romanian Leu.
