During my 10-day bike ride from Istanbul, Turkey to Varna, Bulgaria I started to get a little worried about my bicycle tires. I wasn’t worried about them because there’s anything wrong with them. I just started to worry that if something were to happen to them in this part of the world, it might be very difficult for me to find a replacement tire. So, when I got to Varna, Bulgaria about a week ago, the first thing on my to-do list was to purchase a new tire for my bicycle. Amazingly, there was a bicycle shop just one block away from the apartment I rented through AirbBNB.com, and for 30 Bulgarian Lev ($20 USD) I was able to purchase a new Continental tire for my bicycle. But rather than carry this new tire as a spare (it’s much larger than my existing tires and therefore more difficult to carry), I decided to put the new tire on my bike now and keep the old tire with me as a backup. Romania, Moldova and the Ukraine… here I come!