A day before Ivan's fourth birthday he and his bigger sister Maia suddenly learned how to cycle. This was not entirely unexpected, as attempts to teach Maia to ride a bike had been made since May, when we bought her a bicycle in Budapest. On a couple of occasions after that I tried to run along, holding her on the bike - this is the method my own grandfather Ivan used to teach me the art of cycling back in time. But Maia's new bike turned out to be over too heavy for her. So she was not able to neither steer it, nor to push it herself. Running behind turned out more physically challenging for her daddy than expected. So eventually we gave up and decided to renew the attempts when we arrive to Goritsa for the summer break.

For this one condition needed to be met though: we had to have a bicycle here. The solution arrived in the face of two friend families: the Spanjevici and Philipovi. The former provided us with a small-sized bike without pedals which was suitable for Ivan. The later brought Maia the former bicycle of her dear friend Lia, who had already moved on to a larger one. So we were fully equipped.

The next challenge was to deliver the bikes to Goritsa - some 1200 km away from Budapest. This was possible, as we had decided to drive there from Hungary and keep Emese's car there through the summer. The Golf's trunk was big enough to fit the two bikes, but adjusting the rest of our luggage for a two-months long stay in Bulgaria required some master skills in packaging. Modestly, equipped with a decade of camping experience in Bulgaria and two round-trip re-locations to the UK by car, I managed it. So here we were in the beginning of July, with the two bikes, and the two children.

What had to happen finally was that the two pairs would work together. Putting the children on the bikes was easy. Running in Goritsa seemed not so tiring to me - possibly due to the smaller size of bicycle, or the cleaner air, who knows. It took time for Ivan to get over the fact that his bike was without pedals. And Maia insisted that I hold her tight and never release her while attempting to cycle. All this lasted until two days ago, when I could sense that she is in fact stably cycling. I then started clapping hands every now and then - this way she realized that I am releasing her from my hold briefly, but was entertained enough not to panic.

All it took from that point was a cooler day when we stayed home, and it was not too hot to cycle during the day. All glory went to Tamara, Emese's younger cousin, who is visiting us for a week. She took the out yesterday and fifteen minutes later Maia ran in shouting: "Daddy, daddy, come, I want to show you something." And there they were, both she and her brother, balancing successfully on the bicycles. We are one step closer to family cycling trips now.