A friend and I are planning this trip for the end of July. Our general plan is to fly to Istanbul (4-5 days), train/bus through our destinations, except perhaps a flight from Bucharest (Romania) to Budapest (Hungary) to save time/kill those 500 miles of possibly slow/unpredictable Romanian roads and rails. We'll try to get sleeper trains to our destinations to save money, too.
Is 35 days for these destinations too ambitious? What would you cut out, if you had the choice? We want to explore some of the countryside/do some hiking, so maybe some refinement is necessary.