Still here! or there not really sure.
Well a lot has happened to me since my last update!! I will start at the beginning.
Travelled to Hungary nothing too exciting happened 370 miles. Stayed just north of Lake Balaton. Got an SMS (european for text) from my Polish buddies saying that the had sorted a hotel €5 a night and would I still be visiting them. Of course I would. The place Bjala 8km north of Obzor.
Romania next!7am start, 470 miles. I had to adopt the Romania driving style in order to progress. Very aggressivee, riding maybe a little dangerouss but nothing a good blast of the horn couldn't sort out. Road are awful and wild dogs everywhere make for some interesting moments. Going well and then it rained a little, then it got dark and I still had about 120km to get to the campsite. I stopped in a petrol station for a break and there was aducthh man on a bike. He was heading the same direction and we traveled together. The Next 100kms were the most dangerous I had done to that point! Driving style no different, now you don't see the dogs or the people and we took a short cut which was less distance but I reckon took more time. Mainly because of the awful roads. We arrived safely at 10pm.
Bulgaria next! 9am start 570 miles. More aggressive riding, I was getting good at this by now. Borders getting easier, I adopted the style of joining the queue at the back getting off the bike and walking to the front. Showing my British passport and then being given priority, often going through the VIP lanes. In exchange they required a wheelie!! I arrived at Bjala at 5pm ish where Piotr and Ewolina where staying. Showered a few beers (€0,50 per pint bottle). Ate very well for the pricely sum of €4. The next day was spent on a very quite beach working on my tan. I was then planning a monster trip, to Athens were I was meeting a young lady!
Athen, eventually 7am start 14/08/06, 4am arrival 15/08/06. 1016 miles. 3 countries! Well where do I start, the plan was to make it into Komontini in Greece for midday and then travel to Athens, easy! WeIl i hadn't planned on the next part of the journey. I got to the border near to Komontini where I was stopped by a couple of border policemen. I forgot that in Bulgaria Nodding your head means NO and Shaking means YES. Well I think the guard told me the border wasn't open to me and I should turn around and the road was too bad, but what with the shaking and nodding and me trying to bribe them I got confused and went towards Komontini anyway. Everybody I saw stared and then talked amongst them selves. Got lost found some more border police who turned me around and escorted me back to the main road and sent me towards Turkey which was the only border open to me. So this cost me about 2 hours and I now had and extra 2 or more hours and 200+km to do! Got to the Turkish border where I had a discussion about the need for a visa considering I would only be in their poxy country for about 20mins. It turned out I needed one, but only euro's would do and I didn't have any! I had to do a deal with a Bulgarian bus driver to change some. In and out of Turkey in 25kms got to the border with Greece than had lots of people to see more paperwork but a Greek dude on a bike helped me now to Athens just miles and miles of riding, in the fun I had forgotten to eat, so plenty of Red Bull was needed. I arrived in Athens at the apartment at 4am no longer tired. I had a
legendary week in Athens which I will update people on when I get back!!
Right then 2 ordinary days on the west coast of Greece 200miles each day, tent, swimming sunbathing.
Left Ingoumenista northern Greece 9.30 and I had planned to travel to Skopje in Macedonia, found a campsite in the Lonely Planet book, all sorted! Got to Skopje after some awesome roads in northern Greece! Found campsite eventually but looked like it had been shut for some time. I asked a few people but there were no others! Oh well I thought I could make Sarajevo by 10pm ish and would say in a hostel. I left Macedonia on a route I had planned the day before. Sort of by mistake this took me into Kosovo, which I now realise is a country all of its own. Borders were taking abit longer as i think i was a bit more interesting. It was late afternoon and i was alone in Kosovo, and i didn't know where to stay so i thought i would carry on to make Croatia for the morning. Loads of police and UN guards everywhere. Progress going well, unIil i reach a check point not shown on the map, apparently Kosovo and Serbia still aren't really mates Ind i had the wrong kind of stamp, but was told to see if the Serbian border police would let me in! so off i trundle in the dark to be met by police who just laughed at me and told me to turn around, I did offer them €50 but i don't think they really understod, i went back to the Kosovan side and used my Greek language skills to talk to a UN guard, who said i was lucky not to have been arrested for try to bribe the Serbian police! Whoops!! He showed me a route which ment i went into Montenegro first which would be OK! The adventure continues riding in the dark getting very cold must be about 11pm. arrived at the Bosnia border 1am had fun sorting out the green card. At all the crossings the guards stop what they are doing and come over and laugh at me!! This was no exception and by 2am i was on my way much to the amusment of the police. Got to Sarajevo to see the sunrise over the city not many people can say that they have seen sun set in Kosovo and seen sun rise in Sarajevo all in t less that 10 hours on a motorbike!! well I got to the site 30km north of Split in Croatia only to notice a problem with the bike but it is being sorted after a few lengthly conversations with BMW. I have a car and need to drive to Zagreb for Saturday where BMW are putting me in a hotel and delivering the bike. In the mean time i am just chilling and working on my tan!! I'll get some pictures up tomorrow.
Ah 975miles, 25.5 hours and 6 countries!
Lake Balaton, Hungary.
