From Norwich to the Black Sea and back again (56k warning)

[c-m]

I posted this on a local bike forum. Since i asked most my of questions about touring here, it is about time I got it posted up.

Here are a few of the questions i asked when planned my trip:

Bike
https://www.bikechatforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=132589&highlight=

Breakdown
https://www.bikechatforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=146222&highlight=

Planning
https://www.bikechatforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=144161&highlight=

Panniers
https://www.bikechatforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=145439&highlight=

Maps
https://www.bikechatforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=147148&highlight=

Tools
https://www.bikechatforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=147221&highlight=

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I’ve been back a week or so now and since I didn’t keep people up to date when I was on the road, it is now probably time to do so.

Background
I passed my bike test first time in February 2008. Prior to that I have been riding around on an RD125LC. A friend and I decided, let's do our test and travel Europe for a while.

We both took our test as the same time, but unfortunately he failed the initial test and the retest. In the end I thought sod it. I was unhappy in my work and decided to just go for it.
What preceded next a 5000+ mile journey form Norwich to the Black Sea and back again.

https://www.eastcoastlacrosse.co.uk/carl/map.jpg

Bike and Equipment

My weapon of choice was a 1996 GPZ500S this was/is my first bike after passing my test in February and cost much much less than £1k, leaving me with plenty of change to make any mods I might want, buy luggage and anything else I might need.

The bike had obviously seen better days, but it went, the chain and sprockets were good, the tyres were excellent and it had recently enjoyed a new battery and front pads. Once I got the bike in my possession I completely cleaned out and balanced the carbs, installed a new fuel filter, flushed the coolant and checked the valve clearances.

https://www.eastcoastlacrosse.co.uk/carl/gpz/Image729.jpg

Mods I made to the bike before leaving included a cigarette lighter type power adaptor and a non slip pillion matt. As for luggage I used some 58L buffalo panniers (cost about £30 from M&P), a lidl tank bag and bag full of camping gear. I had ordered a Renntec rack but the guy sent me the wrong one and a replacement could not be sought until after I had to leave.

So on to the journey. My route was going to take me through northern France, through Germany and onto my first destination which was Prague. From there I would visit multiple places in Eastern Europe travelling as far East as the Black Sea and as far south as Split in Croatia. Before that though, my tenancy was up on my house in Norwich so I went to visit the folks back in Wolverhampton for 4 days.


https://lh5.ggpht.com/Carl.Michael/SN1lu7xEDMI/AAAAAAAAAC0/Pzq4jS2andQ/s640/01062007039.jpg?imgmax=800
Pulled up at the service station on the way form Norwich to Wolverhampton

While there I checked the bike over again and chilled out for a little while before the start of what was going to be a month and a half on the road. I rode down to London where I was playing in Bluesfest, a 3 day lacrosse festival. Whist there I was joined by my girlfriend who was doing part of the tour with me as pillion. Originally she was going to travel Europe by train and I was going to be riding the continent with a mate of mine who was re-taking his test in early June. Alas he fails his test and so decided to wait until next year.

Bluesfest

The festival went well, my team got beat mostly my premiership sides and I ended up with a few bruises but at least I got a chance to test out my new camping gear. First impressions of the tent (an OhVee tribe 2man tunnel tent £38) were not good. One of the poles of the tent frayed on the first day and the zip broke on the front door.

Some pics of me in action
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On the last day we got knocked out of the tournament around 4pm, perfect that I thought as that gave me ample time to shower and pack up the gear before heading from Surrey to get the 19.20 ‘Chunnel’ train to France. Packing the gear and loading the bike with pillion and all her luggage took some time. Maybe an hour and a half or something like that.

The road to Folkstone was pretty good, it was nice warm Sunday afternoon and was reasonably clear. I was able to make the distance in little over an hour. I may as well not bothered though as my train was cancelled (probably because it wasn’t economical to run it with so few passengers) and I had to wait pretty board until 20:55 for the next one.

Waiting for the next train:
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One night in Dunkerque
The crossing was over pretty quickly, it was smooth but not particularly pleasant, and anyway I was now in France and riding on the wrong side of the road for the first time. In fact I didn’t even notice the difference. The autoroute was billiard table smooth and very quiet compared to UK motorways. I arrived in Dunkerque after a while and stopped to setup my Sat Nav. It seems however that my French maps were not the best and after an hour of riding around the French Country side at close to midnight I had still not found the campsite. I kept riding and eventually found a place that looked as if it was all shut up for the night. I headed to what looked like a party and got to test my French, well as much as “Parlez vous anglias?” anyway.

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8€ later I attempted to put the tent up in the dark – no problem. The plan was for an early get away the next morning, but after showering, packing up and then searching for food, we didn’t leave France until around midday. Belgium flew by on our way to Köln until we hit Brussels. For some reason the main highway to Köln goes straight through the Belgium capital. Stuck in traffic and sweating in the 30+ degree heat I began to feel quite uncomfortable. The bike must have been feeling the same as it decided to piss its coolant out over the street. After a 45 minute break and some mineral water for the bike and a fanta for me, I reset Sat Nav, checked my map and set off again, eventually making it out of Brussels. After that the miles flew by. There was some congestion on the auto route but the disciplined and courteous Belgium drivers soon dive out of the way for bikes to pass.

Too hot in Belgium
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Klon
Once across the border and onto on the autobahn I decided to give it some beans. Two up with a total of around 100L of luggage I wasn’t expecting much from the little 500cc parallel twin, but it pulled hard up to 100 before tailing off and eventually refusing to budge much past 115-7mph. Not too shabby for the 12 year old, considering the absolute reported max is rumoured to be 120-130mph. Even at this speed, which only saw a tank of fuel (15litres plus 3l reserve) last around 130miles, cars were flying past as though we were standing still. “We’re going to need a bigger boat” or bike in this case. We arrived in Köln around 7pm and settled into the campsite. I managed to miss most of the football on the bar at the time but I did enjoy a nice fat juicy Angus steak, even if it did cost over 30€.

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Prague
Köln to Prague is over a 6hour ride all on the autobahn, when breaks and fuel stops are factored in this becomes well over 8 hours. Add to that a stop off in Nuremburg and the girlfriend deciding to go shopping then you’ll be lucky to make Prague by 10pm, which is about when we arrived.


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Found the hostel no problem and enjoyed a large double room, they even had a garage at £3 per night to keep the bike in. We spent the next two nights in Prague (I’d been there like 6 times before so didn’t need to see much) enjoying the scenery and the local bars.

Below are some pics:
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Kutna Hora
Originally Kutna Hora was going to be a day trip from Prague, but since is was on the way to our next destination we decided we would stay here for night. I went to retreve the bike from the hostel garage only to find that the battery was completely flat. Within a 35meter space, I manage to run with it, jump on and kick it into 2nd before grabbing a handful of front brake to prevent me from going to the wall. Anyway bike started and ready for load-up.

Our main reason for visiting was to see the Church of Bones – The church contains over 40,000 human remains arranged in an assortment of structures. We arrived in Kutna Hora (1 hour form Prague) in the early afternoon, a few phone calls later and we’d found a great little guest house for around £6 each. We wasted no time and jumped back on the bike for the 5min trip to Church – I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves on this one.
Afterwards we cleaned ourselves up and went into town for a bit of sight seeing and some food.

Pics:
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Krakow
We left Kutna Hora around mid morning and set off on the 6+ hour ride to Krakow. I was pretty excited as I’d been wanting to visit Krakow for many years. We arrived at the boarded in no time at all. I pulled up to take a photo when I was approached by a guy on a Z1000, visor up and a French-English exchange later and we are riding together through the Polish hills on our way to Krakow. This guy could move, I was able to keep up for the most part, but overtaking convoys of trucks and other slow vehicles before being splatted by oncoming traffic was proving a challenge. A few hours in I stopped for fuel, Robert the French guy was adamant he didn’t need any. Trying to make up some time I decided we should now take the motorway rather than contune on A roads. This where I would get my own back. The Z1000 has 125bhp and top speed of 140Mph, but it is completely naked. While I was zipping past the traffic pushing a ton, the Frenchie was ducked down head on the tank at 80Mph looking for an escape, any escape from the wind blast. It then turned out he only had 4miles of fuel left so we headed off in search of fuel station. After a 20minute detour we find a petrol station, Robert however has no Zloty. I handed him my wallet and told him to hurry up. I later notice that 60Zloty has no been replaced by 50€ - good trade I thought to myself.
More motorway miles and we eventually arrive in Krakow, it had been a middle distance ride through enjoyable scenery, with plenty of hills and bends.


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We found a place called Hostel Yellow and stayed there for the next three nights. That first night we went out as a group and bumped into a bunch of French exchange students who we finished the night up with. France had just lost to 4-0 to Holland so they were drowning their sorrows. We carried out the usual sight seeing and bar hoping in Krakow, when I could get my girlfriend away from the malls especially the jewellery stores. Even now I’m told I have to go back and buy this one particular ring she saw. She did manage to buy a pair of shoes a bag, belt and top though, which of course all had to fit into her already full pannier.

I’ve added a few photos of the city and of our excursion to the salt mine.
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To Budapest

During the last night in Krakow it seemed as thought the bike had managed to jump off its stand and then had been picked up by a passer by. I noticed it was missing the top the clutch leaver and the indicator lens was sitting on the tank. Both were nothing to worry about. Ignition on, run, jump, 2nd vroom!! Time to load up and head for Budapest. I had checked the battery over and found it was completely dry – oh dear. I stopped off and topped it up at the first fuel stop.

The ride 6+ hour to Budapest was pretty awesome, the majority of it up into the Slovakian mountains, twisting and turning before reaching the flat plains of Hungary. We decided to take a break just after the Slovakian border and enjoyed a sandwich and some crisps at Tesco. I had already booked accommodation in Budapest so there was no rush, we just relaxed and enjoyed the ride.

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Again in Budapest we did the usual sight seeing thing and visited one of the many Turkish baths. In addition I was dragged around 4 large shopping malls as the girlfriend bought shoes, belts, t-shirts etc..

Photos below:
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Battery

Of course when we came to the leave Budapest the bike wouldn’t start, it would jump start then die again. As we were only heading to Lake Balaton just 1.5hours away, I decided to get my money’s worth from ADAC (my breakdown company). They came out and started the bike, however the battery was completely dead. We rode to a Chinese market to see what goodies were on offer. When we came to leave the bike was difficult to start, and Greta was exhausted from me making her repeatedly push the bike, when trying to start it. Eventually we got it running and made a far few miles, but it was erratic, the tacho needle was bouncing all the over the place only a combination of clutch, throttle and breaks sometimes all at the same time, kept us going. Eventually it cut out and I’d had enough. Another call out to the ADAC. Apparently there weren’t any garages open, so they put us up in a hotel around the corner. Rather than wait for the recovery truck I decided to push the bike 50metres to the hotel garage. We had been waiting for some time before this however and a local street trader selling flowers had noticed. To ease the wait he came over and gave Greta a rose, which cheered her up.

Broken down in Budapest
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The next morning a recovery truck came to collect the bike and headed for the Kawasaki service centre. Of course they didn’t have a battery in stock but they located one and went to pick it up. This was going to take 2 hours so we went to the local shopping centre, by the time we got back the battery was ready; we parted with £58 and were on our way to Lake Balaton.

Lake Balaton

Arrived at Lake Balton around 6pm, found my accommodation (bike leaped off its stand again, but no damage done) then wasted no time at all cruising down and jumping in the water. With an air temperature of over 30c the 24c water actually felt quite cold, but was amazingly soothing after riding around in the heat.

The second day by the lake we decided to visit Vesprem (home town of a friend back in England) it was a Saturday so everything closed pretty early, but as we only wanted to see a few a sights it was fine. The road to Vesprem and back was pretty interesting, up/down hill for 15miles with plenty of twisties. We actually did the journey twice as we were looking for the local Tesco (Hungary has the largest Tesco store in the world, so I’m told)

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Trip to Vesprem
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Lake Balaton – Budapest Airport – Sibiu

After a couple of days chilling in the sun it was the end of the road for Greta, she was due fly back so this would be our last ride together of the holiday. We made the airport in good time 1.5 hours from Balatonfured and said our goodbyes. While it was sad to see her go, we‘d had a great time and was looking forward to riding solo for a while and being able to sing/talk to myself inside my helmet (no rider/pillion radio).

I was hoping to make Brasov before dark, but I hadn’t taken into consideration the Romanian roads. After reloading the bike at the airport I stopped off for a KFC and topped up the oil and water, I was ready for my 8 hour ride.

I got the Hungry-Romanian boarder in no time at all, after that though it was all down hil. Once past Aarad Western Romainia was quite baron. Although I found some interesting roads on the way to Sibiu the ride was pretty boring. After Lil' Wayne – Best Features, Tha Carter 3 and Fat's The Crack Era albums, I decided to stop for a break by the side of the road. I enjoyed some Nutella bread sticks and dip and 500ml of water. Noticing the lack of facilities in what was a designated parking area, my rubbish went with that of the of Romania, right on the floor. At this point I was keen to make up some time, but the winding roads and poor surface limited my speed to between 50-65mph, as a result it was around 8pm when I hit Deva. I stopped for a quick burger and looked around for somewhere to stay that night, but didn't fancy paying the price of local hostels. My journey continued and a little while later I came across a sign for a campsite on the main road form Deva to Sibiu. What I thought might only be a few hundred metres away turned out to be a mile or so on to what can only be described as D roads. Dodging large boulders, pot holes, rubbish, cows and other farm animals, I made it to the camp-site. The owner spoke good English, Dutch and German and presumably Romanian. 21 Lei later I pitch my tent and took a long needed shower, not before the bike again jumped off its centre stand though.

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Sibiu – Brasov – Bucharest

I was pretty exhausted so went to sleep early that night knowing i'd have an early start the next morning. I loaded up the bike, said goodbye and headed off. The guy at the camp-site mentioned that Bucharest was only 200KM away but it would take around 4 hours, that's fine but I needed/wanted to go to Brasov first.

Romanian Police

Unlike every other place i'd been to, I noticed that every little village or town had a police station and a few cops out and about on the roads. Fortunately just like everywhere else, oncoming motorists warn you of police by flashing their head lamps. On the way to Brasov I was travelling on some narrow hilly roads, when I came up to an uneven loaded truck. The truck was going very slowly and weaving around a little. In my hurry and sure of no oncoming vehicles I pull out and over took the truck. Immediately two police cars came out of nowhere and pulled me over. Damn.

I gave them my papers and waited. While they had gone back to their car a local selling fruit by the side of the road came over and said something in Romanian which not knowing any Romanian I translated to mean “Oh you shouldn't of done that, you're in shit now”.

The cop came back and asked me why i'd overtaken the truck and what road marking we have in England that mean no overtaking. He didn't like my answer and went on to tell me how this road is currently under construction and that means no overtaking. I pleaded ignorance but it was no use. He proceeded to explain that this carries a 200lei fine, which is payable at any city hall type government building. After instructing his fellow office to write out a report, he comes back and while waiting we chat about bikes and Romanian roads – he seemed alright. With the report written and some stuff in Romanian to sign he hands me a ticket, then explains that this is a problem in Romania and foreign national driving licences must be kept until the fine is paid. The fact I was only in Romania for a week or so didn't seem to matter. Whatever, I was in a hurry so took the receipt for my license and the ticket and the left for Brasov.

Brasov

I'd been to Brasov before back in 2001 so didn't have much difficulty here. I found a decent enough hostel to book for the following night, chilled out, had some food and checked on-line for some details of where to stay in Bucharest. I arrived in Brasov late afternoon and was on my way to Bucharest around 6pm. The road out of Brasov to Bucharest was just awesome, as soon as you leave the city you are heading right up through the mountains. Fist medium then tight twisties then turning into extremely tight hairpins, the road was fantastic all the way form Brasov to the ski resort of Sinia. After that you hit some flat land and its a 70-90mph blast to Bucharest through some industrial countryside and stopping every so often for the odd torn up road. I made good time to Otopeni airport, in fact I was 3 hours early, but I meant I could park the bike up, check it over, eat and just rest while waiting for my friends flight to come in at 11:30pm.

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Bucharest

While waiting at the airport I called around and managed to find a decent place to us to stay that night. The challenge would be getting there with no Sat Nav coverage in the dark. Heather's flight came in on time and fortunately she had only brought with her a small back pack – awesome. After some skilful navigating and out running packs of wild hell hounds disguised as dogs, we checked into the YMCA hostel.

Bucharest was as ugly and disgusting as I remembered, which reminded me why it wasn't on my main itinerary. After cleaning up, we chilled put with a beer before getting a reasonably early night.

Brasov re-visited

The next morning after breakfast we packed up the bike and headed off for Brasov. As I began to pull away there was a large metal clank – oh dear. Fearing this might mean another night in Bucharest I hopped off and went to investigate. A guy watering the street and the girl at the hostel had also come to investigate. I looked down to find the disc lock I had placed on the rear wheel in a few pieces on the floor. Great as if that was every going to stop anyone stealing the bike. I handed the broken lock to the man watering the street and set off.

Bucharest is that ugly that everyone tires to escape it. Little over 10 minutes into the journey and we are stuck in a multiple mile tail back in 32c heat. We decided to stop and cool down as the bike begins to tell me it needs a drink by excreting more coolant over the floor. When we set off moving again I decided to be ultra aggressive in filtering and manage to get through the traffic. After that it was an easy 2.5-3hour route to Brasov in what was only Heather's third time on a bike, the other two times were 15-20minute journeys.

On the way to Brasov there was an annoying truck driver who was pissed off with me at something, maybe overtking him. He kept needlessly honking his horn and generally peeing me off. I decided to slow down to about 5mph give him the finger then speed off into the mountains.

Here are some pics from Brasov:
https://lh5.ggpht.com/Carl.Michael/SN_GwZa0lUI/AAAAAAAAAQQ/NTCsOdxBeA0/dscf1093.jpg?imgmax=800
https://lh4.ggpht.com/Carl.Michael/SN_GxAzwdZI/AAAAAAAAAQ8/B1PtS5wUDsw/s512/dscf1107.jpg?imgmax=800
https://lh3.ggpht.com/Carl.Michael/SN_Gx-Gk0DI/AAAAAAAAAQg/JohAYkMHvEs/dscf1128.jpg?imgmax=800
https://lh6.ggpht.com/Carl.Michael/SN_GyPh-IPI/AAAAAAAAAQo/UjfNlEKUIy0/dscf1135.jpg?imgmax=800
https://lh5.ggpht.com/Carl.Michael/SN_GyyW-SHI/AAAAAAAAAQw/RN-NHmgKOa4/dscf1138.jpg?imgmax=800

Chillout

Apart from the travelling, this part of the trip was all about taking it easy, this was probably also evident in my riding as 2-up i'd managed over 235miles to reserve. I'd been to Brasov before so wasn't interested in the sights, though I did take Heather to Bran castle. We met a great bunch of people at the hostel and enjoyed a few drinks over a couple of nights before signed up to go bear watching. Not the most eventful excursion to the edge of the city, but we did get to a couple bears before they were scared off back into the woods by the bear police.

https://lh6.ggpht.com/Carl.Michael/SN_JQdx1NgI/AAAAAAAAARg/w4ZChVsgC2Q/s512/dscf1100.jpg?imgmax=800
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https://lh6.ggpht.com/Carl.Michael/SN_JVACGt2I/AAAAAAAAARk/bDNxIFTzVaI/s512/dscf1153.jpg?imgmax=800

Mamia

Originally I had planned to go stay in Constanta on the East coast of Romania, but during my research I found that the city's beaches and waters are not the best. And that staying in the tourist resort of Mamia would be cheaper (camping) and be nicer overall. Off to Mamia then.

Eventually I got to use Romania's only motorway, not first though without going back through Bucharest and getting lost for 30mins. Leaving Brasov late morning / early afternoon, we arrived on the Mamia strip around tea time. We checked out a number of camp-site unfortunately the one with the prettiest girl at the desk wasn't the best or cheapest so we settled for the first one we'd checked out earlier coming in form Constanta.

While the camp-site didn't look pristine with plush green grass and amazing facilities (like Klon) it was adequate. I spent some time looking for the perfect spot in between two trees. There was another tent (if you could call it that) next to mine which was in a better sport. I enquired with some other campers if anyone was still using this as it was literally a tent carcass folded over a piece of string between some trees. A family two tents down informed me it belonged to some crazy woman – great.

It turns out despite my list of what to bring, in an effort to carry only hand luggage Heather had not brought any camping gear at all, so it was off to the shops for a lilo and a penguin towel.
The camp-site was right on the beach and about 100metres from Club Lite which on the weekend we realised played its electro beats until 7am, still it didn't much matter as I am able to sleep under any circumstances. Heather on the other hand found that a sticky pink lilo and cheap towel under 37.5c (day)heat isn't the most comfortable sleeping arrangement.

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Mamia-Bucharest-Pecs-Zagreb

Heathers flight was around 2pm so we packed everything up and set off for the airport a few hours away. It was easy enough, since this was now my third time in Bucharest on this trip alone (odd for a city I can't stand). We said our goodbyes and that was that.

It was Euro 2008 final day with the Spain v Germany match due to kick off later in the evening. I thought it might be nice to ride as far west as I could and find somewhere nice to stay to watch the game.

That never happened, after leaving the airport I rode, and rode and rode some more. Through Sibiu,past Deva and towards Arad. I managed to hit a large diversion at some point during that night which made things interesting, getting chased by packs of wild dogs every time I stopped to look at the map.

By about 11pm it started to get cold and I still hadn't reached Arad. I stopped off for a while a petrol station to put my thermal lining in my gear. I also caught 15mins of the match, was 0-0. I kept riding thorough the unlit pot-hole covered streets until I reached the boarder well after midnight.

Just as I entered I left without too much problem, although I was now minus a driving licence. It was good to be back in Hungary, however I was concerned how I would get into Croatia without a license or insurance documentation. My PAYG policy is renewed every month and a new document sent to my home. As there was no way to get this document to me in time, I decided to try my luck without it.

Once in Hungary I rode for an hour or so before finding a quiet lay by. I'd done a stupid amount of miles so far so decided to reward myself with a few hours sleep lying on the back of bike. I pulled myself forward in my seat and had my legs rest over the bars, my back supported by the pillion seat and my head by my camping gear. It was an odd position, who knows what someone would have thought if they saw me, but I felt comfortable and calm, pleased with the days progress.

https://lh5.ggpht.com/Carl.Michael/SN_GleCcgiI/AAAAAAAAAO4/QHcgDxMk1PI/dscf1166.jpg?imgmax=800
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[size=150]MORE TO FOLLOW[/size]

https://defylife.co.uk/adventure/category/europe-2008/[/url]
____________________
Motorcycle headlight bulbs and HIDs
Blogging about my bike and trips
https://ridershandbook.com/

[c-m]

Continued...

I woke up to find that I was now surrounded by truckers. They must have had the same idea, cross the border then get some kip. Not wanting to leave myself vulnerable in a public place I decided to ride on. While sleeping I had continued to wear my helmet, plugs and neck scarf, so on waking I was good to go. Dawn was breaking and my body certainly wasn't happy about it but I kept myself entertained thinking about my antics on the bike during the night. To stop myself getting bored while riding through the night I got up to all the usual things a bike might. Leaning as far back on the bike as possible, standing on the pegs, putting feet on pillion pegs, my favourite had to be lying across the tank flat and pretending I'm in the cockpit of a fighter plane.

After a further 40minute ride, I was feeling a little more awake but was still eager to find a nice quiet place I get some sleep. I came across a local Tesco (spotted a theme yet?), it wasn't open so thought about parking up at the rear. Unfortunately they we taking deliveries so I pressed on.

I eventually came across a camp-site, debating with myself for a while whether to pitch up for a few hours then do a runner, since there was no-one around, I decided against it. Within the next 1000metres I came across a small side road and some waste land. Perfect I thought to myself. I parked up, put the bike on the centre stand and assumed my sleeping position. I got a good two hours, which upon waking and brushing my teeth I felt great.

[size=150]Zagreb bound[/size]

The route to Zagreb took me passed Pecs (pronounced Pairch), Its a large Hungarian town with some great history. I did think about staying for a few days but I was keen to get to Croatia. By now I was starving, it must have been around 11am and so time for some food. Fortunately my route took me passed what must be the second largest tesco store in Europe. MMM food I thought to myself. Well they were all out of chocolate Croissants which for some reason made me pretty angry. I opted for a pizza and coke from there deli and even ordered in Hungarian.

As I drew nearer the Croatia border the heat was sweltering, in tesco I remember seeing on the weather forecast on TV, it was around 34c in the south of Hungry and waters of Lake Balaton had gotten up to 26c. I was concerned that since my incident in Romania I didn't have a driving license. Not only this but my PAYG insurance had expired according to the certificate, though it is automatically renewed each month. Not being part of the European Union, would Croatian officials let me in the country? I figured it was worth a shot and at the worst I would stay in Pecs a few days and begin to travel west.

At the Hungarian side of the border I flashed my EU passport and I was on my way. I pulled up to the Croatian side behind a Spanish tow truck. On the back was a brand new Seat something or other. These seemed to spark the border guards' curiosity. As the fat Spaniard jumped out of the cab he was told to put his shirt on, no body wants to see that! I switched off my engine took off my helmet and prepared my documents. Eventually the truck was aloud through though it had taken a good 15minutes. With my jacket off, shades on and helmet around my arm I pulled up. “Passport please” - “ok you go”. Sweet I absolutely love Croatia and was pleased to be in the country.

https://lh6.ggpht.com/Carl.Michael/SOOoi1aDlhI/AAAAAAAAASg/Q2lZorBVIcI/dscf1172.jpg?imgmax=800
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While anything was a step up from Romanian roads, and Hungarian roads were very good, the roads in Croatia were probably the best I've seen in Europe. Smooth and effortless it felt like being on a race track – careful, I can't show my license if I'm pulled. I set up sat nav and despite getting slightly off course I made to Zagreb some hours later.

Since I had my doubts about being aloud into the country I didn't pre-book any accommodation, though usually not a problem I was worried as by the time I got to Zagreb traffic was immense. Croatian s it seems have even less patience than the Romanians. Horns were going off constantly for no good reason. When I made it into the city centre after a stop for fuel, I thought I would recognise some of the sights. It seem the city is much bigger, when you don't arrive by train. I parked up in a bike park and pulled out the trusty 2001 Lonely Planet guide for Eastern Europe. There was a cyber cafe about 500 metres from where I parked up, according to the guide at least.

It was like heaven walking in there. Air conditioning, cold drinks and an amazing girl working there, were all welcome distractions from the outside heat. After 45mins on the internet and a couple of phone calls, I managed to book somewhere called the Buzz Backpackers. Awesome I thought to myself. Slightly expensive but pretty central. The only problem was it didn't exist on satnav or my map. I asked the girl if she could find it on satnav. While holding the phone she kept telling me to 'come closer', 'come closer'. Normally I wouldn't have a problem but I'd been riding since late morning the day before with a shower and wearing the same clothes in 30+ degree heat. I thought about asking her to come out for a drink later, but I didn't feel my most attractive and so left it.

In the end I found the place, checked in after parking up on the pavement and getting lots of looks. Desperate for a shower I ran up to my room (shared with 4 other people), no-one was in, great. Just as I head for the shower a little brunette runs in. Damn it. I got all showered and dressed and headed to the common room. While there I met two guys from Manchester who seemed like characters. They'd just arrived and convinced the girls on the floor below to head out with them.

It was a pretty uneventful night. Despite me having a sat nav full of bars and clubs we ended up looking for some place that in end was completely dead. Had some food and went home about 1am.

The next day it was out for breakfast and a trip to a place called Plitvice I'd never heard of it and thought it was about 20mins away. To my surprise it was an hour away in the direction I need to travel in to get to Split later. No only that but I was running out of the money and the bus was £10 and there was a £10-15 charge to get in. The guys I met were sympathetic to my plight. They bought the tickets a Playboy some drinks. At the bus station I got chatting a local girl, she must have likely since she sat behind me on the bus and kept prodding me to look at things.

The park itself was amazing in typical Croatian style the scenery was utterly breath taking. Up on arrival we were approached by an old man offering accommodation. We declined informing him that we would be back for 8pm to get dinner and head out. “hurry you haven't much time” barked the old man. We were slightly confused and made a joke of it while taking the tour. We opted the shorter trek that was estimated to take about 3 hours. Damn I wanna go out have a drink. In the end we did the trek comfortably in around an hour and managed to fill up on some goulash before getting the bus home.

Here are some pictures from the park:
https://lh5.ggpht.com/Carl.Michael/SOOokrZnABI/AAAAAAAAASw/zcXRJaxdpWg/dscf1176.jpg?imgmax=800
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That night more people arrived at the hostel. As smoking was banned inside, the staff and guest all stood outside and prepared for a night out with litre bottles of beer. I went to tart myself up. Coming back down two Croatian guys who live opposite the hostel came over and offered to show us a good place to go out. We took them up on the offer. We arrived a busy bar located in a kind wooded park. There was a large outdoor section and a smaller indoor venue. Taking to the bar staff in their native tongue, the Croatian guys asked for a couple of quid form us then lined up a total of 18 bottles of beer and 18 shots. Awesome. We were told numerous times how Croatian girls will us being English/American and to go and chat some up. Not wanting to disappoint met a couple of girls and we proceeded to share a few drinks and conversation. By this point everyone else had left Anthony (one of the Manc guys) and myself were the only people left from our original group. Luckily most of the beers were still left too. Happy days. Turn out the girl I met, lived in Prague with her boyfriend, which is fine, I was taken anyway and am always well behaved. We went to a pretty small club enjoyed the rest of the night.

Dodgy camera phone shots taken after some beers
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https://lh4.ggpht.com/Carl.Michael/SOOvE0vts8I/AAAAAAAAAY4/UXGSHal-hhQ/s800/01072008055.jpg?imgmax=800


[size=150]The journey to Split[/size]

I had been told that during the summer, most people leave Zagreb and head towards the coast, as I was keen to do. After two nights in Zagreb I checkout and begin packing up my bike. At the time the Hostel owner a 24 year old Japanese guy was being interviewed for a local newspaper. He came outside and we had a chat about bikes and stuff, initially in my limited Japanese then in English, seems he used to own a ZXR400 in Japan.

I asked at the hostel the best way to get to Split and was told that it would work out a good €18 if I used the motorways. The two guys from Manchester who i'd met at the hostel were also on there way to Split though they haddn't decided how best to get there yet, hire car, train, bus. We exchanged numbers and agreed to meet up once settled there.
With that in mind I set off with a plan to use A-roads and ride along the coast for sunset. Alas it wasn't to be. Sat nav got confused due to road works, and many other roads simply ended as in one minute there is road the next there is a big drop, or a pile of rubble or waste land. I think this has something to do with the clearing up and restructuring after the war. I eventually found a route I liked and after a couple of hours in on country lanes I noticed that it was particularly quiet. I was told by the Croatian guys I went out with that the police are really strict on speed limits. Anyway I pulled over and looked around. Nothing. Great I got the revs up and let the clutch out and fly few off. Maxing the bike out where possible. I'd just got to around 105mph when I heard a thud, all of a sudden the speed dropped to around 65-70mph. Not knowing what I wrong I continued coming across postal van. When trying to overtake the van the bike had nothing. The throttle fully open the bike was still struggling for any kind of speed. I continued for another 4 miles until I had my bearings and could see signs for Split again. As I pulled up the lights the bike died. I pulled over and jumped off to investigate. To my horror when starting the bike fuel was pissing out of the carbs. Stuck float I thought to myself and gave it a good tapping. Still no luck. Annoyed now I decided I had two options, either call out the ADAC again or strip and clean the carbs by the side of the road. Even if I called out the breakdown company they would take a while to get there plus I wouldn't be able to afford the cost of fixing the bike, unless it was it was a roadside repair. Now quite thirsty and in the searing heat I decided to strip clean and rebuild the carbs by the side of the road with my limited tools. Seat off, tank off, coolant hoses out, air box clamps undone carbs out.

An hour and a half later and much sweatier I started the bike and Varooom. It fired up, with no leaks and was good to go. This had added serious time onto my journey but still I decided to stick to my route. I got lost a few more times but it was worth it. The journey down was amazing. Over mountains, through valleys, past canyons and huge fresh water lakes and on to the coast. After taking a call from the girlfriend I realised it was getting late and I hadn't anywhere to stay once I got to Split. To make up some time I decided I to take the motorway for the last 80miles.

https://lh3.ggpht.com/Carl.Michael/SOOoqP0rKUI/AAAAAAAAATY/eZOs6Xlvp5k/dscf1222.jpg?imgmax=800
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More to follow....

https://defylife.co.uk/adventure/category/europe-2008/
____________________
Motorcycle headlight bulbs and HIDs
Blogging about my bike and trips
https://ridershandbook.com/

[c-m]

Cruising into Split was awesome. It was now dark and I was starving but I had enjoyed the ride and was glad to see the city lights. The streets at night were different from how I remembered, previously visiting in 2001. The city had seemingly grown outwards and wasn't the cute little town I spent an evening in all those years ago.

I pulled out the 2001 Lonely Planet guide of Eastern Europe and managed to follow it to a hostel. After climbing four flights of stairs (I can't remember a building in Eastern Europe that didn't have a ridiculous amount of stairs) I knocked at the door. I middle aged woman answered, informing me there no spaces until the next day. Kind as she was, she pointed me upstairs where there was an internet café.

Browsing the web (where to stay in Split) I had now decided to stay at the local campsite about 4km out of town. At the same time I Facebooked the guys I met in Zagreb and arranged a meeting for the next evening. With the co-ordinates of my current parking spot, and the Camp-site in my Sat Nav I set off in search of food.

I arrived at the camp-site pretty late, closer to midnight than 10pm, and set about pitching my tent. Man that was hassle. Like many of Croatia's beaches, the ground was hard stone and it seemed my tent pegs were made of cheese. Noticing my repeated failure, I Hungarian couple strolled over to help out. Between them they did all the work, smashing in the pegs with a large boulder. It wasn't pretty but job done.

When I woke in the morning, this is what the tent looked like.

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Passers-by were throwing me strange looks, as if I was bringing down there lovely housing estate with my old dilapidated house. Gives a shit. It was morning, the sun was shining and I was off to have a good time. After my three S's I jumped on the bike and heading for cyber cafe in town, arranged my evening via facebook, did a little sight seeing, the girlfriend wanted loads of pics then off to the busy beach in town, Bacevice.

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Despite having all day to do want you want to do, it's surprising how little time you actually have. No sooner had I got to the beach, had a couple of swims and checked out the local talent, then it is was time to leave. Hopped back on the bike in search of food, cruised back to the camp-site and had a 40min nap before getting ready for an evening out. Riding into town that evening was awesome. Jeans and shirt with my music blaring in my helmet (many people in Croatia don't bother with helmets, too cumbersome), fortunately my hair was easy to stick up again once at my destination.

I met the guys at the Cro Paradise hostel in the centre of town, turnout they'd struck lucky with their room and were sharing with number of girls. A couple of drinks in the hostel and we were all ready to hit the town. After wondering around for a while and popping into a few bars, we headed to Bacevice, on the beach there was a complex of bars/nightclubs. Arriving at the beach was amazing, people we still swimming, playing football, volley ball and just having a good time. We went to the bar/club and partied till about 4am – There were a bunch of crazy Spanish guys, who it turned out were on my camp-site, an American we found who stared at the podium dancers' ass for three hours and a drunk Croatian guy who sat next to us, fell asleep and was sick on himself. I met a German girl at the bar and struck up a conversation. After about 40minutes of my broken German it turns out she was Scottish – lol.

I'd had a few beers so prefered not to ride, instead I crashed in the lobby of the hostel, setting my alarm so I could be out by 7am, no one would ever know.

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The next day was pretty much the same stuff. Apart from chilling on the beach, I went and bought some Croatian porn – which is a bit more involving than in the UK. They have these little newspaper stands selling magazines, chocolate and the like. I really had to dig through to get the magazine I wanted, the little old lady working there was very helpful though. I also managed to book my ferry from France to UK and book my ticket for the ferry from Split to Ancona for the next day.

That evening I rode up to the hostel as usual. It turns out the guys had been moved to a different room, I'm not sure what went on, but that place was like a big game of musical rooms and people were constantly moved. Their new room was a 5min walk into a residential area, it was just a single bedroom in an apartment block with shared shower facilities. Looking around the room, we found a large bounty of alcohol. Sangria, wine, gin, whiskey, vodka, you name it. We did what anyone would do in that situation and invite the Croatian girls who worked at the hostel to join us for a party.

When I arrived at the hostel that evening a bunch of people were rushing around cooking and getting ready. They'd been to one of the Islands on a day trip and had only recently got back. I decided to go out for a burger while they watched a pan of water not boil an egg (they forgot to turn the hob on).












Croatia isn't particularly cheap, but the food there is excellent value and good quality. While ordering my burger, a woman in her 20s came up to me, stopped her telephone conversation and said “oh my god, you are so beautiful” I turned back to the burger stand, “plenty of onions please”. A slightly older woman at the burger stand took my order, while it was being cheffed up, she too started to tell me she liked me. She then asked for my birthday and carried one of those girly magazine tests to see if we would be compatible – what the hell. I took my burger and left.

Back at the hostel very little progress had been made. Someone had the bright idea of putting on Cable Guy, which meant everyone sat there staring at the TV. Eventually things started to progress, we went back to the apartment to count up the alcohol – just enough. There was a knock at the door, our party had arrived. Then we realised we weren't going to be able to fit twelve people in the room, so we thought we'd take the party outside.

We decided to go to an off licence, stock up on beer, in addition to what we already had and then drink on the beach. There were five of the crowd we were with last night, a couple of new guys and girls and then the girls who worked at the hostel. I'd met one of them before, Ivana, a 5'8 brunette, who when I first saw her was shouting at one of the hostel residents for plugging in a new a fridge. She didn't make a good impression then, but she looked more relaxed and playful now. Of the other two girls who worked there, one of them was very quiet and kept to herself, as a result I don't have much to say about her, the other one I hadn't met before, but looking at her I was going to.
She was short, about 5'4 wearing tight jeans, with a great ass and long brown hair.

This is a staged pic of her (on the right) and her mates - got no idea why they're dressed up messing about.

https://photos-b.ll.facebook.com/photos-ll-sf2p/v644/45/41/1064379380/n1064379380_30110745_9686.jpg

We went to Bacevice beach again that night, skilfully dodging security, who don't like you drinking on the beach. We found a suitable place to chill on some rocks and began drinking. It was the usual chit chat that you get when a bunch of stranger meet on holiday, not necessarily boring, but not overly exciting either. Realising we had a mammoth amount of alcohol to get through before we could hit the club I decided to get everyone involved in a drinking game. The rules were simple. There were 10 of us drinking, during our normal conversation someone would shout the number 1. someone else then had to shout 2, and so on until the final person says 10. Whoever said the last number had to drink 4 fingers worth of all the alcohol mixed together. The loser then starts off the next round. Should two or more people say the same number, they both drink.

An hour and a half later and we all drunk and on much more friendly terms with each other. We messed about in the sea, took photos dressed up in each others hats and accessories and generally monkeyed around.

https://photos-c.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-snc1/v264/89/86/1351811704/n1351811704_30019202_4008.jpg

https://photos-c.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-snc1/v264/89/86/1351811704/n1351811704_30019194_4501.jpg

https://photos-g.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-sf2p/v283/89/86/1351811704/n1351811704_30019182_259.jpg

https://photos-h.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-sf2p/v283/89/86/1351811704/n1351811704_30019167_3690.jpg

On the way to the beach I had struck up conversation with Goga (Gorana), the short brunette and when we found our drinking spot, positioned myself across from her and Ivana. Once we'd finished the last of the alcohol and thrown away our mixers, we hit the club. Ivana had told me that Goga was trouble and she didn't disappoint. In the club she dragged me to the dance floor were she proceeded to back-up into me, get low and generally act like a bad girl. After a while I noticed that our numbers had swelled. A couple of British guys and an Irish guy who stayed at the same hostel as us in Zagreb, had now made it down to Split and caught up with us in the club. We chatted for a while and had a wonder around the club. Now I'm not sure what it is with Croatian girls, but on my walk around I got stopped by two different sets of girls. “oh my god, you're so gorgeous”, or 'my friend here loves you, talk to her”.

I later joined the rest of the group and after dancing with Ivana for a while, Goga and I wandered off. This apparently caused problems as some guy Seb from the hostel was in to her, when I returned he gave me evil looks, went in a mood and when home eventually. The rest of us had a great night, dancing, drinking, bouncing around, the usual stuff. The girls left around 4am, after saying goodbye, I went to the bathroom. When I re-appeared it seemed everyone I knew had disappeared. “Great” I thought, “how the hell I'm going to get in the hostel now”. There was a small food stand at the exit of the complex and I'd spotted on of the guys I know getting pizza. When it got to my order they were out of stock so he kindly offered to split it. We took a walk back to the hostel through the market, the traders we setting up for the busy day ahead, we continued passed the harbour where we came across three police cars. Three guys were standing there, hands on the bonnet of the car, surrounded by police. On closer inspection I realised that it was the two British guys and the Irish guy from earlier. I walked over to see what was going on but was told by them to “walk away now!”, so I did just that.

I slept at the hostel until 7am and left just early enough to avoid Goga on the morning shift. Despite being so early in the morning, it was already hot, sticky and uncomfortable. When I got back to the camp-site though, I crashed out on my mattress and enjoyed and amazing four hours sleep.

My ferry that day wasn't until 18:30, so I had plenty of time to kill. I rode to the hostel about three, and hung out for a while. The guys who were in trouble with the police had returned and told their story. It turns out some drunk Croatian guy had starting shouting obscenities about foreigners and was getting in their face. They refused to do anything and told him there was no point in fighting since there were three of them and one of him. He continued to mouth off and they pushed him out of the way, in doing so he tripped on the kerb and the police were alerted. Apparently they were made to stand there with their hands on the bonnet of the police car, while the engine was running for over an hour.

Goga had just finished her shift so I agreed to hang out and go for coffee with one of her friends. It was a little awkward at first on two accounts. I'd been a good boy the night before so there was no problem there, but I'd learned that she had only recently turned 18. Secondly her friend didn't speak much English so conversation was difficult. Ivana turned up a little later and chatted about the night before. Time was flying by and I still had to pack my tent, reluctantly I had to leave, so we exchanged facebook addresses and said our goodbyes. I then hopped on to my trust GPZ and set off for the camp-site.

In the coffee shop on my last day:

https://lh3.ggpht.com/_mJuQcw6-3ws/SWjdlpKokeI/AAAAAAAAAj4/Z8oHyAjJ4eI/s512/dscf1319.jpg?imgmax=800

https://lh4.ggpht.com/_mJuQcw6-3ws/SWpL9ZY8GnI/AAAAAAAAAm0/enMoSC5U6Kk/s512/dscf1317.jpg?imgmax=800

https://lh6.ggpht.com/_mJuQcw6-3ws/SWpL_7Fkm9I/AAAAAAAAAm8/yTeFl_Zz1Xo/s512/dscf1321.jpg?imgmax=800


I was now skilled in packing up my equipment and loading the bike. In no time at all I was ready leave. I took one final look around at the scenery and set off back into town to get the ferry. Waiting at the ferry port, I was sad be leaving Croatia, not just because I'd had a great time there, or because I'd met some fun people and made new friends, but because that now signalled the end of my tour. From Ancona, it would be more of an endurance test, 1000plus miles in less than two days to get back to Norwich before a) my money runs out, b) my girlfriend decides not to let me into the new flat we'd just gotten together. Thinking about all this I grabed a quick bite to eat, parked the bike up next to the ferry and went to sleep on the back of it.

https://lh6.ggpht.com/_mJuQcw6-3ws/SWjdm1WeqtI/AAAAAAAAAkI/urFjCPpQAm4/s512/dscf1323.jpg?imgmax=800

https://lh4.ggpht.com/_mJuQcw6-3ws/SWpLp7kq0UI/AAAAAAAAAl0/9tjaEn_-zU8/s512/dscf1322.jpg?imgmax=800

Journey home to follow soon....Promise[url][/url]
____________________
Motorcycle headlight bulbs and HIDs
Blogging about my bike and trips
https://ridershandbook.com/

[Al]

Awesome stuff, I read the report on 'Norfolk riders' but some of the pictures weren't working at the time. Looking forward to the final part.
____________________
Yamaha FZR400RR 3tj
My Instagram Thingy

[Charlie]

Thank you for the good read

Giving me ideas for when I do some touring.

Look forward to the next part.
____________________
Past: Honda x8rs, Honda City fly, Honda Hornet 250, Honda VFR750, Yamaha xt600e.
Current: Honda CBR929RR & Yamaha XT660Z Tenere

[yandy_yay]

Wow and wow...

What a fantastic read and even better pictures

you sure looked like you enjoyed yourself.


____________________
past bikes: (20 years ago) cg-125 (wriiten off), C-50 (thrashed n' finnaly scrapped), CZ-125 (nicked - never recovered, insurance payout was more than i paid for it !!!)
Current bikes: GN 125(now sold), Divvy 600s.

[priestessuk20...]

great read
please post the next part soon
____________________
priestessuk
yes passed cbt 27/10/08
currant - honda CB125 T

[Howling TerrorOutOfOffice]

I love touring tales. and yours is coming along nicely.
Thankyou very much for your time in composing it.

All the best

Pat
____________________
Diabolical homemade music Bandcamp and Soundcloud
Singer songwriter, Artist and allround good bloke Listen to Andrew Susan Johnston here
The Harry Turner Project

[emn]

fantastic write up and pictures makes me want to load up and hit the road

[c-m]

Well i've had a bit of time to the right the next bit but still more to go so i'll wait till i can upload it at once.

The trip was great fun and the little GPZ really worked for its £649 or whatever i paid.

I'll certainly do something similar again.
____________________
Motorcycle headlight bulbs and HIDs
Blogging about my bike and trips
https://ridershandbook.com/

[user]

brilliant write-up, some of those pics are amazing!

I really enjoy seeing cheap old bikes doing this kind of thing, real inspiration for all us poor barstards

eagerly awaiting the next bit...

[Faldo]

Come on c-m, where's the final leg?
____________________
Current: ZZR1400
Previous: ZXR 400 L9, ZX-7R P5, ZZR 400, ZX-7R P6, Bandit 600, GSXR 750 Slingshot, DRZ400, DR650, ZX10R C1H, ZXR 750 L1, ZXR 750 L3, '99 ZX7R P4, KTM 300 EXC, ZX-9R E1, TDM850

[RidersRest]

enjoyed the tales great reading and pictures but do tell - did you get your license back ?

Did a similar trip back in 2006 www.whereistonynow.co.uk/tour2cure.htm for charity....
____________________
RidersRest Bikers only B&B in the beautiful Central Massif - France
Touring France not sure where to go? Central Massif on a motorcycle...

[priestessuk20...]

come on we are waitinggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg
____________________
priestessuk
yes passed cbt 27/10/08
currant - honda CB125 T

[c-m]

Doh! calm down.

/goes off to write more. and resize images
____________________
Motorcycle headlight bulbs and HIDs
Blogging about my bike and trips
https://ridershandbook.com/

[c-m]

[natv4]

Great read, nice trip. Good work.
____________________
Travelling around the world...a bit at a time. Where am I now? / Visit my BLOG
Bike: Blue Honda VFR800fi (*NEW*) Mileage: 22k Countries visited: GB/F/D/CZ/PL/E/I/B/A/HR/H/Rus/E/MA
West Europe...2004, East Europe...2005, Russia/France...2006, Morocco...2007