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ITALIANS, I love ITALY and ITALIANS

2018-10-14

My plan was to go north from Luce, Slovenia, skirt west along the Austria Border, then continue west until almost to Italy, then figure things out.

I was well into this plan, then I stopped at a gas station after wandering around in the hills and tried to figure out my next route. West and north was the goal, but there were options and I could use some advice. I saw 3 bikes pull in to get gas, one had his helmet off so I decided to see if he spoke English. A little but he did not know the area I was asking about well. The other two, a man and his wife, tried to help, but helmets and ear plugs and limited English made my questions rather hard to understand. So, being Italian, they invited me to coffee.

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KOSOVO? WHERE THE HECK IS KOSOVO?

2018-10-10

Link to PHOTO ALBUM:

To borrow my favorite line from the movie “American Pop”:

Kosovo? Where the heck is Kosovo?

The ride from Trigrad Bulgaria was great, for the most part. Stayed the night in a weird little place close to the Macedonian border. It was weird because I was the only guest, but they opened the kitchen for me. It was a fancy place, for $24. I had thought I was going to end the day at a small town, but I ended up at a big smelly city, so I checked Bookings and Air BnB. Not a lot of options, so I grabbed the first one far out of the city that had a high rating. $24 with breakfast is a high price for a hotel here, but what the hell. Being out of season, a lot of places that would otherwise be packed are completely empty.

I chose a route to Macedonia that was nice, some highway, some city but mostly twisty roads. In the southwest corner of Macedonia there is a National park and two lakes with a nice twisty road connecting them. The view is incredible, and the fall foliage rivaled New England. A little less red, but plenty of other colors.



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EAGLES and DEVILS

2018-10-08

Headed to Trigrad, Bulgaria to meet Pri Mama Zarka, the owner of a Bed and Breakfast there. SAN had stayed here multiple times when visiting Bulgaria. You can read her stories on her site, but I wanted to meet this woman and her father. I went to Trigrad, a fairly small village in a beautiful mountain area. I asked various people where her place was, as Google Maps sent me to the wrong location. These people sent me all over, with some people waiving in one direction, some in another. I eventually found a person who called a young lady over who spoke English. It turns out Mama Zarka was in London, so some people were waiving to where her place was, some to where they thought London was, and some just waiving “away”. I was sorry I missed her, but I found another BnB across the street.

 

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WISHFUL THINKING APP, DANUBE RIVER CRUISE and BIKER CAMPS

2018-10-05

Note to self: Check the route for Ferries.

When I was leaving Sinaia, it was getting cloudy. The guy at the hotel asked where I was going, and I said Bulgaria. He said that it was supposed to have Tornados there. I used my phone’s “Wishful Thinking App” and put on sunscreen.

It started raining shortly after. It was not a hard rain, but with my wandering route, it did slow me down.

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FRIENDLY ROMANIANS and the SERVICE INDUSTRY SNARL

2018-10-01

Romanians are friendly, in a cold New England cold sort of way.

You don’t see a lot of people smiling on the streets. More than in Lithuania though. People stare at you as you go by. Well, they stare at me, but I look out of place almost anywhere. And saying good morning seldom gets a response.

Once you break the ice though, they are great and very friendly people. If they think you need help, they will stop to help if they think they can. Otherwise, you are a pink unicorn.

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PELE’s CASTLE

2018-10-01

Note to Self 1: Thinking it is Monday does not make it so.

Note to self 2: If going to a major tourist destination, check whether it is a weekend.

There were many places that people recommended I go to on this trip. One was Pele’s Castle in Sinaia, Romania. The other was the Peoples Palace in Bucharest. Since I had decided not to go to the Romanian Coast, which was a wise decision due to weather, I chose to go to Pele’s Castle and Bucharest.

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TIBOR THE GREAT and SNOW

2018-09-29

I left Sighisoura fairly late, with no real plan. I was just taking side roads as much as possible and seeing where they went. I was roughly heading towards the Parcul National Munti Rodnei, a Romanian National Park on the Ukraine Border.

On one road, I saw an interesting monument of wood. I stopped, and there I met Tibor the Great, a Hungarian Armed Forces Officer, Retired. We talked about all things great and small. He explained that Transylvania, this area of Romania, is almost entirely Hungarian, and proud of it. They speak Hungarian, not Romanian, and follow traditional ways of living. The Monument was put up by the various towns in the area, and each town has it’s own wooden monument.

Tibor the Great

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Dracul Disney, Myths about Myths, Retiree Discounts and Romanians

What to do next.  There are some areas in Northern Romania I want to see, and Bulgaria is looking interesting.   I am nearing the end of September.   I have insurance for the bike through October.   I have to either plan to get more insurance and continue on, or to store my bike somewhere (plenty of options) and head either back to the states to visit family and friends, or somewhere else.    The Divers Den Dive shop is going to Honduras again.   Might be a good trip to do with old friends.   It would be nice to see family and friends around Christmas and Thanksgiving.   Maybe get out the Honda and ride around the country.   Well, if I start in November.   Much of the country is cold and bleak in December.   I am planning on being in New Zealand sometime in our spring, but what do I do between Christmas and New Zealand?   Tahiti?  Scuba or Motorcycle?   I am open to suggestions.   I want to do it all, so hard to decide.   I am feeling great, really enjoying my time, but I will need a change soon enough.

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TRIUMPH BUDAPEST and the IRONBUTT

2018-09-13

www.triumphbudapest.hu

www.facebook.com/TriumphHungary/

I stopped by the local Triumph Motorcycle Dealer to buy some maintenance items and see if I could work on my bike there.

I could just do it at my Air BnB but here if something goes wrong or I need something else i am covered.

I do all my own work on my bikes. See my tire/radiator fiasco if you want to know why.

The dealer had a great time watching me work on the bike, changing my brake pads and other maintenance, especially after I told him it had over 150,000 Km and was a 2011.

He had to photo my Ironbutt plate, and my odometer. He said he would put them up on Faceplant, but I have not seen them yet, here two days later. So, no photo yet.   He was pretty amazed by my description of the Ironbutt Rally.