New chain and Romania shows its nature!

Alright, time to get another chain. After installation it was time to leave romania’s capital and get some more taste of rural Romania. I headed towards Brasov which lies close to the mountains and mountains usually means nice scenery. First I had to clear Bucharest’s urban sprawl which took a while and after some plains the mountains were again on the horizon. There were some nice mountain towns on the way. I reached Brasov but it looked like a big city, not what I was looking for so I continued my way east. My gps led me through some roma or gypsie enclave but the road becamr muddy again and i didn’t feel like another mud bath (nor my chain)
So I looked for a detour that take my further down my suggested track and my gps plotted away. The road it suggested was a nice paved one and at one point there were about 10 hairpin turns on a stretch of 2km or something. One after the other and great pavement as well. The road was quite good but lots of big trucks going each direction.
Finally I caught up with my originally planned track and started following it again. And what a great idea this was. Pretty soon the surroundings became breathtaking and not a soul around except for the occasional farmer or some kids having their cart pulled by a donkey.

Finally I got another glimpse of what I think can be called the real Romania.

My gps track was pretty much spot on, a few occasions where it was clear that no vehicle had passed there in a long time. I was glad it was dry because some sections would have been extremely muddy. I could see the prints of hardened cow feet that had sunk deep in the mud and dried up.
At one moment I ended up up at a farm where the track seemed to dissapear. But after some looking arround it appeared that my track had now become a walking trail. It was a small footpath that the farmer probably used to reach his field on the side of the mountain by foot (or at least his aids)
It was very steep and narrow (a shoelength wide). Again one of those moments where any other big bike would pose even more difficulties than I was already experiencing. Heck, I am sure even inexperienced mountainbike riders would have a few scary moments. But I could see the main road from the track, lurking a bit further in the distance so I took a chance and stuck with it and succesfully made it to the road. Coming down a teeny trail like a mountain goat at ridiculously slow speed…check. I was back on a normal dirt road, one that again led to some stunning scenery.

I stopped a few times to take picures but after the last stop my bike behaved strange.

It kept pulling me to one side even though I wanted to go straight. Checked the front tire…fine. Checked the rear…crap, it was dead flat. I pulled over and upon further inspection I had a big nail sticking in it. Time to bring out the tools. I have brought an extra inner tube with me. It is for the front wheel (which is bigger thna rear wheel on dirt bikes) but I will have to use it for my rear, which should work good enough giving me some time to fix the flat one somewhere and get me back into modern times. I placed the bike on its side, resting it on my bag of clothes and taking of the wheel was a breeze. There were two locals walking by and they came to have a look what I was doing. Later one of them came back and helped me to get the inner tube switched.
The biggest struggle was getting the wheel back on the bike. Aligning everything would have taken forever without the help of my horseriding friend (he came back on a horse to help…I’m on a horse!)

Some other horses came to check me out

After getting the wheel in place it was time to pump it up. Glad that I had bought a pump in Sarajevo I started working out my biceps and triceps. It took a while to get a reasonable amount of air in it but not as long as one would think. I would say about 4 minutes. Not bad.
The tire seemed to be pressured up enough. It was time to call it a night.

The horses saw my rear tire was fixed, so took a run for it

It was now around 8 and I was ready to pitch up my tent. I asked my tire changing aid if I could pitch my tent alongside the road. He saw no problem in it. I offered him some money for helping me but he refused indicating that his part in the effort was little. It wasn’t but still, no money was exchanged.
He left while I started packing my tools and trying to figure out where the heck I was and how long it would take me to the nearest urban area.
I had not yet started to set up my tent when the guy returned and told me to set up my tent in the backyard of an abandoned house. This would keep my bike from prying eyes and would give some privacy. Not that I was worried about thieves or anything. I think thisroad sees an avarage of 6 wheel based vehicles roll by, most of the non engine powered kind.
But I followed his advice and pitched my tent in the backyard of this house. Of course being unprepared as I am my water supply was very low. I carry 2 liters normally, but i think I had a little more than half a liter left. Not great if you just huffed and puffed away pumping up a motorcycle tire with a mountain bike pump. My hands were also so black that Saint nicholas helpers would be jealous to get that skincolor.
I left some water for drinking, had some for washing my hands and used the rest for cooking some instant noodles and doing the dishes.
Quite the eventful day, or rather evening. Glad I was prepared for this!

Bucharest

The breakfast that was prepared by the lady of the house was very traditional. Some eggs, a tomato and some cheese. I think the cheese was either a home made experiment or it had been in the fridge for weeks as it was pretty tasteless and in an extremely solid state. But I admired the effort she put into it.

I decided not to take any chances with my rapidly deteriorating chain and headed for Bucharest, which you all know is the capital of Romania. I took the highway and just drove real carefull not to break my chain :).

I managed to find a hostel but it was already full, they had some kind of french boyscouts that booked the complete place. But they were kind enough to call another hostel to see if they had a spare spot. This would land mee into the green frog. The owner of the hostel was a very laid back kind of guy. Everything was cool and dandy. The hostel was basically a big house, and those are the ones that I prefer. I am not a fan of the big hostels with 100’s of people. No, the green frog would do just fine.

My chain was definitely almost falling apart now, so I looked up where the nearest yamaha dealer was so I could go there first thing the next day. I went for a little stroll through the old town of the city and that was basically it for the day.

The next morning I visited the closest yamaha dealer but they were more doing engines for water craft. But they directed me to a more offroad oriented place. Upon getting there I asked for a chain, and they delivered. The only catch was that they could install it on wednesday morning. So I had to stay another two nights in Bucharest.

After my visit to the dealer I met two Danish guys at the hostel and we went for afternoon lunch in an Indian themed place, cause there was hardly any indian food on the menu. And the chicken tikka was sold out. So a salmon sandwich then, which I hear will become very famous in India so that they can claim it as their own invention.
In the evening we went on a free city tour and joined a bunch of other travelers for a fairly long walk accross the city. Some of the areas I had already explored on foot but this time I got some nice stories to go with it.

The famous Transfagarasan in Romania

In the morning a car dropped by, probably looking for a nice campspot as well only to find me at the end of the road. I didn’t bother to crawl out of my tent, I just waited for it to disappear. I packed my things and hit the road again.

I also passed another Decebal monument.

I had some breakfast in a little park in a nearby town. There was a stray dog that came begging for some food. I was eating some musli with yoghurt (healthy me) and decided to give some musli to the dog. I put some on the ground and he gave me this look like I was crazy. “This is food for birds dude, no way I am going to eat this crap” must have been going through his head. I was actually offended by this and told him to bugger of. Last time I get tricked by a dog handing out perfectly good and healthy musli and the dog showing me the bird.

After some twisty roads I was finally treated to my first Romanian dirt track. It took me through a the yard of some sheep herder and after a while the track headed for a forest.

At the start of the track.

It was hard to find the actual trail and at some points I just followed my gps blindly and luckily I could spot some tracks after a while.

But not long after that I ended up in mud country. We are talking bike sinking swamps here. My bike got stuck of course in one of these great mud pools and it started to sink away fast. Great, of course I needed to get off my bike to try to rock it back and forth and of course mud is not the most reliable surface for getting grip under your boots, on top of that it was now my turn to start to sink. Crappers.

I tried a bunch of things but none of them seemed to work. Each time I got the feeling that my bike sunk deeper away. As a final try I just opened the throttle completely and after trying to rock it a bit I finally managed to get some grip to pull away. I was completely covered in mud…and sweat. There were many other rather muddy / sketchy sections that required the utmost concentration.
I actually had enough of this road. Luckily I got routed out of the forest onto an easy gravel road but it led me back into an area that looked too challenging to tackle so I decided to take the normal road and look for a carwash for me and the bike.

The results of the mud…

The engine cover sank completely in the mud.

These boots are not made for walking in mud…

My helmet with some great mud splatters

The first town I passed had no carwash, or it was closed, I tried asking at a gas stop but they guy wasn’t very helpful. It was a sunday so not the best day to find open businesses. After a while I finally found one. But I had to wait at least 15 minutes for the guy to clear the drain that was filled with crap preventing the water to drain away.
After he clearly had enough of trying to clear the clogged drain pipe I could push my bike inside.
He gave it a very thorough clean and I was glad to see my bike again from under the mud. But he also used his pressured water gun on my new chain and I forgot to mention that this is not to be done as it can damage the O-rings of the chain. Lets hope it survived.

I also sprayed myself down a bit so most of the mud was of my boots and suit. I was now fresh and clean to tackle the Transfagarasan, one of the best scenic roads in the world. Don’t take my word for it, you can ask the guys from Top Gear.
It starts of as being a fairly basic mountain road, not too many curves. This road is still a bit under construction. There are sections that are broken up and are still a bit gravel road. Easy stuff for my bike though, but regular cars definitely have to slow down. The road keeps crawling higher and higher and you reach a dam at certain point.

Other side of the dam

Not long after things finally start to get interesting.

Once you pass the tree line the views start opening up and you can see the surrounding mountains.

The views are stunning.

Then the hairpin turns are thrown at you. I did do this road on a Sunday, so I was expecting crowds. Most people recommend doing the road on a weekday but my schedule put me there on a Sunday. There were indeed crowds but it wasn’t too bad. It was not like I was trying to set a new speed record on this road.

But during the descent I started to hear a strange noise. Of course it was my lovely brand new chain that had suffered from its water treatment. I was fearing the worst. I took it easy on the way down to make sure not to wreck my chain completely. I made it to the bottom of the mountain and pulled in at a little bed & breakfast pension.

It was an old couple of which the lady managed to speak some french. My chain was way too slack and I feared the worst. It would probably need to be replaced. It was only a couple of days old. I felt pretty gutted about this, but what can you do… shit happens. And today it happened to my chain.

I had a bite in town…well, not sure if you can call it a town. It was a road with some side streets. I had to make a decision tomorrow morning. Continue with my chain and hope to pass a place where they would have a spare to replace it, or make a detour to Bucharest, where I assumed they would have a chain somewhere in stock, since it is the capital of the country.

Belgrade – Romania

Today another country was the target. This time it was Romania. In order to get there you don’t have that many options. I had chosen a border crossing alongside a river but before getting there I first passed Golubac fortress. It is a nice fortress that is still fairly intact. You can just park your car on the side of the road and explore the fortress on foot. No entrance fee or anything. Actually the main road runs through the fortress.

The panorama function on my camera does not work very well with water, just look at the fortress 😉

So accross the river lies Romania and actually my first track in Romania would be approximately oppsite of the fortress. Great, but there is a catch. There is no bridge at this spot. In fact there are hardly any bridges around. In order to get into Romania I had to drive along the rivershore for about 70 km until you reach a bridge/dam and the obligatory border checkpoint. But this also meant that I had to come back along the river but on the Romanian side for the same amount of km’s. I was not really to keen to do this so I double checked at a tourist office to see if there was a crossing closer by. Nope, this was the closest/easiest solution according to the lady behind the desk. Ah well, on I went. The road on the serbian side is perfect pavement and lots of short tunnels.

The view alongside the river, on the left Serbia, on the right Romania

There were only a few towns and only one of them with petrol so I filled up. After what seemed forever I finally made it to the border. Serbian official was quick and painless. On the romanian side I got special vip treatment as I could use the Cd lane, reserved for politicians and diplomats (i was being instructed to do so). Passport was checked, now only customs to go. They were seriously searching through a car in another lane. A lady came and asked if I had anything to declare. I don’t try to be a smartass so I say no. She then asks how much money I have on me. Since I always try to get rid of any notes before crossing a border I had almost nothing on me except for a 5 euro note (which is useless in Romania since it has its own currency).
“only 5 euro and no Romanian money…how are you thinking to buy your road vignette”. I simply replied that I had no idea that one is necessary. I asked where I could buy one and she pointed to a little container in one of the other inspection lanes. I asked if I could park my bike and walk up there. I could but only after she angrily instructed me to continue past the gate…NOW.
She was powertripping. I parked the bike, went to the loo before bringing up my “i’m an idiot tourist” face. One of the other border guards noticed me and asked what my intentions were. Just trying to get a vignette. He pointed at my bike. “Yours?” Yes indeed… “No vignette needed”
Sweet, my powertripping customs lady does not even know that bikes don’t require the vignette. Thanks, I wanted to rub it in her face but again, smartass mode should always be disabled at border crossings.
Now backtracking another 70km along the Romanian side. It was very noticable that the Romanians thought this river was a tourist attraction. They had restaurants and hotels and the occasional souvenir shop along the shoreline. Of course I did not stop at the petrol station I passed, I still had plenty of fuel from filling up on the serbian side.
After a while the tourism stops and the potholes and bad road starts and the houses dissapear. There is one stone carved head along the way of Decebal, an ancient figure that played an important role in Romanian history.

After many potholes I finally reached my turnoff point but I was now running on my reserve fuel.
Immediately I saw some real rural Romania. Unpaved streets, many kids playing on the street and waving at me. The houses were all nicely decorated and very colourful. Unfortunately I have no pictures of this. The road became remoter and remoter (and not paved at all). My fuel level was sinking fast as well. But the area was really nice. And of course at a certain point I ran out of fuel. No problem, i have some spare in my fuel container, except this time it was not a full gallon. It was about 2 liters since I had used some during a thunderstorm in Bulgaria and forgot to top up my fuel cannister again.
This could become interesting. I began trying to ride as economically as possible. Staying in neutral when going downhill etc. It took me a while before I finally got to what appeared to be a bigger town and I was put out of my misery after a man reassured me a petrol station was only 2 km away.
Also a good opportunity to get some cash in case I end up in the middle of nowhere and need to buy my way out of a sticky situation.
I continued and the road was very nice and took me through the mountains before ending in a grim looking city. Not a place I wanted to stay at. Not that it was dangerous or anything, it was just a very industrial city with big factories. I checked my gps where I could sleep. There was a nice guesthouse a bit out of town but they were full. In the town they had a Best Western but they were charging 54euros a room. Way out of my daily budget so…no deal.
I then decided to look for a wild campspot and not long after following the road out of town I found a pretty good spot down a dirt road that was used to get to some powerline towers. I had bought some sausage and beans in a can from the local carrefour together with some bread. That would cover dinner.
First wild camp in Romania, I made sure my garlic was fresh and my wooden stakes sharp. I’m in dracula country now.
It was along day! There was definitely a lack of pictures today as stressful moments don’t invite you to take pictures. I will try to make it up to my true fans.

Onwards to Belgrade passing Kosmaj

The motel was being inspected in the morning by young lady and her parents. I had the impression that they were inspecting the venue to hold her wedding. Not exactly the exotic location she had dreamed of I suppose. Sure the place could cater for 100+ people, but they would be surrounded by trucks at the petrol station and busy traffic at the roundabout.

I also met the two Italian bikers who were unlocking their BMW’s and had a short chat before moving onward. I have had a lot of paved road the last couple of days and finally I got to some gravel/dirt roads again as I was nearing my next target…Kosmaj.

I was now pretty close to Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. Might as well drop by. The mechanics at Nis had told me multiple times to double check that all nuts and bolts were still tight after riding a bit with my new (motorbike) parts. So in Belgrade I would have this double checked. I arrived fairly early in the city and secured myself a place in a youth hostel in an 8 bed dorm room. The hostel looked pretty empty, but it was still early, so other people surely will arrive. At first I wanted to get my bike checked but I could not find the dealer whose address I had, so I had to give up and find another dealer online upon returning to the hostel. After this I went strolling through Belgrade. It’s not extremely rich on monuments and sights, at least that is the impression I got. It is also a pain in the ass to drive around in with its many one way streets. But they have a nice fortress overlooking the Sava river that splits the old and the new city.(I only visited the old part)

But yeah, I should probably come back on a city trip sometime as I really only had a teaser of the place.
I returned to the hostel hoping to find some people to join me for some drinks but the hostel was still almost empty. I was still alone in my 8 bed room, which is nice to get some sleep but sucks for socializing. I went exploring on my own but the street I had chosen that was supposed to be one of the nightlife streets was not really happening tonight. I must have picked the wrong one (apparently there is one that’s even busy on weekdays but I obviously didn’t go to that one)
So that was Belgrade for me in half a day. Not enough but better than nothing.

Bulgaria, some fences and… a flying saucer named Buzludza

Yesterdays storm and stretch of dirt road had turned my bike into a muddy mess again so I stopped at petrol station which had a car wash station. It was insane how much crap came off.
Next on my way was the city Stara Zagora. It didn’t look extremely aplealing so I continued.
After a lot of main roads I was finally directed to the mountains again (on the right in the pictures).

But as I was getting closer to the top of the mountain range I could sense that I was reaching the clouds and they convey that not so nice weather was coming. I was entering a logging forrest and after one hairbend turn 2 big logging trucks came my way. I had to back up a little bit so they could continue their way down. They were signaling something but I just thought that the were giving me instructions on where I could go to let them through. More on that later.
Just as the trucks pass the storm starts to erupt. Yup, the second one in two days time. I quickly change to my raingear but I can feel I am getting soaked again. Some nice thunder and lightning and hail greet me. It was actually not the best place to be, up high in the mountains, surrounded by trees and the lightning trying to find the easiest way to planet earth. Sound travels at about 300 meters per second so I based on that I was trying to estimate how close I was to the centre. Well, there were a few strikes where I could not count up to one
I wasn’t planning on hopping on my bike and going down either. The road had just turned into one giant stream. Best to sit out the storm. Luckily it passed in about half an hour and I could continue my ride…so I thought. I noticed some windmills earlier on and I was approaching one.

However, there was a gate blocking the road. The was also a giant pile of dirt next to the gate and I figured if I could get my bike on top of the pile, then I could probably squeeze through.
I gave it a few tries but the ground was so soggy that I could not get enough traction and I could not pull off my devious plan. I even dropped the bike when loosing balance at one point. No big deal. So I had to come up with plan B. There were several junctions that were not on my map so I figured, lets try one of them. So I did. The road went up the hill but it was incredibly soggy and sticky mud. As I was going uphill the rear wheel got clogged up with mud and there I was, no grip at all. The front was getting the same mud treatment and soon I was swerving from side to side (going uphill) until it became uncontrollable and I came to some sort of standstill and tipped over the bike. Crap, the bike was now laying with its wheels higher than its saddle, horizontal to the face of the hill. Impossible to lift it up that way. So I had to drag it around so the wheels were now lower than the saddle again. I struggled a bit with this, but eventually got into position and the lift was now easy, gravity did most of the work. I was however covered in mud by all of this. Ok, so plan B didn’t work out. Lets get to plan C, go back the way you came mister. So I went back, with my tail between my legs, accepting defeat. I took it slowly because of the rain that now turned the track into a different beast than it was before. But I managed, until…another gate. But wait a minute. This gate was not there when I made my way up, now was it? I probably didn’t notice it coming up since it had been open. Aaah, those loggers must have closed it behind them. Hmmm. Luckily there was a little gap to the side and after unloading my luggage I could get my bike through. Hooray.

That was a close one. I continued and there were 2 dirt bikes crossing me. I wanted to warn them about the gate but they were already out of my rear view mirror before I could try to convey some sort of sign language message. After a few turns another gate. You have got to be kidding me. Ah well, lets check my bypass options. Nada, zilch, nothing. There was no way to get my bike over or squeeze it through on the sides. This one had to be tackled differently. I wondered how those 2 other bikes tackled this gate. I was looking at their tire tracks in the mud but could not make any sense of it. My ranger skills are limited to opening a pocket knife and starting a fire with fire starters and a lighter.
I could either get my bike on the other side, look for another trail or wait until those loggers came back (which could be days since it was a saturday, I don’t think they work on sundays).
Crap! I measured the height of the gate and the width of my bike and concluded that I could squeeze it underneath. And so I did. Take off luggage again, and gently put the bike on the ground and then start dragging it underneath.

It was not the easiest thing to do, but I had succeeded my little limbo act. Just as I was putting my bags on the bike three elderly man walked by. They spoke no english. I explained them I dragged my bike underneath and then used some gestures to asks if more gates were awaiting me further down the road. They seemed to understand and they indicated this was the ladt one. What a relief !!!
I now take the normal road to my next crazy building…Buzludza. And what a building at that. An old sovjet flying saucer shaped building built to showcase the ingenuity that is communism. Completed in 1981 and left to rot since the early 90’ies.
There was only one slight detail. I could not see it. I was amongst the clouds. So a thick fog (the cloud) surrounded me. I reached the end of the road, parked my bike. Nothing. I waited a few seconds and then the fog cleared a bit and wham, I was standing right in front of it. It was bloody creepy!!!

Luckily I was not alone. There was a german guy and a bulgarian girl and she knew a way inside the building. Hell yes I want to go inside. Everything is closed off except for a broken window that leads to a staircase. To access the window you need to climb on a pile of rocks that have been stacked up by other tresspassers. To my surprise the German and the Bulgarian don’t want to go inside. Well, I didn’t come all this way to see the foggy outside, I wanted a peek inside. I put on my head torch, crawled into the window gap and set foot on the staircase. It was some kind of Indiana Jones experience. First the dirt road that would have taken me there, the freaky thunderstorms, the bloody gates, the dense fog (clouds). Like it didn’t want me to be there, but my perseverance won, I was inside. There are pictures to be found online so I kind of knew what was to expect but oh boy, seeing it with my own eyes was beyond cool. The clouds did make it difficult to get some good shots but with the naked eye it was simply amazing. This has to be the highlight of my trip yet.
Inside you come to this circle shaped hall that has the most amazing communist mosaics that were probably ever made. You see mosaics of Marx, Lenin and Engels, of crazy communist stuff.

Jaw dropping. Some are still intact and are truly amazing. Some of them have been destroyed.

The tiles that the place had been paved with have been stolen. I am sure everything of some sort of value has been stripped away. The ceiling has the old sovjet emblem still present. The roof is falling apart. There are no windows anymore so nature can do what it wants. You have the outside of the building, there where the windows are, and then you have an inner ring. On both sides of the inner ring there are mosaics. It is so surreal.

I could not find any good pictures of the building in its original state. This building has cost a fortune to build and if it was still intact it could have easily recuperated all of that money as a tourist attraction. I still tried to let my mind drift away and imagine being a top leader in communist times and having a dinner with comrades at this place. Not that I am in favor of communism or so, but just the grandeur of this place would have easily outdone any ancient castle in my book. But that is just me talking. I just love the architecture of this building.
After a few minutes inside I get joined by a Danish couple and together we take many pictures and wait for those brief moments that the sun breaks through the fog and really lets the colours shine. Truly frickin’ awesome place.

It is time to go, the waiting game for more sun isn’t paying of and it is getting late.
I decide to go to the nearest town and find a hotel. If the weather is better tomorrow I will return, that’s how cool this place is.

Bulgaria continues

The first town I passed was Bankso which is a famous Bulgarian ski town. The road was nice, sweeping me through the mountains but as soon as I left the mountains behind me and reached the plains it became a bit boring.

But they had a cool Metallica sign.

By noon I reached Plovdiv. I wanted to grab some lunch here but I really could not figure this city out. After driving around I was trying to find the heart of the city where all the shops/restaurants are but I could not seem to locate it. It looked a bit boring to me. (Later I found out Plovdiv is one the three oldest cities in the world, I should have probably made a longer stop here, ah well, can’t have it all).
I was getting closer to my next destination in my tour, Perperikon. This used to be an ancient settlement dating around 6000 bc. There are a few ruins but my timing wasn’t the best as there was a storm approaching.

I had to hide in a little shack near the ruins where I met a friendly guy called Emil who had lived in London and New York. He gave me some tips on other places to visit and translated some things for me.

After the ruins I drove to some stone mushrooms. Well, stones that look like mushrooms (if you eaten a magic one).

But now the storm really got me and I had to take shelter under one of the mushrooms, which sounds pretty weird especially if you had one of those magic mushrooms.

After what seemed like a brief moment of less rain I left the mushrooms and took off in search for accomodation.
The whole day I had been driving on paved roads and of course my gps decided to take me on some farming roads. You have got to be kidding me. I thought “bring it on”. It can’t get much worse right. I was already soaking wet, what more harm can a little mud do. There was a point where I was going straight forward but my bike was sideways. Both wheels were covered in mud and not turning around at all. Don’t know how I managed to stay on, but I did. My fuel light had been on for a while as well and I needed to find a petrol station pretty soon. There was a farmer guiding his herd of cows through the rain and looked in disbelief when he saw my coming out of one of the farm tracks.
I had stopped to have my gps plot a route to the nearest petrol station and the farmer approached me and started telling me things in Bulgarian. I just shrugged and raised my hand indicating I could not understand him. I just told him the only city name that I could remember. He pointed me in the right direction.
The storm was still in full effect and gave no indication of ending soon. The sky was black. And of course at this moment my bike started to stutter when I opened the throttle a bit more. I was running out of gas. Luckily I travel with an extra fuel can that can hold about 3.5 liters. Now was the time I really had to use it. In a bloody thunderstorm. I put in a little bit of petrol, just enough to get me to a petrol station. It was of course not far away.
Paying for petrol was a bit of a challenge since I had to take of my gloves which weighed a ton. I had some plastic gloves on underneath them but still, that doesn’t keep them from soaking up water like a spunge.
As soon as I arrived in the next town I saw a hotel and it looked fancy enough and grabbed a room. I always get these strange looks when they see me. I am not the cleanest biker out there, especially not after mud soaked roads. I am sure one day they will tell me they have no rooms available while the place is empty. But luckily this wasn’t the case tonight.
Getting out of mywet gear, into a nice warm shower and then to the restaurant. It was still raining so I did not go and explore the town.
I ordered some salmon and they asked if I wanted bread with it…uhhhm, no thank tou. When I received my plate it was my choice of fish and sone octopus rings, some vegetables and some sauce. It tasted good but now I understood why they asked me for bread. So I corrected my mistake and asked for some bread. “One?” was the question of the waitress. Sure, I will have one. It’s not like a will eat two loafs of bread. She came back and gave me one slice of white toast bread, untoasted. She asked if I wanted it toasted. No thanks, I will manage eating this single spungy slice.
Thing to note, while in Bulgaria, you order your btead by the slice. Lesson learned.
When it was time to pay, no credit cards accepted although I had payed for my room with my card. Apparently the restaurant works seperately from the reception desk and does not accept cards. Luckily an atm was nearby. It had finally stopped to rain. Lets hope my stuff dries a bit and that it will be a nice sunny day tomorrow.

Macedonia to Bulgaria

There was a waterfall in a town close to the Bulgarian border. If I had not been able to read cyrillic then I would have not found it. It was a nice little waterfall, nobody around.

I still had some Macedonian money that I needed to get rid of so I pulled in at a petrol stop and went to buy a drink. I still had 22 macedonian denar and according to the label on the box, this could get me a bounty bar. Not according to the shopkeeper, an old man who pointed at his computer screen that indicated 28. We are talking pennies or cents here folks, but the fact was that 22 was all I had left. I pointed at the label at the box but he would not budge…at first. After he figured out I had nothing else he let me have it for 22. Woohoow, I just got rid of all my little change!

My wallet is becoming quite the coin collection so you can understand my excitement.

Bulgarian border officers were more interested in my bike than anything else. I was back on European soil. But I would still have to deal with a new currency as Bulgaria does not have the euro. Crap, more coins to get rid of.

First views in Bulgaria

The first destination was Melnik, a little historic town which lies in a hilly region with strangely eroded hilltops. Before I actually got there I had stopped for a photo somewhere and when I wanted to take my picture a sheep herder showed up from behind some tall grass.

His flock of sheep in the distance

The man himself

I didn’t see him and I am sure he was surprised to see me there as well. I think he was taking a nap. I tried communicating but he just smiled and kept quiet. Perhaps he had just smoked a doobey.

Melnik then, pretty touristy, I actuay didn’t stop, all I was interested at was the surrounding landscape, the erosion on the hills.

I was looking for a good place to take a picture. I took a little side road and got some better vantage points. Mission accomplished.

I wanted to follow the rest of my gps track but the road was closed. I just could not continue. So I just followed a dirt road leading to somewhere. Where I didn’t really know but I was in an exploring mood. What can go wrong…right. Well, I didn’t have my gps to rely on, it did not have the dirt road on the map. So I was driving blind. First settlement after 7km. I continue. Several junctions. No signs. I pick what seems to be a dirt road that will get me back to something my gps knows about. No luck. Finally a junction with some home made signs. Again I am glad I can decipher cyrillic. I can read Prilev, and try to look it up on my gps. It exists, hooray. This is the road I take. But that was the last sign I saw and I came accross many junctions, each time just playing Bulgarian roulette and hoping I would not reach a dead end somewhere. It was a pretty challenging dirt road as well. Many rocks, boulders etc, but hey, I have enough fuel to get me back to civilization or to return to where I came from…if I remember the junctions and the turnoffs I took.

Finally after what seemed like ages I reach a settlement and after zooming out on my gps, I see a main road. Saved again. I decide to turn off my exploring mode for now, back to ‘stick to the main roads’ mode.

This road takes me over a mountaintop and slowly I regain my confidence in my tires. It is definitely cooler now so the rubber is stiffer.

I fill up in the next town and continue. The road takes me through a valley and I spend the night in a hotel/spa near a ski mountain. I’m already impressed by Bulgaria’s landscape. Now just the food. The restaurant at the hotel will have to do. I can’t say its the best I have eaten, but it filled my stumach. Ready for my first Bulgarian bed.

Macedonia – Krushevo and surroundings

There was a decent map at the hostel that made it clear that the road suggested by my gps to Krushevo would be the main highway. Not something I was looking for. With the help of the map I could plot an alternative and enter this in my gps. Sweet. After saying goodbye to the hostel it was back on the road for me, this time with fresh oil, not that this impacts performance or anything.

Luckily my gps did take me over the old highway for the most part.

It was very hot and this severely impacts my cornering ability with my tires. I can’t say I’m very impressed with my tires. I lost all credibility in them on several previous occasions and today was again one of them. The back tire becomes a sponge, wobbling me like crazy…not a comfortable feeling on a bike.

Anyhow, on with the story. The alternate route worked its magic and soon I was riding a dirt track over a mountain.

After the mountain came the plains. There were several small towns scattered throughout.

I was closing in on Krushevo…what’s so special about this place you might ask yourself. Well, they have a cool monument I wanted to visit. Enough to warrant a visit? Maybe not for everyone but good enough for me. At last, I had arrived at my destination…lo and behold I present you the monument.

Now you can also go inside and that was of course my plan were it not that they charged an entrance fee and I was out of cash. No biggy I told myself. Grab some fresh cash in town and while I am at it eat something and come back. Came back I did only to find the place closed. (there were no opening hours when I first visited). Ah well, the door had a little opening so I took a picture.

There are a few colored glass windows that would look pretty sweet from the inside on a sunny day.

Can’t have it all can we.
Now that it was closed there was a horse mowing the grass.

Now, this memorial was not for the first or second world war but in 1903 there was a short lived Kruševo Republic. This monument recognizes this point in time. Krushevo is also the highest town in Macedonia.

Alright then, now that I have the history info out of the way. The road now took me close to the highest point and then down some small track to the bottom.

My gps was pretty accurate and then I did something I would never dream possible. I blindly followed the gps like you hear people do and end up in a river… Uhm, thats basically what happened to me. There was water flowing down the track I was following. A little at first, but soon it was more and more. So much that it was easier to ride in the little stream than on what was left of the track. The stream had created a little gully and I became trapped inside. This was becoming a bit sketchy. I decided to ‘park’ the bike and go exploring a bit on foot.

It didn’t look very promising. I decided to turn back. To this day I still don’t know how I managed to turn my bike around but somehow I did.

Next challenge was a little terrace that the stream had formed.

I rearranged a few rocks and after a few tries managed to clear the obstacle.

Did I have to return the whole way? Luckily not, there was a turnoff a bit further which was basically an easy detour for the stream. Great, I could continue. Now it was about time to start looking for a place to sleep. Since I had been sweating like a pig the whole day and down at my stream excursion a hotel with a shower would be splendid.

Some road blocks that I have to look out for occasionally.

First town I arrive at and my gps lists 2 hotels. First one…in ruins. Second one, does not even have a lobby and looks like an office building. I continue, there is one out of town. Ok, I arrive, hotel completely destroyed. Seriously, every single hotel is in ruins. Next town then…yay, hotel is open, but it’s pricey for what I have been used to. They don’t have a room with airco and they say I should try the next hotel (I didn’t request airco, I am not that kind of snob)

This was of course a good excuse for me to check the next hotel. Upon arrival they charge the same price. Yup I will take it. With airco 🙂

Serbia to Macedonia with Jean Claude Van Dam(me)

Breakfast is usually not my most important meal of the day. But when I have have a room with breakfast included then I try to put in some extra effort. I might have overdone it a bit at Junior though. The breakfast I ate was nothing junior. I was struggling to get everything I had put on my plate into my stumach.

I left the ski area and the road took me to the base of the mountain where it where it turned into a road full of potholes and gravel bits. The towns I passed also seemed deserted. The reason for this became clear to me in the form of a dam that was nearing completion.

There were some old folks walking accross the dam and one old man came to check out my ride. I asked him if he could speak some english but he couldn’t.

I tried asking him which side of the dam would be flooded using my hands to point at the dam and mimiccing rising water. At first he had no clue what I was trying to say. He said voda, which I recognized as water, so I repeated my gestures using the word voda. This seemed to work. He managed to ask me in english where I was from. Belgium. Sandwiched between the netherlands, france and germany (the geographically inclined should also include Luxemburg).

He seemed to understand. Now the conversation turn to my marital status. He pointed at his ring finger. Indeed I am not married. Then he said ‘debosjka’ which sounds simalar to the russian word for little girl. No kids I replied.

Today? This was the next english word he knew. I replied that I was heading for Macedonia. Then he did something interesting.

He moved his hands over his head and shoulders, next he made big breasts with his hands and subtly moving his hands to his lower half and sculpting a buttocks. Then something I can only describe as lifting a dumbell with one arm followed by him licking an icecream and then keeping his hands next to his pelvis and thrusting back and forth.

Alright, now that is quite the charades puzzle for me to decipher. I gave up guessing and told him I didn’t understand and shrugged my shoulders. This clearly an indication for him to repeat the above procedure in an exact duplicate that would make synchronized swimmer jealous. Especially his ice cream licking motion was performed to perfection. I had no idea whether he wanted a ride to the next whorehouse or enquiring about my sex life while on the road. Again, I said I didn’t quite follow him, and yup he went at it again. However this time I interupted his routine, shook his hand and said goodbye. All I wanted to know was which side of the dam got flooded. I got way more than I bargained for. He seemed like such a nice old man… From this day onward I will call him Jean Claude… Jean Claude Van Dam(me)

Next I pass some kind of popular spa, or at least I think it is. It is a tiny place, but they have a rather large outdoor swimming pool that is empty since the weather isn’t the best. It must be a spa or Jesus visited this place and it is now a sanctuarry. There is a dirt road that continues from this place and takes me over some mountain ridge.

It is rather muddy as it has clearly rained last night.

At one point I have to rely on my gps to ‘see’ the road. It clearly hasn’t been used in ages.

I can barely make out the track. Always interesting.

After some time the track is visible again but now I am treated on really thick clay like mud that keeps sticking to my tires. And of course this when I am descending a rather steep section. The front wheel blocks a few times but manage to keep my bike from crashing to the ground. Slippery mess. On the way I have have picked up a few hitchhikers that were being quite intimate.

I end up at a nice field and want to take some pictures but I am being watched. A farmers dog notices me in the distance and keeps on barking making his owner very curious and my spider sense can tell he is not too happy. Probably thinking how the hell I ended up in hisbackyard (or close). I take it as a cue to leave. The track joins paved surface again and I am close to my next stop…Devils town.

At devils town there is a strange natural phenomenon occuring. Erosion has created these earth columns and on top of the columns rests a rock or a boulder. Very peculiar.

Each column is about 3 to 4 meters tall.

Also some strangely coloured springs.

I wasn’t the only tourist there, but the cash register wasn’t prepared for my 1000 note for a 300 entrance fee. Its not like i am paying a can of coke with a 50 euro note people. Seriously, whenever cashiers see a 1000 note they seem to shiver in fear (which is about 10 euros).

The are also trying to get this place recognized as a 7th natural wonder of the world

There is a french speaking Serb that comes and practices his french with me and gives me directions to my mext destination. He knows a shortcut that starts immediately on the side of the car park, a dirt road straight away. Sign me up.

The road is about 40km gravel / sand…

At one point in the middle of nowhere a car is parked on the road (the road is only a car wide). The doors are wide open so the have to close some so I can squeeze through. It’s 5 men having some drinks. The don’t speak english but I am welcome to join for a drink. I friendly decline and continue my way. Again after some junctions my suggested track becomes overgrown again. Many rocks and then some thicker branches.

I decide to play it safe and backtrack a bit so I can take a normal road before getting stuck somewhere. A car crosses me, the same 5 drinking buddies. They wave me goodbye.

I also waved the mountains goodbye as I was surrounded by plains again and villages with abandoned factories. At one point I wanted to take a picture and in the corner of my eye I see a little dog mounting a larger dog in front of such an abandoned factory. Now that would have been Pullitzer price material right there, but yeah I didn’t stop. It did made me think about Jean Claude again.

I end up on the main highway leading to the border. Very busy, especially at the motel/gas stop I pulled in at. Many license plates from different countries.

It was raining now and I didn’t want to drive much further so I pulled in at the next town at about 18.20 and went looking for a room. I arrive at a little resto / appartment complex. The clerk does not speak english but I can have a family room. He uses google translate to communicate that I have to wait a bit before I can enter the room as the cleaning lady is preparing it. Very friendly guy, always smiling and trying to help.

A nice warm shower, a pizza at the restaurant and tomorrow I will enter Macedonia and see if Jean Claude Van Dam is right.